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Background & overview Logical Reasoning Section Format:

Two out of the four scored sections on every LSAT are Logical Reasoning sections;

LR sections contains 25 or 26 questions (35 minutes / 25-26 questions = average of about one minute and twenty-five seconds per question (of course, the amount of time per question should vary but one way to keep on track is to give yourself 15 minutes per 10 questions);

Timing is a major factor on the LSAT so we will go through timing strategies and techniques later.

The “Directions”: Every Logical Reasoning section has the following directions:

“The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. For some questions, more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However, you are to choose the best answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the question. You should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage. After you have chosen the best answer, blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.”

After having just read them, never read it on the actual LSAT.

Logical Reasoning - Question Format:

Okay, so let’s start by looking at an actual LR (Logical Reasoning) question as an example (don’t worry about answering the question - this is just to show an example):

1. Most serious students are happy students, and most serious students go to graduate school. Furthermore, all students who go to graduate school are overworked.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the statements above?

(A) Most overworked students are happy students.

(B) Some happy students are overworked.

(C) All overworked students are serious students.

(D) Some unhappy students go to graduate school.

(E) All serious students are overworked.

Notice the sentence at the top, followed by a question, then five answer choices?

Basically, this is what every LR question will look like.

We’re going to call the top part the stimulus... Usually, the stimulus will actually have several sentences, such as:

and it could be an individual speaking, like this one:

or a dialogue between two people, like this one:

I find it helpful to “imagine” that there is always a “speaker” saying the stimulus, who I call “author” in order to make it easier to refer to the “author’s statements”.

The second part is the question stem,

And then of course the Answer choices, which always look similar to these (a short sentence or several sentences).

Points To Remember:

Whether you choose to read the stimulus first or the question stem first is basically a matter of personal preference - some books urge you to do one or the other - I personally read the stimulus first when I was studying, but now I tend to recommend the question stem first, so you can read through the stimulus with some more focus. Again - personal preference - try both, see what works for you, but EITHER WAY, always focus FIRST AND FOREMOST ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE STIMULUS IS SAYING AND WHAT THE QUESTION IS ASKING YOU TO DO - DO NOT SIMPLY FOLLOW SOME INSTRUCTION MANUAL AND IGNORE YOUR OWN READING SKILLS AND REASONING SKILLS!

Now here is the ABSOLUTE BEST PART OF THE LSAT: THERE ARE ONLY 15 QUESTIONS THAT THEY PICK FROM!

Here’s more good news: According to the makers of the test, “the arguments are contained in short passages taken from a variety of sources, including letters to the editor, speeches, advertisements, newspaper articles and editorials, informal discussions and conversations, as well as articles in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.”

Concepts

LR sections evaluate your understanding of ARGUMENTS

Form of an Argument:

Premise #1: Every Tuesday is trash day.

Premise #2: Tomorrow is Tuesday.

____________________________

Conclusion: Tomorrow is trash day.

Notice how statements (1) & (2) support statement (3)?

The first two statements are premises and the third statement is the conclusion statement—taken together, they make the argument.

Now look at the following three statements:

Every Tuesday I have to go to work.

Tomorrow, I have to go to work.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Which statements are premises (supporting the conclusion statement) and which statement is the conclusion statement (being supported by the premise statements)?

If you answered the second statement, then you are correct, if not, then make sure you remember that the LSAT does not necessarily put the conclusion statement at the end of an argument - in fact, on the LSAT even the first statement of the stimulus may be the conclusion just to confuse some people.

LOGICAL REASONING for the LSAT means specifically: How does the “author” of the argument get to their conclusion from the premises?

The reasoning of the argument is valid if the conclusion must be true based on the premise(s), meaning it has a valid conclusion.

Invalid reasoning is when the conclusion of the argument does NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE TRUE based on the premise(s).

Note: The conclusion still could be true, but is still invalid if it does not have to be true.

Essentially, there are only TWO BASIC TYPES of LR questions - (1) Those that ask you to use to make a conclusion/inference (like the question above), and (2) Those that ask you to EVALUATE/ANALYZE the author’s reasoning.

Understand how to do those two things well and you aced the LR sections!