Understand what categorical logic is.

• Recognize what makes it specifically categorical logic, what "categories" have to do with it.

Know and use categorical claims with familiarity and comfort.

• Recognize that the standard-form categorical claim breaks down along precise lines into subject and predicate terms.
• Understand and identify the four standard forms A, E, I, and O.
• Use Venn diagrams to represent categorical claims.
• Differentiate affirmative from negative standard form categorical claims and understand how to indicate the differences on a Venn diagram.
• Learn the techniques for translating normal English claims into their standard form categorical equivalents.
• Be prepared and able to rephrase English sentences in order to make them fit within the structure of standard form categorical claims.
• Translate claims that appear in the past tense, or that use the words "only" and "the only," or that make claims about specific times and places.
• Be able to translate claims about single individuals and claims that use mass nouns so that those claims can take standard form.

Grasp the organizational justification behind the square of opposition and see how the square illustrates logical relationships among categorical claims.

• Understand the definition of corresponding categorical claims.
• Know that A-claims and E-claims are contrary claims, and understand what that means.
• Know that I-claims and O-claims are subcontrary claims, and understand what that means.
• Know that A-claims and O-claims are contradictory to one another, as E-claims and I-claims are to one another too; and understand what contradictory claims are.

Understand the three operations you can perform on a standard form categorical claim.

• Know how to find the converse of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.
• Know how to find the obverse of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.
• Be able to determine the complementary term for any term and know how to use it when producing an obverse or a contrapositive.
• Know how to find the contrapositive of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.

Know what a categorical syllogism and how to evaluate its validity or invalidity using Venn diagrams.

• Understand the precise definition of a categorical syllogism.
• Be able to identify the major term, minor term, and middle term in a syllogism.
• Know how to test for the validity of a syllogism with Venn diagrams.
• Remember to diagram the affirmative (A-claim or E-claim) premise of the syllogism before the negative (I-claim or O-claim) premise, when one exists.

Be able to test for the validity of a categorical syllogism with the rules of the syllogism.

• Understand what a distributed term is and always be able to identify the distributed term in any given syllogism.
• Learn the three rules of the syllogism and understand how to apply them in every instance.
• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of the two tests for validity.