As I was growing up, my dear ol' papa cared a lot about me learning to use tools. He started me off pretty young with hand tools (like a basic screwdriver). I worked solely with those for several years.
Then when I was around 10 he started introducing me to power tools. I hated them at first -- they were way harder to use, they were error-prone, and I could generally do things way faster and better with hand tools.
That wasn't because power tools are worse, though. I was just comparing my novice power-tooling to my expert (well, expert for a 10-year-old) hand-tooling. That's not a fair comparison.
My dad actually forced me to overcorrect for this -- he made me use power tools all the time, even when hand tools were clearly better suited to the task. In doing so, I built up my knowledge of power tools to the point where my perspective on their utility wasn't biased by my lack of experience. Only then did he let me choose whether to use a power tool or a hand tool for any given task.
@MichaelWright@CandeSolberg This is a perfect analogy: Lawgic absolutely is a pain to get used to and your brain is confused at first. However, once everything clicks with repeated practice and exposure and understanding much like the power tools, Lawgic is a powerful tool that helps you understand unfamiliar or difficult concepts in its most atomic form: its argument structure and purpose.
I hated using lawgic at first, but it gets easier with practice! I just forced myself a couple times to do diagramming drills (strictly stimuli, no answer choices or questions). The abbreviations were really confusing for me and made me lose track of the each of the conditions. I just write full words or at least a few more letters, and it helped me save time even if I have to physically diagram more. It will also eventually get easier to do in your head, once you get the hang of lawgic.
That being said, not everyone likes lawgic! I saw some people on Reddit say that they did the whole exam without diagramming or anything, so it is possible. It helps me with learning if anything, and organizing the stimulus in a digestible manner.
@haena I second this! Make lawgic work for you. If abbreviations don't work for you, then they simply don't work. You also don't have to use lawgic on every question type. If a question type comes naturally to you, then don't use it. lawgic is a tool to help break down complex arguments, don't let it over complicate an already complicated process!
@crose I used a Kaplan prep textbook (honestly it's not very helpful, but it's called 180 Practice Drills for the LSAT if you're curious)! But you can do it on 7Sage too, just take one of the older PTs and go through the questions, only diagramming the stimuli.
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6 comments
Here's a little argument by analogy for you (true story, btw):
As I was growing up, my dear ol' papa cared a lot about me learning to use tools. He started me off pretty young with hand tools (like a basic screwdriver). I worked solely with those for several years.
Then when I was around 10 he started introducing me to power tools. I hated them at first -- they were way harder to use, they were error-prone, and I could generally do things way faster and better with hand tools.
That wasn't because power tools are worse, though. I was just comparing my novice power-tooling to my expert (well, expert for a 10-year-old) hand-tooling. That's not a fair comparison.
My dad actually forced me to overcorrect for this -- he made me use power tools all the time, even when hand tools were clearly better suited to the task. In doing so, I built up my knowledge of power tools to the point where my perspective on their utility wasn't biased by my lack of experience. Only then did he let me choose whether to use a power tool or a hand tool for any given task.
@MichaelWright @CandeSolberg This is a perfect analogy: Lawgic absolutely is a pain to get used to and your brain is confused at first. However, once everything clicks with repeated practice and exposure and understanding much like the power tools, Lawgic is a powerful tool that helps you understand unfamiliar or difficult concepts in its most atomic form: its argument structure and purpose.
I hated using lawgic at first, but it gets easier with practice! I just forced myself a couple times to do diagramming drills (strictly stimuli, no answer choices or questions). The abbreviations were really confusing for me and made me lose track of the each of the conditions. I just write full words or at least a few more letters, and it helped me save time even if I have to physically diagram more. It will also eventually get easier to do in your head, once you get the hang of lawgic.
That being said, not everyone likes lawgic! I saw some people on Reddit say that they did the whole exam without diagramming or anything, so it is possible. It helps me with learning if anything, and organizing the stimulus in a digestible manner.
@haena I second this! Make lawgic work for you. If abbreviations don't work for you, then they simply don't work. You also don't have to use lawgic on every question type. If a question type comes naturally to you, then don't use it. lawgic is a tool to help break down complex arguments, don't let it over complicate an already complicated process!
@haena hi! where did you find the diagramming drills?
@crose I used a Kaplan prep textbook (honestly it's not very helpful, but it's called 180 Practice Drills for the LSAT if you're curious)! But you can do it on 7Sage too, just take one of the older PTs and go through the questions, only diagramming the stimuli.