Amy Hackney Blackwell

Many cultures create a mythology to help explain the workings of the world. Western civilization is most familiar with the gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman mythology, who have comparable powers, but different names. And mythology is created often in response to human history, so a historical timeline can be a good reference to have.

Reading for the LSAT isn’t the same as reading for pleasure or even for college coursework. You have very little time to comprehend the material and make reasoned analyses, so make sure you keep these tips in mind to maximize your limited time. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate — even if you’re bored. Work one reading passage at a time; answer all the questions, and then move on.

The LSAT exists partly to test your ability to understand how arguments work. A well-structured argument is a beautiful thing. A reader can follow the steps of the reasoning from start to finish with no effort at all, and the conclusion should seem self-evident if the author has done her job right. How to identify pattern-of-reasoning questions These logical reasoning questions ask you to choose an answer that uses the same method of reasoning as the argument or, less often, directly ask you what type of reasoning the author uses to make an argument.

One way to identify grouping games on the LSAT is by recognizing the language the facts and rules don’t use. Although some grouping games may also include an element of ordering, most are noticeably bereft of ordering references, such as first/last, higher/lower, and before/after. Instead, the facts and rules contain wording that suggests matching one set of elements to another set or two of elements.

You should use much more of your precious time analyzing reading comprehension questions on the LSAT than reading the passages. The plan is to read just as much of the passage as you need to figure out its overall idea and basic structure. Skim the questions Many test-takers attack reading questions the logical way: They read the passage and then answer the questions.

The LSAT is intended to make you think like a lawyer. What do lawyers do? They argue. They make statements and support them with evidence to convince a judge or jury that they’re right or that their opponents are wrong. What don’t lawyers do? They don’t argue from personal conviction or emotion. They don’t base their arguments on their own feelings but on the facts and the laws.

So you’re seriously considering law school. You’re getting ready to take the LSAT. Have you thought about what you’d do with a law degree? A degree of Juris Doctor can lead down all sorts of roads. A lawyer isn’t a multipurpose legal expert; different lawyers specialize in different fields. Business/Corporate Some lawyers spend all their time working on behalf of corporations.

Some LSAT reading questions ask you about specific statements from the passage. These questions are potentially the easiest type of reading question because the information you need to answer them is stated in the passage, and the correct answer is a paraphrase. You just need to find it. This information may be quantitative, such as years, figures, or numbers, or it may be qualitative, like ideas, emotions, or thoughts.