Articles tagged "Quantity"

Those Pesky Quantity Terms

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By now if you’ve been studying for a while, either on your own, in a course or with a tutor, you’ve encountered the ubiquitous “quantity terms” scattered throughout the test: some, most, majority, etc. You may have been surprised to learn that “many” does not mean “most” and that “some” can include “all.” (You may even have slammed down your pencil at this discovery.)

The quirkiness of LSAT quantity terms can be frustrating when you first encounter it, but it isn’t as counterintuitive or labyrinthine as it initially appears to many (but not most). The key question to keep in mind at all times when it comes to a quantity term is: what’s its maximum, and what’s its minimum?

Here’s a useful guide. Once you commit this to memory, you should be in good shape to take down the LSAT on its own quantity terms (har har):

Term

Min

Max

Some/sometimes more than one all
Many/often/frequently more than one all
Most/usually/typically/ordinarily more than half (more than 50%) all
Majority more than half (more than 50%) all
Vast majority more than half (more than 50%) all
More often than not more than 50% of the time up to 100% of the time
Likely more than 50% chance up to 100% chance
Unlikely zero/nothing less than 50% chance
Not unlikely 50% chance or higher will occur up to 100% chance
Less than likely zero/nothing up to 50% (not more, but could just be at 50%)