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0:03
hi everyone it's Mike again back with another video this time about some logical reasoning basics as I'm sure pretty much all of you already know there are four scored sections when you sit for the LSAT and two other sections are logical reasoning so you definitely want to make sure that you spend a significant amount of your prep time learning about logical reasoning and getting more comfortable with logical reasoning questions. so three things add love to get done today
0:30
with you in this video one is breakdown the different types of questions that you're likely to see in a logical reasoning section at to you attack read from the basic strategies bad are very effective for attacking these different types of questions We'll also solve a couple of these problems together so you can see the process in action, speaking of which at left to put the two questions will be sobbing together operate now just in case anyone wants to try them
0:59
on their own before before we get into the discussion so if you do there was the first one and here's the second one hey please go ahead and pause the video asset you can give these a shot so in order to facilitate the discussion let's start by talking about what it is that bad logical reasoning questions as a whole I are designed to test and and you can't take all the challenges that are presented in a different actor questions
1:28
and and printed three big buckets at they're designed to test your reading ability your reasoning ability and your mental discipline when it comes to reading ability you could big about internship kinda two sub-categories one your bill you understand what it is that you're actually reading writer body understand the meaning of words correctly and to you your ability to recognize reasoning structure and this is actually what's with most important to the test writers
1:59
you can be about reasoning structure as the relationship between the different components other stimulus and over and over again the reasoning structure that its most important for you to recognize is that which is involved in creating an argument and so so let's talk about their real quickly and what is an argument consist F at well it's got a point right one main point that's being made and it's got support for that point
2:31
okay every argument will have a point and support and you can take out the argument itself as the connection between these two things as the relationship between their support and the point and for their for the sake of this video and and and to many other things written we're gonna be talking about I think it's very helpful to Canada CD argument as as a bridge right that connects these two a and over and over again DL said it's gonna require you to see this
3:08
relationship correctly gonna reward you if you're able to do so and its gonna punish you if you are inconsistent or if your understanding is not as clear as it ought to be when it comes to reasoning ability you can also put all the challenges into into to kinda big buckets i won these questions are designed to gauge ability to recognize valid conclusions right so when say adding a place to be does indeed to guarantee a certain result see but more importantly
3:44
far more of these questions are designed to gauge your ability to see when reasoning doesn't guarantee a point made why not and this is one of the most important things I think to know about the logical reasoning section and about logical reasoning problems their second different types of questions that hinge on your ability to see in a very clear and specific way why the support given does not guaranteed the conclusion reached flaw question
4:22
simply ask you to describe this problem as clearly as you can required assumption questions ask you had if we're gonna fill this gap what needs to be true sufficient assumption questions asked okay for gonna fill this gap what's enough to guarantee that the argument will be valid right so what can we put in dad allows this support to actually guarantee this conclusion strengthen and we can questions ask you to address these issues in some way
4:57
strength in with questions will help prop up or fill in that gap whereas we can questions we'll ask you for an answer that exposes the problems in reasoning supporting printable questions ask you what general principle well help fill in the problem in this argument and then finally match the four questions require you to find an answer choice that has the same type of issue that the original argument had it so now let's go to you whenever problems that data showed at the
5:30
beginning at the video and again if you want to go ahead and give this a shot before we discuss it together please pause the video and do so and come back when you're ready so I recommand that you always read the question stems first so that you know what your task is when it comes time to read the stimulus hear the questions damn says a trend conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed the phrase follows logically
6:04
is is very important and has a very specific meaning what it tells s is that we need an answer choice that when we plug it into you the argument that originally in the stimulus guarantees the truth at the conclusion a so what we want to do. is we want to identify in the stimulus the main point we want to identify the reasoning given for that point everyone to figure out why that reasoning is not enough to justify the point being made
6:40
once we have a sense said that we want to try to find the one answer that's gonna fill in that whole and guarantee that the support allows us to reach our conclusion so let's take it one step at a time here and and first work on identifying the conclusion they make it just a little bit difficult for us as they commonly due by splitting the conclusion up right the the authors point is that the early entomologist was wrong
7:12
