Is there anybody here taking the LSAT soon?

Question

How are you coming along with your studies? I'm just about to give up!!

What is the point? I get the material down pack. Take a couple of questions and get them wrong. what the h**l am I doing wrong? why am I not getting assumption question right?

what the h**l is an assumption? and dont tell me that useless definition of "unstated piece of evidence" that doesn't make any sense to me!!

I dont get it, and I have a feeling that I will never get it!

Good luck to the rest of you. I don't feel like degrading myself with this infuriating test and further. I'm going to quit my job as a legislative assistant, give up the dream of wanting to go to law school and apply for a job as a bagger at a grocery store...

Answer 1

Sounds like you are missing something fundamental about the nature of the questions that is causing you to make the same mistake over and over. Without talking to you it is hard to tell what piece of info that might be, but consider some of the following points about assumptions:

* The answer you select as correct must contain a statement that the author relies upon and is fully committed to in the argument. Think of an assumption as the foundation of the argument, a statement that the premises and conclusion rest upon. If an answer choice contains a statement that the author might only think could be true, or if the statement contains additional information that the author is not committed to, then the answer is incorrect.

* In many respects, an assumption can be considered a minimalist answer. Because the statement must be something the author believed when forming the argument, assumption answer choices cannot contain extraneous information.

* On the LSAT, assumptions play one of two roles—the Supporter or the Defender. The Supporter role is the traditional linking role, where an assumption connects the pieces of the argument. The Defender role is entirely different, and Defender assumptions protect the argument by eliminating ideas that could weaken the argument. In this sense, they “defend” the argument by showing that a possible avenue of attack has been eliminated (assumed not to exist).

The above is drawn from the PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible. The Assumption chapter discusses what assumptions are, how they work with certain reasoning types, and how to attack the questions using certain techniques. Back when I was preparing, I found it helpful. Either way, don't give up yet!