Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT134 S3 Q24 Explanation

If one wants to succeed

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsStrengthen

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Stimulus

If one wants to succeed, then one should act as though one were genuinely confident about one's abilities, even if one actually distrusts one's skills. Success is much more easily obtained by those who than by those filled with self-doubts.

What this question is testing

Strengthen

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion more likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that are consistent with the argument but add no real support, or that strengthen a claim the argument doesn't make.

Winning move

Locate the gap between evidence and conclusion, then pick the choice that closes it.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
24.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope: convincing others5% picked this

    Those who convince others that they are capable of succeeding usually

    This answer doesn't help us understand why we should fake being confident, if fakers don't do as well as genuinely confident people. And the notion of others being convinced was not talked about before, so it's unclear how convincing others relates to success.

  2. Correct76% picked this

    Genuine confidence is often a by-product of

    Why this is right

    This reconciles the author's advice for fakers with her premise about fakers. Faking confidence often leads to possessing genuine confidence, which then makes it easier to obtain success.

    Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Opposite3% picked this

    Success is usually more a matter of luck or determination than

    Since the author is offering advice that assumes that success depends to some extend on confidence, being told that "success is actually usually more a matter of things that aren't confidence" is going away from the author.

  4. No Impact12% picked this

    Many people who behave in a self-confident manner are genuinely confident

    We probably already had the sense that many people out there acting self-confidently are genuine, many are fakers (since the author allowed for both possibilities). So it seems like this answer is telling us nothing we didn't already know. This doesn't help us in any way to understand why self-doubting people should still pretend like they're self-confident.

  5. Mixed Impact4% picked this

    Self-doubt can hamper as well as aid the development of the skills

    This does address the group we're concerned about — the self-doubters who are faking having genuine confidence. This answer doesn't reassure us that somehow their faking will do them well, because it gives a muddled idea that their self-doubt will do some good and some bad.

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