LSAT Logical Reasoning

Strategy Guide + Online Tracker

• Publisher: Manhattan Prep Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781506209739
• Topic: Guías de estudio
• Subtopic: Guías de estudio LSAT

Offering a new take on the LSAT logical reasoning section, Manhattan Prep’s LSAT Logical Reasoning is a must-have resource for any student preparing to take the exam.Using Manhattan Prep’s expert strategies, this book will teach you how to untangle the web of LSAT logical reasoning questions confidently and efficiently. LSAT Logical Reasoning encourages a streamlined method to engage and improve your natural critical thinking skills.Beginning with an effective approach to reading arguments and identifying answers, LSAT Logical Reasoning trains you to see through the clutter and recognize the core of an argument. It also arms you with the tools to pick apart the answer choices, offering in-depth explanations for every answer—both correct and incorrect—leading to a complex understanding of this subtle section.Each chapter in LSAT Logical Reasoning uses real LSAT questions in drills and practice sets, with explanations that take you inside the mind of an LSAT expert as they work through the problem.Additional practice and resources are available online through the Manhattan Prep website. Used by itself or with other Manhattan Prep materials, LSAT Logical Reasoning will push you to your top score.

Chapter 1

of

Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning Overview

In This Chapter…

Logical Reasoning in the LSAT

Your Approach to Logical Reasoning

Your Path to Success

Preparing for the LSAT

Creating the Right Mind-set

Logical Reasoning in the LSAT

Before we begin our discussion of the academics of the Logical Reasoning (LR) section, we’d like to spend a few moments looking at the LSAT in general and how the Logical Reasoning section works within the test as a whole.

Every LSAT is comprised of the following sections:

Section	Questions	Scored?	Time
Logic Games	22–23	Yes	35 minutes
Reading Comprehension	26–28	Yes	35 minutes
Logical Reasoning (1)	24–26	Yes	35 minutes
Logical Reasoning (2)	24–26	Yes	35 minutes
Experimental	22–28	No	35 minutes
Essay	1 essay	No	35 minutes

The first five sections can come in any order. The essay will always be your final section, and it will not factor into your overall score.

The experimental section is used for the internal purposes of the makers of the LSAT and will also not count towards your overall score. It will be an extra Logic Games (LG), Reading Comprehension (RC), or Logical Reasoning section. We do not recommend that you try to identify which section is experimental during the exam.

Of the four sections that do count towards your score, two of them will be Logical Reasoning. Therefore, Logical Reasoning is the section that will most significantly impact your performance, and it should be a priority in your studies.

As you will see, certain Logical Reasoning questions are designed to take more time to answer than others, but based on the typical number of questions in a section, your timing for Logical Reasoning should average out to about 1:20 per question.

In all sections, every question is worth exactly one point. There is no penalty for guessing. That is, selecting a wrong answer has the same consequence as leaving an answer choice blank—you will get zero points for that question. Therefore, it is to your advantage to mark down an answer for every single question.

Every LSAT contains either 100 or 101 scored questions. Each correct answer adds one point to your raw score. This raw score is then converted to an LSAT score that fits on a scale from 120–180, and this conversion will be based on how difficult this particular test was compared to other LSAT exams.

Here’s a sample conversion scale that is representative of the most recent LSATs:

Raw Score (minimum correct out of 100 total questions)	Scaled Score	Percentile Rank (the percentage of test-takers you outperformed)
99	180	99.9
95	175	99.5
89	170	97.5
82	165	91.5
74	160	80.1
65	155	63.1
57	150	44.1

The exact conversion varies a bit from exam to exam, but it is fairly consistent overall. Because you’ll see approximately 100 questions, it can be helpful to think of your goal score in terms of the percentage of questions you will need to get correct (not to be confused with the Percentile Rank). For example, if your goal score is 165, it should be helpful to know that overall, you’ll need to answer a bit more than 80% of the questions correctly. If you have not already, take a moment to consider your goal score and the percentage accuracy that achieving that score will require.

Now, with that goal in mind, let’s turn to the purpose of this chapter: setting up your approach to Logical Reasoning.

Your Approach to Logical Reasoning

Categorization is important on the LSAT: consider the adage “divide and conquer.” To that end, it is helpful to think of the Logical Reasoning (LR) section as divided into two families:

1. Those questions in which you will be asked to debate what you read by identifying and exploiting a gap in the argument’s reasoning, aka an assumption.
2. Those questions in which you will be expected to accept what you read and then describe, match, or infer from that material.

Knowing which family each question falls into will dramatically improve your ability to move through the LR section both effectively and efficiently.

