Bullet Points You Must Know Forum

[LSAT World]

These are the essential points you must know for the LSAT. Some of them might be obvious but surely very helpful for those just starting the preparation. Feel free to comment and add more tips/points (one rule: don't make them too big. All tips must be approximately the same size), I'll put them in the first post to make this list an ultimate Bullet Point Guide for the LSAT.

Reading Comprehension

• Don’t waste time on hard passages.
You should consider spending few seconds at the beginning of your exam to look over all the passages. You can then start with the easiest one. If you are stuck on a hard passage and you still have other passages to read, skip it.

• Keep rereading of the same passages to a minimum.
Remember that time is essential. Try to read the passage only once but thoroughly enough that you will not have to reread it.

• Write or highlight.
Write near the passage or highlight key words and sentences. This will help you remember main points in the passage without completely rereading.

• Look at the questions.
For some, it may be better to skim through the questions for a particular passage prior to reading it to better understand what information you should be looking for.

• Start with specific questions.
Often it is better to start with the more specific questions. They usually have reference to specific lines or words in the passage. They will remind you what the text is about. This might be the only time you will need to reread a few sentences.

Logic Reasoning

• Look at the question first.
This is very important. Reading the question first will tell you what to look for when reading the text.

• Don’t waste time on hard arguments.
Often the hardest questions come around number 14-20. The easiest are often the first ten. However, if you feel that you can’t find an answer for a specific argument, don’t reread it several times – go to the next one.

• Highlight the key words.
Don’t write so much that you lose time or get distracted, but highlight the key words in the argument. This will help you keep focused and remember what are you looking for.

• Be careful with extreme answers.
Most of the times answers that are too extreme are incorrect. Remember “some” is better than “almost all,” “likely to do” is better than “will do.” However, extreme answers might be correct if similar wording can be found in the text.

Analytical Reasoning

• Write sketches and imagine the game.
Imagine what is happening in the game. Draw a sketch, diagram, or table – anything that helps you understand the game.

• Don’t waste time on hard games.
You might have problems with certain game types and there might be some “mixed type” games. Do those last to ensure you don’t waste too much time.

• Be very accurate.
When sketching, be very accurate. A single mistake of one letter, number, or word can make the game impossible to solve.



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SPAM URL REMOVED BY MODS

[tmon]

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[LSAT World]

Hah:) It's not spam, I got rid of the red color to wave your suspicion!

[RaleighStClair]

[UML]

IBT open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur

(p.s. not "wasting time" on hard problems will get you a mediocre score)

[tedler]

.

[Kabuo]

I think almost all of the RC advice in this thread is wrong.

[rowingmyboat]

I really liked the advice to be very accurate with logic games. I was going to put down inaccurate things, but now I'm questioning my whole strategy.

[darkatillam2]

This post fails.

[vanwinkle]

Not banned, since you're at least attempting to provide useful info, but we do not allow you to put links to your products in posts. You are welcome to add such links to your profile, and anyone who considers you helpful might see it there and decide to try it, but that's it. This is a warning; continued contributions would be welcome, but continued product-linking in posts will get you banned.

[Tiago Splitter]

Reading Comprehension

• Don’t waste time on hard passages.
You should consider spending few seconds at the beginning of your exam to look over all the passages. You can then start with the easiest one. If you are stuck on a hard passage and you still have other passages to read, skip it.


Logic Reasoning

• Don’t waste time on hard arguments.
Often the hardest questions come around number 14-20. The easiest are often the first ten. However, if you feel that you can’t find an answer for a specific argument, don’t reread it several times – go to the next one.

Analytical Reasoning

• Don’t waste time on hard games.
You might have problems with certain game types and there might be some “mixed type” games. Do those last to ensure you don’t waste too much time

This seems like good advice for Below-Average-to-Mediocre-Law-Schools.com. Telling people to skip over questions that are too hard isn't going to help anyone get into a law school worth attending.

[vanwinkle]

This seems like good advice for Below-Average-to-Mediocre-Law-Schools.com. Telling people to skip over questions that are too hard isn't going to help anyone get into a law school worth attending.

