LSATTip o’ The Day

Don’t take the test cold.

• Avail yourself of preparation materials, texts, books, courses.

• Be familiar with the sections and their instructions—get the test down, cold!

• So you don’t freeze up, practice, practice, practice!– Take at least one test each week,

preferably on Saturday morning.– Reproduce actual test conditions as closely

as possible.– Your goal is to make taking the test second

nature.– You should see your score improve from

the first practice administration up until the actual test.

Poor Brittany! Even though she was bright, she tried to take the LSAT

without ever really preparing for it. Was she in for a shock!

Think Positively & Be Proactive:Keep telling yourself that there is nothing more fun than taking the LSAT.

• Improving your practice score is possible.

• Son #2 (Cornell law grad):– Cold start (low): 151– After practice (high): 175– Final score (actual): 167 (97th%)– Improvement: 16-24 points

• Son #1 improvement was 8-10 points (99th%, BYU full tuition)

• You can miss several and get 180.– Missing 15 or so can still be a very good

score!• Son #2 says that if you’re not scoring

above 160 after practicing consistently and often, consider a less risky career.

Make a Plan of Attack• Go to the testing venue before the

test; get comfortable with it.• Bring extra pencils.• Use an analog watch to time yourself

(no bleeping alarms are allowed).• Plug your ears.• Although not a regular ‘’best

practice,” consider mouthing the words as you read—involving an extra sense can aid your understanding.

• Move FAST, but RELAX (breathe deeply).– You have approximately 8:30 per

game or reading problem.

Studies show . . .

• If you’re stumped, try these guessing methods:•Use the process of elimination wherever

possible.•Avoid choosing answers that contain the

words all, always, never, none, or other extreme language. • If there is one answer that looks a lot

different than the rest, don't guess that one. • If two choices are very similar or are hard to

tell apart, pick one of those. • If none of these methods is applicable, it

makes no significant difference which choice you make, but efficiency may dictate choosing the same answer for all those you would otherwise leave blank. With 1 minute left, answer EVERY question: choose all “B” or “C.”

• Resist the urge to change your answers.

If you’re not a natural at logic games . . .

• Recite—until it hurts—the mantra, “I love logic games. They are my best area on the LSAT.”

• FEEL the logic game! BE the logic game!

• Get the LSAT Logic Games Bible (or something like it*) early in your preparation.

• Learn the best-practices methods before you get set in inefficient ways.

• Practice, practice, practice.*This is not a paid commercial announcement

Basic Approach• Do easy games first—frees

time for tougher games1. Overview case

a. Situation?b. Who?c. What?d. Limits?

2. Sketch it3. Read rules4. Deduce immediate

inferences5. Attack questions

Plan of Attack – Games

• Sketch a picture (this is where LGB is helpful).– Pay particular attention to

AND, OR, IF, and ONLY.• Draw inferences (“Discover”

additional facts)– Use rules of logical

equivalence.– If you can’t draw an

inference, move on!• When you come back, try a

different order/sketch– Additional inferences may

be possible at this point.

• ELIMINATE!• Move FAST, but RELAX

(breathe deeply).

Get down immediate inferences!(Rules of logical equivalence)

• Contradiction• Conversion• Obversion• Contrapositive• If at least one S exists,

– Contrary & sub-contrary– Alternates (sub- & super-)

• Be prepared to make additional syllogistic inferences.

‘Necessary’ & ‘Sufficient’• “Which of these is

necessary for . . .” or “Which of the following is a sufficient condition of . . . .”

• The antecedent in a conditional is a sufficient condition.

• The consequent is a necessary one.

• The set of all necessaries is sufficient.

Something can be necessary, but not sufficient (like temple marriage); and something can be

sufficient, but not necessary (a man, for instance).

Translation hints• Singular propositions make assertions

about a unique individual.– “Socrates is a man.”

• Create a categorical statement about that individual by using the parameter “identical to” and appending the appropriate quantifier (A, E, I, O).– “persons identical to”– “places identical to”– “things identical to”– “cases identical to”– “times identical to”

• “Socrates is a man” becomes “All persons identical to Socrates are men.”

“The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David (1787), Metropolitan Museum of Art

More translation hints

• ‘Only if’ = ‘then’*– OK, so it doesn’t look right, but it is.

* ‘If only’ = ‘if’—only- I.e., ‘only’ in this expression is merely a

rhetorical flourish expressing a wish.- E.g., “If only a kitten were a frog . . .”

