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Conditional reasoning is an important part of the test; these videos (and included exercises) cover all of the aspects that you'll need to know.

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Here are some thoughts on how to organize your studying for the reading comp sections.

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Here are some basic tips on how to structure your studying for the arguments section.

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Here's a post about strategies to best structure your games section studying.

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Here are some thoughts on what you need to do in order to optimize your studying and get the most out of it.

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Here are some basic thoughts on how to prepare for the LSAT, I'll have more in a little bit.

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Here are a couple of links to sites where you can get preptests. Remember, you only want to study using actual LSAT questions.

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some useful links to help you with prepping for the LSAT

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some more answers to frequently asked questions

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some answers to frequently asked questions

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tricky assumption question

(In response to a question about PT 13, sct 2, q13)

For assumption questions they're either going to be sufficient or necessary. The sufficient ones will have an answer choice that, if true, have to make the conclusion to true. The way that generally plays it out is that there's a gap between the premises and the conclusion, the conclusion will have new info, and the choice will equate something in the premises with that new info in the conclusion. For example - 'If A then B, A. Therefore C'. A sufficient assumption would be 'B = C'. The necessary assumptions will be things that have to be true, and they come in a couple of varieties. The first is where the necessary assumption is something that is fundamental and obvious but easily overlooked. For example - 'Oscar studied for the LSAT. Therefore Oscar did well on the LSAT.' A necessary assumption would be 'Oscar took the LSAT.' The other variation is where the assumption brings up a problem that would make the conclusion not follow and then says that it's not a problem. Example - 'Oscar studied for the LSAT. Therefore Oscar did well on the LSAT.' The assumption would be 'Oscar wasn't devoured by bears on a Sunday picnic days before the LSAT.'

For this argument (as for pretty much any argument, but particularly the ones that deal with assumptions) you want to be on the lookout for logical gaps/shifts. Here the premises say that the book if read convinces people and that 2,000 were given away in one month. The conclusion says that at least 2,000 people converted in one month. But for them to convert they would've had to have read it, all we know is that they received it, not that they read it. And, they would've had to read it in that one month to be converted in one month. Maybe they all read it, but some are slow readers and it took them two months.

E is tricky because although it doesn't mention reading it and just talks about receiving the book, it's actually talking about something else. The recipients will be converted to the association's program, not the environmentalist cause. The environmental cause is a broader concept. It's like saying that anyone who receives a Metallica CD will convert to liking Metallica whereas the argument says that anyone who listens to a Metallica CD will convert to liking heavy metal. So it doesn't close any gaps, and it's not a requirement. If there are people who receive the book but don't embrace the association's program that doesn't mean that if they read it they won't convert to the broader cause. Nor does E bring up a problem that it then resolves.

But D does. Because if some of the recipients were already environmentalists then they wouldn't count as converts. So stating that none were already environmentalists removes that potential problem. So B is a necessary assumption.

Remember, a good way of checking necessary assumptions is to negate them and see if they create conflict with the info in the argument.

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drilling LR questions

Ok, assuming that you've studied how to approach the question type (if not then take a look at my site and my videos) this is what you should do:

First, make sure that you're practicing a couple of different types together, so when you study mix up the questions in such a way that you're not sure which one you're doing until you actually read it. There's science behind this, people will learn things more effectively if they test/review 2 to 3 related concepts at a time rather than if they take each concept separately.

Second, divides the questions by difficulty and start with the easy ones (questions numbered 1 - 8, it's not perfect but it works well enough) and take 20 - 25. Do these UNTIMED. You need to first develop your ability to do them properly before you can do them properly under time pressure. Make a note of any that you're not sure about/deliberated over/had problems with. See which ones you got wrong and review. Review the ones you noted as well as the ones you got wrong. The point of review is to establish why the correct choice is correct and why the incorrect answer is incorrect; at this point you're looking to figure out LSAC's patterns. Once you've reviewed take a break and then redo the ones you marked/got incorrect. You'll be surprised how many you get wrong again - the point of this is to force you to apply what you established while reviewing. Keep reviewing and redoing until you don't get any wrong. As you get better at reviewing and you start figuring out LSAC's patterns you'll get everything right the second time around. Do this for all of the easy questions, then all of the medium questions (or 9 - 16), then all of the difficult questions (17 - 26). Do it for about 100 questions, and then move on to doing sections when you're done with each type.

