Hello 7Sagers,

I am in the process of completing the core curriculum and i had a question about the LR portion of the circular. I am memorizing universal indicators, valid arguments , invalid arguments, and some and more relationships. My question is how does this apply? I know that i need to know this so that i can understand all of the harder questions. However, should i be applying this knowledge to all questions on the LR portion of the LSAT? Am i supposed to read each stimulus looking for these things ? I am just trying to be sure how i should be putting this together.

For example :

1. step one - memorize everything JY is talking about ( indicators, sufficient & necessary structures)

2. Step two??

I feel this is a tedious way of reading a stimulus , but is this how you would do a close reading?? Just wondering how i should apply these things and how they come together.

So, really I just want to pat myself on the back. It's really not that much to brag about, but after a month or so of my PT scores being stuck around 160, today my score jumped to a 166! And, that's with only finishing 3 logic games (better than I've ever done, LG is my worst section) and doing worse on the LR sections than I normally do!

All of that to say - don't give up. I had almost given up on reaching a 170, but now it doesn't seem all that unattainable. I know I have a lot of work to do, but just focus on the things that are tripping you up and be diligent with taking PTs and BR!

Anyway, I'm having a good day :)

And, thanks, 7Sage <3

which practice tests in the 70s should I take between now and the December test? any ideas? will taking about 6 of them be enough before the test? I have to take the december test.

Hey guys/or anyone from the admin staff,

Not seeing the 'not saving results' button by accident, I scored two full tests on analytics when I only did a section from each test. So everytime I login, I see scores of 121, and 122, which is really annoying haha. Does anyone know how to erase this? I can't figure it out myself! Thank you :)

Sometimes it's just hard to understand or imagine what some sentences say.

Does this mean we don't have to understand all sentences but just pick the important ideas?

It seems studying grammar does not help a lot...does it?

i was wondering how far out from your scheduled testing date did you guys start taking full timed tests?

i anticipate a few more months of drilling and other exercises which i believe will leave me with 2.5 months to take prep tests 50-79. i fear 2.5 months is too little time to take the tests, review, and act accordingly.

what do you guys/girls think?

Hey! So, I was wondering is there a length requirement or suggested length for personal statement letters? mine is almost two pages long, is that too long?

Hey All,

Over the past few months, since I began my LSAT journey, I've accumulated a few tips on how to quickly eliminate answer choices for Parallel Reasoning, Strengthen and basically any Assumption question. I was recently BRing with another 7Sager the other night and I was trying to explain these strategies, but I was hesitant to do so because I am not 100% confident that they work every single time. Meaning, they haven't been affirmed to me by someone who knows what they're doing, so there's definitely a chance I could be wrong in my approach. I was hoping to get a few more experienced LSATers/7Sagers to take a look at the two strategies below and let me know if these are reliable or if they can see a blind spot that I am not seeing. I can't recall exactly where these strategies derived from, but I have been using them for a while.

1) Strengthen and any Assumption Questions

-Whenever the conclusion mentions anything (whether it is a new attribute, new agent, new criteria, etc.) that is not previously mentioned the premises, the correct answer will always mention that new component. You can automatically eliminate any answer choice that does not mention this new component.

This has made it easy for me to sometimes eliminate 2 to 3 answer choices in seconds without fully reading them. This obviously helps you save time, but it also helps you avoid trap answer choices that try and play on your biases. In the spirit of giving pre- PT35 (or is it 36) examples, see below.

PT32.S1.Q5 (sufficient assumption question): The new element introduced in the conclusion is economic crises; therefore, the answer choice would have to include this element. Know this, we can immediately eliminate D (discusses good economic decisions, but does not touch economic crises) and E (is focused on the small elite. This does nothing to link our conclusion to our premises). You then only have A, B and C to consider.

PT33.S3.Q4 (strengthen question): The new element introduced in the conclusion is cost-effectiveness. Looking for this in the answer choices, we can eliminate B (has nothing to do with the cost of anything), D (which, yes, it talks about funding but we are not concerned with how much funding is currently being contributed. We are concerned with cost-effectiveness), and E (also mentions nothing about costs or their effectiveness). We are then left with only answer choices A and C.

This doesn't happen all the time, but it happens often. And it's wonderful.

