The vast majority of LR questions turn on your ability to see the gap between premise and conclusion. If you can understand why the premise is good or bad support for the conclusion, the question type becomes trivial and the answer choices fall into your lap. Evaluating an LR stimulus is similar to LG -- do the work up front and you will be rewarded. This post will discuss a way of thinking about arguments that may help you to better evaluate them.

The idea is pretty simple. First, identify the premise and conclusion. Then ask yourself : Just because premise... does conclusion HAVE to be true?

Example: It is a very sunny day outside. JT's ice cream shoppe will be busy.

Just because it is sunny out, does JT's ice cream HAVE to be busy?

Well probably not...

What if JT's ice cream sells god awful product?

What if JT's is in the middle of a desert and no customers are even close to it?

What if it is sooo sunny out that people are too hot to leave their homes?

This test helps to expose why the premise isn't really great support for the conclusion. This is the first step in LR success. If you can consciously figure out why an argument isn't great, you take active control of the question. This makes you less vulnerable to traps and more likely to pick the credited AC.

It sounds trivial, but LR is as simple as thinking about why premises do or do not support conclusions. The difficulty lies in slowing down, understanding what the words are really saying, and putting the gap in your own terms. Hopefully the "Just Because" framework can help make this easier!

Hello,

I'm confused as to how this answer is D. I'm torn between C and D. Is C wrong because if you fail the sufficient (don't have the Pterodactyl consume the red algae , the colouration could still be caused by other factors? Whereas D gives more indication that since it lived in an area that was abundant with red algae, that its more likely to have consumed it?

#help

I feel like my accuracy is pretty good on LR, but does anyone have any advice on how to get through the section in a more timely manner? Strategies? Shortcuts?

Hey all,

So yeah long story short, im doing quite terrible on RC. Im averaging about -9ish, on my last PT i got -11 on RC but still finished with a 164 because i did well on the other sections. I really want to tighten my RC up to at least getting something like a -5 average, is that too much to ask for?! For those who are good at RC, or who improved quite a bit, could you offer me some advice?

Hi everyone, I tend to see a trend in my PTs that I miss most of my questions in LR between Q15 and on. I wanted to starting drilling this level of difficulty questions.

Do you guys think drilling "medium and harder" difficulty in LR would be the equivalent difficulty of questions 15 and on?

Thank you in advance (:

I need a bit more explanation and practice of chaining conditional statements. Are there additional resources here or has anyone found a good resource for that? Thanks!

Hi can somebody help me out with this question, there is no explanation available and I don't really understand the difference between answer choices D and E. Thanks

Did anyone else get rid of A and C and choose B because it seemed as though A and C were essentially the same answer and therefore neither one of them could have been correct?

Okay...am I losing my mind here? The type of work described in AC A (the alleged correct answer) isn't even mentioned in Jorge's statement. AC E (what I chose) describes a work of art that both Shanna and Jorge have differing opinions on. Unless moral right =/= ethical right, or if "tires of it" doesn't qualify as "finds caring inconvenient", I really do not see how answer choice E is incorrect. Could this be a mistake in the system?

For example, say we took the conditional statement "raindrops are formed in the clouds unless there not is an eastbound wind."

Group 3 translation would be: "If there is an eastbound wind, raindrops are formed."

In this situation, can we assume that the eastbound wind comes first and then raindrops are formed afterwards?

Can someone please help me diagram and understand the inferences made from these statements?

Some As are Bs.

All Cs are Ds

No Bs are Cs.

Here is what I have so far.

AsomeB—-> ~C

~D—->~C

Inference: Asome~C

test

I'm consistently missing about -2 or -3 on LG. When I go back to do them after I score my PT without looking at the correct answer (only knowing that I got that question wrong), I get them right. I haven't been able to find a pattern in the questions I miss. They are usually unflagged, not-even-hard games or questions. I really want to get to -0 for August. Any advice appreciated!

Can someone help me with these questions. I can't get myself to agree with the answers.

1.Commentator: The quality of health care is declining. Medical schools have been graduating fewer people than are needed to replace retiring physicians. Furthermore, on average, a physician now spends only 15 minutes with a patient on the patient’s first visit.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the commentator’s argument?

(A) The average length of all patient-physician visits is 20 minutes.

(B) More and more people are seeking physicians, thus increasing the number of patients that physicians treat.

(C) Most patients do not like to spend an inordinate amount of time in physicians’ offices.

(D) Five years ago, the average first patient-physician visit lasted 10 minutes.

(E) Most patients visiting a physician are suffering from ailments that are not life threatening.

