Download 7 Common Weaken Formats
7 Common Weaken Formats is a free 1-page LSAT Logical Reasoning reference sheet by Germaine Washington (180 scorer) that maps 7 recurring Weaken argument patterns, showing the author's move, the logical gap, the corresponding Evaluate question, and what a credited weakener does. Published .
How Do the 7 Common LSAT Weaken Formats Work?
Most LSAT Weaken questions reuse a small set of structural reasoning gaps. When you recognize the author's move in the stimulus, you can predict the exact type of new information that undermines the conclusion before reading the answer choices.
1. Correlation to Causation and Alternative Explanations
When an argument observes two things happening together and concludes that one caused the other, a weakener introduces an alternative cause, reverses the causal direction, or shows the effect occurs without the proposed cause.
2. Plans, Goals, and Unintended Side Effects
When an author recommends a plan to achieve a goal, a weakener shows that a prerequisite step is unfeasible, that the plan triggers an offsetting side effect, or that an obstacle prevents the mechanism from working.
3. Unrepresentative Samples and Study Design Flaws
When a conclusion generalizes from a sample or survey to a broader population, a weakener exposes selection bias, a skewed baseline comparison, or a confounding difference between the sample and the target group.
4. Analogies, Numeric Shifts, and Conditional Gaps
When an argument equates two cases or confuses percentages with raw totals, a weakener identifies a decisive disanalogy or supplies the missing denominator that reverses the conclusion.
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