When do you pre-phrase/anticipate the correct answer?

[WaltGrace1983]

I know that we pre-phrase on Flaw questions by thinking about the flaw, Necessary or Sufficient Assumption questions by thinking about the "gap," and perhaps a mix of the two when we are talking about strengthen/weaken (though I find this to be true sometimes and not true other times - I'll talk about this in a second). However, what are the other times I should pre-phrase the answer in my head before going to the answer choices?

I am assuming that there isn't much we can do on inference questions (most strongly supported, could be true, etc.) other than having a really clear understanding of the stimulus.

What about explain the paradox? I feel like these are very unpredictable. Reasoning structure questions? Principle questions? etc.

As for strengthen/weaken, I find that I am really unclear about what I should be doing with these. I read the question type, I read the stimulus, I think about the argument a bit and then I go to the questions. Yet when I "think about the argument," what should I really be doing?

[tommywallach]

Hey Walt,

Actually, this is a very individual thing. I find that I can predict the answer on 60-70% of inference questions, because the patterns on the LSAT are so stark. In fact, the only question type that is more or less utterly unpredictable are necessary assumptions, because they can be so varied. For example:

Premise: Steve studied got an A on the test.
Conclusion: Steve must have studied hard for the test.

Necessary assumption: Steve didn't cheat off his friend Steve.
Necessary assumption: Steve isn't a crazy super genius who has no need of studying for any kind of academic endeavor.
Necessary assumption: Steve didn't sneak into the school the previous night and successfully steal the answers.

Beyond that, your ability to predict is predicated entirely on the specific question (not the question type, but the actual question) and your knowledge of LSAT patterns.

Predicting is always a good thing, but with the caveat that you still want to consider all the answer choices as long as you have time (instead of making a prediction, scanning to find it, and choosing the thing you predicted, without considering other answers).

Hope that helps!

-t