LSAT - Technical Terminology Forum

[jtabustos]

Does anyone know if there is some kind of LSAT dictionary for technical terms found in some of the questions?

I've seen some words that are like LSAT/discipline specific. An example would be "inconsistent."

I can't remember the exact LR question, but in the question or the answer choices, it said something like:

"The passage contains a set of inconsistent sentences."

And I don't think that was the only time I saw inconsistent used (in that way). I think it's come up in another LR question too.

But, basically, inconsistent is apparently a philosophical or logic term that means that two things cannot be true at once. I'm not sure that's apparent (at least, to me) from just reading the question/answer choice. MOst people think of inconsistent as not following the same line of thought or deviating from some previously established thing....

Like: "Hey, you had an inconsistent few games lately in tennis."

or, say: "Hey, you were inconsistent in your testimony. You said you did x, y z, at the police station and then now you're saying you did only x and y."

I guess the second example is closer to the technical version of inconsistent?

But, I fear that there may be other words like that that have a very specific LSAT or logic/philosophy meaning that I may not know when I come across it and mistakenly interpet as just the colloquial meaning.

[sighsigh]

When two statements are consistent, or compatible, it doesn’t mean that they agree. It means they don’t disagree.

Could be true = Consistent = Compatible
Cannot be true = Inconsistent = Incompatible

If X is inconsistent with Y, then [X, Y] cannot be true. E.g. 'the sky is always blue + today the sky is grey' is inconsistent.
If X is consistent with Y, then [X, Y] could be true. E.g. 'the sky is always blue + this apple is red' is consistent.

No, there is no dictionary. You just need to define them as you come across them.

---

Also, Precept = Proposition = Principle

[Daily_Double]

Does anyone know if there is some kind of LSAT dictionary for technical terms found in some of the questions?

I've got two LSATs term for you off the top of my head: "prevailing," and "orthodox," see PT 51, S3, Q12.

The first time I did this I thought orthodox meant traditional, and I also read prevailing political position to mean the contemporary political position. So I thought there was a gap between what used to be (political orthodox) and what is (prevailing political position), which is why I was still unsatisfied with the right answer.

However, it would seem that LSAC takes orthodox to mean what is widely accepted, and the same for prevailing. For further analysis of this question see BP Shiner's take on it