LR

Strengthen/Weaken

Question frequencyVery common

Common question stems

  • "**Strengthen:**"
  • "Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the author’s reasoning?"
  • "Which of the following, if true, most supports the author’s reasoning?"
  • "Which one of the following, if true, adds the most support for the conclusion of the argument?"
  • "Each of the following, if true, supports the claim above EXCEPT"
  • "**Weaken:**"
  • "Which of the following, if true, most weakens the author’s reasoning?"
  • "Which of the following, if true, most undermines the author’s reasoning?"
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Strengthen / Weaken

These question types are two sides of the same coin - they ask you to either strengthen or weaken an argument.

These questions will always feature an argument in the stimulus. Thus, the first thing you should do when evaluating the stimulus (as always) is to identify the conclusion! Then, we'll hunt for an answer choice that strengthens or weakens the conclusion.

Note that the answer choices for Strengthen and Weaken questions can introduce "outside information," or information that isn't mentioned in the stimulus. That's ok because we're not asked if the answer choice is true, we're being asked if it were true, would it strengthen/weaken the argument?

Intro to Strengthen Questions

The goal of Strengthen questions is to strengthen the conclusion of the argument given in the stimulus. Because the answer choices may introduce new information, the answers for these are very hard to predict. However, there are some strategies we can use to give us a near 100% success rate in finding the correct answer.

First of all, we can't exactly predict Strengthen answers, but we can still have a goal in mind as we evaluate each answer choice. For each answer ask yourself explicitly "does this answer choice strengthen that insert conclusion here?"

Secondly, the stimulus of a Strengthen question will often be a poor argument. Either it will be missing some information, or committing a logical flaw. If you can recognize why the argument is weak, you may be able to think of a few ways to strengthen it.

Sample Strengthen Questions

Intro to Weaken Questions

With Weaken questions, we're asked to weaken the conclusion of the argument in the stimulus. Similarly to Strengthen questions, the first thing you should look for are flaws in the stimulus. The correct weakening answer choice will generally be related to any flaw in the stimulus.

When evaluating answer choices, to stay on track, always ask yourself "does this answer choice weaken that *insert conclusion here*?" We need to have that correct goal in mind as we read the answers.

Causal Relationships in Weaken Questions

Quite often you will read a Weaken stimulus and find that the conclusion claims a causal relationship between two phenomena. This is an important pattern because if we understand how to weaken causal relationships then we can answer a large chunk of all Weaken questions.

There are a few main ways to weaken causal relationships:

  • Show a common cause for both the supposed cause and effect
  • Show that the relationship is reversed - that the supposed effect is actually the cause
  • Show the cause without the effect, or vice-versa

Try to answer the questions below and then read the explanations to see these patterns in real LSAT scenarios.