How to approach Logical Reasoning Questions in LSAT

Logical Reasoning Questions in LSAT

Logical reasoning questions evaluate your ability to understand, analyze, criticize, and complete a variety of arguments. The arguments are contained in short passages taken from a variety of sources, including letters to the editor, speeches, advertisements, newspaper articles and editorials, informal discussions and conversations, as well as articles in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Each logical reasoning question requires you to read and comprehend a short passage, then answer one or two questions about it. The questions test a variety of abilities involved in reasoning logically and thinking critically. These include:

• recognizing the point or issue of an argument or dispute;
• detecting the assumptions involved in an argumentation or chain of reasoning;
• drawing reasonable conclusions from given evidence or premises;
• identifying and applying principles;
• identifying the method or structure of an argument or chain of reasoning;
• detecting reasoning errors and misinterpretations;
• determining how additional evidence or argumentation affects an argument or conclusion; and
• identifying explanations and recognizing resolutions of conflicting facts or arguments.

The questions do not presuppose knowledge of the terminology of formal logic. For example, you will not be expected to know the meaning of specialized terms such as “ad hominem” or “syllogism.” On the other hand, you will be expected to understand and critique the reasoning contained in arguments. This requires that you possess, at a minimum, a college-level understanding of widely used concepts such as argument, premise, assumption, and conclusion.

Suggested Approach
Read each question carefully. Make sure that you understand the meaning of each part of the question. Make sure that you understand the meaning of each answer choice and the ways in which it may or may not relate to the question posed.
Do not pick a response simply because it is a true statement. Although true, it may not answer the question posed.

Answer each question on the basis of the information that is given, even if you do not agree with it. Work within the context provided by the passage. The questions do not involve any tricks or hidden meanings.

Sample Logical Reasoning Question

It is now a common complaint that the electronic media have corroded the intellectual skills required and fostered by the literary media. But several centuries ago the complaint was that certain intellectual skills, such as the powerful memory and extemporaneous eloquence that were intrinsic to oral culture, were being destroyed by the spread of literacy. So, what awaits us is probably a mere alteration of the human mind rather than its devolution.
The reference to the complaint of several centuries ago that powerful memory and extemporaneous eloquence were being destroyed plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
(A) evidence supporting the claim that the intellectual skills fostered by the literary media are being destroyed by the electronic media
(B) an illustration of the general hypothesis being advanced that intellectual abilities are inseparable from the means by which people communicate
(C) an example of a cultural change that did not necessarily have a detrimental effect on the human mind overall
(D) evidence that the claim that the intellectual skills required and fostered by the literary media are being lost is unwarranted
(E) possible evidence, mentioned and then dismissed, that might be cited by supporters of the hypothesis being criticized

Answer
C

LSAT India

The LSAT is one of the most reputed law entrance exams. A number of colleges use the LSAT India scores for admission to their law schools in India. To ace the exam is no mean feat. The points given here, you must keep in mind while facing the Logical Reasoning section of LSAT India. Best of luck for your exam!

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