Necessary condition

Hi Samlhoover, thanks for the question! Something that I think is important to keep in mind as far as the LSAT is concerned, is that it is difficult to create blanket rules that apply all the time on the LSAT. Instead it is definitely good to have rules of thumb or ideas that hold true the vast majority of the time, but remain flexible in your application of them. While the word "must" is a necessary condition indicator, and technically does create a condition in which it is necessary. It is much easier to apply this when you see that something triggers the necessary condition. E.g. You must take your shoes off when you enter the house. In this example it is clear that entering the house triggers the necessary condition. However, it becomes more of a distraction to think of it as a condition when you do not see both a necessary and sufficient condition. E.g. I must read my books. I don't think diagramming this is very informative. Nor is it ever actually needed. So just note when the indicators of necessary and sufficiency appear in conditional language vs when they simply appear. This will come with experience and practice, but is something that becomes natural when you try not to overthink using conditional language. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions!

And just to answer your question about whether it is a necessary condition 100% of the time. If there is a conditional statement and you see the word "must", then it is necessary and not sufficient, always.