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Negating answer choices for the MBT questions

Remember to negate the answer choices that you think are correct for the MBT, most strongly supported question types. If an answer choice has to be true then it can't be false. So if you can falsify the answer choice and there's no conflict with the passage then you know it's not the correct answer. Conversely, if negating it creates conflict then it's the correct choice.

Basic LR advice if overthinking and picking wrong choice

(Questioner has problem where they deliberate between two choices, want to pick the correct on 90% of the time, but end up thinking too much and going with the wrong one.)

Key is to basically figure out what types and sub-types you're getting wrong, what the correct answer looks like, what the incorrect answers look like, and then to drill those question types. Post the questions here (www.top-law-schools.com, a great resource if you're not using it) and the choices you were deliberating between and me or someone else will help explain why the correct answer's correct and the incorrect one incorrect. Also, more practice tends to strengthen your intuition so don't worry about it too much, but as implied above, make sure to review.

You also mentioned that you were getting the easier ones wrong because you were thinking that the correct choice is too obviously correct. That's absolutely correct, next time go with the obviously correct one; the easy questions generally won't have any subtle trickery.

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Importance of paying attention to shifts

(In response to a question asking for an explanation for q5 sct 4 and q13 sct2 in PT 19)

You want to look for shifts.

For q5 they key thing is to spot the shift between the two speakers - the attorneys for the defendant charge that the gov't HAD destroyed evidence and the gov't responds that THERE IS NO evidence. There's an evident difference in the tenses involved and you shouldn't assume that a sentence means something other than what it's reasonable to interpret as saying. It's important to pay attention to this kind of thing (shifts) because it pops up all over the place.

For q13 notice that there's a shift at work with choice B as well. The 15% in the choice actually refers to the cost of pursuing the outstanding bill, it doesn't say anything about the amount that will be recovered.

For necessary assumption questions more broadly you'll generally encounter two related variations. One is where the assumption is simply a fundamental requirement that people tend to overlook because it's generally not spelled out. Example:

If you study for the LSAT you'll do well.

John studied for the LSAT.

Therefore John did well on the LSAT

A fundamental requirement assumption could be John took the test.

The other kind of assumption is one where the choice brings up a potential problem and then shows that it's not a problem. For the LSAT argument above it could be John wasn't abducted by aliens on the way to the test center.

The correct choice A for q13 above has elements of both but I would classify it more as the problem-resolution one.

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Worth using older tests?

Some of the games in the earliest 10 tests (7 - 18) haven't come up since then so there's not much of a point in studying them. The args and RC have remained fairly constant, args more so.

With my students I start at PT 29, I find that that's generally enough material otherwise given their schedules it might be burn-out and overwork. And if I feel that more prepping is required I can always go back to the earlier tests. Skipping the above-mentioned games of course.

Practice makes perfect?

Don't just do preptests.

As one of my HS coaches said: "Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect." You won't improve nearly as much by taking PTs as by studying intelligently. Improvement essentially consists of two things: learning the appropriate concepts (this includes having a program and teacher that can lay it out logically and explain it clearly) and putting in the practice (this includes having a study regimen where you work through the concepts effectively and having enough time where you're sharp enough to do all the work).

Here's what you can do for the argument questions:

Your primary goal is to understand why the correct answers are correct and the incorrect answers incorrect. Take a question type that you're having problems with and find a list of those questions from the first 10 tests (or whichever group of 10 tests that you haven't done yet). Then break those questions into three groups - questions that are numbered 1 to 8, questions that are numbered 9 to 16, and questions that are numbered 17 to 26. The args questions generally get more difficult as the section progresses so the point of this is to divide them into easy/medium/hard. It's not perfect but it's fine. Then do the easy questions. For each one that you get wrong or that you're not sure about but you got right (mark any that you're unsure of) try and figure out why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect answer is incorrect. Take a break and then redo all the ones that you got wrong/weren't sure about. This forces you to review. Review the ones you got wrong again and redo until you've gotten all of them right. So say the first time around you got 20 wrong/weren't sure about, you'd review them and then redo those 20. Then if you still got 5 wrong you'd redo those until you didn't get any wrong. Then do this for the medium and difficult questions. And then move on to the next question type.

As you do this you'll notice patterns emerging. You'll see the different variations that the args will tak, that the correct choices will take, and that the incorrect choices will take. Be on the lookout for that - but remember that's only going to happen if you review the questions.

Once you've done this for the different question types that you're having problems with go back to doing preptests but instead of doing whole tests just do untimed args sections. You should be scoring higher. Then it's going to be a question of putting in the practice doing them timed to keep your score high under time pressure.

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