A Common Trap Answer That Most Tutors Don't Talk About

There is a common mistake I have seen many students make. This mistake hinders their understanding of the argument, leading them to select the incorrect answer confidently.

The mistake is confusing conditionals with premise/conclusion relationships.

To illustrate this point, let's compare two example statements:

Statement #1: If the weather is nice, I will go outside.

Statement #2: Because the weather is nice, I will go outside.

If we aren't careful, these two statements can seem like they are saying the same thing. But there are some crucial differences to be aware of.

Statement #1 is a conditional statement. That means if one condition occurs (the weather being nice) the other must occur (I will go outside). Since this is a hypothetical scenario, we are not concerned with proving that the weather is nice or that I will go outside. In fact, the very fact that the author said "if" means he is acknowledging he understands that there is a possibility that either of the conditions might not happen.

Therefore, an answer choice that says "I will not go outside" does not weaken the argument. It is irrelevant and that possibility has already been taken into account by the statement.

Compare that to Statement #2. In this case, we have a premise and conclusion. The premise is claiming that the weather is actually nice, not that it could be. The conclusion is that I will definitely go outside. For this reason, the author is actually trying to prove that I will go outside, so saying I will not go outside would weaken the conclusion.

Notice how that subtle shift in wording significantly changes the meaning. The takeaway here is that conditional statements should not be thought of as premise/conclusion relationships. Conditionals will generally be either entirely premise or entirely conclusion. If the conclusion is conditional, be very skeptical of answer choices that try to prove that either one of the conditions have actually occurred, or that try to discuss the frequency at which each individual condition happens.