Negate your way to LSAT dominance.
Letâs say I was trying to prove that every time you drink Fireball, you puke. If you wanted to prove the opposite, youâd have to find a way to show that there has not been a single instance in which you both consumed Fireball and vomited. Pretty tough, right? But letâs say that instead, you just wanted to show that itâs not true that you puke EVERY time you have Fireball. Youâd just have to show me a single incident in which you had Fireball and didnât vomit.
Thatâs how it works with negating answer choices. A lot of people mistakenly believe that negating an answer choice means saying the opposite of that statement. Thatâs not the case: Instead, negating a statement simply means saying that the statement isnât always true.
Before we get too deep into this, letâs talk about why being able to negate an answer choice should matter to you. It comes up primarily with necessary assumption questions. For instance, take this argument: âFrank is talking to Sarah at a bar. Therefore, Frank will get Sarahâs phone number.â
What assumptions are necessary for this conclusion to work? Is it necessary that Sarah has had eight shots of tequila, or that Frank is a male underwear model? Nope, although those things wouldnât hurt. Is it necessary that Sarah has a phone? Yes, because if we negate that statement â if we say that Sarah doesnât have a phone â the conclusion falls apart.
So thatâs why we care about being able to negate statements: because itâs a good way to test whether an assumption is truly necessary. If it *is* necessary, the negation of that statement will make the conclusion no longer follow. Follow me?
Here are some handy tips for negating statements: If the statement contains the word ânot,â you just take out that word. (So the negation of âSusieâs mother is not the only person who says sheâs smartâ would become âSusieâs mother is the only person who says sheâs smart.)
How would you negate the statement âall dogs go to heavenâ? Weâre trying to say that itâs not always the case that all dogs are heaven-bound, so the negation would be âsome dogs donât go to heaven.â Similarly, in sentences with the word âsome,â just swap it for ânoneâ â so the negation of âsome Nickelback songs are goodâ would be âno Nickelback songs are good.â
Lastly, what if you want to negate an entire conditional statement? For instance, take the statement âif you graduate from high school, then you know how to read.â Letâs say we want to negate that whole statement. Quite simply, weâre just trying to establish that you can have the sufficient condition (graduating from high school) without the necessary condition (knowing how to read). So the negation would be that graduating from high school does not mean you know how to read.
Negating answer choices is a powerful way to double-check your answer for necessary assumption questions, so itâs a useful skill to have. If youâre still confused, feel free to leave some examples in the comments, and weâll help you out!
Negate your way to LSAT dominance. was originally published on LSAT Blog