Are you having trouble with Number and Percentage Logical Reasoning problems? You're not alone! Number and Percentage problems can be among the most difficult, so the fact that they are giving you some trouble isn't unusual.  They are likely to appear at least a few times on your test, so you'll want to make sure you have these ideas locked down.  Here are some helpful suggestions to improve your #% performance, and several examples to make the ideas stick. Determine the Focus Make sure that the #s and %s that are used in the problem are the focus of the problem. The people who make the test … [Read more...]

It would be nice to spend even a day with the deep pockets of Jeff Bezos. If hard-pressed, my Richie Rich fantasies could settle for the likes of a Richard Branson. However, I have learned the importance of staying within a limited budget. I am far more likely to be found shopping at Goodwill than at Gucci. But hey, that doesn’t rule out rocking a thrift store penguin suit to blend in with the locals in Antarctica. Staying within our budget is just as imperative when choosing Must Be True answers. However, this budget doesn’t involve good old fashioned greenbacks or even the gold coins … [Read more...]

Last weekend I got into a conversation with a friend about the exact meaning of few. Yes, sadly, this is how I spend my time. Like many people, she has a very definite idea of what few means: three or more. However, from an LSAT perspective, is that definitely correct? Actually, no.While many would agree that few means three or more, the dictionary definition is, "not many but more than one". So, a few cannot be one, but it can be as low as two. This surprises many people but highlights some of the dangers of taking the LSAT without preparing beforehand. You can easily end up … [Read more...]

Part I, Part II, and Part III list the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reason questions in chronological order. Now let’s get to the most valuable and interesting part of this discussion. What can we learn from them? Here are a few fascinating observations drawn from an analysis of the 15 Hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions. A Notable Bias Towards (A) Questions within this set of 15 are overwhelmingly biased in favor of answer choice (A). Certainly this could perhaps be partially explained by the fact that a list such as this one is somewhat subjective, but consider that the correct answer for … [Read more...]

Below is Part III of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains the final 5 of the 15 questions that were presented in chronological order. In Part I and Part II we went over the first 10 in our list of the most difficult LR questions of all time in chronological order. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, … [Read more...]

It may have been as early as middle school when you were first introduced to a psychosocial debate that attempts to answer perhaps life’s most important question. From the time humans developed the ability to formulate questions, we’ve wondered why we are the way that we are. The concept of Nature/Nurture has been around since at least the Elizabethan period, but the ideas were first proposed back in ancient Greece when Aristotle and Plato discussed the origin of human knowledge.This concept has shown up repeatedly on the LSAT over the years! Test makers have discussed behavior traits … [Read more...]

Below is Part II of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains 5 more of the 15 questions we’re listing out in chronological order. In Part I, we discussed questions 1-5 on the list and in Part III we present questions 11-15. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, and our own experience teaching and writing … [Read more...]

Below is Part I of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains 5 of the 15 questions, which will be presented in chronological order. In Part II we discuss questions 6-10 on the list and in Part III we present questions 11-15. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, and our own experience teaching and writing … [Read more...]

So far in this mini series, we have covered Question-by-Question Difficulty and Individual Question Difficulty. These have largely covered the individual questions within a section on Logical Reasoning on the LSAT. In this post, I am focusing my efforts to discuss overall difficulty in the LR section. Following that, I'll address how that figures into the creation of an LSAT. Overall Difficulty by the Numbers For this, we are using the statistics cited in my previous posts. From there, we have a composite of the overall average difficulty of each section from the four tests under … [Read more...]

In my last post, I discussed question-by-question difficulty in LSAT Logical Reasoning sections. Continuing in that same vein, let’s look inside the statistics a bit further. When you examine the difficulty rating for individual questions and sections, you can make several useful inferences. The First Question The first question is always easy or relatively easy (seven of the eight sections under discussion began with a level 1 (easy) question; the other section began with a level 2 (relatively easy) question. In other words, the first question will not be hard. The same is true for the … [Read more...]

In Logical Reasoning on the LSAT, there is a question many students ask. How does the difficulty of the questions change as the section progresses? In our courses and books, we delve into this point in some detail. Here, I’m going to give a brief overview of how difficulty changes throughout the section. Where Our Data Comes From Before addressing the questions, a note about the statistics we use. You might ask how we derive our information and how accurate that information is. First, years of experience working with LSAT problems and LSAT students give us insight into each section on the … [Read more...]

One of the most common questions test takers ask when considering LSAT Logical Reasoning is "How do I know what information I can accept as fact?" So let's consider what information you should question or approach with skepticism.This very question came up on our Forum. A student considered a question from the second LR section, #24 on the February 1994 LSAT. This question discusses investments and the relationship of inflation to profitability. The student ultimately struggled to make sense of the stimulus because of a multitude of economic considerations not mentioned in the text, but … [Read more...]