Arguments are a fundamental part of the law, and analyzing arguments is a key element of legal analysis. The training provided in law school builds on a foundation of critical reasoning skills.
As a law student, you need to draw on the skills of analyzing, evaluating, constructing, and refuting arguments. You also need to be able to identify what information is relevant to an issue or argument and what impact further evidence might have. And you need to be able to reconcile opposing positions and use arguments to persuade others.
The LSAT’s Logical Reasoning section questions are designed to evaluate your ability to examine, analyze, and critically evaluate arguments as they occur in ordinary language. Each Logical Reasoning question requires you to read and comprehend a short passage, then answer one question about it.
The Logical Reasoning questions are adapted from a wide variety of sources, including newspapers, general interest magazines, scholarly publications, advertisements, and informal discourse. These arguments mirror legal reasoning in the types of arguments presented and their complexity.
The questions are designed to assess a wide range of skills involved in thinking critically, with an emphasis on skills that have proven to be central to legal reasoning.
These skills include:
Recognizing the parts of an argument and their relationships
Recognizing similarities and differences between patterns of reasoning
Drawing well-supported conclusions
Reasoning by analogy
Recognizing misunderstandings or points of disagreement
Determining how additional evidence affects an argument
Detecting assumptions made by particular arguments
Identifying and applying principles or rules
Identifying flaws in arguments
Identifying explanations
Suggested Approach to Logical Reasoning Questions
Logical reasoning questions do not require specialized knowledge of logical terminology. The LSAT may use such concepts, but it will describe them using other words. LSAT questions can be answered without knowing precise terminology. For example, you will not need to know the meaning of specialized legal terms such as “ad hominem” or “syllogism.”
On the other hand, you will be asked to understand and critique the reasoning contained in arguments. To do so, it is important to have an understanding of concepts such as argument, premise, assumption, and conclusion. If you are not familiar with these concepts, it would be a good idea to get better acquainted with them.
Here are some strategies to keep in mind when answering logical reasoning questions:
Read each question carefully. Make sure that you understand the meaning of each part of the question. Make sure that you understand the meaning of each answer choice and the ways in which each may or may not relate to the question posed.
Do not pick a response simply because it is a true statement. Although true, it may not answer the question posed.
Answer each question on the basis of the context that is provided by the passage.
LSAT questions do not involve any tricks or hidden meanings.