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You are here: Home / LSAT PodCast / LSAT PodCast Episode 4: How to Solve Parallel Reasoning Questions

February 20, 2019

LSAT PodCast Episode 4: How to Solve Parallel Reasoning Questions

PowerScore LSAT Podcast

In Episode 4, Jon and Dave turn their attention to Parallel Reasoning questions—one of the most challenging and time-consuming question types in the LR sections—and outline the most effective techniques for solving them. They follow this conceptual discussion up with a detailed look at two real Parallel questions from the June 2007 LSAT and show you exactly how to apply their recommended solution strategies.

You can find the episode embedded below, but make sure to subscribe/follow and rate/review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!

Timestamps

0:00 – Intro. As always, the episode kicks off with a discussion of the evening’s cocktails and song choice. Interestingly, in the spirit of Parallel Reasoning, a degree of duality influenced both drinks and tunes, where Jon and Dave are both sipping on Fencepost Wine’s outstanding Red Blend (which just so happens to be made by Dave’s own wine company!), and chose multiple songs for the night:

Blondie’s 1978 Parallel Lines album, particularly “One Way or Another”

Muse’s “Algorithm” from their 2018 album Simulation Theory

5:48 – The first part of our look at the latest news in the LSAT World, including some talk of the recent January LSAT score release and our scale prediction for it, the evolving and much-improved nature of the score release process, and a final reminder to get registered for the March test if you haven’t already (deadline is 2/20 by 11:59 pm EST!).

12:50 – A brief update on LSAC’s latest blog post, and then a lengthier overview of the recent LSAC conference in Albuquerque focused on test security and cheating. “68 percent of undergrad students admitted to cheating… 90 percent thought they wouldn’t get caught.”

Parallel Reasoning

20:44 – At last we turn to Parallel questions and begin that discussion with an overview of the question type, the task at hand, and the fears and misunderstandings that plague many test takers.

29:24 – The Parallel Reasoning Elemental Attack is first introduced with an examination of how it works and the dangers that exist in mis-application.

35:14 – Continuing the Elemental Attack discussion, Dave and Jon break down the system’s five pieces and explain exactly how and when to utilize each component. They also note what does NOT need to be duplicated in a Parallel correct answer. To Dave’s minor annoyance as Jon jumps the gun and talks about this notion first.

For a look at the triple-“most” Parallel question Jon mentions (bicyclists in Sheldon), check out the June 1995 (PT 15) LSAT’s LR2 #22, as well as our explanation.

54:11 – Dave runs through the first example question of the evening: June 2007 LR1 #2. We have a discussion of this question on our Forum, as well.

1:09:46 – Jon explains the second sample question of the episode: June 2007 LR 2 #20. And again, we have a Forum discussion of it. There’s also a summary conversation that serves to wrap the ideas covered up, including why Parallel in general is such a critical question type to distinguish yourself from your competition, and where you can find a grouped collection of Parallel for practice. Dave also mentions a question from the November 2018 LSAT that he discussed on our Forum, which you can access here.

1:31:09 – Outro. Be sure to subscribe, leave us a rating, and send us any questions or topics you’d like us to cover: lsatpodcast@powerscore.com. We appreciate you listening!

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Posted by PowerScore Test Prep / LSAT PodCast / Logical Reasoning, LSAC, LSAT Podcast Leave a Comment

  • Raini Edwards
    February 21, 2019 at 6:53pm

    Thank you for this PodCast on Parallel Reasoning it was informative and entertaining.
    Yes, Queen Mr. Freddie Mercury my favorite , of all time great band and obviously I enjoy Blondie and the songs chosen is benefiting the analogy quality of this discussion concerning Parallel Reasoning and its Flaws.
    Thank you for making studying this less intimadating.

  • Jon Denning
    February 21, 2019 at 8:56pm

    Hi Raini – so happy to hear you’re enjoying it, both the content and the music 🙂

  • Charlene Lachicotte
    February 24, 2019 at 3:28am

    Hello, this doesn’t relate to this episode necessarily, but it’s a format for communicating. First, I’m curious about the upcoming digital format of the test. How will the test takers be able to make notes and diagrams while testing?

    Also, I am extremely interested in speeding up my test taking! I am a very slow reader, and I feel like this is the main things holding me back. I would love an episode on this topic!!!!!!!!

