Intro to Logical Reasoning
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the LSAT logical reasoning section. In this lesson, we are just going to walk through the basics of this section and give you a little bit of an introduction to what to expect. So, logical reasoning, first of all tests skills, not knowledge. What I mean by that is, it's going to be concerned with measuring your ability to read and think critically, rather than requiring you to have a bunch of outside knowledge on any one particular topic, so the only exception to that might be that if you're familiar with the basics of formal logic, that's some knowledge that could benefit you.
But again, really what they're after here is how well you read and how well you think. Next, the logical reasoning section, makes up a full 50% of your LSAT score. This is because there are two scored logical reasoning sections on the test, rather than just one, which is the case with logic games and reading comprehension.
And each of those sections has about 25 to 26 questions. So, this is the most heavily weighed portion of the LSAT. There's lots of variety on the logical reasoning section. You will often hear people talk about logical reasoning question types. And there are more than a dozen of those. So, that can seem a little bit overwhelming at first.
But, as you'll see from walking through the rest of these videos, a lot of those question types are relatively similar to one another. And a couple of basic approaches can get you through all of them comfortably. And lastly, the logical reasoning section overlaps with both logic games and reading comprehension in the skills that it measures. In particular, logical reasoning and logic games are similar because they're both testing formal logic.
Whereas, logical reasoning and reading comprehension are similar because they're both testing your ability to break an argument down into it's component pieces to understand it's structure. And to use context to make reasonable deductions. So, those are kind of the basics of the section. Now, let's take a look at where it fits into the exam.
So, as you know on test day, or as you may know, sorry, on test day, you'll be taking a full six sections that are broken into multiple choice and the writing sample. And then, in addition to that, there's a fifteen minute break between sections three and four. The multiple choice section, there's gonna be four of them that are scored, so that's two logical reasoning, one logic games, one reading comprehension and then, there's also gonna be an unscored experimental section.
And you don't know which type that's going to be and these sections will occur in random order, no predicting which will be the first section and which will be the fifth, for example. The writing sample is always unscored and it's always last. And lastly, the logical reasoning. As I've already stated, there's gonna be two of them, but in addition to that, there's gonna be possibly one unscored logical reasoning section and that's if by chance, you get an experimental section that's also logical reasoning.
So, that might seem a little overwhelming. But I guarantee you, once you become familiar with this section, it's not gonna be a big deal. The only downside is that you can't predict which section is the experimental one, so you have to treat all three of them equally. So, what is the structure of a logical reasoning section?
It is 35 minutes long, just like every other section of the LSAT, so that's nice and easy to remember. I've already mentioned this briefly, but it has roughly 25 questions per section. It's a possibility that there will be 26, there's always 25 or 26 questions in there, and that means you usually have a total of 50 to 52 logical reasoning questions on the entire exam.
The difficulty fluctuates but it does increase on average. What this means is that there's not gonna be a perfect progression from the easiest question to the hardest question in the section. However, questions one through five are pretty much always on average going to be easier than questions 20 through 25. Right? So, there might be little kind of dips and fluctuations along the way so it's kind of shaped something like that, but as you can see the difficulty level gets higher and higher as you go.
So, that's it for the logical reasoning section basics. And now we can, we're ready to move into some of the more specifics.
Read full transcriptBut again, really what they're after here is how well you read and how well you think. Next, the logical reasoning section, makes up a full 50% of your LSAT score. This is because there are two scored logical reasoning sections on the test, rather than just one, which is the case with logic games and reading comprehension.
And each of those sections has about 25 to 26 questions. So, this is the most heavily weighed portion of the LSAT. There's lots of variety on the logical reasoning section. You will often hear people talk about logical reasoning question types. And there are more than a dozen of those. So, that can seem a little bit overwhelming at first.
But, as you'll see from walking through the rest of these videos, a lot of those question types are relatively similar to one another. And a couple of basic approaches can get you through all of them comfortably. And lastly, the logical reasoning section overlaps with both logic games and reading comprehension in the skills that it measures. In particular, logical reasoning and logic games are similar because they're both testing formal logic.
Whereas, logical reasoning and reading comprehension are similar because they're both testing your ability to break an argument down into it's component pieces to understand it's structure. And to use context to make reasonable deductions. So, those are kind of the basics of the section. Now, let's take a look at where it fits into the exam.
So, as you know on test day, or as you may know, sorry, on test day, you'll be taking a full six sections that are broken into multiple choice and the writing sample. And then, in addition to that, there's a fifteen minute break between sections three and four. The multiple choice section, there's gonna be four of them that are scored, so that's two logical reasoning, one logic games, one reading comprehension and then, there's also gonna be an unscored experimental section.
And you don't know which type that's going to be and these sections will occur in random order, no predicting which will be the first section and which will be the fifth, for example. The writing sample is always unscored and it's always last. And lastly, the logical reasoning. As I've already stated, there's gonna be two of them, but in addition to that, there's gonna be possibly one unscored logical reasoning section and that's if by chance, you get an experimental section that's also logical reasoning.
So, that might seem a little overwhelming. But I guarantee you, once you become familiar with this section, it's not gonna be a big deal. The only downside is that you can't predict which section is the experimental one, so you have to treat all three of them equally. So, what is the structure of a logical reasoning section?
It is 35 minutes long, just like every other section of the LSAT, so that's nice and easy to remember. I've already mentioned this briefly, but it has roughly 25 questions per section. It's a possibility that there will be 26, there's always 25 or 26 questions in there, and that means you usually have a total of 50 to 52 logical reasoning questions on the entire exam.
The difficulty fluctuates but it does increase on average. What this means is that there's not gonna be a perfect progression from the easiest question to the hardest question in the section. However, questions one through five are pretty much always on average going to be easier than questions 20 through 25. Right? So, there might be little kind of dips and fluctuations along the way so it's kind of shaped something like that, but as you can see the difficulty level gets higher and higher as you go.
So, that's it for the logical reasoning section basics. And now we can, we're ready to move into some of the more specifics.