2) Parallel Reasoning

I want to preface this by disclosing that I have not yet been through JY's lesson on how to approach Parallel reasoning questions. I am still working my way through, so I apologize if he already does this/advises not to do this. Also, this doesn't work for flaw questions. I approach flaw questions differently than parallel reasoning (again, someone correct me if I'm wrong here) because I am looking for something very specific with flaw questions--namely, a logical fallacy. For parallel reasoning, I am literally only looking at the structure, whether or not it is a valid argument. So this only works for parallel reasoning.

The first thing I do with parallel reasoning is examine the conclusion. I translate that into logic and I scan the answer choices for any answer choice that does not have a conclusion that matches the stimulus. I immediately eliminate those answer choices. My theory is that, if we are looking for a parallel structure, the conclusion absolutely has to be parallel. If the stimulus' conclusion is something like "All X's are Ys" and there are answer choices that say "Some A's are B's" or "All A's are some B's," then I just cross them out before I go any further. This usually eliminates 2 or 3 and it cuts down on a lot of reading. Once I'm left with 2 or 3 options, I then examine the remaining answer choices. See below for some examples.

PT33.S1.Q.23 The conclusion is "Any traveler who flies from B to L cannot avoid flying to X." The first thing I note is that this is a universal statement. I would write: "TBL --> X." I would then quickly scan the answer choices for their conclusions and automatically eliminate A (this conclusion is not universal because it says that the inference is likely, not necessary. Our conclusion is absolute), D (this doesn't even give us a conditional at all), and E (again, this is an existential conclusion. Our conclusion is universal). We are then left with B and C, which each have universal conclusions:

B-- Y --> PW

C-- IMP --> PM

I would then further evaluate the premises of the remaining 2.

PT34.S2.Q6. The conclusion is "The notion that one might be justified in behaving irrationally in the service of a sufficiently worthy end is incoherent." So, I would write that out as "N is I" (I wrote it this way because there was no obvious logic indicators, but you could also write "N --> I") and I would scan the answer choices for conclusions not matching this. I can eliminate A (because it is prescriptive. The conclusion is "RL ought not to CC." Our definition is making a universally descriptive claim) and E (also prescriptive. Our conclusion is saying nothing about what someone ought to do.) So we are left with B, C, and D which all have conclusions that can be translated "A is B."

B-- Spilling a glass of water is not accidental.

C-- Living the good life is happy (not unhappy).

D-- Self diagnoses are not performed by doctors.

I would then further evaluate the premises of each of the remaining 3.

Again, I am looking for thoughts, corrections, affirmations...whatever you more experienced LSATers can give me on these strategies. Thanks in advance.

Are their some rules or skills about how to tackle sufficient assumption Qs and Sufficient Qs,many thanks!!!

Hey guys, I was just wondering if I can get some feedback on a couple issues.

So I'm taking the December LSAT and i was wondering if waking up at 6 am everyday during the final week leading up to the test will be a good enough sleep schedule to get myself ready for Saturday and be able to fall asleep on Friday. (Im also planning on waking up at 6 am a few more times during this month during PT's in order to assimilate game day.) That's my first question.

My second question is whether or not to take any type of sleeping pill the night before the test because i really don't want to struggle going to sleep or something. (I would obviously test the sleeping pills beforehand during a PT to see how it affects me but i just want general feedback on that idea.)

Finally, what are some good breakfasts to have ON the day of the test?

Thanks guys.

Hi,

Hi, just wondering...anyone noticed the characteristics of wrong answer choices in RC?

I mean...do they come from the same paragraph or close place? I know for some answer choices they are factually incorrect but for some others they twist the details ect, and part of the choice is correct, and this confuses me a lot. Do correct answer choices and wrong answer choices come from the same paragraph?

Especially for those detail questions...

How have you guys prepped for that passage? I have gotten good at the harder passages but still manage to miss a few on the comparative passages. Tips? Thanks! Love 7sage and how helpful everyone here is.

Hi team,

Just a curious note. Please let me know your thoughts.

I had just finished the weakening question sets. I did them by writing it out by pen: each context, premise, and conclusion while also, trying my best, writing out an anticipated assumption, which sometimes do become the right answer choice.

Yes, I am way out of the 1:30s time frame, but by doing this, I have been forcing myself in getting everything into a "habit" when reading.

