How To Master LR | LSAT Logical Reasoning
Summary
TLDRThis LSAT Lab lesson focuses on mastering the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT, which constitutes half of the total score. The video explains key strategies for approaching different question types, such as assumption, function, and inference-based questions. It also covers how to identify flaws in arguments, understand reasoning structures, and eliminate trap answers. By breaking down the difficulty levels of questions, the lesson provides valuable tips on how to approach each section, helping students develop intuition and analytical skills to excel in the Logical Reasoning portion of the exam.
Takeaways
- 📝 The logical reasoning section is crucial, accounting for half of the total LSAT score.
- 📊 There are three main question families in logical reasoning: Assumption (64%), Function (19%), and Inference (24%).
- 🔍 The LSAT focuses on argument validity, not soundness, meaning it only tests whether conclusions logically follow from evidence, not if the evidence is true.
- 🔑 To succeed in the assumption family, students must identify gaps in the argument’s reasoning and evaluate its validity.
- 🛠️ The function family of questions tests your ability to analyze the role of statements within an argument, understanding how they contribute to the overall logic.
- 📖 Inference questions challenge students to deduce what can be inferred from given statements, often without arguments.
- 📈 Logical reasoning sections have a varied difficulty curve, with questions becoming harder in later sections, rewarding students who get through the tougher parts.
- 🧠 Intuition plays a large role in the earlier parts of the section, while more complex reasoning is needed as the difficulty increases.
- ⚠️ Trap answers fall into three categories: scope, logic, and degree. Mastering the ability to spot these traps is key to success.
- 🔗 Understanding reasoning structures—conditional logic, causality, and comparison—is crucial for tackling difficult questions in the last third of the section.
Q & A
What is the importance of the Logical Reasoning section in the LSAT?
-The Logical Reasoning section is crucial because it constitutes half of the total LSAT score, with two out of the four scored sections being Logical Reasoning sections.
What are the three main families of question types in Logical Reasoning?
-The three main families of question types are: the Assumption family (64% of questions), the Function family (19% of questions), and the Inference family (24% of questions).
What is the primary focus of questions in the Assumption family?
-The Assumption family questions focus on evaluating arguments by identifying the gap or flaw in the reasoning, questioning whether the conclusion logically follows from the evidence.
What is the role of the Function family of questions?
-The Function family of questions measures the ability to abstract reasoning and understand the purpose or role of different parts of an argument, essentially analyzing how claims function within the argument.
How does the Inference family differ from the other two families?
-The Inference family asks test-takers to figure out what can be logically deduced based on a set of statements, instead of analyzing arguments. These questions focus on what can be inferred from the information provided.
What reasoning structure is the most common in Logical Reasoning questions?
-Conditional logic is the most common reasoning structure, playing a role in 54% of all Logical Reasoning questions.
How does the LSAT typically increase the difficulty level in Logical Reasoning questions?
-The difficulty level increases by providing more tempting but wrong answer choices, presenting more complex arguments, and introducing unfamiliar topics that make it harder to rely on intuition.
What are some common trap answer patterns to be aware of in Logical Reasoning questions?
-Common trap answer patterns include scope shifts, logical reversals, and changes in degree. Understanding these traps is essential to eliminate wrong but tempting answer choices.
How should students approach the first third of a Logical Reasoning section?
-In the first third of the section, students should primarily rely on intuition, using real-world knowledge to quickly identify gaps in reasoning and answer questions without overanalyzing.
Why is understanding reasoning structures important for the harder questions in Logical Reasoning?
-In the more difficult questions, reasoning structures like conditional logic, causality, and comparison help identify gaps in reasoning more systematically, providing a clearer path to the correct answer.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to LSAT Logical Reasoning
In this lesson, Matt from LSAT Lab introduces the importance of mastering the Logical Reasoning section, which comprises half of the total score on the LSAT. He explains the structure of the section, including five multiple-choice answers per question and an average of 25 questions per section. Matt defines key components like the stimulus and question stem, emphasizing the importance of understanding these to organize one’s work around different question types. He introduces the Assumption family as one of the major categories of Logical Reasoning questions, focusing on identifying flaws in arguments.
