Hello all,

I really need some sage advice.

I have been following the LG attack strategy and the foolproof review method for LG sections. LG is by far my biggest trouble area. I know you gotta get LG perfect to see scores above 170s. LG is the section that is holding me back in high 160s area, and I am really really desperate to change this before the December test.

People say LG is the easiest section to improve, but for me.... I just can't do games well under a timed condition!! I can solve games well when I am just drilling non-timed.

Besides following the LG attack strategy Mr. Pacifico kindly shared with the community.... is there anything else I should be doing to get perfect on LG....? I would really really appreciate any advice. I never expected LG would be such a problem for me :(

I am doing the Miscellaneous Questions Problem Set 5, and 18.4.21 has me really confused. I googled the meaning and got this: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/11060/how-to-use-what-is-more

To me it boils down to "furthermore." If that is the case, then how is B not the correct answer? Wouldn't starting your response argument with "furthermore..." mean that you are using the same premises as the previous argument?

Independently, I don't see how E accurately describes the relationship between the arguments. What is the conflicting supposition? I think this answer choice is trying to get you to assume that since there is no general agreement in evaluating the merits of sound (Jane's argument), Mark's claim about "tonal quality" conflicts with that idea. But, isn't tone a more refined idea than sound?

I Googled the definition of sound and got: "vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear." The definition of tone according to Google is: "A musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or quality). The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients, vibrato, and envelope modulation."

Sound to me could be anything: random noises to steady/periodic/intentional sound choice. Musical tone, which is a type of sound, has to more with the latter than the former. Doesn't this mean that Jane's premises about sound and Mark's premise about tone both be true? Aren't sound and tone related, but not completely synonymous? I don't see how they necessarily conflict, which is what answer choice E states.

Would anyone be willing to discuss their explanations with me? I have handful of questions from each section, especially Game 3.

So I used to be averaging around -2 to -4 on the older RC passages but for some reason with most of the 50+ ones I've been taking, I always get around -7 to -9. I've been trying to change my method and lengthen the time I read the passage (used to do 2 minutes, trying for 3.5 now). Is it better for me to continue working on adapting to this new method, or stick to my old one? Or are the new ones just a little different and need some more time to adjust to?

Also, I didn't have much luck finding tips on comparative passages on the discussion board (probably didn't look far enough), so if anyone knows a link to suggestions on these that would help immensely!

Thank you!

Is there any quick way to diagram the following sentence during the exam? It takes me a lot of time to figure it out during PT.

If a sentient being on another planet cannot communicate with us, then the only way to detect its existence is by sending a spacecraft to its planet.

So I'm still going through the 7Sage curriculum and I'm sure (or at least hoping) that I'll get much better at Logic Games (before enrolling when I just tried them out a few times I was like -15) and as I'm slowly going through the practice and what not, I'm noticing the one MAIN and basically only issue I have with games.

I am horrible at figuring out / visualizing in my mind how to set up games if they are not simple 1 to 1 sequencing.

Diagramming the rules, coming up with inferences, all of that is coming to me fairly quickly, but reading the stimulus and figuring out how to draw the setup what rows/charts/etc to use is where I seem to get stuck at.

Any tips on how to overcome this?

I have been working on my LG for the last few days, in preparation for the December test. I am now getting to the point where I can get all the questions right on a standard linear game, but it's taking me a minimum of 12 to 13 minutes, and sometimes as much as 15 minutes per game.

I have a hard time seeing how I can increase my speed. For me, the games just require a lot of thought and that takes some time.

Anyone else faced this issue? Right now, 8 minutes per game seems almost impossible. Is it just a matter of practice, and that taking a lot of tests will increase speed?

Sooooo inferences are usually much more clear and this one is giving me a lot of trouble. I gave B a considerable amount of thought, but I felt like it's a flaw because it goes from health food enthusiasts to saying in general, those who take XYZ will lower chances of heart disease. And I saw that the researchers corrected for differences in health habits, but I still felt like I'd be making some sort of assumption by picking B.

That being said, I didn't like D or E much either because I felt D is really broad. For E, this is the one I chose because although I thought it shouldn't be going from XYZ to general "large daily doses of vitamins," I thought it was the best option available

What am I missing here!

I am just not seeing this one. I understand the gist of what answer B is saying, but I don't understand how the assumptions you need to make in the other answer choices are necessarily better than the assumption needed for B to be the correct answer.

The question is a must be false question, so 4 answer choices could be true.

Taxi drivers earn income based on the fares they get. The decide their working hours by setting an income target, and they stop working when they hit the target. Thus, they typically work fewer hours on busy days than on slow days.

What I am looking for: Essentially, the drivers at the start of the day say, "I will stop once I make $100." Once they hit that, they stop working. How does this suggest they stop working earlier on busy days? Couldn't they set their target higher on those days (assuming busy days are predictable)?

