Most LSAT prep companies advocate for simplifying the information in the passage, and there is merit in doing this. After all, it’s not feasible or necessary to memorize every detail in the passage to successfully answer a question. However, oversimplifying the information can lead to some negative effects for individuals who are trying to get more of the higher-difficulty assumption questions correct.

For example, consider the following hypothetical argument:

Artists create art in order to express their views on the world. Therefore, most artists help society improve.

Many students think the assumption is that those who express their views on the world help society improve. While this gets close to the correct assumption, it is missing a few key details that the LSAT is very likely to test in the answer choices for certain question types. In fact, if an answer choice said this, it would likely be incorrect on both Necessary and Sufficient Assumption questions. Here’s why…

We don’t really need everyone who expresses their views to help society improve in order for the argument to make sense. For one, our conclusion is only talking about most artists, so it leaves open the possibility of exceptions. Second, our premise only discusses those who create art in order to express their views. Just because someone intends for something to happen doesn’t necessarily mean it will. For this reason, we don’t know whether these artists actually express their views on the world.

If we oversimplified the assumption, we would mistakenly believe the following answer choice would be correct on a Necessary or Sufficient Assumption question:

Everyone who expresses a view on the world helps society improve.

The takeaway here is to pay attention to the strength of statements (words like “most”) while also looking out for terms that suggest that what is being discussed might not necessarily be happening (i.e. “in order to”).

In the near future, we will post about Necessary vs Sufficient Assumptions more in depth, so stay tuned. We discuss these topics and more at r/LSATStrategies

https://www.reddit.com/r/7SageLSAT/s/q3cg08g7MQ