Every Logical Reasoning question is defined by the task it asks you to perform. Grouped into families, the categories are: assumption, inference, structure, and application. Learn to name the task from the question stem, know the single most common way each type is missed, and track your accuracy per type across tests.
How to use this list
Read the stem before the stimulus and decide which task it is asking for. That single habit prevents most wrong-task errors. Use the same category names every time you review a test so your accuracy numbers stay comparable. When a type is weak across several tests, go back to its method and the common-miss note below before drilling it.
Assumption family
These questions turn on the unstated gap between an argument's evidence and its conclusion.
Task: Identify a premise the argument requires in order to work at all.
Recognize it: “The argument depends on assuming which one of the following?”
Most common miss: Picking an answer that would help the argument rather than one it truly needs. Use the negation test: if negating the choice destroys the argument, it is necessary.
Task: Supply a premise that, if added, guarantees the conclusion.
Recognize it: “The conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?”
Most common miss: Choosing something merely helpful. The right answer should lock the conclusion in, often by connecting a term in the evidence to a term in the conclusion.
Task: Find the choice that makes the conclusion more likely to be true.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?”
Most common miss: Ignoring the specific gap in the argument and grabbing any generally on-topic support.
Task: Find the choice that makes the conclusion less likely to be true.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?”
Most common miss: Attacking a premise instead of the reasoning, or picking a choice that only slightly dents an unrelated point.
Task: Identify the question whose answer would most help judge the argument.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following would be most useful to know in evaluating the argument?”
Most common miss: Not testing choices both ways. The right one changes the argument's strength depending on how it is answered.
Inference family
Here the stimulus is a set of statements, and you must find what they support.
Task: Find the choice that is fully proven by the statements given.
Recognize it: “If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true?”
Most common miss: Selecting an answer that is likely or reasonable rather than airtight. It has to be forced by the text.
Task: Find the choice the statements make most likely, short of proof.
Recognize it: “The statements above, if true, most support which one of the following?”
Most common miss: Over-correcting toward certainty and rejecting the best-supported choice because it is not 100% provable.
Task: Find the choice that conflicts with the statements.
Recognize it: “If the statements above are true, which one of the following cannot be true?”
Most common miss: Confusing “not supported” with “contradicted.” Four choices can be true; one is impossible.
Structure family
These ask you to describe how an argument is built rather than judge it.
Task: Name the error the argument commits.
Recognize it: “The reasoning is flawed because the argument…”
Most common miss: Not knowing the standard flaw catalogue (causation vs. correlation, part vs. whole, circular reasoning, equivocation, unrepresentative sample). Learn the list and match.
Task: Describe the argument's technique in the abstract.
Recognize it: “The argument proceeds by…”
Most common miss: Picking a choice that describes something the argument could have done but did not.
Task: Explain the function of one bolded or referenced claim.
Recognize it: “The claim that… plays which one of the following roles?”
Most common miss: Not first identifying the main conclusion. Once you know the conclusion, the role of every other piece becomes clearer.
Task: Find the claim two speakers would clearly disagree (or agree) about.
Recognize it: “Advocate and critic disagree over whether…”
Most common miss: Choosing something only one speaker addresses. The right answer needs a stated position from both.
Task: Identify the argument's primary conclusion.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion?”
Most common miss: Selecting a premise or a subsidiary conclusion. Ask what the argument is ultimately trying to get you to accept.
Application family
These ask you to apply, match, or extend the reasoning in the stimulus.
Task: Find the broad rule that the specific situation illustrates.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following principles is best illustrated by…?”
Most common miss: Matching surface topic instead of the underlying structure of the rule.
Task: Use a stated rule to judge a specific case.
Recognize it: “The principle above, if valid, most helps to justify which one of the following?”
Most common miss: Not checking that every condition of the rule is actually met by the answer choice.
Task: Find the argument with the same logical structure.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to…?”
Most common miss: Matching subject matter or tone rather than the pattern of premises and conclusion. Abstract the structure first.
Task: Find the argument that makes the same error.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following exhibits flawed reasoning most similar to…?”
Most common miss: Identifying the flaw but then matching structure loosely. It must be the same flaw and the same shape.
Task: Find the fact that makes two conflicting statements fit together.
Recognize it: “Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy?”
Most common miss: Choosing a fact that explains only one side of the conflict, or that deepens it.
Task: Supply the phrase the argument's logic is leading to.
Recognize it: Stimulus ends with “… because ______.”
Most common miss: Treating it as a reading-flow question. It is usually a disguised inference or assumption question; solve it as one.
Common questions
How many Logical Reasoning question types are there?
Which Logical Reasoning question types are most common?
Should I learn question types before taking timed sections?
Track your accuracy for every one of these types.
LSAT Lens categorizes every question in your completed LawHub tests, so you can see which of these families and types is actually costing you points, this week and over your whole history.
Analyze my first test free →Free report preview. No signup or payment details required. Ongoing saved analytics are available with a subscription.Official references
For the official description of the question formats on the current exam, see the Law School Admission Council’s types of LSAT questions. Category names above follow common study conventions and may differ slightly between prep systems.
LSAT Lens is an independent analytics service and is not affiliated with the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) or LawHub.