How To Do A Set Of Logic Games

It's come to my attention that the Logic Games (or Analytical Reasoning) section of the LSAT is pretty difficult for most people. I had the good fortune of getting a book of just logic games a few months before I started actually prepping for the LSAT, and I drilled them enough so that they're my best section. 

There's a simple enough formula to answering most of the questions, and I'll take you through it step-by-step below. The sample problem I'm using is from the REA 2nd Edition Logic Games book (found on Amazon here). It's not endorsed by the LSAC (Law School Admission's Council), and in my opinion, the questions can be harder than the ones you see on the LSAT. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though; when you're prepping for a test you might prefer to study to a higher level than what you'll need to do, so that the test itself feels a little easier. 

Here's a set up for the rules of the set:

So the first thing to do is to set up a diagram based off of what we've learned in the question. Each school will be ranked 1-5 in each category, and no school can have the same rank in a category, so we can set up a chart that explains what that means. 

Next, we need to write out the rules in short hand, so that they can all be easily referred to during the test. There are some that affect the chart no matter what, and are now set, so we can go ahead and mark those in.

The other rules are about order, and don't let the different wording confuse you. They're saying the same thing. It doesn't matter what symbols that you choose to use to represent the rules, it only matters that you'll be able to remember them.

Next, we move on to the questions. Question #1:

(Note: Question #1 reads in full: Which of the following is a pair that can have no number 1 rankings?)

This one is pretty simple. We know that O has to be ranked below W at all times, so O cannot be ranked 1 in any categories. We also know that A is fixed in 4 and 3 in terms of Cost and Location, and W is 1 in Quality, so A cannot be ranked 1 either. Therefore, the answer is D.

This is why you want to be familiar with the rules and have your diagram written out; otherwise you'd have to go through each answer and see whether or not it was possible for each option to be ranked 1.

Question #2:

This question is trying to trick you, but if we look back at the rules, we'll realize that the condition about Ts ranking is superfluous. W must always be ranked higher than O. It doesn't matter where T is. W cannot be ranked 5. Therefore, the correct answer is E.

Again, have your rules written out in shorthand, right by you. All it takes is a quick glance to remember that W must always be higher than O.

Question #3:

This is a tough one, because it really just requires us to plug in every option and see whether or not it works. There's no way to get around these, except to be quick and have the rules close so that we can keep referring to them.

This first diagram proves that W can rank 2 in Cost, so A is not correct.

This second diagram proves that W can rank 2 in Location, so B is not correct. 

These next diagrams proves that O cannot rank 5 in Quality.

Because of the rule about O having to be lower than W, and the positions of the fixed As, either the O in Cost or Location must be in position five, and since no school can have the same rank in different categories, the O in Quality cannot be ranked 5. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

Once we've found the correct answer, we can move on to the next question. It can be handy to keep the diagrams we've already done close by, in case we need them for another question.

Question #4:

Now that we've got a conditional, we need to diagram out that conditional. But we can automatically strike answer A, since we know from Question #3 that O cannot be ranked 5 in Quality.

The tricky thing about these conditionals is that they don't ask which could be true, only which must be true. So the first thing to do is fill in what we know has to be true, given the condition. We get the following as our answer. 

When we compare that diagram, which must be true, to the options available, we see that O must be ranked 3 in Costs. Therefore, the correct answer must be C.

Question #5:

(Note: Question #5 reads in full: If S is ranked 2 in location, which of the following must be ranked 2 in quality?)

Another conditional. Based off of this, we can fill in the whole diagram:

Because of the condition on the position of S, and the rules we were given at the beginning of the set, we can see that O must be ranked 2 in Quality. Therefore, the correct answer must be D.

Question #6:

As with the last question, we'll fill in what we have so far. Be careful with the wording, though; this question doesn't ask what must be true, only what could be. Here's what we can deduce from the question:

It's simple to go through and eliminate what we know to be false because of this. 

O cannot be ranked 4 in Quality since it is already ranked 4 in Location, so B is incorrect. W cannot be ranked 3 in Location, since it is already ranked 2 in Location, so C is incorrect. T could not be ranked 3 in Cost, since W is ranked 3 in Cost, so D is incorrect. A cannot be ranked 4 in Quality, since it is already ranked 4 in Cost, so E is incorrect. There is only one answer remaining. Therefore, the correct answer must be A.

