The LR Question-Type Map: Reading the Stem First
Recap: The Map Before the Territory
You now have argument anatomy (Day 2) and conditional logic (Day 4) as raw tools. Today organizes the entire LR question-type landscape into families, so the next eleven weeks have a map you can place each new day onto instead of feeling like an unordered pile of question types.
1. Why the Stem Comes First
The question stem — not the stimulus — defines your task. Reading the stem before the stimulus (or immediately after a first fast read) tells you what to look for while you read, which is strictly more efficient than reading blind and then figuring out the task afterward. This is the single highest-leverage habit change most people can make in LR.
2. The Family Taxonomy
| Family | Question types | Weeks covered |
|---|---|---|
| Describe | Main Point, Role, Method, Flaw, Point at Issue | 4–9 |
| Assumption / gap | Necessary Assumption, Sufficient Assumption, Strengthen, Weaken, Evaluate | 5–7 |
| Inference | Must Be True, Most Strongly Supported, Must Be False | 8–9 |
| Principle & parallel | Principle (Identify/Apply), Parallel Reasoning, Parallel Flaw | 9–10 |
| Explain | Resolve the Paradox | 7 |
3. Stems That Sound Alike But Aren't
"Which of the following is an assumption required by the argument?" (Necessary Assumption — must be true for the argument to work, but doesn't have to fully prove it) is a different task from "Which of the following, if assumed, would allow the conclusion to be properly drawn?" (Sufficient Assumption — must fully close the logical gap). Confusing these two is extremely common and each has a completely different correct-answer profile.
4. "Must Be True" vs. "Would Help"
Inference-family answers must be things that are definitely, unavoidably true given the stimulus. Strengthen/Weaken-family answers only need to make the argument somewhat more or less convincing — they don't need to prove or disprove anything on their own. Mixing up these two standards is the most common cross-family error.
5. EXCEPT Stems
"Each of the following would weaken the argument EXCEPT" flips the task: four answers do the normal thing (weaken) and the correct answer is the one that does NOT. Read the stem twice on any EXCEPT question — misreading which direction you're solving for is a pure, avoidable error.
6. How the Next Ten Weeks Follow This Map
Phase 2 works through the Describe family first (it's the most mechanical), then the assumption/gap family (the conceptual heart of LR), then inference, then principle/parallel. Each week's Saturday synthesis explicitly contrasts the family just finished against the ones before it — that contrast is often more valuable than the individual-type drilling, because most real test errors are "I used the wrong family's standard," not "I don't understand this type at all."
Practice items on this page are curriculum-authored in LSAT style; they are not official LSAC questions. Real drilling happens on LawHub — see the assignment below.
Original Practice Items
Q1. Stem: "Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?" This stem belongs to which family?
Q2. Stem: "The argument's reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it..." This stem belongs to which family?
Q3. Stem: "Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the apparent discrepancy described above?" This stem belongs to which family?
Official Drill Assignment
None today — rest before tomorrow's diagnostic. Re-read this page's family table once before bed; that's the whole assignment.
Peek into Tomorrow
Tomorrow: a full, timed, four-section diagnostic PrepTest — taken deliberately close to cold, because the point isn't to score well, it's to generate real data about where you actually stand before any technique gets layered on. Monday's blind review turns that data into your first error log and a concrete decision about the April-vs-June timeline.