Nathan Fox
This lesson was prompted by an email that arrived this morning from a Thinking LSAT Podcast listener:
I used to get annoyed when Nathan would say EVERYTHING was a Must Be True question, but that insight definitely helped me out. There was an inference / “most supported by the passage” type of question on my official test that the pre–Thinking LSAT Podcast version of me would have gotten wrong every time. One answer choice seemed to paraphrase everything presented about the author’s views and seemed like a great example of what the author would have agreed with. Another answer choice referenced in dull language a specific throwaway line from the passage. I didn’t hesitate to choose the [former]. Must. Be. True.
Yeah, that pretty much says it. When in doubt, on LSAT Reading Comprehension, we should assume the question is a Must Be True. As such, we should pick an answer that has straightforward support from the passage. Being dull and boring never makes it wrong here—in fact, dull and boring is exactly what we want.
Step into the test makers’ shoes for a moment. The LSAT contains a section called “Reading Comprehension.” What, as the test maker, do you intend to test here?
Are you looking to examine an applicant’s command of logic and argumentation? No, you do that on Logical Reasoning.
Are you looking to examine an applicant’s ability to solve complex systems of variables and rules? Do you want to see whether they’re willing to practice arcane puzzles for weeks, months, or years until they achieve mastery? No, you’ve got Logic Games for that.
On Reading Comprehension, you’re simply testing an applicant’s ability to understand what they’ve read. But you get bored asking, “Which one of these five does the passage say?” So instead, you write questions like these:
These are the eight questions from the first passage of PrepTest J, by the way—a test that’s available to all students via a Demon Free account.
Are all of these questions Must Be Trues? Well, let’s take them one at a time.
I picked this passage at random, but I’m not surprised that eight of eight questions turn out to be some variety of Must Be True. Yes, the test makers do throw in an explicit Strengthen or Weaken question from time to time. But when they’re asking us for the main point, primary purpose, author’s attitude, or any of the various quirky questions posed above, they’re really just testing whether we understand the passage on the page in front of us. When in doubt: Must Be True.
So, putting on our Must Be True hat, how do we know when we’ve found the correct answer for each question?
Put bluntly, the correct answer is correct because it’s what it says in the damn passage. We should be able to predict the answer half the time, or more, if we stop and think about each question before blundering ahead into the answer choices.
If we narrow it down to two—which shouldn’t be happening very often, because the right answers are very right and each wrong answer is very wrong, often for multiple reasons—we should lean toward answers that are boring, obvious, vague, and/or conservatively stated. Those answers are easier to prove and, therefore, more likely to be correct. We should be extra suspicious of answers that are too specific or strongly worded or that add anything new, different, or extra. Those answers are harder to prove and, therefore, almost always wrong.
Next week, I’ll dive into question types in Logic Games. Do they matter? Are some types harder than others? Should we do Logic Games questions out of order, or are there certain types that should be skipped?
Li’l brain teaser for ya. Seven clowns of different colors are getting out of a clown car, one at a time.
1. If the red clown gets out of the clown car before the blue clown, which one of the following must be true?
A. The orange clown gets out first.
B. The purple clown gets out last.
C. The red clown does not get out first.
D. The red clown does not get out last.
E. The blue clown does not get out last.
2. Unless the red clown gets out of the clown car after the blue clown, each of the following could be false EXCEPT
A. The orange clown gets out first.
B. The purple clown gets out last.
C. The red clown does not get out first.
D. The red clown does not get out last.
E. The blue clown does not get out last.
3. Which one of these questions is harder, and why?
Answers next time.
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