Logic Reasoning Mistakes

[mes08]

Hi,

After going over my mistakes the past couple of weeks, I've realized that I consistently get Assumption and Flaw in the Reasoning questions wrong. I've already reviewed the chapters in my Powerscore books that discuss these question types, but I'm still struggling to get them right. Any advice? Thanks a lot for your help!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi mes08,

Thanks for your question!

When students experience difficulty with a particular question type, the first thing we tell them is to go back to the basics: review the lessons covering these question types, and make sure they understand how to approach them conceptually. It sounds like you've done that already.

The next step is to work through a large number of these questions in order to get into the habit of consistently and accurately applying the approach learned in class. This is absolutely critical, and the results won't come overnight: you just have to work on it! Over time, you should start applying the Assumption Negation Technique automatically, without consciously thinking about it. Likewise, you need to learn - heck, memorize - the different types of logical fallacies that frequently occur on the LSAT, and learn to recognize them in Flaw questions.

If you were enrolled in a full-length or a live-online course, have you completed all the Assumption and Flaw homework from the course? Did you read through our explanations for these questions? Did you download the supplemental LR questions from the Student Center? Alternatively, if you studied using the Bibles, do you have access to the Question Type Training books, or perhaps downloaded the Flaw and Assumption questions from our eDownload store (http://downloads.powerscore.com/)?

Flaw and Assumption questions have a lot in common. This is because many of the answer choices in Flaw questions begin by saying, "The author assumes, without justification, that..." or "The argument takes for granted that..." etc. Essentially, these questions test to see if you recognized the unwarranted assumption behind the author's conclusion. Critical reasoning is key here, and so is a prephrase! Did you see the gap in the logic before examining the answer choices? In fact, out of all the LR question types on the test, the two that you should absolutely prephrase, 100% of the time, are Assumption and Flaw questions!

Here are some blog posts we recently wrote covering these topics:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/253 ... ifferences

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/153 ... n-the-LSAT

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/339 ... ing-Part-I

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/340 ... ng-Part-II

Jon's series of blog posts on various Flaw questions:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/293 ... to-Emotion

Good luck!

Nikki