    -C

  • Jon Denning
    February 25, 2019 at 6:44pm

    Hi Charlene – thanks for listening! And great question about the Digital LSAT…I took the very first pilot test so I can report very directly on the experience of note taking: you’re given a booklet of scratch paper where you can make notes and diagrams for every section of the test, so there is a way to jot things down (thank goodness). Oddly though your writing tool is an ink pen, not a pencil! We were each given a short pen with one end for writing and the other with a rubber nub that acted as a stylus for the tablet in case you preferred to interact with it that way rather than by finger-touch. So I could hear a lot of frustrated scratching out from people, rather than the more familiar erasing 🙂

    It took a little time to adjust to, especially for games since you were looking back and forth between your screen and the paper with all your diagrams, but it wasn’t as awkward as it sounds. Just took a little practice. Happily you can start practicing with this format now if you’d like: just treat any LSAT content you have on paper as though it’s on a screen, and do all your diagramming (for games and anything else) separately on scratch paper with an ink pen, and see how it goes. I think you’ll find that you get used to it quickly.

    You can read all about the Digital LSAT and our thoughts on it here if you’d like: https://info.powerscore.com/digital_lsat

    As for your speed concerns, that’s a great idea for a future episode! I’ve added it to our list 🙂

    Thanks again, Charlene!

  • Jacob Loveless
    February 28, 2019 at 1:03am

    Great podcast. You guys have a very smooth back and forth. I am just cleaning up the logic games bible and am getting ready to delve into the logical reasoning bible. I constantly hear from my peers that logic games is the most learn-able aspect of the test, will i see large advances in logical reasoning? I hope so because I quite frankly suck at them. When in a vacuum I can break it down and get the correct answer but I just blank due to time restrictions.

  • Jon Denning
    February 28, 2019 at 2:13am

    Hi Jacob – thanks for tuning in, and for the compliment! Dave and I have worked together so long at this point it sometimes feels like we share two halves of the same brain haha, so I’m really happy to hear our weird symbiosis comes through 🙂

    The reason people often put LG on such a high “learnable pedestal” is because once you truly understand how games work then everything becomes entirely provable, where right and wrong are always black/white notions with zero uncertainty or relative correctness like you find most other places on the test. So the ability to find correct and incorrect answers for each question with mathematical precision/certainty takes absolutely all of the guesswork out of it, and you can know every single time that you’re 100% correct (again, if you know what you’re doing). That’s an enormous gift, obviously.

    People then look at RC and LR and note, correctly, that those sections don’t allow for the same degree of provability with answer choices, and their anxiety spikes, their confidence drops, and they conclude that those sections then aren’t as inherently master-able as LG.

    And while you could make a reasonable argument for that view *to an extent*…my view has always been (and remains) that people aren’t giving RC and especially LR enough credit!

    Take LR. Yes, there are times and question types where the right answer choice isn’t perfect, but is merely the best of the five options (Weaken and Strengthen are two classic examples). So unlike games you need to know all five options before you can determine, say, which weakens or strengthens the most. It becomes an answer choice competition, and that’s necessarily slipperier than answers you can absolutely guarantee are right and wrong.

    But most LR questions/answers, and most of RC too for that matter, are far more definitively right vs wrong than people realize, largely because – in my opinion – they fixate too much on finding right answers and focus too little on determining why answers fail!

    I’ve written about this in a number of places over the years (including this reddit thread in a few comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/LSAT/comments/75zz0k/powerscore_bibles_testmast…), so let me pull some relevant text I’ve used previously and explain what I mean:

    “The very best test takers see this test through an incredibly specific and unique lens, where instead of constantly hunting for and expecting to find right answers — that is, answers that they love and feel amazing about — those testers are experts at recognizing what makes answers wrong and confidently removing them. And this is never more critical than in the toughest LR and RC questions!

    If you could get inside my head as I took this test and progressed into the real thickets of tricky LR and RC, aside from a fair amount of foul language haha, you’d also hear the distinct sound of me steadily trashing answer choices. This machete effect of endless removal (as I mention in the podcast episode above). ‘You go away for that…you’re out for this…psshhhtt nice try LSAC but I’m not falling for it.’

    Sure, easier questions have right answers that are recognizably so for the most part. That’s why they’re easy.

    But if you want to make the questions most people miss easy too, forget the correct answer and learn to spot why LSAC would say the other four are wrong!

    Improve your dismissal skills. Right answers win by default, not delight.”

    So to your question about seeing significant LR gains: yes, provided you become as expert as possible at finding four answers every time that fail for good reasons! Do a bunch of LR questions untimed, or loosely timed, and don’t worry about finding the correct choice; just run through all five answers and see if you can identify the four worst ones, and then have specific reasons *why* you want to remove them. Do that over and over and eventually you’ll discover that even the toughest questions become routinely solvable 🙂

    I hope that helps!

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