I think learning how to evaluate/skip questions was part of what brought my score up into the 170s, actually.

If you define easy questions as those which take less time to answer, and/or those you can answer correctly more often, then it's worth it to spend your limited time on the easy questions first. If you just do questions in order, and questions 33 through 35 were easy but you didn't get to them because you spent the rest of your time on question 32, then you lost easy points for no reason. Skipping doesn't have to mean not doing them; you do it in two passes, first the easy ones, then going back and doing the harder ones until you run out of time. The goal is to get the most questions right, and you can help yourself with that by doing them in the right order. Until you run out of time in that section, you can go back later to the hard ones you skipped, if you have time left over.

For RC passages and games you want to finish one passage/game before moving onto the next, but you're still better off skipping the hard ones and coming back to them later. Which would you rather run out of time on, the hard one you weren't likely to finish anyway or the easy one you would've gotten 100% right if you'd been able to finish?

The efficiency increase may only gain you 2-3 more points on test day, but a lot of people would give just about anything to gain another 2-3 points. The difference between a 168 and 171 is huge, and can come down to which order you answered things in.

[Tiago Splitter]

Vanwinkle's advice is credited, but should not be top of mind for someone several weeks out from the real test. If you have spent the time prepping and understanding the question types, you should go in to the test believing you can get every single one right. Starting from a baseline of "some of these will be too hard, so I'll skip them and throw in a guess if I have time" will never get someone into the 170s. Realizing that parallel reasoning, for example, can take longer than other types and might need to be skipped if you are running out of time at the end of the section is a different story. Perhaps most importantly, you normally won't know whether a game or reading comp passage is especially difficult until you are already neck deep.


Having said all that, someone who has prepared sufficiently will develop a rhythm as they go through the questions. With enough practice, he will know when a question is taking too long and when it's time to move on and return to the question if there is enough time. But no one should make that type of thinking part of any overarching LSAT preparation strategy.

[soj]

This is an OK idea for a new thread, but your spamming predisposed me to be skeptical. Also, much of your advice is shit. If you're going to give advice, at least give good advice like that Dave Hall guy.

• Don’t waste time on hard passages.
You should consider spending few seconds at the beginning of your exam to look over all the passages. You can then start with the easiest one. If you are stuck on a hard passage and you still have other passages to read, skip it.

It's gonna take you more than a few seconds to gain useful info about the passages. Totally not worth it. The only exception might be to scan the number of questions right off the bat and skip the passage with the fewest questions. Passages with more questions take longer, but you answer more questions per minute on those.

• Keep rereading of the same passages to a minimum.
Remember that time is essential. Try to read the passage only once but thoroughly enough that you will not have to reread it.

Obviously you don't want to have to read a passage twice before you even get to the questions, but it is absolutely okay to re-read relevant sections of the passage when answering questions. Depending on one's definition of thoroughly, reading thoroughly may not be TCR.

• Write or highlight.
Write near the passage or highlight key words and sentences. This will help you remember main points in the passage without completely rereading.

Hope you didn't mean literally highlighting. What a waste of time.

• Look at the questions.
For some, it may be better to skim through the questions for a particular passage prior to reading it to better understand what information you should be looking for.

This gimmick is useless. Reading comprehension is not a word search. You actually have to understand shit. Far better to think about the overall structure (why waste time reading those Qs beforehand when you know those kinds of Qs are asked on basically every passage?) while reading, skim the minutiae, and refer back to the passage when answering questions about the minutiae.

• Be careful with extreme answers.
Most of the times answers that are too extreme are incorrect. Remember “some” is better than “almost all,” “likely to do” is better than “will do.” However, extreme answers might be correct if similar wording can be found in the text.

Sometimes you want extreme answers, especially if the question calls for overkill.

• Write sketches and imagine the game.
Imagine what is happening in the game. Draw a sketch, diagram, or table – anything that helps you understand the game.

Often not a bad idea, but don't make this a habit. If you understand the rules well, don't waste time doing sketches when that time could be better spent on a more difficult game. Also, don't do just "anything"--some shit will confuse rather than clarify. Also remember you'll often come up with sketches while completing the first few questions anyway.