LSAT Must Be True Questions: How to Never Miss One Again

The one question type where being right feels wrong

There is a specific moment that happens to nearly every LSAT student, usually somewhere in the second week of prep. You read a short paragraph. The speaker says something about bicycles, or bureaucracies, or hemoglobin. You scan the answer choices. And choice (C) is just… sitting there, restating the speaker's point in slightly different words.

And you skip it, because it feels too easy, because this is the LSAT and surely they wouldn't just hand you the answer. So you talk yourself into (E), which is more sophisticated, more interesting, and dead wrong. That instinct, the reflex to distrust the obvious, costs test takers more points on Must Be True questions than any actual gap in reasoning ability. And it is completely fixable.

Why these questions matter more than they used to

Starting with the August 2024 test, the LSAT consists of two scored Logical Reasoning sections, one scored Reading Comprehension section, and an unscored section. Logical Reasoning now accounts for roughly half your total score, the most heavily weighted part of the exam. Logic Games are gone, and they're not coming back.

That changes where your points come from. The questions in Logical Reasoning that can be answered with near-certainty are now the most valuable real estate on the entire test, and Must Be True questions are exactly that. They're the closest thing the modern LSAT has to a guaranteed point. Miss them and you're surrendering points that require no leap of insight, no clever reframing, just discipline.

What a Must Be True question actually asks

The stem is unmistakable once you know its shape: "Which one of the following must be true, if the statements above are correct?" You'll also see "which one of the following follows logically from the statements above." Same question, different costume. Here's the entire job description:

You are looking for the one answer that has been proven by the speaker's statements, and nothing more than the speaker's statements. Outside information is not allowed. Not your chemistry degree, not your intuition about how telephone networks work. If the passage doesn't say it or force it, it isn't there.

Three consequences follow, and each is a trap in disguise:

The correct answer need not be the speaker's main point. It's often drawn from a single subordinate clause buried in the second sentence.
The whole statement need not relate to the answer. A stimulus might contain four facts, and the right answer rests on exactly one. The other three are set dressing.
If any part proves an answer has to be true, that's your answer. Full stop. Stop looking for something more elegant. Circle it and move.

The trickier cousin: Most Strongly Supported

There's a more fluid version that asks for something not necessarily true, but at least well supported: "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statements?" The approach is the same, pick the answer best supported by the passage, and no more than the passage. The correct answer here might not be strictly proven, but it will be pretty close to it.

That phrase, pretty close to proven, is the whole strategy. Most Strongly Supported doesn't mean "pick the most plausible-sounding statement about the world." It means "pick the answer that is as close to airtight as the passage allows." You're not evaluating truth. You're measuring distance from the text. On this test, reasonable is not a category. Supported is.

The five traps, and how to spot them fast

Every wrong answer on an inference question fails in one of a handful of predictable ways. Learn the taxonomy and your accuracy jumps before your reasoning improves at all.

1. The extreme answer

The passage says some, the answer says all. The passage says most common, the answer says never or always. Scan for absolutes, only, every, all, never, none, must, guaranteed. One unearned quantifier kills an answer choice.

2. The scope creep

The passage discusses cost; the answer discusses speed. Nothing in the answer is false, it's simply about a topic the speaker never raised. This is where outside knowledge does its damage: you know the answer is probably true in real life, so you accept it. Real life is not on the answer sheet.

3. The reversal

The passage establishes that A requires B. The answer states that B requires A. Conditional logic is where the LSAT does its quiet knifework, and reversals are the blade. If A → B, you know the contrapositive (not B → not A). You know nothing else.

4. The upgrade

The passage says a venture may siphon funds; the answer says the company will lose money. The passage says a treatment is relatively inexpensive; the answer says it is the least expensive option. Watch every modal verb. May is not will. Cheaper than one thing is not cheapest.

5. The should

The passage is entirely descriptive, it reports what happens. The answer is prescriptive, it declares what ought to happen. Unless the speaker made a normative claim, no answer containing should can be proven. This trap catches thoughtful people specifically, because thoughtful people translate facts into recommendations.

The method: what to do on test day

Read for facts, not argument structure. On a Must Be True question you're not diagnosing reasoning, you're inventorying claims. Note the quantifiers. Note the conditionals. Note what is asserted versus merely mentioned.

Predict, but predict loosely. Sometimes an inference leaps out, combine premise two with the contrapositive of premise three and you have your answer before you reach (A). When it doesn't, don't force it. Some stimuli are just a pile of facts. Wade in and eliminate.

Treat every answer as guilty until proven innocent. For each choice, ask one question: can I point to the exact words that prove this? If your finger doesn't land somewhere on the page, the answer is out.

When two answers survive, pick the boring one. The answer that says less is almost always right. Ambitious answers make claims; claims require proof. And if an answer seems too obvious, it's probably correct.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Must Be True question on the LSAT?

A Must Be True question gives you a set of statements and asks which answer choice is proven by those statements. You may use only the information in the passage, no outside knowledge, no assumptions about how the world works.

What's the difference between Must Be True and Most Strongly Supported?

Must Be True demands proof: the correct answer follows necessarily. Most Strongly Supported accepts an answer that isn't strictly proven but comes very close. In practice you approach both the same way, find the answer that stays nearest to what the passage actually says.

Are Must Be True questions hard?

They are among the most learnable question types on the test. The reasoning is straightforward; the difficulty is psychological. Students reject correct answers for seeming too obvious and select wrong answers for seeming sophisticated.

How many Must Be True questions are on the LSAT?

Inference questions typically appear several times in each Logical Reasoning section. Logical Reasoning comprises two 35-minute sections of roughly 24, 26 questions each, so inference questions represent a meaningful and reliably scorable share of your total score.

Does the LSAT still have logic games?

No. The Analytical Reasoning (Logic Games) section was removed from the exam as of August 2024. Any prep materials that include logic games are outdated for the current format.

LSAT Must Be True questions: the easiest points on the test.