Law School Discussion

LOUD NOISES

it is 7:49 my time... i have only checked my email 4 times and LSAC 3 times.

that's good, right?

off to teach the children

i only used books...

i think the best thing for you to do is flip through a couple to see what works for you style wise... i got the princeton review books... they did not help me much

i found that Nova's "Master the LSAT" was the best for me.  they have a CD ROM version, they claimed that it would work on Mac. OS/X ... but it did not work on Tiger.  ..

anyways, good luck with everything

hey there:

i am by no means an "expert" on LR ... but it *was my weakest section off the bat... i started getting 10/25 correct on the average (and like almost perfect games and 20/25 RC). ... there were just some things that didnt click right away for me...

i am not sure if anything here helps, but here is my $ .02 ...

basically, the section tests your ability to understand the logic of someone's argument.  They throw an answer in there a lot that simply restates the conclusion of the argument... i kept biting on those... but they're almost always wrong.

i am a full-time teacher and had no time to take a course... i didn't know that this board even existed when i started studying in september.  I would find a book that explains clearly the components of an argument (premises, conclusions, etc.) and one that helps you to find assumptions contained within the argument.  I believe you said the assumption questions were giving you are hard time...  i guess when i read the questions, the assuptions are something critical to the author's argument that are NOT explicitly stated. 

a poor example ( i am not an LSAT writer ... i am too lazy to dig out my study materials)

      Product X outsold Product Z in the first quarter of this year.  Product X is significantly less expensive than Product Z.  Therefore, if the manufacturer of Product X lowers its prices to a point below the price of Product Z; it will outsell product Z in the next quarter.

Some assumptions above could include that the driving force behind sales of the two products are price... that the products are equally useful, etc.

If the argument completely falls apart in the absence of the assumption, i have found that that is the best choice. 

Deconstructing the arguments and finding assumptions is critical (especially for strengthen and weaken questions-- you'll have to find the response that either strengthens the assumptions or attacks them)...

The other thing you may want to brush up on is formal logic... find a book that helps you to understand these concepts... like math class in HS ... if p ---> q , etc.   Some websites have some examples of diagramming logic and truth tables and what not.

I used a book from Nova that really clarified the LR section for me... i went from 10/25 to like 21/25 after it "clicked" for me. 

good luck!

i am actually thinking of switching careers from education to law (after 8 years on the job) ... i remember using princeton review books for my SAT ... i thought they were okay... so, i bought the PR books for the LSAT ... they left me pretty well confused... i think they did a pretty poor job explaining the LR section-- too quick into explaining the diff. types of LR questions and not enough time talking about them globally-- anyways; i am a very good test taker and my first prep test was something like a 149 !!   i think i got 10/25 LR questions correct in both sections, aced games and missed 5 in RC... clearly, i was missing something.

Being an old-timer i dont have time to take a review class so i surveyed the other prep books... i found the Nova book to be especially helpful at getting to the crux of the LR problems ... they went heavily into formal logic (which i had not done since 9th grade) and attacking the problems correctly...  Since then, i have scored an average of 165 on the prep tests, missing only 3-4 LR per section.. i would say a jump from 10/25 correct with PR to 21-22/25 correct is a big jump-- which i credit the other book.

I found the PR books to be a bit "gimmicky"... (i also found this with the SAT books)... i would recommend the other to anyone who is not able to take a course...


just my $ .02