📈 Difficulty Levels and Question Trends in Logical Reasoning
This section explores the varying difficulty levels within the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT. Matt presents a real example from LSAT Prep Test 72, showing how the difficulty fluctuates. He compares different sections, like Prep Test 76, which presents a steeper difficulty curve. By analyzing multiple sections, Matt highlights a consistent challenge-reward pattern in the LSAT. This pattern rewards students who make it through the entire section, especially after question 12 and beyond question 21. The section is divided into three parts: the easiest first third, a more challenging middle, and the hardest final third.
🧠 Intuitive Thinking for Tackling Early Questions
Matt advises using intuitive thinking to approach the first third of the Logical Reasoning section. He emphasizes avoiding over-analysis and relying on real-world experiences to counter arguments. He provides an example of an argument about blue cars being the fastest and how assumptions influence reasoning. The ability to draw on everyday knowledge helps in quickly identifying flaws. As the section progresses, the difficulty increases, requiring more critical thinking. In the later part of the section, more tempting but incorrect answers appear, demanding a sharper focus on eliminating traps.
🎯 Identifying Trap Answers in the Final Third
This segment delves into the challenge of eliminating trap answers as questions become more difficult toward the end of the section. Matt outlines how similar-looking answers, like those using 'if' in different places, can reverse relationships in arguments. Recognizing traps based on scope, logic, and degree is crucial. He introduces three main categories of traps: reversal, scope, and logic-based errors. Identifying these patterns is key to making eliminations, especially when facing complex arguments with topics unfamiliar to most test-takers, such as fossils or obscure theories.
🔗 Understanding Key Reasoning Structures
Matt emphasizes the importance of understanding reasoning structures to master the hardest questions in Logical Reasoning. He introduces three critical structures: conditional logic, causation, and comparison. Conditional logic involves 'if-then' relationships, with 54% of questions depending on this concept. Causation, which appears in 34% of questions, is more about a direct cause-effect relationship. Comparison, the most frequently tested structure at 65%, involves understanding how two items or situations compare either in time or effectiveness. Mastering these structures is vital for success in identifying gaps in arguments.
🎓 Final Tips for Mastering Logical Reasoning
In this conclusion, Matt summarizes three keys to mastering Logical Reasoning: understanding argument structures, using keywords to identify reasoning structures, and recognizing trap answer patterns. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing conclusions, evidence, and opposing viewpoints to structure arguments effectively. The use of keywords will aid in anticipating the gaps in reasoning, while trap answers will help eliminate wrong choices. The goal is to develop a strategic mindset to approach the section and answer both easy and challenging questions successfully.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Logical Reasoning Section
💡Stimulus
💡Question Stem
💡Assumption Family
💡Validity
💡Trap Answers
💡Reasoning Structures
💡Conditional Logic
💡Causal Reasoning
💡Difficulty Curve
Highlights
The logical reasoning section is crucial as it accounts for half of the LSAT score, with two sections dedicated to it.
Each logical reasoning section consists of 25 questions, with 35 minutes allotted per section.
The three major question families in logical reasoning are Assumption, Function, and Inference, covering 64%, 19%, and 24% of the questions, respectively.
The LSAT emphasizes argument validity, not soundness. This means we don't question the truth of the evidence but whether it supports the conclusion.
In assumption family questions, identifying the gap in reasoning is key to success as every argument is flawed in terms of validity.
Function family questions require understanding the role or purpose of various components in an argument.
Inference family questions focus on determining what can logically be inferred from a set of statements rather than evaluating an argument.
LSAT logical reasoning sections have distinct difficulty curves, rewarding students at different stages, with easier questions at the beginning and the hardest towards the end.
The first third of the section is typically easier and should be approached with intuitive thinking and everyday real-world knowledge.
Trap answers fall into three categories: scope, logic, and degree. Identifying these traps helps eliminate tempting but incorrect answers.
As you progress through the section, reasoning structures such as conditional logic, causation, and comparison become vital in identifying gaps in arguments.
Conditional logic appears in 54% of logical reasoning questions, making it a critical reasoning structure to master.
Causal reasoning structures are present in 34% of questions and require understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.
Comparative reasoning structures are the most common, appearing in 65% of logical reasoning questions, involving comparisons of two entities.
Mastering logical reasoning involves understanding argument structure, using reasoning structures, and recognizing trap answer patterns.
