LSAT Preparatory Course

Analytical Reasoning

During Analytical Reasoning, students will be taught how to approach analytical reasoning questions, how to represent what happens and understand conditional statements. It also trains students to reason within a given set of circumstances. This is set of circumstances are known as a “set-up” which consists of sets of elements (people, places, objects, tasks, colors, days of the week etc) along with a list of conditions designed to impose some sort of structure, or organization, on these elements.

Sample Question

Each of exactly seven professors – Powell, Shihab, Taylor, Vaughan, Wood, Young, and Zabel- gives exactly one guest lecture in the literary theory course. The lectures are ordered from first through seventh, and their order must conform to the following:

Powell lectures before Wood.

Taylor lectures before Shihab.

Vaughan lectures before Zabel.

Shihab is no later than third.

Young is not seventh.

Powell lectures first if, but only if, Young lectures before Vaughan.

Which one of the following could be the order in which the professors lecture, from first to last?

1. Powell, Young, Taylor, Shihab, Vaughan, Zabel, Wood
2. Taylor, Powell, Shihab, Wood, Vaughan, Young, Zabel
3. Taylor, Vaughan, Shihab, Wood, Powell, Young, Zabel
4. Vaughan, Taylor, Shihab, Powell, Wood, Zabel, Young
5. Young, Taylor, Shihab, Powell, Vaughen, Zabel, Wood

Logical Reasoning

For Logical Reasoning, students will learn to understand arguments – which are sets of statements that present evidence and draw conclusion on the basis of that evidence. Students will also be taught to match patterns of reasoning in arguments, understand necessary conditions and sufficient conditions, assumptions and identify flaws in arguments.

Sample Question

Antibiotics are standard ingredients in animal feed because they keep animals healthy and increase meat yields. However, scientists have recommended phasing out this practice, believing it may make antibiotics less effective in humans. If meat yields are reduced, however, some farmers will go out of business.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

1. If scientists are correct that antibiotics use in animal feed makes antibiotics less effective in humans, then some farmers will go out of business
2. If antibiotics use in animal feed is not phased out, some antibiotics will become ineffective in humans
3. If scientists’ recommendation is not heeded, no farmers will go out of business due to reduced meat yields
4. If the health of their animals declines, most farmers will not be able to stay in business
5. If antibiotics use in animal feed is phased out, some farmers will go out of business unless they use other means of increasing meat yields

Reading Comprehension

Students will be taught how to approach lengthy and complex reading passages and sets of attached questions. The questions can range from more straightforward identification of main ideas or inferences, to questions asking you to evaluate the impact of new information on the argument, apply information into a new context, or discern the attitude of the author.

 Sample Question

Which one of the following is most analogous to the main point of passage B?

1. The loss of a favorite piece of clothing when it starts to fray after many years is not necessarily a meaningful loss
2. The alteration of a culture’s folk music by the influence of music from other cultures is not always lamentable
3. The expansion of urban development into previously rural areas is a necessary consequence of progress
4. Cultures can be only benefit when they absorb and adapt ideas that originated in other cultures
5. While horticulturalists can create new plant species through hybridization, hybridization also occurs in the wild