Answer A: Ya, I guess the argument supports this idea. The driver himself sets the target, so unless the driver isn't rational, he sets the target based on his needs. This could be true.

Answer B: I still really don't like this answer choice. It is true that if you set the target for $100 and you work 1 hour on busy days, the EHW is $100/hour. On slow days, say you work 10 hours, your EHW would be $10/hour. Thus, the passage seems to suggest that the opposite of this answer choice is true: you work less when your EHW is high (on busy days). But, what if they change their income targets on busy days to even out their EHW? You have to assume the drivers don't do this. Given that answer choices C-E also need assumptions, how do we value this assumption over the others? For this reason couldn't this answer choice also be true? I just don't see how we have enough information to say it must be false.

Answer C: It's true that the drivers get to set their own schedule, so I guess it could be true they accept a lower wage.

Answer D: Same as D. You have to assume that the drivers take into account their standard of living when they set their target. This could be true.

Answer E: We don't know anything about people with fixed hourly wages, so any comparison could be true.

EDIT: I had the wrong question in the title

I have a huge bone to pick with this one. I don't see how any of the answer choices "must be true."

Here is the law:

Greater than $100 AND made by nonresident AND nonresident isn't former resident--->Register

The campaign complied with the law (so it complied with the contrapositive as well). The campaign accepted contributions only from residents and former residents.

What I am looking for: I thought this was a pretty weird passage since the final clause only denies the sufficient condition, which tells us nothing about if those contributions needed to be registered. Thus, I thought an answer choice was going to specifically reaffirm this premise.

Answer A: This is what I chose, even though I was confident it was wrong. I chose it since I thought all of the answer choices didn't work. This answer is incorrect because the dollar amount of the people that donated to the campaign is irrelevant. The nonresident in this answer choice MUST have been former resident, and if this were what this had said, it would have been correct. However, the dollar amount could have been anything since our conditional rule is irrelevant.

Answer B: This could be true, but it doesn't have to be true. We only know one sufficient condition for registration; there could be multiple sufficient conditions for registration.

Answer C: This is the correct answer??? How must this be true? We only know one rule/sufficient condition for registration. Why can't there be other rules? The passage never indicates that the rule given is the only rule. What if all contributions from residents and former residents must be registered? How this is even close to being a correct answer is beyond my understanding.

Answer D: Again, this doesn't have to be true. We know nothing about donations by the residents and former residents. They each could have given the campaign $1 or something.

Answer E: Again, we only have one sufficiency condition for registration, so this could be true.

I am beginning to PT since i last took a Kaplan course. They suggested that at 12 or 15 you skip to 26 and work backward basically skipping the 2nd to last full page and working back to middle. Does anyone else do this ? is it silly or good advice?

What is the best method to program yourself to look for incorrect answers, as opposed to correct answers, during the LR section?

I was told that this is the most effective approach to do very well within this section. What do you think?

I fully completed the 7sage course and wrote practice tests 59-74 scoring between 158-160 constantly, however, I wrote the October test and failed miserably ( less than 150). while I was writing the October exam I managed to finish all the sections and felt pretty good about the majority of the sections, so the score I received didn't make sense to me, I'm not sure if getting 158-160 was just a fluke or if it is something about test day, Can you give me some tips on how to prepare for December and how I can score better.

Hello 7sagers,

I just signed up a while ago and thought I'd give this forum a shot. I was wondering on logic games, when do you create a table between the game pieces and the base set like in the Feb 1993, Logic Game #4? Sometimes I'll create a table when it is not needed. Thanks for all the help!

Help!! Can't do more than 16 LR Q with 80% accuracy. Tips?? I want to touch 20

I've been through the Logical Reasoning curriculum - and feel like I need to print it all out, and even just get access to JY's organisational charts... just so that I can read over it and commit it to memory when I'm not at a computer. I've printed out all the cheat sheets - but things like the flash cards are only digital. Does anyone else feel the same way? What's the best solution? Copy and paste?

Im currently stuck in the low to mid 160's and determined to get to 170 by test day. I would love to find people who would like to skype in the coming weeks to take PT's together even if we are taking different ones. I think having someone else there will keep me from stopping like i sometimes do.

Can someone help me diagram the stimulus and find the sufficient assumption?

What I have is:

P: art criticism most /satisfy

----

C: art criticism most /greatest works of art

SA answer: /satisfy most or some /greatest works of art

I was wondering, I thought we can't make contrapositives for most statements but the answer E does? Let me know if I am understanding this incorrectly, thanks!

I really didn’t like any of the answer choices, so I pretty much guessed on this one.

These psychologists surveyed 100 entrepreneurs and 100 business managers. The questions asked about different topics and the level of certainty was also recorded. Each groups were overconfident, but the E were more so than the BMs. Thus, people who are overconfident are more likely to start a business than those less confident.

