Day 156

I'm writing the LSAT this month. It basically is a three hour test using the exact kind of questions that all people hate to deal with. The logical reasoning section consists of logic questions both deductive and inductive... all sorts of A's and B's and if's and then's and not's and therefore's and so forth. The comprehansion section consists of incredibly thick and esoteric chunks of non-fiction, followed by questions about validity, author's intentions, inferencences, implications, and all the rest.

And the worst section of all is the analytical reasoning section. It's those questions where some vague situation is set up... "Sherry is taller than terry, and perry is shorter than terry but taller than larry. Harry is shorter than larry but taller than terry... blah blah blah..." And then they give you a bunch of hypothetical additions and ask you to deduce outcomes. Sometimes it's about incomes. B makes more than C, D makes less than B, C makes more than E, F makes less than B but more than D... blah blah blah"

Don't try to figure out the examples, they're made up on the spot and probably either very obvious, or self-contradictory. But you get the idea.

For each section you get a painfully small period of time for completion. Most people, I'm told, don't even finish (or at least, they are forced to randomly guess a number of answers in the last minute), so the real test is of one's ability to perform these functions and reasoning measures accurately and quickly.

Practice does help, but I'm getting more and more convinced as I study the workbooks that among people who are good at this kind of thing (people who aren't honestly don't stand a chance no matter how much they study), sheer determination and stamina will separate the higher marks from the lower marks. The questions throw walls in front of you, that deflect your efforts and tempt you to end your search for the answer and stare at the ceiling for just a few minutes longer. Trouble is, unlike most tests in University (where ample or excess time is given), you don't have a moment to spare during the LSAT.

I look forward to it.

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