Grammar for the LSAT

[RSX007]

Hi:

I've noticed other prep companies have a grammar course specifically dedicated to the LSAT as sophisticated grammar skills as well as sophisticated logic are BOTH necessary to study for the exam. Grammar skills such a subject, predicate, transitive and modal verbs, sentence clauses etc are some of the skills that are taught. We may not realize that much of what we have learned in terms of grammar, we either forgot since grade school or simply took for granted until now, when we study for the LSAT and realise our grammar skills aren't necessarily up to par.

I have the LSAT Bibles trilogy set; however, it seems like grammar isn't covered much at all. Is there a resource you recommend that I can use to brush up on these necessary skills? It seems skills are absolutely imperative for decent performance on the LSAT.

I have even seen you guys use these terms (ex. modal verbs) when answering students questions related to a specific stimulus.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi RS

Unlike logic, which is an entirely new skill for most of us, grammar is something that you don't really completely need at a formal level. You don't need logic at a symbolic level, and you don't really need to jump into the formalities of grammar either. In the same way that you need to have a general knowledge of vocabulary, you need a general working knowledge of grammar. I find that students have sufficient grammar knowledge for the test if they've gone through a secondary level of schooling in English.

The trick is actively slowing down enough to use that knowledge. I would never recommend something like sentence diagramming on the test (other than in conditional/formal logic scenarios). But you probably know what you need to know about grammar. You need to recognize the way in which various pronouns refer back to a subject, and which term in a sentence the different pronouns refer back to. PowerScore teaches these skills through reasoning and stimulus analysis. You don't need to get into the details of transitive or intrasitive verbs. We don't use the term "modal verbs" because it unreasonably complicates the idea that you are looking for words that indicate necessity. The extra terminology with grammar lessons is, in my opinion, over-complicating things.

The test isn't there to test your grammar knowledge. It's there to test your reasoning and uses grammar as a reasoning tool. As long as you focus on the structure of the argument and language in terms of how it relates to the conclusion, you should be good to go.

Hope that helps!