Question #7:

The first thing to do here is to figure out what the board looks like if these conditions are met. We can determine the whole board from them:

The only important thing to remember here is that 'lowest' really means numerically, not in the sense that a 5 would be the lowest ranking a school could get. That being said, you add them all up and you see that:

T = 5 + 1 + 4 = 10

S = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6

A = 4 + 3 + 5 = 12

O = 2 + 3 + 5 = 10

W = 1 + 2 + 4 = 7

So the school with the lowest score is S. Therefore, the correct answer is B.

I know it seems like a ridiculously frustrating method, but with practice, these questions really do get easier. You just have to remember to simplify the rules, build your set-up diagram, and mark the constants that are true no matter the question. Keep in mind that the questions are designed to trick you, so always look for the simplest solution first.

Wikipedia is More Accurate Than Ever

I'm sure everyone here remembers my foray into the world of Wikipedia editing, but for those who might be new, here's a refresher: I found out-of-date information on the Wikipedia page for the LSAT, and corrected the page. You can read the whole crazy story here, if interested.

The sparknotes version is that the page hadn't been updated to reflect the fact that the LSAT would now be offered six times a year, rather than four, the previous standard. Today, I went back to check and see if my edits were still standing, and lo and behold, they were.

Although the page's intro already mentioned that more tests would be added in the 2018-2019 test cycle, I think it's important for common resources to be as detailed as they can be. I'm hopeful that the service I provided has helped more accurate information be disseminated. 

The LSAT/GPA Paradigm

Whenever you apply for an academic program, you have to take into consideration whether or not you are qualified for it. I don't mean the out-and-out "bare minimum, graduated from a four-year university" qualifications, I mean whether or not the facts on you provide a strong enough basis for that program to accept you.

For us lawyer-hopefuls, those facts pretty much come down to our LSAT scores and our GPAs. It only takes a Google search to find the statistics on a school's admitted applicants, but sometimes it can be hard to properly understand how that criteria is applied. Does a 25th percentile GPA mean that you only have a chance of admission if your LSAT score is in the 75th percentile? Or is there still hope?

I found a program that tracks applicants' LSAT scores and GPAs together, and catalogues whether or not they were admitted. See an example below:

I picked Georgetown after reading that it is one of the most applied-to schools in America, so I figured that it would be the most relevant. You can check out the stats on your dream school here. 

It's good to know about where other applicants were in terms of both their scores, not just one or the other, so that we can be realistic about our prospects. For Georgetown, at least, a 25th percentile LSAT score (161) doesn't do you much good if you've also got a 25th percentile GPA (3.52).

Even though some of the data you may find could be disheartening, it's better to know than to blow the $50 on an application fee for a school where you don't have a chance. Then again, maybe you do. After all, there's almost always that one, hopeful little green dot in the lower or left-hand reaches of the screen. Maybe you could be that dot.

LSAT Prep Videos

I know I talk a lot about LSAT prep, and have done my best to give a rundown of what it's all about, but it occurs to me that I should probably let you guys see what the official LSAC (Law School Admissions Council) website says on the topic.

They've released a series of videos on the topics, you can find a link to the page with all of them here.

I do my best to give anyone reading this blog the best advice that I can, from an applicant's perspective, because I think it's valuable to hear about the process from someone going through it; there are things which occur to me that you might not pick up from asking someone who's been practicing law for decades and doesn't remember the minutia of the process.

That being said, it's important to turn to the experts for their advice as well. And the LSAC really is the best source for advice on the LSAT.

Finding an LSAT Prep Course

Finding an LSAT prep course can be a bit confusing; it seems like Kaplan is everywhere and there aren't always other readily available options. I don't have any hard or fast rules for figuring out which course you should take, since that's a very individualized process, but I recently found a good way to learn about your options: The LSAT Center site.

As far as I can tell, LSAT Center isn't LSAC-certified, but if you put in your state or your zip-code, it lists out all of the major, reputable LSAT prep courses available near you, including tutoring centers and online options, which can come in handy considering how much sponsored ad-space the major companies buy on Google. Sometimes it seems like the whole first page of search results has been bought by advertisers.

Whichever course you choose has to depend on the amount of time you can devote to the process, how much work you need based on your practice tests, and what you know about your own style of learning. I'm taking an in-person course because I have time for bi-weekly classes that are a bit of a drive from my house, I want to get my score up at least five points from where my average is currently, and I don't do well in one-on-one environments long-term.

