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August LSAT Predictions
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I don't think students realize what a massive opportunity you have if you're taking the LSAT in August and beyond. Today, I'm going to walk you through my predictions for what the August LSAT will look like, the first test without the logic game section. For those who don't know me, my name is Steve Schwartz. I've been teaching the LSAT since 2005, and I personally increased my LSAT score from a 152 to a 175 on LSAT test day itself. Now, the LSAT is changing this year. The June LSAT was the last one, the logic game section. Starting in August, they're replacing logic games with a second scored logical reasoning section. So, going forward, the LSAT will have two scored logical reasoning sections, one scored reading comp section, and one unscored extra section of either logical reasoning or reading comprehension. So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or no sedomist to recognize that the August LSAT will not have games and will have two scored logical reasoning sections. But what exactly will those two logical reasoning sections look like? Historically, the LSAT has had roughly 15 different types of logical reasoning questions. The most common types being necessary assumption, inference, and flaw. LSAT has announced they have verified they are not going to add some radical new type of logical reasoning question. LSAT first and foremost aims for consistency on the LSAT, and in fact, they were so big on consistency that they refused to grant accommodations to blind test takers who contended they were at an unfair disadvantage because they couldn't benefit from diagramming logic games the way other test takers could. They sued LSAT and LSAT ultimately had to settle the lawsuit and agreed to develop a new version of the test without the logic game section, which is why we're not seeing logic games on the test going forward. However, over the past several months, we have seen early indications that LSAT may be looking to test out quantitative reasoning on the logical reasoning section going forward. For the past several LSAT administrations, we have seen that the logical reasoning experimental sections have contained more questions involving formal logic, more questions testing, numerical or quantitative reasoning, things like absolute versus relative values, numbers versus percentages. And so this may be an early indication that starting with the August LSAT, we will see more logical reasoning questions of this type. To be clear, this is not some radical new question type. The LSAT will continue to have strengthened, weakened flaw, parallel, necessary assumption, sufficient assumption, and so on. But when it comes to the methods of reasoning in the stimulus, we may see more questions involving formal logic where diagramming might be helpful, more questions where an understanding of numerical reasoning may be helpful. Again, we've seen this all before on previous LSATs, but we may see a bit more of these questions going forward. We can also expect that the LSAT will continue to have a general order of difficulty in the logical reasoning section, meaning the questions get more difficult as this section goes on. If you are aiming for a 160 or above on the LSAT, which I certainly hope you are, I recommend aiming to complete the first 10 questions in logical reasoning in roughly 10 minutes with standard timing so that you have more time for the more difficult questions later in the section that truly need it. Typically, traditionally, questions 15 through 23 within a single logical reasoning section are the most difficult in the section. This is where I would recommend flagging at least three or four questions of the times you don't like, maybe parallel reasoning questions or something that you don't like, maybe you don't like the overly technical ones on hard science or philosophy, anything really abstract in nature, at least those are the types that I tend to personally want to flag. Now, in reading comprehension, we will continue to have four different passage sets, three long passages, then two shorter passages on a related topic, oftentimes called the dual or comparative passages, and the topics will include natural science, social science, humanities, and law. You will also typically have one of the four on underrepresented minorities or women. So given these predictions, what should you do going forward for your prep, whether you're taking the LSAT in August, September, October, or beyond? Of course, I would recommend devoting at least two thirds of your LSAT prep time to logical reasoning on average, since it'll be roughly two thirds of the exam going forward, and I would recommend making sure that you are clear on the most common logical reasoning question types, again, necessary assumption, inference, and flaw, and I would also recommend maybe devoting a bit more attention than you otherwise would have to those questions involving quantitative or numerical reasoning, questions involving formal logic, testing your understanding of numbers versus percentages, absolute versus relative values, long story short, you want to recognize that a large percentage may still be a very small number, and a large number may still constitute a very small percentage. For example, there are tens of thousands of people taking the LSAT every single year, but they constitute a very small percentage of the overall population of North America, just as one example illustrating this concept. And if you'd like my help, whether you're taking the LSAT in August or beyond, there are, of course, a variety of ways I can support you, whether it's through my one on one LSAT coaching programs or small group programs, you could check out the links below to find out more and typical call with me and my team, we'd be glad to help you out. And in the meantime, I'll wish you all the best and take care.