2.Peterson, the current world record holder in the women’s 100-meter backstroke, has ranked first in the world for seven years. Her performance in recent competitions was disappointing, but during training she unofficially beat her official world record time. So she can be expected to set a new world record in the 100-meter backstroke during the upcoming world competition.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) Peterson is widely expected to win the 100-meter backstroke in the next world competition.

(B) Peterson had the flu during a recent competition.

(C) Peterson has also set world records in several

other swimming events.

(D) Peterson is the only active world-class swimmer

in the world to have set a world record in the

100-meter backstroke.

(E) Peterson has in each of the past seven years

swum faster during world competitions than during training for those competitions

What’s the distinct definition of and/or explanation of the assumption in a mistaken reversal. Mistaken Reversals are daunting at times when I’m under pressure, sometimes I pick up on them, sometimes I don’t 🤦🏾‍♀️ 🥴🥴😩😂 I’ve found at times that when comparing the variables A and B in the premises that the follow A and B Variables in the conclusion; I find they are never identical 😩 that’s why I sometimes mistake- mistaken reversal for mismatched concepts instead; because my variables never follow in order for me to confirm the “like terms” were flipped 🥴 also if that is not the case should I always follow the necessary variable in premises and make sure it isn’t flipped to the sufficient in the conclusion ?!? #Help lol am I overthinking it?!?

I keep misinterpreting the question or what the stimulus is really saying/asking for. This leads me to kind of develop my own assumption of what the answer should be or even misinterpret the entire stimulus itself, which leads me to get really easy questions wrong. I don't know if this is because I am not reading carefully or slowly enough... does anybody have this same issue or have any suggestions for me? #help

When practicing the memory method, J.Y. advocates writing 1-5 word "low res" summaries for each paragraph on RC. Given that this takes very minimal time, is it recommended to do this on the scratch paper during the real test? Or is it simply an exercise for helping build memory? #help

#help Completely Lost on this question

Answer choice D makes sense but I do not understand the difference between D and C. Are they not saying the same thing? Doesn't salt increase chances of food poisoning by not letting food cook thoroughly?

This version of the memory method has helped me to build the link between low resolution summaries and higher resolution summaries.

On the first 3.5 minute reading, I write low resolution summaries (less than five words) for each paragraph. Because these are generally only two to three words, when I flip the passage over for the second round of 1.5 minute summaries I am in virtually no danger of forgetting them.

When I flip the passage over for the 1.5 minute summaries, instead of simply trying to remember the low res summaries, instead I actually try to take them and expand them to higher resolution (10-15 word) summaries without looking at the passage. This has helped me strengthen my ability to "build" 2-3 word low res summaries into higher resolution summaries in my head without ever having to look at the passage.

Then I do the questions (per usual).

There really isn't a "phase two" because this is generally targeted at students who already feel comfortable with low res summaries. This is more of an exercise to use once you've built a strong foundation of being able to summarize passages into one or two words, and mainly targets your memory's ability to "fill out" the rest of the paragraph when you "call" upon a low resolution summary. Because high resolution summaries take longer than low resolution ones, I sometimes (...often) take more than 1.5 minutes to do the second step. This method may not work for everyone but I have definitely seen improvement in my ability to actually use the low res summaries once I commit them to memory, and I figured I'd share it just in case it could be helpful to anyone else. Let me know if it works for y'all!

I completed my July LSAT flex on Tuesday and still have yet to do my writing. I have two questions. 1) is it problematic not to complete the writing on the same day as the exam and will this hurt my applications. 2) If not, how long is the LSAT writing available to take?

Admin Note: The title was edited: formatting guideline #4

Hi,

I called the LSAC to withdraw my July LSAT flex registration last week, and they completely cleared it on my LSAC account. They also instructed me to cancel the ProctorU scheduled test session, so I cancelled it. However, I still see July exam that is pending on my account, which is very confusing. Is it correct that we just needed to cancel the session, and we can ignore that the exam is pending on our account?

Hey. I took the July LSAT Flex, but I don't have a link available to do the writing. I have been on hold with LSAC to no avail, and I sent LSATwriting an email. Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks

Which approach benefited you?

I had a very stressful experience with ProctorU and it took almost 2 hours until I was finally able to log on and start the exam due to various technical difficulties and multiple disconnects from their tech support. When I was finally able to start the exam I was still extremely stressed and on the verge of a panic attack, and asked my proctor to pause the exam briefly so that I could regain my composure (I was hyperventilating, dizzy, and shaking severely). The exam was paused for about 30 seconds and I was not far into the section at all, and the exam proceeded with no other issues. I asked the proctor if my score would be cancelled or if my test would have to be reviewed due to the pause, and she said she didn't know. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar or has any insight to offer on how this could impact whether or not I receive a score.