How much of a boost do philosophy majors get on the LSAT? Forum

[Theopliske8711]

You guys are out of your minds bashing religious philosophy majors for poor logic. They are the best are twisting arguments and logic in their favor. All you need to do is listen to a presentation by a major theological philosophy academic to see that.

[mqt]

While a philosophy or math degree helps you quickly understand the basics of some of the sections, I feel as though the numbers are skewed because most people in these fields who choose to take the LSAT do so because they think they can do well on the exam. On the other hand, pre-law or CJ majors would seem more likely to just go all-in on law school because that's what they had in their minds for their college career. There are bound to be a lot of college students in each major who should absolutely not attend law school, and if you have more of those students in the major that are committed to doing so anyway, it's going to drive the average down.

[IAFG]

i am guessing the statistical advantage has more to do with cold takers than studied takers, and if you split off the people who prepped at all from the people who just winged it, Phil majors would lose most of their edge.

[Demetriusdiamond]

i am guessing the statistical advantage has more to do with cold takers than studied takers, and if you split off the people who prepped at all from the people who just winged it, Phil majors would lose most of their edge.

So basically Phil majors have a better grasp on these concepts with out even trying than CJ and PS majors lol suuuuucks

[encore1101]

i am guessing the statistical advantage has more to do with cold takers than studied takers, and if you split off the people who prepped at all from the people who just winged it, Phil majors would lose most of their edge.

So basically Phil majors have a better grasp on these concepts with out even trying than CJ and PS majors lol suuuuucks

This comment was clearly worth bumping a 4+ year old topic.

edit: and you didn't even interpret your quoted person's statement right.

[forum_user]

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[raven1231]

Seems to me that it's more dependent on the individuals going into certain majors rather than the majors themselves. For what it's worth most jocks go into criminal justice.

[etramak]

From what I know, philosophy majors have historically done better than others on the LSAT exam. Being an Econ major, Poli Sci minor, I feel like I may be at a disadvantage. How much of a boost, if any, has the philosophy major given you on the LSAT. Please share your stories.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations as to must-read philosophy books, that'd be great. Thanks all.

I wouldn't be surprised if economics majors are right behind the philosophy kids. Plenty of formal logic in econ principles classes. Increased government spending implies increased aggregate demand implies increase in P and Q. Buy bonds implies increase in money supply implies decrease in interest rate.

[Mikey]

People say that Philosophy majors tend to do better than other majors. But I mean, any major can outperform a Philosophy major on the LSAT if they study harder than them for it lol.

[Barack O'Drama]

Philosophy helped me understand the basics. For example, I understand logic really well and can critically read for details I think this helped with easier LR questions and some RC. However, I would say it is pretty minimal though. The test seems to have a lot of pattern recognition such that one needs some exposure to the test to do well. And of course, smart people are going to do better regardless of major. Majors are self selected, so for example, physics majors do well compared to sociology majors because of IQ most likely.

formal logic was definitely helpful. The rest is questionable. I almost feel as though my reading for detail slows me down. I can go -0 on RC, but I need some extra time. So working on cutting time.

[somewhatferal]

I have not yet taken the LSAT. However, I am PT'ing at a high level (mean 178 over 20 tests) without doing much studying except for PT'ing. I can attribute much of my ease with the test to my education in philosophy. Logic is important, of course, but I also find that reading dense history of philosophy has prepared me well for the RC passages.

[RZ5646]

Seems to me that it's more dependent on the individuals going into certain majors rather than the majors themselves. For what it's worth most jocks go into criminal justice.

Exactly. Philosophy is probably the best major for LSAT prep, but even then the effect is minimal. The correlations we see are due to self-selection.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if an "average LSAT by major" chart looked a lot like an "average IQ by major" chart.