Question Type Notes

The following is a collection of notes regarding the Thirteen Question Types.
These notes help clear up some questions that typically arise when students
are learning to identify the question types. In the chapters that discuss each
question type we will reintroduce each of these points.
• Must Be True, Cannot Be True, and Resolve the Paradox questions are
generally connected to stimuli that do not contain conclusions. All
remaining question types must be connected to stimuli with conclusions
(unless a conclusion is added by the question stem, as sometimes occurs).
Hence, when a stimulus without a conclusion appears on the LSAT, only
three types of questions can be posed to you: Must Be True, Cannot Be
True, or Resolve the Paradox. Question types such Weaken or Method of
Reasoning do not generally appear because no argument or reasoning is
present, and those question types ask you to address reasoning. Generally,
Resolve the Paradox questions are easy to spot because they contain a
paradox or discrepancy. In addition, Must Be True questions appear far
more frequently than Cannot Be True questions. Thus, if you encounter a
stimulus without a conclusion and without a paradox, you are most likely
about to see a Must Be True question stem.
• Weaken and Strengthen are polar opposite question types, and both are
often based on flawed or weak arguments that contain holes that must be
closed or opened further.
• Method of Reasoning and Flaw in the Reasoning questions are a brother/
sister pair. The only difference between the two is that Flaw in the
Reasoning question stems explicitly note that the stimulus contains an
error of reasoning. In a Method of Reasoning question the stimulus
contains valid or invalid reasoning.
• Parallel Reasoning questions are a one-step extension of Method of
Reasoning questions in that you must first identify the type of reasoning
used and then parallel it. Method of Reasoning and Parallel Reasoning
questions both have a strong Must Be True element.
• Main Point, Evaluate the Argument, and Cannot be True appear the least
frequently on the LSAT.