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Looking for Mechanistic Way to Attack Math Questions

Noise DogoodNoise Dogood Alum Member
in Logical Reasoning 240 karma

Hey everyone! I wanted to ask if there was some form of process / equation / anything mechanistic to attack the math questions dealing with proportions and absolute values?

Having to constantly plug and chug numbers (or drawing pies) is fine, but I wish there was something more elegant that wouldn’t leave me with the feeling that I might be leaving out some possible consideration. It's been taking me far longer than other question types (and it's hard to be consistent) to get to the right AC for math questions.

Additionally, I haven't finished the core curriculum yet, but are nearly all the questions-that-require-you-to-conclude-something-about-a-number on the LSAT just dealing with % vs quantity?

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  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member ⭐
    edited January 2020 3481 karma

    If you have a specific example of a "math" question I can try to walk you through how I would approach it!

    I don't personally use any kind of process/equation for questions involving math. The ones I have encountered seem to just be testing your knowledge of the difference between proportions and absolute values and other concepts that don't really require using a formula or even plugging in numbers

    Edit to add: just saw the last line of your question haha so yeah I find that's usually the case!

  • Lucas CarterLucas Carter Alum Member ⭐
    2803 karma

    Lots of times process of elimination will be your best friend. For example, you may know that the argument in the stimulus makes a math error or requires an assumption regarding a proportion. If an answer choice has nothing to do with numbers, you can quickly eliminate it. You can let the remaining answer choices feed you rather than trying to work out the math on your own.

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27823 karma

    @"Lucas Carter" said:
    Lots of times process of elimination will be your best friend. For example, you may know that the argument in the stimulus makes a math error or requires an assumption regarding a proportion. If an answer choice has nothing to do with numbers, you can quickly eliminate it. You can let the remaining answer choices feed you rather than trying to work out the math on your own.

    Yeah, this is a great way to cut into your times on these. Let the test feed you possible answers for consideration instead of feeling like you have to affirmatively articulate the correct answer. This is a great approach generally, not just for these.

    As far as the scope of the math involved on the LSAT, it essentially is limited to just % v quantity. There’s only so many elements you’ve got to watch out for. Most importantly is the percentage, the size of the whole, the change in percentage, and the change in the size of the whole. So the most frequent thing they’ll do is give you a starting stat and then give you a change. The errors in these arguments is normally to treat a change in one stat as sufficient to draw a conclusion without info about the other.

    Example:

    In 2018, I owned 5% of all dogs in my town.
    In 2019, I owned 0.000001% of all dogs in my town.
    Therefore, I had fewer dogs In 2019 than I did in 2018.

    Nope, I still have two dogs. The difference is I moved from a town of 230 people to one of 9,500,000 people. Without the size of the whole, we just can’t conclude much.

    In one form or another, this is the bulk of LSAT math problems. The first thing to do on these is simply to ID what information you have and what information you don’t. From there, the style of the error is much more conspicuous.

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