Broad LR strategies

LivePumpkin

Hi everyone,

I am wondering whether there are any general/broad question strategies for LR (i.e., any tricks that can help you in eliminating answers).

Thank you!

jennybbbbb

I feel like a lot of LR argument based questions really focus on the support between the premise and conclusion. When eliminating answer choices, ask yourself "does this really weaken/strengthen the premise/conclusion relationship? A lot of the answer choices won't actually directly impact your premise/conclusion relationship. In my mind, when reading answer choices I constantly say so what? how does this help/break the argument?

I'm not sure if this is making sense, but the conclusion and the premise are key. I find that a lot of answers can be eliminated by just looking at the relationship between the conclusion/premise.

You honestly just need to find a way to understand that every argument based question will have type of flaw. You already know that. Now the question is: how do I weaken it? How do I break this argument? What assumption is this argument based off?

I would recommend listening to the podcast LSAT Thinking Episode 53. I would skip the first bit where they talk about star wars though... But this podcast really forced me to take a different approach when tackling LR questions. It's safe to say that this podcast helped me go from -8 on BR to -3. Sometimes it's just about perspective.

Good luck!

amedley88

@jennybbbbb said:
I feel like a lot of LR argument based questions really focus on the support between the premise and conclusion. When eliminating answer choices, ask yourself "does this really weaken/strengthen the premise/conclusion relationship? A lot of the answer choices won't actually directly impact your premise/conclusion relationship. In my mind, when reading answer choices I constantly say so what? how does this help/break the argument?

I'm not sure if this is making sense, but the conclusion and the premise are key. I find that a lot of answers can be eliminated by just looking at the relationship between the conclusion/premise.

You honestly just need to find a way to understand that every argument based question will have type of flaw. You already know that. Now the question is: how do I weaken it? How do I break this argument? What assumption is this argument based off?

I would recommend listening to the podcast LSAT Thinking Episode 53. I would skip the first bit where they talk about star wars though... But this podcast really forced me to take a different approach when tackling LR questions. It's safe to say that this podcast helped me go from -8 on BR to -3. Sometimes it's just about perspective.

Good luck!

Awesome! I am totally going to check out that podcast. Are there any other episodes you would recommend that you found helpful for LR? Probably a more constructive use of down time compared to the podcasts I normally go to (i.e. Chapo Trap House, This American Life... lol)

LivePumpkin

Thank you!

Alex

@LivePumpkin

My very broad advice for LR questions is to practice being able to weed through the excess verbiage in the stimulus and identify the argument core with surgical precision, identify the conclusion first then the reasoning and figure out why the premises do not completely substantiate the conclusion (there will always be at least one reason, there has to be). If you're able to pre-phase an answer it'll make it easier for you to identify the correct answer, that said don't fall in the trap of eliminating wrong answer choices because they don't match up with the answer you pre-phased. The arguments almost always have many reasoning issues and sometimes the correct answer choice will either be one that you did not anticipate or if it is it may be worded in a different way so be cognizant of that too. Also, one important thing when eliminating wrong answer choices work from wrong to right, not vice versa. A skeptical state of mind is imperative to doing well on this test, especially when eliminating answer choices. Usually there are 1 or 2 blatantly wrong answer choices which that you can eliminate pretty quickly. Of the remaining choices, the wrong answers will often contain a quantifier/modifier like "most" that extends the scope of the argument or something, so play close attention to stuff like that, one word can make an otherwise seemingly correct answer incorrect. Come up with one reason for why an answer choice is incorrect, if you can't don't eliminate it because it could be the correct answer. If you blindly eliminate an answer choice which turns out to be the correct answer, it's going to make it that much harder for you to evaluate and address your thought process when you were answering that question.