Repeating LR Stimuli in Different Tests

cal6005

Hey everyone,

I've been focussed on drilling for the past month, and have realized that many stimuli are used multiple times in different tests, with different question stems. Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering...

Does anyone know why the writers of the LSAT reuse stimuli instead of writing completely new stimuli?

And secondly, has anyone noticed stimuli from earlier tests reappearing in more recent tests? The latest PT I've taken is 66 and I'm just curious if I might see older stimuli in the newest tests, but with different question stems.

I know this isn't really important - just curious.

danielznelson

I'm guessing it's just less work for the writers, and since the stimuli are already acceptable in terms of their validity (or invalidity), I suppose there isn't much reason not to.

I have not seen newer tests reuse older stimuli, actually. That's an interesting point.

apublicdisplay

I think one reason is because there are only so many different ways to test the same concept, and another reason is because it gives the test some stability. If you think about it, the test writers have to know how people will generally perform before people even take the test. What better way to predict that than to rely on student performance on previous questions? There's only so much they can innovate with or outright change if they want to maintain this consistency. This is also why they rely on the experimental section when they make new questions. They have a body of past evidence that shows student performance which they can to some extent reliably project into future tests. All they have to do is change the superficial situations they give and maintain the underlying structure.

Nicole Hopkins

@cal6005 said:
Does anyone know why the writers of the LSAT reuse stimuli instead of writing completely new stimuli?

Nope, never!

stepharizona

I think it demonstrates how a question can be slightly reworked to create a new question. The stimuli is rarely verbatim, but there will be a new premise added, or one taken away. But there are some questions that seem tied to each other. This happened for me on S1(LR1) of 76 the Oct 16 test. At first I thought it might be an experimental section because of it.

Ive also noticed that some LR questions have ties to some of the early RC passages. I am not sure if it is more distracting to notice, or helpful but it does seem to happen from time to time.