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Simple tips that work wondersOct 28 '02 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Buy the old tests, do them under timed conditions. Don't worry about the scores, but identify your weaknesses and improve them ARGUMENT SECTION *In the argument section, read the QUESTION first, THEN read the argument/premise of the problem. That way, you’ll know what to look for while you’re reading and you’ll have some idea of what the right answer will have to include. The problem with going the opposite way (Read the argument, then the question) is that you’ll find yourself having to look back and re-read the passage, which wastes a ton of time over the course of 25 questions. *Always, Always do process of elimination on the reading and argument sections. One reason being, writers of the LSAT will often put a really good sounding (but wrong) answer for choice A, because they know some people will quickly choose it and think, “Cool I only had to spend two seconds to answer that one, I’m ahead of the game now!” If A is indeed the right answer, then it won’t take you much time to go through the other four answers to verify that they are indeed wrong. If you read and understand the premise of the problem correctly, you should always (that’s right ALWAYS) be able to cross out three wrong answers immediately, oftentimes four in which case you’re golden. If it does come down to two answers that both look right, attack both of them – look for any word that would disqualify either one of the answers. Whichever one is left after the attack is your right answer. READING SECTION *Keep your pencil moving, especially while you’re reading Underline, circle, whatever – just don’t sit there and read with your pencil down. A) It keeps your concentration up to ‘read actively’ and B) Those passages contain key words that you need to identify because they’re going to ask you about them. In particular, keep you eyes out for ADJECTIVES and ‘argument starters’. Argument-starters are words like ‘however’ and ‘unfortunately’ or ‘conversely’ – words that indicate which side the author is taking, and you need to know that. You want to get the adjectives because they’ll help you with the questions like “What is the authors view on this” or “The author would agree with which of the following.” *For the 2 or 3 months before you take the test, give your TV to a friend and READ BOOKS! (if you don’t already do so regularly). If you want to blow the doors off this test, it’s a small price to pay. Besides, there’s hardly anything worth watching on TV these days anyway! This helped me immeasurably on the reading sections, cause it got my brain “in shape” to read quickly and understand what I read very thoroughly. It eliminates the need to re-read which wastes valuable time. *In doing all of the practice exams, I found that in general, there was always one passage in this section that only had like five problems with it. DO THIS ONE LAST. Better to spend 5 minutes reading time in exchange for 8 potential points BEFORE you spend 5 minutes reading in exchange for 5. Ideally you want to do the passages that have the most problems FIRST. You might even get lucky if that particular passage is about something you’re familiar with. LOGIC GAMES * Find the easy questions and do them first. These are generally the "Which of these is a suitable order/schedule/arrangement" (which usually come first). These are easy because all you have to do is go down the list of rules and cross out the answer choices that break a rule. You can even take that method one step further and scan other questions for answers that break rules. For example, if you have a rule that says “John can never work with Jane” go ahead and cross out any and all John-Jane combinations that appear anywhere else in the answer choices for that game. * Use the right answers you have already found to help you with the other questions. THIS IS KEY. For example, say the first question is one of the aforementioned, “Which of these is a suitable order” questions and after canceling out the ‘rule-breaking answers’ you find that ABCDE is a suitable order. Now suppose there is a later question in that section that asks “Which of the following must be true?” and has answer choices like “B must be third” and “E must be before D”. Instead of wasting valuable time testing out each of these answers, just look back at your answers to the questions you’ve already got and are sure of. You’ve already established that ABCDE is a valid order in which B comes second and D comes before E, therefore those two answer choices I mentioned are wrong. This method really helps on those questions that you have no idea how to even start when you first look at the problem. You will be amazed at how many answers you can cancel out before even looking at the problem if you just go back to the answers you’ve already got. *When in doubt, go with the “free-wheelers” A “free-wheeler” was my little name for the people or objects in the problem to which none of the rules pertained. Suppose you’re running out of time on the games section and you’ve had to skip a few questions in which you have two or three answers already crossed out, but you just can’t figure out how to test the other two or three answers. Especially for questions of the “Which one of these could be true” genre, your best bet is to pick the answer choice that involves the most free-wheelers. This is not guaranteed to work, but in a situation where you have no clue and no time it’s the best way to “play the percentages.” Think about it, the fewer rules there are to limit a person/thing in the problem, the more likely it is that they will not break any rules (i.e. it could be true) in a given situation.  |
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