Transcripts
[Music]
hi this is matt at LSAT lab and today's
lesson is on how to master the logical
reasoning section it's a really
important section type since there are
twice as many sections of logical
reasoning as any other section type in
today's lesson we're to cover the
following the role of the logical
reasoning section on the LSAT the
different kinds of question types you
should expect to face in the logical
reasoning section how they make
questions more or less difficult how to
use trap answers in order to eliminate
wrong answers and how to use reasoning
structures to better identify the gap in
the argument so let's get started like
every question on the LSAT and logical
reasoning there are five multiple-choice
answers for every question on average
there are 25 questions per section and
logical reasoning and each section is 35
minutes per section there are a total of
four sections that are scored on the
LSAT and two of them are logical
reasoning sections which makes logical
reasoning half of your total score
here's an actual question from the
logical reasoning section for now all we
want to do is identify the different
parts of the questions so that we have
the same vocabulary to talk about
different places in the question that
initial paragraph is called the stimulus
and it's the place where we get the
information on which we're going to act
whether it's a set of statements or an
argument they're gonna ask us a question
based on that initial stimulus then we
have the question stem and the question
stem is where we get our task the thing
that we need to accomplish in order to
get to the correct answer question stem
is very important because it helps us
organize our work we can organize our
study around the different question
types and those will give us information
both about what kinds of things to
expect in the stimulus and what kinds of
things to expect in the answer choices
we're always going to get five
multiple-choice answers and it's our job
to pick the one that best answers the
question so if we organize our work on
question types one thing we'll see is
that there are a lot of different kinds
of questions that they can ask and that
those questions or different question
types can be grouped according to these
three large families the first family is
the assumption family 64% of all logical
reasoning quest
are in assumption family these questions
measure our ability to evaluate
arguments and so what we'll be looking
for is the gap or problem with the
argument the flaw in his reasoning if we
can understand what's wrong with the
argument that will be the key to success
on all of these question types one thing
that we really want to be clear on when
when evaluating arguments is in how we
judge the argument and so there's a
concept of validity and another concept
of soundness in the LSAT doesn't care
about both of these it's really
important that we get clear what the art
what the LSAT is looking for so a valid
argument is one in which the evidence
proves the conclusion 100% guaranteed
and a sound argument is one in which the
evidence proves a conclusion but the
evidence is indeed true as well
the LSAT does not care about soundness
the LSAT only cares about validity and
what that means is that we don't have to
worry about whether the evidence is true
or isn't true we're going to accept the
evidence in these arguments and we're
gonna question whether or not they
establish the conclusion our path to
success in the assumption family hinges
on our ability to evaluate these
arguments and find the gap in the
reasoning and we want to accept the
evidence but question whether the
conclusion follows from it in fact in
every single question in the assumption
family the answer to whether the
argument is valid or not is that it is
not valid and if we can figure out what
the gap is an argument that will take us
to the right answer
another important family in logical
reasoning is the function family 19% of
all questions and logical reasoning
belong to the function family and these
are questions that are measuring our
ability to abstract from the reasoning
to understand the purpose and role and
how things work within an argument so
we're really kind of slicing and dicing
and understanding the mechanisms that
drive arguments and the roles that
claims are playing within them and
finally there's the inference family and
24% of all logical reasoning questions
belong to this family this is about
figuring out what we know based off of
what we just read so these tend to give
us statements instead of arguments and
ask us to figure out what we know based
off of what we just read now if we look
at the difficulty level of a logical
reasoning section in this section we
have the difficulty level of 25
questions and this is from prep tests 72
section 3 so this is a real logical
reasoning section and these questions
are weighted on a one to five point
scale you can see the difficulty level
it jumps around quite a bit and there
are different plateaus of difficulty but
each section as you move from one
logical reasoning section to another has
its own distinct curve and so if we look
at another section prep test 76 section
2 we'll see a completely different curve
one that looks actually a little bit
more challenging and more consistently
progressing in the more challenging
direction if we take all of the logical
reasoning sections from prep tests 62 to
81 and we take the average difficulty
level of each question at that point in
the section we start to see a unique
shape emerge and what we're looking at
here is the average difficulty trend
within a logical reasoning section
there's a challenge reward curve that
the LSAT likes to use which essentially
reward students for having accomplished
something that was hard and we get two
of them so as we move past question 12
and into the early teens we have a
little bit of a reward and as we get
past question 21 22 we start to get a
little bit more reward as well
essentially what this is doing is there
