Posted on October 29, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
It’s an ugly, rainy, windy day in Washington and all of my lessons are canceled. I’m going to dig into 10 New Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests and do a logic game to pass the time. Let’s try PrepTest 57, Section 1, Questions 1-5 (10 New LSAT, page 188).
This looks like a relatively straightforward ordering game. The items are G, H, J, K, L, and M. I’ll shorthand the rules as follows:
(1) HG
(2) K-G
(3) M-L
(4) JM or MJ
The repetitions of G between rules 1 and 2 and M between rules 3 and 4 are surely not accidental.
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Tags: Analytical Reasoning, Complete and Accurate Lists, LSAT, Ordering Games, Question Analysis
Posted on October 10, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
Today’s question comes from the GMAT. It’s Critical Reasoning Practice Question #7 in The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition (page 118).
A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune-system activity tend to score much lower on tests of mental health than do people with normal or high immune-system activity. The researcher concluded from this experiment that the immune system protects against mental illness as well as against physical disease.
The researcher’s conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions?
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Tags: Assumption (Necessary), Correlation versus Causation, GMAT, GRE, Logical Reasoning, LSAT, Question Analysis
Posted on September 17, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
A couple of weeks ago I did an LSAT reading comprehension passage, but I threw my timing off by taking notes for my blog post as I worked. I’m going to try it again with a new passage, but this time I’m going to treat it exactly as I would on the actual LSAT — and skip the notes. We’ll see if my time improves — and whether I maintain accuracy in the process.
Alright, let’s get to it! I’m doing PrepTest 60, Section 4, Questions 1-7 (10 New LSAT, page 316-317). There are 7 questions here, so our target time is around 9 minutes. See you in 9 minutes!
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Tags: ACT, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, Question Analysis, Reading Comprehension, SAT
Posted on August 30, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
Let’s do some reading comprehension!
To make this as authentic as possible, I’ll pick a passage I haven’t seen before, time myself, and try to comment on my thought process as I go. Okay? Good. Reading comprehension is a staple on pretty much every major standardized test, but I’ll be doing one from the LSAT: PrepTest 57, Section 4, Questions 6-12 (10 New LSAT, page 210-211). Here we go!
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Tags: ACT, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, Question Analysis, Reading Comprehension, SAT
Posted on August 13, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
Building off the formal logic posts of the last two weeks, today we’re going to discuss the LSAT logic game found at PrepTest 58, Section 3, Questions 7-12 (10 New LSAT, page 241).
This is a fairly simple In-and-Out game (also known as a Selection game). Such games often involve heavy doses of arrow diagramming, and this one is no exception. Take a quick read of the setup and then let’s turn our attention to the rules.
The rules of this game can be diagrammed in straightforward fashion as follows:
1. R→M
2. M→T
3. !S→V
4. !R→L
5. T→(!F and !V)
Let’s turn to the questions now.
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Tags: Analytical Reasoning, Complete and Accurate Lists, Counting (In-and-Out), Formal Logic, In-and-Out Games, LSAT, Question Analysis
Posted on July 16, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
For this week’s post I decided to do a GMAT math question. The Official Guide for the GMAT provides explanations for all included questions, so I’m going to write one of my own and discuss it. This question could just as easily show up on a test like the GRE, the SAT, or the ACT.
The number N is increased by x% and then the result is decreased by x%. If the result is 64% of N, which of the following could be the value of x?
A. 8
B. 36
C. 60
D. 64
E. None of these
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Tags: ACT, Algebra, GMAT, GRE, Math, Percents, Question Analysis, SAT
Posted on June 23, 2012 by Anthony Ritz
As previously noted, one regular feature of this blog will be the “question of the week.” I intend to choose from among reader suggestions one question from the LSAT (or GMAT, or GRE, or SAT, or ACT) and to do a full analysis of the strategies needed to answer that question correctly. I will address why the right answer is right, why the wrong answers are wrong (where applicable), what mistakes students must be careful to avoid, and so forth.
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Tags: Inference, Logical Reasoning, LSAT, Question Analysis