Any number of factors could go into why you choose the course that you do. But whatever those factors are, it's nice to see your options laid out so you can make an informed decision, which is what the LSAT Center does.

Your Teachers Were Right: Wikipedia Isn't Always Accurate

I, like many students unsure of where to begin when broaching a new topic, have frequently turned to Wikipedia in the past, for a broad overview of something with which I had no prior experience. Despite the best efforts of many teachers over the years, the convenience of Wikipedia is a powerful thing, from which the warnings about potential inaccuracies could not dissuade me. However, today I found, horror of all horrors, that they were right.

On the Wikipedia page for the LSAT (which can be found here), under the 'Administration' section, it read:

"LSAC administers the LSAT four times per year: June, September/October, December and February. The June examination marks the start of a new "cycle" of testing as most test-takers plan to apply for admission the following year. The September/October administration is typically the most popular with the February administration being the least popular."

That used to be the case, sure, but as you may remember from my post about the GRE versus the LSAT, the Law School Admissions Council has increased the number of tests administered, to six times a year. Fortunately for all those hapless Wikipedia users who may have been confused or misled, I have rectified the situation. The new paragraph reads:

"The LSAC previously administered the LSAT four times per year: June, September/October, December and February. However, in June 2017, it was announced that the LSAC would be increasing the number of tests from four to six, and would instead be administering it in January, March, June, July, September, and November."

 So never fear, the integrity of the LSAT page on Wikipedia has been preserved.

My Choice in LSAT Prep Books

I'm sure that everyone who has begun looking at LSAT prep has been a little bit overwhelmed at first. While there are certainly benefits to taking a prep class or hiring a tutor, I'm going to discuss everyone's favorite prep tool: Books.

When you're searching for a prep book, it can be hard to decide which one best suits your needs. There are a lot of big-name prep companies that publish their own books, both for their classes and for individual study. But these books tend to be very pricey, and their quality varies. That's why I suggest the PrepTest series, which can be purchased here.

Published by the Law School Admissions Council, the PrepTest series has two types of books: Regular PrepTest books with ten practice tests in them, or SuperPrep books, which contain three practice tests and detailed explanations for each answer. Both books come with information on how best to recreate real testing circumstances, from the time limits to the type of distractions you should get used to during your practice tests.

These books are written by the people who write the actual LSAT. The questions are a far more accurate depiction of what you're going to see on test day than what the other prep books can give you. And because they're the official practice tests, the practice score you get at the end is a much better representation of what you're going to actually get than anything a prep company can tell you.

On top of all the other benefits to the PrepTest books, they're much more affordable than most others on the market. A PrepTest book costs about $20, as opposed to the off-brand books that can cost over $100.

PrepTest isn't perfect, of course. Because they do not offer books meant to help with specific test sections, you may have to buy a book that gives a general overview of all of the test sections even if you don't need them all. In those cases, it might be better to look at a different brand of book that gets more specific by section. But for someone just getting started with their LSAT prep, the general overview PrepTest books give simply can't be beat. 

Why I Wouldn't Use the GRE for Law School Applications

Speaking as someone who has taken the GRE, and is currently prepping for the LSAT, I absolutely would not recommend using the GRE to apply to law school. Sure, there are certainly benefits to the GRE. There's a lot more flexibility on when you can take it, if you're applying to regular graduate schools as well then you only have to take one big test rather than two, and, let's face it, the GRE is just easier. I know I'm going to get some raised eyebrows on that, but any test that relies on you memorizing a bunch of vocabulary words and math formulas is always going to be easier than one that solely relies on fluid intelligence.

Still, despite these benefits, the GRE isn't the way to go. For starters, out of the 205 ABA-approved law schools in the US, less than 30 have confirmed that they will accept the GRE, whereas all of them accept the LSAT. So if you only plan on applying to those schools, fine, but I'd like a little bit more flexibility for myself. 

Even if you do not mind limiting yourself to those schools, the inability to predict how you'll fare is reason enough for me to shy from the test. Because many of the schools have just begun to accept the GRE, there's very little data on the average scores that they accept, so to a certain extent, you're flying blind. You could use ETS's conversion tool to see what they say the LSAT equivalent of your GRE score is, but the Law School Admission's Council (LSAC) has expressed a lot of doubt about the reliability of that tool. 