are some students who will not make it
all the way through the section and this
is giving them their reward and there
are some students who will make it to
the end of the section and questions 23
to 25 are giving them their reward so a
good way to think about the difficulty
level as you're moving through the
section is to break it up into thirds we
can look at the first third as being the
easiest third the middle third is being
a little bit more challenging and the
final third as being the hardest and the
kind of mindset that's appropriate for
each of these parts of the logical
reasoning section is different and by
using a different mindset it will more
easily allow you to arrive at the kind
of thinking that's going to get you to
the right answer
and so let me explain to you what what I
mean by that in the first third of the
section the way you think about these
questions should be driven primarily by
intuition
you shouldn't overanalyze you can use
what you know about the real world and
that information will be helpful in
terms of helping you come up with ideas
of how to counter an argument or a
button we really want to rely on our
everyday experience in order to be able
to move quickly through these questions
to provide an example of the kind of
thinking that is intuitive well let's
look at this argument here that blue
cars are the fastest cars on the road
therefore you should buy a blue car well
that argument rests on an assumption
it's not guaranteed that you should buy
a blue car even though blue cars are the
fastest cars on the road and there are
many assumptions that are possible for
you to come up with so the kind of
thinking that is going to help you
figure out how to attack this argument
or how to help this argument is going to
be based off of your understanding of
the real world so if you think about
what's an assumption of this argument
what you might come up with is different
than when someone else might come up
with because there are many things that
are possible so take a second think
about what's an assumption here and then
compare that idea or those ideas that
you've come up with the following one
assumption would be that you should buy
the fastest car on the road that was
actually never stated in the evidence
and so that recommendation that is
involved in the conclusion needs to be
assumed that you should actually go out
and do something about blue cars being
the fastest cars on the road or you
could think about it more from a feature
perspective is speed really the most
important feature for you maybe or maybe
not the assumption of this argument is
as speed is more important than
something like safety but then once you
get down this feature mechanism you
could actually go for a very long ways
speed is more important than fuel
efficiency or speed is more important
than affordability there are lots of
features that you might prioritize over
speed and if any one of them were true
that would be a problem for this
argument so when we're thinking about
how to attack the argument we really
want to be using real-world thinking
ideas that shouldn't be very
academic or esoteric in nature they
should be how you would understand the
argument in from a real-world
perspective once you've figured out
what's wrong with argument then we you
want to use that to anticipate what an
answer could sound like and then go find
that directly in the answer choices and
typically you'll find that there's one
answer choice that speaks to that idea
but as you move deeper into the section
one way in which they start to increase
the difficulty level is by creating more
and more answer choices that look very
tempting that look like they might
actually do the trick and so you'll find
yourself tempted between two choices
more and more often as you get deeper
into the section to deal with these
tempting but wrong answer choices it's
very important to understand how they
build trap answers ones that will be
very tempting even though they're wrong
suppose you're looking at a question and
you've gone through and you've
eliminated B and D and E but now you're
stuck between choices a and C and you're
not quite sure which one of them is the
right answer in fact on your first read
they both look like they're saying the
same thing well to get good at logical
reasoning it's really important to be
able to identify specific kinds of traps
and those traps are going to fall into
three different buckets which we'll talk
about in a second here in this example
question if we look at the difference
between answer choices a and C we'll see
that they both use the word if within
the sentence but they use it at
different places within it and that
different placement of the word if sends
the directional relationship implied by
these answer traces in opposite
directions
so if we look at a choice a the word if
introduces the term decrease in profits
and that tells us that decrease in
profits is the sufficient condition of a
conditional relationship and that the
necessary condition is that the price
paid for beans actually went up so this
is building an if-then relationship
between two terms it's the same two
terms that are presented in answer
choice C but if we look at entra C in
where the word if is if is now
introducing the idea that the price paid
for the coffee beans is gonna go up and
so what this is doing is its reversing
the direction of the relationship so
shoving if in two different places
within the answer choice they've created
essentially two different ideas even
though they look very very similar at
the beginning now it turns out that in
this case we wanted the relationship
between the price paid for beans going
up and a decrease in profits and that
means that answer is a was reversing the
relationship that we were looking for
and reversal is probably the number one
trap answer that you need to be able to
look out for when you're working in the
logical reasoning section there are lots
of different types of trap answer
