Do you struggle with assumption and flaw questions? Do you often choose answers that seem right, or relevant, but end up being wrong? This may help.

Consider the following argument:

Many respected entrepreneurs assert that insufficient capital, capital required to cover operating expenses in addition to initial start-up costs, is inevitably a factor in the failure of start-up businesses. However, all of the failed start-ups with which I’ve been involved have failed as a result of executives’ lack of expertise in the product or service that the company provides. Thus, insufficient capital is not a factor in causing start-up businesses to fail.

If this were followed by a question that asked you to choose an assumption, this would be a pretty tough question. The average test-taker attempts to memorize, or “learn” the entire argument, and then gets distracted by answer choices that seem relevant to some particular part of the argument that ends up not mattering so much. This leads to wrong answers. Read more

I thought I would add one more tip to a previous posting full of tips for those about to go and take the LSAT: //www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/06/03/final-lsat-tips/

Bring some light warm-up LSAT material with you to the testing center. I suggest bringing some tough questions that you completely mastered.  Before you enter the testing center, just run through the questions one last time, toss the paper into the recycling bin and head to your room.  Don’t bother checking your work.  The reason to do this is that you don’t want to use the first section of the test as your warm-up.  You want your logical thinking already moving when you start section 1.  The brain is a muscle, so warm it up just like you would your legs.

And I stand behind my night-before-the-LSAT recommendation: Legally Blonde, 1 or 2.

Good luck!

If you’re an LSAT forum poster/reader, you know that the good majority (almost all, in fact) of content-related LSAT posts focus on Logic Games and Logical Reasoning. This makes perfect sense. It’s easy to submit a post about a setup for a tough logic game, and it’s very easy to discuss the underlying logic present in one short LR question. LG and LR questions come in nice, neat packages. They are forum-friendly. Additionally, future LSAT test-takers seem to see and appreciate the immediate impact of a well-designed setup or a clever way to think about a piece of LR logic. The payoff is quick, and often immediate.
Reading comprehension, on the other hand, is messy. In order to have a serious, in-depth discussion about an RC passage, everyone in the conversation needs to be coming directly from a focused read of the passage. It doesn’t work to try to remember back to the passage, or to read a quick summary. For this reason, not many like to talk about it or ask about it. It’s inconvenient. Furthermore, there never seems to be a quick, easy payoff when it comes to RC. There’s not one inference that can be made to change confusion to understanding, there’s no quick gimmick that can be posted concisely to help someone become a better reader. There’s simply no quick fix, no immediate gratification. So why spend time on it? Most people don’t.
These are the people you are competing against. The better you do relative to them, the higher your LSAT score. Make their RC weakness your strength and you’ll put yourself in a position to gain upwards of 4 raw points on the field. Before you decide to make RC your LSAT version of a powerful forehand, you need to be in the right mindset. Read more

As an LSAT teacher you end up explaining a lot of LSAT questions.  We’ve actually designed our forums to focus on providing an easily searched bank of explanations to any LSAT problem – //www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/forums .  (We figured we’d save a few trees by not printing an entire book of them, plus then all those studying on their own have a place to go.)   I will say, however, that I’m always a bit cautious when I find a student asking for the explanations for an entire test.  I always wonder – and sometimes ask – whether the student has reviewed the work on his own first.  The best students first review the test themselves.  A couple of tips on reviewing your work:

1. Mark which answers you can easily eliminate and which ones are tempting.

2. Note any problem that you find difficult, find yourself guessing on, or that you find takes too long.

3. When you review your work, review all the questions you answered incorrectly, and all those you noted above (see #2).

4. For the questions you review, ask yourself the following:
– Do I understand the question (this includes the stem and the stimulus, passage, scenario, etc.)?
– Why is the correct answer right?
– Why is each wrong answer wrong?
– How could I have approached this question differently?  Is there a more efficient manner?  Is there a more intuitive approach? Read more

A lot of folks struggle with timing on the LSAT.  Clearly, if the test were un-timed, we’d all find it a lot easier.  Since we have only 35 minutes per section, if you’re having trouble finishing on time, it’s important to address your pacing.

There are several reasons folks struggle with pacing:

1. Not enough full practice under time conditions. If you’re just starting out, your mind is probably not used to the pace at which it needs to work.  I know that I generally equate a good read with a slow read — but that simply doesn’t work for the LSAT.  You probably can speed up considerably by just telling yourself to speed up!  From now on, every problem you try should be done with a stopwatch.  Also make sure you’re throwing in full practice tests along the way.  Don’t wait until you’re done learning all your strategies to work on your speed.

2. Ineffective strategies. Some ways of tackling problems would work just fine if the LSAT were untimed but breakdown under time pressure.   For example, in logic games, writing out all the possible scenarios doesn’t work for the vast majority of games.  In reading comprehension, you simply do not have enough time to do a full re-read.   In logical reasoning, you can’t wait until you’ve read the question to start thinking critically about an argument you’ve already read — you need to be reading critically from the outset.

This problem turns up more frequently with folks who are not using a book to study with, though even those who are in a course can fall prey to this problem if they don’t do timed practice, which often forces them to realize that they must indeed use the strategies they’re learning about. Read more

June 8th is just a few days away, and people are often asking for final tips about test day.  Here are a few to add to the mix:

1.  Easy does it.  Don’t take any preptests within the last two days.  The brain is a muscle, let it rest.  Take a few timed sections on Saturday, a few untimed on Sunday, and watch a stupid movie on Sunday night.  On Monday morning, re-do one easy logic game on your way to the test center to get your brain moving.

2. Pack-up the night before.  Get all your pencils sharpened, print out the ticket (and make sure your printer doesn’t cut off any part of the ticket), and find that analog watch your dad gave you years ago.  Make sure you know how to get to your testing center – there’s nothing worse than freaking out on your way to the test.  Plan to arrive early and to enjoy a coffee outside while you do a crossword puzzle or something that is fun and slightly intellectual.

3. Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate.  On all but the easiest problems in LR and RC, you should generally eliminate 4 answers.  If you’re going down the answer choice list, and (B) seems to be the answer, act suspicious – assume you’ve been duped – and go and look at the rest of the answer choices, seeing if you can eliminate them.  It’s too easy to “shut down” your brain once you think you’ve found the answer.

4. Move along.  If you are stuck on a question, take comfort in the fact that most everyone around you is probably struggling with that question too!  Some of your neighbors will spend 4 minutes on that one question, and others will move on and devote time to questions they can tackle.  Those who move on probably will do better and keep their cool.  So, make an educated guess, bubble it in, circle the question number, and move on.  If you have time, come back to it. Read more