The explanation for B is totally illuminating. Always remember which side you are adhere to.

Even if you aim for a 180, you have to use a good time strategy. That means skip hard questions and only go back to finish them once you have gone through the whole section. Struggling with a single hard question not only wastes time on this particular one, but also leaves you burdens of pressure since later questions are allocated with time. You will panic when you see the timer digit drops down sec by sec, and you thus perform ill.

It is one thing to know the strategy, and one thing to apply the skill. I myself had the same problem (as a non-native speaker). Just let it go. You will improve eventually.

It is also a good practice to give each question only 1 min until you reach the last 10 question. The last 10 questions will be left with around 15 mins, or even more. Just the same as AlexgLSAT suggested.

For 5.1 and 5.2, both premises are merely correlations/observations. Both premises serve to support the conclusion of the causal relationship(s) between the two factors involved in each, respectively.

My personal thought is, were the indicators absent, the premises and conclusion could indeed flip, as a causal relationship indeed gives support to a correlation. However, "Consequently" in 5.1 and "It seems" in 5.2 indicate that what follows these two indicators is what the authors are seeking to support.

ALWAYS READ THE QUESTION and figure out WHAT IS BEING ASKED.

Another quick elimination for A that I figured after being tricked by it: it addresses the tendency to quit smoking, while the columnist's concern is with tendency to smoke.