- It is a stylistic variant that adds nothing logically.

Adverbial Translation Hints• When a statement contains a spatial adverb like

– Where– Wherever– Anywhere– Everywhere– Nowhere

• Use an A or E statement with “places”• For example

– “Nowhere on earth are there any unicorns” becomes “No places on earth are places there are unicorns.”

– “She goes where she chooses” becomes “All places she chooses to go are places she goes.”

• Note, too, that the subject and predicate of the categorical statement are determined by the placement of the adverb in the ordinary English sentence.– The adverbial unit becomes the subject (i.e.,

preceding the copula) and the non-adverbial unit, the predicate (i.e., following the copula)• The adverbial units “Nowhere on earth” and

“where she chooses” appear before the copula as the subjects “No places on earth” and “All places she chooses.”

• The non-adverbial units “there are any unicorns” and “She goes” follow the copula as the predicates “[are] places there are unicorns” and “[are] places she goes.”

Why there are no more unicorns—and, hence, why Charlie is so special.

More Adverbial Translation Hints• If a statement contains a temporal adverb like when,

whenever, anytime, always, never• Use an A or E statement with “times”• For example

– “He always wears a suit to work” becomes “All times he goes to work are times he wears a suit.”

– “He is always clean shaven” becomes “All times are times he is clean shaven.”

– “She never brings her lunch to school” becomes “No times she goes to school are times she brings her lunch.”

– “He glitters when he walks” becomes “All times he walks are times he glitters.”

• To understand exactly what the sentence is saying and how best to translate it, you might try recasting it:– “He always wears a suit to work” could be rendered

either as “Whenever he wears a suit, he is at work,” or “Whenever he is at work, he wears a suit”—but which is it?

– Similarly, “He glitters when he walks” could be rendered either as “Whenever he glitters, he walks,” or “Whenever he walks, he glitters”—but, again, which is it?

– If you choose correctly (and that comes with a little practice), the correct transformation to a categorical proposition should become obvious to you.

“All times he walks are times he glitters.”

Reading Comprehension• When you see the

subject of each of the reading selections, say to yourself, “Yipee! This is my favorite subject! How did they know that?”*– Then, read the

selection as though it were.

*Well, maybe you don’t have to say, “Yipee!” But being ecstatic wouldn’t hurt.

Use a “dialogical approach”• Whether in the logical reasoning or reading

comprehension section, use a dialogical approach; i.e., pretend you are engaged in a verbal conversation.– Read the selection with real

interest/excitement.– Pretend you wrote it, that you are responsible

for it, that you are the expert on the material.– Pretend the questions are coming to you from

a room full of skeptical reporters and that you wrote the article and are the expert.

– Frame the question stem as if it were a question from one of the reporters:• E.g., if the question is “With which of the

following statements would the author agree?” rephrase it as follows:

– “Mr. Yourname, would you agree that . . . .”

– Based on your understanding of the material, answer the “reporter’s” question as though you were, indeed, the author/expert:• “Well, no, I wouldn’t agree with that,” or “Yes, I

would agree with that.”– This will help keep the questions straight and

force the absurd answers to jump out at you.

– Try your hand at a few of these.

Practicing “The Press Conference”

– YOU are PRESENTING to a PRESS CONFERENCE

– Your presentation must be extremely interesting

– The press will ask you questions about• Your purpose, main idea, or conclusion• Assumptions you have made• Whether you agree or disagree• Whether new information strengthens

or weakens your argument• Whether new information resolves a

paradox or discrepancy• Your method of reasoning

– How would you frame each of those question stems “dialogically”?

Writing Sample• The purpose of the writing sample is to see if you

are capable of reasonably lucid thought expressed in ways that don’t make you look like an idiot.– It will likely be read only if you are in the marginal

admission pool.• It doesn’t really matter which option you choose

to defend, so read assuming (arbitrarily) the second option is best.– This arbitrary selection-in-advance saves time.– Be prepared to change your mind, however, if you

feel you could more efficiently make a better case for Option A.

• Make an outline.• State your conclusion in the first sentence:

– “I recommend Option B because it meets the goals of…better than Option A.”

• Summarize how Option B is better.• Weigh the pros and cons of BOTH options.• Argue that Option B’s pros are better or that

Option A’s cons are worse.• End by rephrasing your opening sentence.