an hour to know what the what he means by that we have to look back and see what the early entomologist said rain he said that the ants we're bringing food to their neighbors okay so we can bring these things together and to figure out that a trans main point is that the a chance were not bringing food to their neighbors what's the support he offers well there's this research that shows that the aunts were emptying their own dumping site
7:45
right so I am they're actually taking their trash over to their neighbors I so here's the argument a transit say the ants weren't bringing food to their neighbors and the reasoning given is he saying they're actually bringing trash over to their neighbors and every time I'm ask you evaluate an argument like this I know this support does not guarantee this conclusion I'm not going to give it away here just yet
8:21
care I'd love for you to think about this on your own first eso if you need the past the video go ahead and do so but how calm this support doesn't guarantee this conclusion nasa what you think that if you can see that what would we need in order for ticket guarantee the conclusion right what what sort of answer do we need so that if we swear to see yes they're emptying their own dumpty said dumping site then we can guarantee
8:54
you know what best they weren't bringing any food to their neighbors okay now let's go ahead and think about how the answers relate to you dis this whole in our argument and even if you weren't able to use see the issue clearly right you should still be able to see that the vast majority of answers will no matter what the problem is not be enough to guarantee that this support allows us to reach this conclusion and so what you want to do first is you wanna get bread
9:35
have all those obviously wrong answers k so we wanna go to the answers one at a time with a clear sense of the argument in our heads a clear sense so far are giant task right which is to make sure this support guarantees this conclusion and and think about each of those ants YouTube easy answers on those terms okay so we can start with a yep societies do not in Iraq in all the same ways that human societies interact
10:04
well that's great and all but does that does that guarantee the answer and bringing food to their neighbors I'm that's very listen you know at best indirect connection cheer that specific points being made in this argument and again even if you didn't see the flaw that clearly I think it's pretty easy to see that no matter what the issue was a would not be enough to fix it okay so we can go ahead and get rid of that answer
10:30
be there's only weak evidence for the view that ants have the capacity to make you serve objects as gifts right so if we think about food being a gift and we think about the ants bring it over to their neighbors house as a gift maybe be is relevant but is be- in now of to guarantee this conclusion no it's not right and if you think about it on those terms can fairly easy to get rid of it quickly see aired dumping sites do not contain particles
11:08
they could be used as food immediately it's easy to see that this is much more relevant to our argument than A&B were right and if we've plug it in it seems to play a very important role aunts were dumping their own dumping site they're dumping site doesn't have any third therefore they weren't bringing food makes so much sense to me so let's go ahead and leave it for now d
11:37
the ants to whom the particles were bright never carried the particles into their colonies this might be relevant if you thought at that conclusion slightly differently writer if you thought about it in terms of whether the food is brought you know not but that actually had nothing to do with the point being made which is that bees ants prodded over in the first place and so if you think about needing to guaranteed this particular conclusion can we can get rid d fairly quickly as well and
12:08
even entomologist sided retracted his conclusion when it was determined that the particles dance carried came from their dumping site peso oh so the guy who originally said it took a bit to pack when he said is that guarantee this conclusion read as a guarantee that since they were ending their own dumping site they weren't bringing food to their neighbors know it that a again another case where even if he didn't see the flood at clearly pretty easy to see that
12:40
he is not what you would need in arctic fill that gap so let's go back to the one answer that remains and dumping sites do not contain particles they could be used as food does this allow our conclusion to be guaranteed by our promise yes it s right so they renting their dumping site it doesn't contain any food so therefore we can say you know what if that's what they're doing they're not bringing food to their neighbors and sees the correct answer
13:15
now the last issue that I mention the outset test is your mental discipline and we can really define mental discipline as your ability to stay on task K and what are the ways they test this is by giving you some tendencies and some twice so most argument based questions well just like the sample we sell require you to be critical when you evaluate reasoning on the flip side somewhat and for the questions that don't require you to be critical
13:51
you want to make sure that you stay s objective as possible therefore we're different types of questions that require you to simply evaluate the structure of an argument but not be critical up the reasoning identified a conclusion question simply asking hate white is the point being made identify the method in reasoning what years but support conclusion relationship ID the role what hard up the argument is this one highlighted portion
14:28
an defining match the reasoning writer which have the answer choices as an argument structure that's most similar to the one that originally given and then finally there are few problem types that don't Center understanding arguments at all and you can think about these as out liars we've got inference questions these ask you which of the following answer choices is most supported by the information given in the stimulus
14:56
