Help with prephrasing and stimulus interaction

[ashleyroos]

I am currently studying Logical Reasoning for the August LSAT, and I am really getting stuck on Primary Objective #6, which is prephrasing. I have gotten all my Main Point questions right, I can immediately spot the main conclusion in a stimulus. However, I never implemented prephrasing (at least consciously) and now that I am doing Must Be True drills, I find myself at a standstill when it comes to performing this skill. I completely draw a blank on what the answer could possibly even be about.

Now that I am really thinking about it, while I can understand my reasoning for certain questions and why I got them wrong, I seem to be struggling when it comes to going through the logical steps. The best way to describe it is I feel like I am operating on "vibes" rather than logical thinking. I am only finishing up my first week, but I really need to nip this problem in the bud while I can.

Any advice or comments is welcome!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Ashley,

Prephrasing is definitely a skill that will develop with practice, so it's completely understandable that you may not quite know how to do it very well at first.

Also, the exact way one prephrases depends on the specific question type, and some question types are easier to prephrase than others. For example, assuming that you've correctly identified the main conclusion of an argument in the stimulus, then prephrasing Main Point questions is rather straightforward; you're simply looking for an answer that captures the meaning of the main conclusion that you've identified in the stimulus, often worded slightly differently while still getting at the same idea (such as using synonyms).

Must Be True questions can sometimes be more difficult to prephrase. Remember that answers to Must Be True questions are often inferences that can be made by linking two or more statements in the stimulus, so a good place to start prephrasing these questions is looking for ways to connect the facts in the stimulus.

The best way to improve your prephrasing is to practice, but then to review what you prephrased compared to the correct answer, and then try to "work backwards" to determine how you could have possibly spotted that connection in the stimulus in order to prephrase the answer. Reading the explanations for the questions on our forum can be very helpful here.

Keep in mind that not every question will yield a good prephrase, and some questions may yield many good prephrases. (For example, for a Weaken question, there may be many ways to weaken a given argument, so you don't want to waste a lot of time trying to come up with many different prephrases. Simply realize that there could be many ways to weaken that argument and perhaps try to think of one or two before analyzing the answers.)

If you still find that you're struggling with prephrasing, you may want to consider working with one of our LSAT tutors who could work one-on-one with you on this specific skill.