Post
by TylerJonesMPLS » Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:19 am
If you search on this site, you will find lots of recommendations for materials to study. You should take a look at what has already been recommended, and then ask more specific questions.
Congratulations on planning so well for your future. You have increased your chances of success enormously. The advice I give below presupposes that money is no problem and that you have lots of time, as in fact you do.
What is your major? If it is not Philosophy, then make sure that you take a Critical Reasoning course. If the Critical Reasoning course does not include a section on propositional logic, categorical logic and fallacies, then take a course that does, or, better yet, hire a Philosophy graduate student to teach you propositional logic, categorical logic, and logical fallacies. (Make sure that a logic professor recommends the graduate student.) Most formal logic courses (as opposed to Critical Reasoning courses) will teach you more than you need to know for the LSAT, Law School and Law Practice. In most formal logic courses, you begin to do proofs almost immediately, but that is entirely unnecessary for your purposes.
However, propositional logic is essential. From propositional logic you will learn all you need to know about conditionals, necessary and sufficient conditions, inference, how to translate English terms into symbolic logic etc. Probably more than half of the questions on the LSAT either require knowledge of propositional logic, or are quicker and easier to answer if you know propositional logic. Categorical logic will teach you about None, Some and All statements, and teach you how to negate them etc. And you already know how many Flaw-In-Reasoning questions there are on the LSAT. Understanding fallacies helps enormously with these questions.
And knowing this logic will help you in law school and in law practice. You would be surprised at how many practicing lawyers there are who don't understand the logical form of words like “unless,” and so don’t know how to use the word correctly in their own work. There are even lots of lawyers who don’t recognize fallacies in other lawyers’ work or their own work. Those people are never going to make partner.
Students who do the best take the time to learn the real logic. They don't have to rely on rules of thumb that may not be helpful in lots of cases. Since they understand the actual logic, they have the flexibility to apply the logic they need in the most helpful way in every case. So, make sure you learn the actual logic. It really isn't all that hard, if you have a good teacher or at least a good text. (I can recommend some if you want.)
Well, sorry about the rant. But the way that logic is given a second place in a profession that uses arguments constantly really irritates me.
I noticed that what you wrote is not entirely grammatical and somewhat awkward. Of course, maybe that is just because you wrote really quickly. But if your writing is not really good, and by good I mean with good grammar, good diction and good style, then do yourself a tremendous favor and take a writing class, or take every paper you write to the school's writing center, or, better yet, hire a graduate student from the English Department to teach you how to write really well. (Again, get a recommendation from professors in the department.) Teaching student to write is very time consuming, and most professors in the English departments of most universities refuse to do it. That is the origin of Writing Across the University programs, and that is why most of these programs are taught by graduate students, not professors. As much as universities advertise themselves as caring about teaching, almost all professors do as little teaching as possible. If you want to write well, you have to take it upon yourself to find the resources to help you. I really cannot emphasize enough how important it is to write well. Your first impression on the people who decide which applicants are awarded the scholarships and which applicants receive the highest paying jobs is determined by your writing style. If you don’t write well, you will make yourself look stupid. And the other people, who have taken the time to learn how to write, and may not be nearly as intelligent and talented as you, will get the scholarships and jobs. So don’t handicap yourself. Learn to write as well as you can talk.
Good luck!