Let’s look at an example of an LSAT question that we’ll work on in a later chapter:

PT29, S4, Q2

Economist: To the extent that homelessness arises from a lack of available housing, it should not be assumed that the profit motive is at fault. Private investors will, in general, provide housing if the market allows them to make a profit; it is unrealistic to expect investors to take risks with their property unless they get some benefit in return.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the economist’s argument by the phrase “To the extent that homelessness arises from a lack of available housing”?

(A) It limits the application of the argument to a part of the problem.

(B) It suggests that the primary cause of homelessness is lack of available housing.

(C) It is offered as evidence crucial to the conclusion.

(D) It expresses the conclusion to be argued for.

(E) It suggests a possible solution to the problem of homelessness.

A Logical Reasoning question consists of three parts: the stimulus, the question stem, and the answer choices. We all know what answer choices look like, but the other two terms might be unfamiliar. The stimulus is the initial paragraph that precedes the question stem—in the example above, it begins with “Economist: To the extent …” In LR, it will be an argument or a series of statements, so we will often call it “the argument.” The question stem will give us some task in relation to the stimulus—in the example above, it begins with “Which one of the …” Here are two other examples of LR question stems:

1. The main conclusion of the argument is that …
2. Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

The first example, like the question stem in the official question above, asks you to describe the argument. There is no debate required—you’re asked to accept what the argument says and figure out its main point. The second example, however, does require that you debate the argument. If you want to strengthen an argument on the LSAT, you first must understand its weaknesses so that you can choose an answer that overcomes one of those weaknesses.

Are the two tasks related? Certainly. Both, for example, require that you understand the structure of the argument before proceeding. However, debating the argument requires a more complete understanding, because you have to understand not only what role each sentence plays, but also the important things that were left out of the argument and how those things impact the argument’s strength. This is analysis you want to do right away when it’s necessary and avoid completely when it’s not!

That’s why you should make it a habit to read the question stem first! You may end up having to reread that question stem after reading the stimulus, especially as you get started approaching LR questions in this way, but don’t be deterred by this. The question stem can tell you volumes about the argument before you even begin reading it, because each type of question comes with its own bag of tricks. Knowing which tricks to be on the lookout for will help you tailor your approach to reading the stimulus. Knowing whether to accept or debate the argument will prevent you from doing unnecessary mental work. Thus, reading the question stem first is a critical component of an effective and efficient approach to the Logical Reasoning section.

(Dying to know whether you got that sample question correct?)

Your Path to Success

This book is organized according to the two families discussed above, each of which represents about half of all Logical Reasoning questions. In the first half of the book, we will learn about the Assumption Family of questions—those that call for us to debate the argument by identifying gaps in reasoning.

In the second half of the book, we will tackle all of the question types outside of the Assumption Family. In that section, we’ll find more variety in the tasks that we’re asked to perform, but what ties them together is that we will not debate the argument.

Despite the division between questions in which we do or do not debate the argument, many of the skills you will build throughout this book are required for success on questions in both families. That is because many of the skills are not associated with a single question type. Rather, they are skills that allow you to understand and break down complicated arguments across question types. Thus, while you want to have a specific approach to each task the Logical Reasoning section will ask you to complete, you also want to build a more holistic understanding of the structures and conventions common to LSAT arguments on the whole.

Preparing for the LSAT

It is important to begin your LSAT preparation with a good plan. Here is some advice meant to help put you on the right path.

1. Strive for mastery.

Mastery means something far greater than simply knowing the right answer; it means maximizing the learning that you get out of every question you try. For every argument you encounter, you should be able to articulate the function of each piece of the stimulus and understand how the author supports the conclusion. If it’s a question that requires a debating stance, you must be able to clearly articulate the gaps in the reasoning.

Maximizing your learning also entails consideration of the relationship between the stimulus and question stem. Once you’ve identified the task of the question communicated in the stem, be on the lookout for the conventions of that question type and work to predict a correct answer before moving to the answer choices.

When you reach the answers, you must carefully consider each one. Don’t let yourself off the hook by saying, “Oh, this answer is obviously wrong.” Imagine that you have to explain the problem to someone who thinks the answer is right. What would you say? Don’t let it go until you have a great response.

Treating every piece of every question as though it has something to teach you will allow you to master the smaller skills that together make up the broad categories of argument analysis, answer choice prediction, and answer choice assessment. What’s more, this approach will allow you to master those skills in far less time than you would spend if you treated ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1. Logical Reasoning Overview
• 2. The Argument Core
• 3. Assumption Questions
• 4. Flaw Questions
• 5. The Assumption Family Process
• 6. Strengthen and Weaken Questions
• 7. Principle Support Questions
• 8. Conditional Logic
• 9. Principle Example Questions
• 10. Analyze the Argument Questions
• 11. Inference Questions
• 12. Matching Questions
• 13. Explain a Result Questions
• 14. Conclusion