But recently L4 and 5 questions have been a pain. I can miss maybe 3 out of 5 questions and sometimes having a difficult time in getting down an answer.

Therefore, I want to save those questions for later as I really don't like to waste problems. Thoughts on this?

And also, just curious, how do you approach the difficult problems? Do you save it for later and make a concentrated study just on those problems or do you just go head and do them anyway. Example: https://classic.7sage.com/lesson/weaken-questions-problem-set-14/

Much love,

Panda

Hey everyone, hope the studying is going well.

I'm more of the visual learner type and I was wondering if there was any way to download a full pdf-style map of the core curriculum. I could conceivably make it myself but it'd take hours to piece it together. (I'm referring to the colorful bubble diagram used in the lessons.)

Thanks!

Hey @"Dillon A. Wright" ,

I was wondering if you guys were doing one of those deals where you'd extend access for people who run out a few weeks before an upcoming LSAT administration. Mine runs out with a little bit more than 2 weeks to go until December 3rd's LSAT. Would you guys be able to extend my access until the December LSAT is over, please and thank you? Thanks a bunch, I love this place! I just hope I never have to use it again after December! LOL

Hey 7Sagers, let's extend a warm welcome to Josh Aldy, a.k.a. @"Cant Get Right", as our new Community Manager!

Lots of webinars and office hours coming soon!

Hello all–I'd love some feedback on the content of my resume for applications! I'm very familiar with resumes for jobs, but there is definitely a different style for LS applications. As a guide I used the 7sage admissions course content and several resume samples available online from HLS and Anna Ivey. Identifying information (name, location, schools) have been changed.

Hello, I'm wondering, what and how should we study in this last month? Just reviewing?

Suppose we can devote full-time for studying...what would be the best way to use those time for prep for LSAT?

Thanks,

If anyone on here speaks Spanish, would you please help me translate this to English and then lawgic:

"Cuando el orden es injusto, el desórden es un comienzo de justicia."

I think it would be: "When order is unjust, disorder gives way to justice."

If that's the proper translation from Spanish to English, I am confused on how to translate it into Lawgic.

Edit&additional questions:

Let me change the title and ask a bit different question since it seems we can only post 2 threads per day...

for RC, do you think reading questions first would help me to understand what passage would say better?

Especially for those hard passages...

I know ppl recommend not reading questions first, but I'm terribly weak at hard RC...would it be helpful?

Original post:

Hi, this may sound a little weird question, but...

Which makes you comprehend the reading better, read it faster or slower?

Especially for those hard questions and passages in LR and RC...

I found sometimes even though I decrease the speed to understand better, it sometimes makes me even more confusing when I read slow. (and sometimes it's the same) But sometimes reading slower works better...

So I was wondering how others read...when you do not understand something in the passage, do you decrease your speed?

Or push reading?

Thanks

How do I get the LSAT Trainer in PDF format does anybody know?

Do you think there will be a really hard LG this time around like there was for Sept 2016 (the computer virus game)?

Hello 7sagers, do any of you guys have any tips on how to improve LG timing? I'm always pushing the 35 minute mark if not going over it. I'm honestly not sure if I'm diagramming too much or if I'm just moving to slow. I have the games pretty much down its just the timing issues I'm struggling with. Thanks for reading

So on page 180 (the irony) of the trainer, the last question of the second scenario brings up an interesting point. The scenario is sequencing with in out and the last question of the drill says "If N is performed before M, P will be performed before Q." Where only 5 elements are to be selected, does this mean that N-M guarantees that both P and Q are in? Or if one of P or Q are out, is the necessary still satisfied?

I know this is completely hypothetical and is supposed to be a drill. But I'm not sure if something similar will come up on an actual exam. Sorry if this is a silly question!

Hi friends!

So i've been working way through the curriculum and LR is my worst by far. I am actually alright in the other two areas. I just want to know, what can I do to gain fluency in LR? Just drill? I try going over the core curriculum, but I find myself not really gaining anything from it.. It's not a specific question type either, like some MBT I'll be okay on and some I'll just end up missing five in a row. I'm not sure what to do to make LR a strength for me? Do y'all know of any resources or books that I could get and work through? I haven't used anything but 7sage.