Week 6 Synthesis: The Assumption Family (NA, SA, Strengthen)
Week 6 Synthesis: The Assumption Family
Necessary Assumption, Sufficient Assumption, and Strengthen all revolve around the same gap-finding skill from Day 14, but each asks for something different from that gap. Today is the full contrast, plus Phase 2's midpoint timing checkpoint.
Decision Matrix: The Assumption Family
| Type | Standard | Verification tool |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary Assumption | Must be true for the argument to work (not necessarily enough) | Negation test |
| Sufficient Assumption | Fully guarantees the conclusion if added | "Does this, plus the premises, force the conclusion?" |
| Strengthen | Makes the conclusion more likely, doesn't need to guarantee it | "Does this make the gap less concerning?" |
The single most useful heuristic across all three: Necessary Assumption answers tend to be modest and precise; Sufficient Assumption answers can be strong and sweeping; Strengthen answers can be modest, strong, or anywhere between, as long as they move the needle in the right direction.
Official Timed Section
One drill-tier LR section, timed at 35 minutes, mixed. Blind-review and log — check your timing trend against Days 12, 18, and 24.
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.
Q1. A Sufficient Assumption answer choice is much stronger/broader than seems necessary at first glance, but it does fully guarantee the conclusion. Should you eliminate it for being "too strong"?
Week 7 opens with Weaken — the mirror image of Strengthen — followed by Evaluate the Argument and Resolve the Paradox, closing out the core assumption/gap family.