What I am looking for: A lot wrong with this argument. First, all of the survey stuff. Was the sample representative of Es and BMs? Second, do the BMs accurately reflect people that are less confident? The conclusion makes too broad a claim; it should have limited it to more likely than than BMs, not less confident people in general. Lastly, the argument assumes that overconfidence and gauging success are the same thing. Are they? Not so sure.

Answer A: So what? Were these questions unbiased? You have to assume they were. Skip.

Answer B: This, if anything, might weaken the argument. We want to strengthen the argument. This suggests that some people can start businesses with accurate levels of confidence. Skip.

Answer C: This is irrelevant. Was the other survey good? Also, how would a correlation between confidence and success be relevant? We need a correlation between confidence and likelihood of starting a business.

Answer D: I guess it strengthens the argument, but I am still not that sure why. Does it show that there might be some support for there being a correlation between overconfidence (the ones that are the “most”) and odds of starting a business. I am still pretty wishy washy on this one.

Answer E: This is what I chose, but like I said before, I really didn’t like it. This is saying that the degree of overconfidence in the answered questions corresponded with the degree of overconfidence in business acumen. I think this would have been a pretty decent strengthener if “business acumen” were substituted for “likelihood of successfully starting a business.” Maybe not, though. If the phrase “confidence in his or her business acumen” were substituted for “likelihood for starting a business,” that would most assuredly strengthen the argument. Nevertheless, we don’t know if business acumen has anything to do with starting a business.

This might be one of the more frustrating questions I have come across! Can someone breakdown the answer choices (specifically why A is better than B)?

R (is Rifka a common name? I looked it up; it's apparently a variant of Rebecca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca): Anyway, Stop or Ask for directions--->Lost. Therefore, Not stop.

C: We are lost. Therefore, we must stop.

What I am looking for: Craig is denying R's conclusion by contradicting R's conditional statement. In other words, Craig thinks being lost is sufficient for stopping while R thinks it is necessary.

Answer A: I confidently chose this one during the exam, and I can't figure out what's wrong with it. Doesn't C contradict R's conclusion (he says we should stop while R disagrees) and doesn't he give no reason to reject R's implicit premise. The implicit premise referred to is R's assumption that they are Not lost. C simply flat out denies that, but he doesn't give any evidence/ reason why R's assumption is wrong. I don't really see how this doesn't perfectly capture C's rebuttal.

Answer B: This is really good as well, but what makes this better than A? C does deny the implicit premise that they are not lost and he does arrive at a different conclusion (that they should stop). I chose A over this since A captured the idea that C didn't give any evidence/reason why R's implicit premise was incorrect. Thus, I though A better captured the essence of the argument.

Answer C: This is a pretty popular choice according to the statistics, but it is way wrong. C doesn't call R's argument invalid and C doesn't accept the truth of the premise.

Answer D: What counterexample?

Answer E: Noncommittal? Way wrong. C contradicts R's conclusion explicitly.

LSAT Prep Test 9 (October 1993) - S3 - Logic Game 2

Can someone please help me how to split this game into 4 boards?

Hey guys,

In this weakening situation I heard JY say that answer choice D is a rare one that attacks the premise (5:04). Just wanted to know when is it ok or acceptable in a weakening situation to attack the premise.

Thanks

I understand that C is true and is a flaw in the argument, but I still don't understand how you can eliminate A. Here is my breakdown:

Generally, professors grew up in economically advantaged homes (MP). Evidence of this is the fact that professors grew up in communities with average household incomes that were higher than the national average.

What I am looking for: The argument makes a whole to part flaw. Did the professors actually live in the higher income households in the community? What if they only lived in the low income households? This could be true since we are only given an average of the income in the communities. Also, does household income being higher than the national average mean economically advantaged? I am not so sure. High household income is just one part of "economic advantage;" there could be other economic things such as government policies towards rich people that can nullify the high income advantage. In other words, there are a ton of factors that go into defining "economic advantage," not just income.

Answer A: I don't see how this is incorrect. Isn't this pointing out the flaw that "high household income" might not actually mean "economic advantage?"

Answer B: This is consistent with the argument due to the word "generally" in the passage.

Answer C: This is definitely a flaw in the argument since it points out the assumption that the professors actually lived in the "good" households in the community.

Answer D: Who cares about the private sector?

Answer E: Who cares about where they live now. We only care about where/how they grew up.

Hi,

I started studying for my December LSAT in early October. That is when i also wrote my diagnostic test and had 75% in LR, and much worse in LG and RC. I got a tutor for LG and now I consistently score ~90% in LG, BUT... I am pretty much getting 13 questions wrong in each LR section... My score is barely any different than my diagnostic test. I practiced from Pt 41-50 and I did timed sections from pt 51,52,53 and im just doing HORRIBLE! I have one month left and I have no idea what to do. I have all the tests up to PT 70, but I dont even see the point of doing more practice. It's like my brain doesnt comprehend common sense anymore. What should I do :(

Hello,

I don't understand why D is correct. I chose B. Could someone please explain why the right answer is right and the wrong answers are wrong? Thank you in advance.