Overall, the LSAT is getting better at meeting the demand for the test. They've added two more test dates to the calendar, bumping their annual number from four to six, and they're getting speedier about releasing results. So overall, you've got that, the fact that every ABA-accredited law school will accept the LSAT, and years of data on a school's admission history with the LSAT to go over.

The only solid argument left is that the GRE is more cost-effective for people applying to both law and other graduate programs. For those only applying to law schools, the GRE is actually more expensive than the LSAT, but for those applying to both, it might seem to make sense to only pay the $205 to take the GRE, rather than the additional $195 to also take the LSAT. 

Because of those issues, the LSAC has also been making strides in lowering the costs of the test, and has a pretty sweet deal for those eligible for the fee waivers: Not only do you get the test and score-report fees waived, but also, you get free registration for the Credit Assembly Service (CAS) and a free prep book.

Finally, we get to the root of the matter for a lot of people: The GRE is easier. And yes, it is. But now I have to ask, is easier better? If you can't get the score you need on the LSAT, the test that was specifically designed to determine if you're a good fit for law school, do you really want to spend the next three years of your life in law school? Or longer, if you're doing a part time program? I'm not trying to be mean or discouraging here, but I did promise nothing but the truth, and the truth is, if you really can't handle the LSAT, are you sure you can handle law school itself?

Ultimately, every applicant has to make the decision that best suits their needs, and maybe there's someone out there in a situation where just taking the GRE makes the most sense. But I'd have to say that for the vast majority of us law school hopefuls, I wouldn't recommend cutting corners, if that's what you're doing. Law school is going to be a long haul, and the work starts now.

The LSAT: The Basics

Oh, the dreaded LSAT. Around 100 questions, scored on a scale from 120-180, and probably the worst five hours of standardized testing you’ll ever face… Until you get to the Bar exam, that is. I’ll be going over the basic format of the test, as well as how your raw score is calculated into your final one.

There are five sections of questions on the LSAT, four scored. The last section is where they test questions for future LSATs, so that the process can endure for another year. Unfortunately, there is no way to know which section is unscored while you’re taking the test. 

The make-up of the exam is two logical reasoning (or arguments) sections of the test, one reading comprehension section, and one analytical reasoning (or logic games) section. So at the very least, you know that if you have two analytical reasoning sections, one of them has to be the prototype and one is scored, but that’s about it. 

The order of the sections varies per test as well, to help disguise the unscored section. Finally, after the questions, there is an argumentative essay portion of the exam, which is also unscored, but is sent with your score to every school that you apply to. 

The LSAT is not computerized; it has to be taken with pencil and paper. There is no scratch paper allowed, all work must be done in the test booklet. Overall, each section usually contains between 17 and 23 questions, and lasts for 35 minutes. 

The first of the three types of questions, analytical reasoning, gives the test-taker sets of random scenarios, restrictions on each scenario, and then asks them to answer questions on what might be possible based on those restrictions. It’s basically a series of advanced riddles with a time limit. 

The second type of questions, reading comprehension, contains sets of dense pages of one or more texts on a highly specialized subject, and then approximately five to eight questions about each text. 

Finally, the logical reasoning questions are made up of a series of unrelated questions that each offer a scenario or pose an argument, and the test taker has to answer questions about them. Usually it’s about a piece of evidence that best supports or undermines either the argument or the conclusion, but it can also ask about analogies, flawed logic, or any number of relationships between the parts of the argument. 

After the multiple choice sections, there is the essay portion of the exam. The essay segment gives the test taker a prompt involving a scenario where a character must make a decision between two options, each with a major pro and a major con. The test taker must argue for one option over the other in a persuasive essay. Luckily, you get a little bit of scratch paper to outline your essay for this section. Again, the essay isn’t scored, but many schools report the essay making or breaking a borderline candidate’s admission, and rejecting otherwise overqualified candidates because of their poor essays.

Each question in the four scored sections is worth one point. Each correct point is added up, and that total number makes up the raw score. Then the raw scores of everyone in your testing section are distributed along a bell curve, and your final LSAT score is calculated based off of that. A score of 150 would be around the 50th percentile, and it goes up and down from there, with minor variations depending on how everyone else in the testing section does. Because of that, I can’t give an exact table for the conversions, but any practice test will have the table for that version of the test laid out with the answer key.

If this sounds a little bit too daunting for you, some schools have begun accepting the GRE in place of the LSAT, which I’ll be discussing in my next post. Until then, happy studying!