Is the information and knowledge in LR and RC true/legit? Forum

[meegee]

Kinda random, but I was just wondering if the information and knowledge used in LR and RC questions are true? As in, when it talks about Baja turtles and their nesting sites, is it true that, in the real world, there really are Baja turtles with nesting sites in the Atlantic and Pacific?

[Nooblarzlarz]

RC passages are legit excerpts from real world sources (they'll be cited at the end of the test). LR I'm not sure about.

[LSAT Blog]

I asked an LSAT question-writer about this once.

RC passages aren't actually *excerpted* from real world sources, although they're based upon real world sources. They're adapted.

The LRs that aren't about hypothetical people, places, etc. are intended to be factual. He gave some details in an interview I published. See #6:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/be ... rview.html

(See #5 in that interview for details on RC as well.)

[the_pakalypse]

LSAC goes out of its way to make sure that the LSAT lacks cultural bias. Items are screened by representatives of several groups to ensure this. When I wrote items there was even a guy whose job it was to make sure that the test didn’t discriminate against Canadians.

Edit:

A guy I worked under at LSAC, for instance, had a hard time getting into grad school because he refused to take the GRE since “it didn’t measure anything important.” This is the kind of guy you want building your standardized test.

Interviews were awesome.

[LSAT Blog]

Thanks!

Dr. Harris definitely shed some light on how and why LSAC does the things it does, and he gave some great random anecdotes/details. (I got a kick out of the Canadians/GRE stuff, too.)

Do you have any questions for him? I'll probably conduct another interview at some point in the near future.