Star Wars is a classic. A particularly memorable scene depicts Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker heading to the nearby spaceport to find a ship to get them and their two droids (R2D2 and C3PO) off the planet. Their goal is to get back into the hands of the Rebel Alliance. R2 is carrying important information about how to destroy the Death Star. It’s a great plan, but there’s a problem. The Empire is looking for the droids and they’ve set up roadblocks and checkpoints to try and catch them before they get away.
Ben, Luke, and the droids roll into town and are flagged down by Stormtroopers who ask about the droids. Do they have papers? How long have they had them? Ben interrupts the questioning and waves his hand. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” The head Stormtrooper repeats this line back to Ben and the rest of the roadblock gang. With a few more waves of the hand and suggestions that all is normal and to let them go and they’re on their way. The Stormtroopers send them through with no problem, no additional questions. As it turns out, Ben is Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight. He’s got mad skills, including the ability to exert influence on the weak-minded. Ben used a Jedi mind trick to cloud the weaker minds of his enemies and fool them into making what was, for them, a series of wrong decisions.
The LSAT and the Jedi
Okay, but what does this have to do with the LSAT? Everything, young padawan!
One of the most powerful tools an LSAT test-taker can apply to the test is what we call prephrasing. What is prephrasing? It’s deciding what the answer should be before looking at any of the answer choices. If you know what you’re looking for, it’s a lot easier to spot the right answer and eliminate the wrong answers with confidence and speed. In short, prephrasing is a Jedi mind trick. If you do it, you’re effectively a Jedi Knight (on the LSAT). If you don’t, you’re the Stormtrooper in this scenario. Nobody wants to be a Stormtrooper.
The authors of the LSAT are also like the Jedi. They try to cloud your mind with attractive wrong answers, shell games, new or misleading information, and a number of other tricks. If you go into the answer choices with no prephrase, no idea about what you seek, they will fool you every time. You will continue to make bad decisions like the white-helmet-wearing soldiers at the roadblock. However, if you prephrase and know what you seek, you will be strong like Obi-Wan and defeat your enemies!
Prephrase, young apprentices! And may the force be with you.
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