who got explain this questions right and and here they'll give you are two things that seem to not go together in the stimulus and I'll ask how could it be true that these two things happen at the same time say identify the disagreement questions these questions are unique in that they will present to different people speaking in the stimulus and your job is to see what it is that these two people are actually disagree about and then finally identify an example questions
15:26
right in these ask you to find an answer choice that best illustrates a principal or point that is made in the stimulus let's go ahead and take a look at and identify an example problem and again if you like a chance to try this on your own before we discuss it together place of the video so again we want to start by looking at the question stan this one says the actions have which of the following individuals exhibit the most advanced kind moral motivation as described by the
16:03
ethicist so I know that in this case my job is not to you look for in argument in the stimulus and to look for reasoning issues in that argument instead my job yes to to figure out as best I can exactly what this ethicist and means when he says the most advanced at kind of moral motivation and then really the key task have this problem is taking that simple understanding and critically evaluating each of the answer choices so
16:42
what this at Texas says is that the most advanced kinda moral motivation is based solely so that's a hundred percent on abstract principles right so on an ideal say this form of motivation is in contrast with calculated self-interest or the desire to adhere to societal norms and conventions K so going into the answer choices what I'm looking for is an example have an action taken based solely on abstract principles
17:18
and what i'm looking for. in the wrong answers write the answers to eliminate our hands out of self-interest or some sorta desire to adhere to norms and conventions okay so let's take a look at each of the answer choices one at a time and using that as are if our mindset a Bobby contributed money to a local charity during a charity drive at work sounds good so far because he worried that not doing so would make him look
17:54
stingy right so clearly it's not based on an abstract principle its it's based on how he looks to other people right I'm so so we can go ahead and eliminate a be Wes contributed money to a local charity during a charity drive get site up pretty good at work because he believed that doing so would improve his employers opinion of him okay so there's some calculated self-interest there as well so we can get rid of be see
18:28
diners employers engaged in a legal but profitable practice Picasa serious damage to the environment Donna did not report this practice to the authorities at a fear that im her employer's would retaliate against her I so there's some clear self-interest there as well and we can eliminate see d Jadyn employers engaged in a legal but profitable practice because serious damage to the environment Jadyn reported this practice
19:04
to the authorities out of a belief that protecting the environment is always more important than monetary profit said here's nadine acting solely based on an abstract principle and there's no hint here I have calculated self-interest right or desire to adhere to norms and lastly the levi's employers engaged in a legal but profitable practice that also cause damage to the environment Lee reported this practice to the authorities
19:41
only be cast several colleagues had been pressuring her to do so right so sent a pretty good for a while a but at the end here we see deadly is is adhering to them so size societal norms and conventions so that leaves us with only answer choice D after the elimination process and it's so easy to over think these things right and and you can can you say to yourself ok guys maybe she's protecting the environment for her own interest rate so
20:13
that she can live in a better world or what not and at bed that would be an example overthinking it right we found clear issues with all for the other answer choices based on information given in the stimulus and and looking at. on its surface it matches up very very well with the advance kind of moral motivation the ethicist is discussing Sep d is the correct answer alright so we've now gone through all the different types of questions that you're likely to face
20:47
in the logical reasoning section keep in mind though the big bowl cover them and in particular a strong majority of the hardest questions that you're likely to see in the section are argument based questions that require you to be critical love the reasoning eso you really wanna get very very good at identifying arguments and thinking about why the support in these arguments does not guarantee the conclusion reached
21:16
and all these questions have something to do you with your ability to see that you've also got as a bit of a counterpoint these argument based questions that don't require you to be critical raining use cases very important for you to stay as as objective as possible and then finally you've got some questions that are not centered necessarily on your understanding arguments right in French questions identify the disagreement explain s and identify an example
21:48
so that's it thank you so much for sticking with me through that whole thing if you like even mourn for information about the Sam please check out my website the affect trainer dot com where I offer 8 free chapters have my book that's about a hundred pages a free instruction house avatar about our staff including study schedules and infographics an additional videos & and all that other stuff and also pleased if you're interested in the book itself check it out
22:19
on Amazon when you can see Sam reviews and see how other students I felt about it thank you so much I hope you found that helpful if you have any questions for me please let me know otherwise I wish you the best with your ass at prep and take care earner honor
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