patterns they all fall into three
general buckets though those relating to
scope those relating to logic and those
relating to degree here are a couple
examples of each but there are many more
for you to learn essentially for each
question type there are three to five
trap answer patterns you really need to
know and be aware of so that you're
looking for specific things in the
answer choices and are able to get rid
of those tempting but wrong ones what
makes the questions in the final third
of the section so challenging is that
not only do we have trap answers to pay
attention to but we also have arguments
that are much harder to get our heads
around instead of talking about things
like cars they'll start talking about
things like an through coast or fossils
things that you and I typically can't
relate to and so therefore have a hard
time using our intuition to understand
what's wrong with the argument and so
for these arguments we're gonna use
reasoning structures in order to be able
to identify the gap in the reasoning
there are three types of reasoning
structures that you really need to be on
the lookout for when you're reading
through these arguments as well as the
answer choices in order to be
if I trap answer patterns but the
reasoning structure is that you really
need to know about our conditional logic
causation in comparison for conditional
logic works is it builds together a
series of conditional relationships like
if a then B and if B then C and it draws
a conclusion from them that links them
together using the transitive property
so these two would suggest that if a is
true then C is true by understanding the
argument in this manner when there's a
gap in the reasoning we'll be able to
identify more clearly what is that gap
and and what should that relationship
look like between the unconnected terms
conditional logic is a really important
reasoning structure in logical reasoning
in fact 54% of all logical reasoning
questions use or rely on conditional
logic that doesn't mean that you should
go out in diagram 54% of logical
reasoning questions but it does mean
that at the heart of the question or
maybe on the periphery of the question
there is somewhere contained a
conditional relationship that playing a
role in how you're supposed to work
through the question and understanding
that if then idea will be super helpful
especially when you get to the harder
questions next we have causal reasoning
structures and a causal reasoning
structure is very similar to a
conditional reasoning structure in that
it's building a relationship between a
and B but the connection is deeper than
in a conditional relationship causation
implies conditionality but
conditionality does not imply causation
and so the connection that's implied
with a causal relationship is deeper
stronger than one with conditionality a
causal relationship implies that one
thing is responsible for the other
whereas conditionality simply gives you
a correlation between those two events a
perfect correlation in one direction but
there's a correlation nonetheless so in
causation a causes B & B causes C
therefore a causes C we can work through
causal chains the same way we can work
through conditional chains now causation
plays a role in 34% of all logical
reasoning questions it's a really
important reasoning structure maybe not
as important as conditional logic but on
some question types it's the main player
and it's really important
when you really want to be thinking
within a conditional mindset and that's
typically based off of the question type
finally there are also comparative
reasoning structures so you might have a
statement that says a is less than B and
another one that says that B is less
than C from them we can infer that a is
less than C so we can work through
comparative chains the same way we can
work the causal or conditional chains
comparison plays a role in 65% of all
logical reasoning questions making it
the most important reasoning structure
for you to be paying attention to
typically you'll see that a comparison
works either by comparing two different
things at a point in time let's say the
effectiveness of medication X versus the
effectiveness of medication Y or one
thing at two different points in time
let's say the population of City a today
versus a population of City a ten years
ago so coming back to the overall
difficulty level of the section you can
see that in the first third you really
want to be taking an intuitive approach
not over analyzing don't bring in too
much process and go with your intuition
as you move into the middle third of the
section you still primarily want to use
your intuitive reasoning to understand
the arguments and define the gap in the
reasoning that may be more true for some
than for others but you're gonna find
that as you look at the choices that
trap answers in order to be able to make
those eliminations you really need to
understand how they build tempting but
wrong answer choices and use those trap
answer patterns to make the eliminations
and then in that last third use
reasoning structures to better
understand the argument and to identify
the gap in its reasoning so you can
anticipate what an answer would sound
like
but even after you've gone to all that
work you're still going to need trap
answers to make eliminations in the
choices so there are three keys to
mastering logical reasoning first you
need to understand argument structure
how do you identify conclusions how do
you identify evidence how do you find
out opposing points you need to be able
to use keywords to help you organize
arguments then you need to use keywords
to help you identify reasoning
structures and better anticipate what
the missing gap would look like and use
trap answer patterns to work from wrong
to right through the harder questions
so that's it for today's lesson on how
to master logical reasoning I invite you
to check out these other videos or visit
us today at LSAT lab calm
you
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