LSAT Logical Reasoning

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This course is designed to help students prepare for the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT.

Objective: Score well on the Logical Reasoning test.

The LSAT includes two logical reasoning sections, each lasting 35 minutes and consisting of 24 to 26 questions. Often referred to as the arguments sections, these sections test your ability to understand, analyze, critique, and complete arguments. These logical reasoning skills are critical for success in law school, where you will regularly have to dissect opposing arguments. The LSAT therefore aims to provide law school admissions offices with good barometers of applicants’ success potential in this essential skill area.

Each question in the logical reasoning sections first presents a logical statement or argument of just a few short sentences. Following each argument, the test poses one multiple-choice question, although sometimes two questions will follow a single argument. The LSAT uses arguments taken as short passages from a variety of sources, such as advertisements, newspaper articles and editorials, speeches, letters to the editor, and informal discussions or conversations. The passages may also come from articles on social sciences, humanities, or the natural sciences.

To answer each question, you must read the statements provided and understand the meaning and reasoning of the argument. The questions will require you to discern implied assumptions, alternative viewpoints, or omissions or errors in logic. You also may need to select a line of parallel reasoning or identify statements that strengthen or weaken the supplied argument.

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) uses a difficulty scale of one to five, with five being highest, for the logical reasoning sections in its official LSAT Superprep. On the LSAT, most logical reasoning sections include two or three questions at difficulty level five. The questions appear in a rough progression of easiest to hardest. The first ten questions often range only as high as a level-three difficulty, while the most difficult questions tend to appear toward the end of the section.