2. ACE THE ANALYTICAL REASONING SECTION

Not every LSAT-taker prepares in advance, so you're already one step ahead of the game by reading this SYW. OK, enough hand-holding. Now it's time to really learn about the questions on the test and know what to expect.

The secret to acing the analytical reasoning section of the LSAT is to merely think of the section as one big game. Kinda like Chutes and Ladders. Each game will requires you to use basic logic skills to order, group, or assign characteristics to things or people.

Here is an example of how a game may be set up:

Each of seven travelers -- Anton, Brendan, Charles, Deiter, Echelle, Fanny, and Geoff -- will be assigned to exactly one of nine airline seats. The seats are numbered 1 - 9 and are arranged in rows as follows:

Front row: 1 2 3Middle row: 4 5 6Last row: 7 8 9

Only seats in the same row as each other are immediately beside each other. Seat assignments must adhere to the following conditions:

  1. Brendan's seat is in the last row.
  2. Charles' seat is immediately besides Deiter's seat and also immediately besides an unassigned seat.
  3. Deiter's seat is in the row immediately behind the row that Anton is in.
  4. Neither Echelle nor Geoff is sitting immediately besides Anton.
You will then be asked a bunch of questions about this scenario (possible seating arrangement's, who can't sit in seat 8, etc.). Every single game will start out just like the scenario above: you will be given a situation with particular rules, and you'll have to figure out what those rules mean.

Here are our tips to acing these game questions:

Before you begin

  • Draw a picture. Before you do anything, you should draw the picture of what is described. If people are sitting around a table, then draw a table. For the example above, it may look like this:

  • Abbreviate each clue. So for the days of the week, keep track by writing M, Tu W, Th, F. In our example, you'll notice that you can abbreviate each person to A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

  • Write down every clue. There are many ways to write down clues effectively. Let's look at our example above...

The first rule says that Brendan's seat is in the last row, so let's put him there.

The second rule says that Charles is next to Deiter AND an unassigned seat. So write it down. That means that there always must be a row only containing Charles and Deiter, and Charles must be in the middle. And because Brendan is in the last row, Charles and Deiter must either be in row 1 or 2. So at this point, your sketch may look like this:

The third rule says that Deiter is the row behind Anton. That means that Deiter can't be in row 1. Since we earlier established that Deiter can't be in row 3, then Deiter and Charles must be in row two, with Charles in the middle. This means that Anton must be in row 1. So now your sketch might look like this:

The fourth rule states that neither Echelle nor Geoff is sitting immediately besides Anton. Not that this doesn't mean that neither can go in row 1; it just means that they can't sit next to each other.

So your final sketch might look like this:

Now you're all ready to start answering the questions! So imagine getting this question: Which of the following passengers can be assigned to seats 2 and 8, respectively?

A) Anton, Echelle
B) Brendan, Geoff
C) Charles, Brendan
D) Deiter, Echelle
E) Geoff, Fanny

So look at your picture and figure it out! You know that B is out, because Brendan must be in the last row, so he can't sit in seat 2. You also see that Charles must be in seat 5, and Deiter must be in seat 4 or or seat 6, so you can cross out C and D. You finally realize that Geoff can't be in seat 2, because that would force him to sit next to Anton (thus breaking the fourth rule), so E is out. So the only choice is A! See how quick that was? And all because you drew the picture in advance.

There are other types of rules that you should write down:

  • Convert two negatives to a positive. If it is not true that Frank can not come to school, then Frank can come to school.

    ~(~F) --> F

  • Symbolize 'Only if's. Billy is at school only if Frank is at school.

    B --> F

  • Symbolize 'Unless's. Dylan is not at school, unless Eva is at school.

    ~E --> D

  • Combine clues. If Anna comes to school Chelsea comes to school. And if Chelsea comes to school, Frank will come too. So, if Anna comes to school, Frank will also learn his ABCs that day.

    A --> C; C --> F

    therefore A --> F

  • Symbolize the conditions. For example, if you are told that either 3 or 4 students will come to school, your paper should look like this:

    ____ ____ ____ ( ____ )

  • Most people can eventually figure out all the answers; the tough part is answering all the questions within the time limit. We hate to say it, but PRACTICE is the best way to speed up your performance time. These questions will all begin to look very familiar.

  • If you look through the different games really quickly at the beginning of the section, you might want to choose to do the easiest ones first (to guarantee that you get to them). Imagine wasting all that time on the first puzzle when you could've breezed through the rest.

  • When in doubt, eliminate and guess. You'll always be able to eliminate at least one "duh!" choice, so cross it out and just guess from the remaining ones.