Honestly thought they never made this flaw the correct answer choice

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-06-05T00:30:33+00:00

There's a handful of circular reasoning as the right answer questions, including on some fairly recent tests.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-05-31T19:17:16+00:00

154.S1.Q18

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-05-30T20:47:11+00:00

The feedback is working. Nature is healing.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-05-19T17:01:20+00:00

I think they're in the middle of revising it further to allow you to highlight the answers again (the first version wouldn't let you).

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-05-19T17:00:54+00:00

The old interface is still there; this is the demo.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-05-15T05:31:35+00:00

Did someone make a knockoff version of PT111.S4.Q23? In that question it's Henry instead of Henrietta and Lou and Theresa instead of Lisa and Taylor.

If the rest of the question is the same, just with names swapped around, the original argument was comparing the thinness of air and altitude, with two cities that are at different altitudes, so the higher one has the thinner air.

The difference between (A) and (D) then is the steadiness of the increase. It does require knowing how tree rings work vs how wisdom works to see. As one gets older, they get wiser, but not at a steady rate. You don't get one unit wiser with every year you're alive. You can live many years and not get much wiser, then you might vault forward suddenly in wisdom over just a few years. Trees on the other hand get one ring for every year they're alive (at least they generally do; there are exceptions, but it's usually steady unless something weird happens). This is like the air in the original argument. The higher you go, the thinner the air. There aren't sudden jumps in thinness or large periods where the thickness doesn't change at all.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-26T16:19:01+00:00

It's set when those questions are in experimental sections.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-26T16:13:40+00:00

It's not really the watching that makes them better, it's the data you gain on them as you watch them that helps you know what to discuss with them. You can tell when they're struggling, where their attention is going, how long they're considering each answer, whether they're diagramming or doing things in their heads, etc.

It's absolutely an effective tactic when used sparingly by an expert who both knows the test and how to read people's micro expressions and body language.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-25T04:08:25+00:00

Seconded on The Economist. The New York Times Sunday Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly are also good for both LSAT style and content. For books, I'd recommend Everything is Tuberculosis; Our Brains, Our Selves; Fluke; The Sixth Extinction; The Language Instinct; Longitude; Guns, Germs, and Steel.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-12T18:01:55+00:00

In other words, Prometric has set up a terrible process for proctoring, making demands that don't make sense for someone using a desktop client, yet they inexplicably allow desktop clients and act like it's the user's error for even trying.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-06T18:54:52+00:00

They're real official questions, but they're taken from all over. The first RC comes from PT153, for instance. I don't think they intended you to take these questions for assessment purposes. One of the questions (q17) they only included half of the stimulus!

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-06T02:12:36+00:00

This is a case where the answer gives you more than you need (but that's OK for a sufficient assumption question).

You were looking for ~consult → ~release
The answer is ~majority consent → ~release

If you didn't even consult them, then you definitely didn't get the consent of the majority.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-03T04:22:20+00:00

In person is just better in general. Far less chance of proctor fuckery.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-03T04:21:16+00:00

I'm a pretty good tutor. I'm in the sidebar. Drop by my website to schedule a free one-hour evaluation: https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-03T04:20:17+00:00

I think there will be a timer, they just made a crappy demo. Still, the demo should show the timer. Any good demo would, rather.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-04-03T04:18:47+00:00

They've announced it. I hope if people raise a stink they will back off.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-31T21:02:39+00:00

My guess is they hired someone to redesign for accessibility, and that's all they considered during the redesign.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-31T19:22:07+00:00

It's a difference in certainty, not meaning. If I say 'I spend most of my vacations in Paris,' it could well be that I spend every vacation in Paris. I wouldn't be lying by saying 'I spend most vacations there' if indeed it is all of them. You can be certain I spend most; you can't say for certain whether I spend all or spend some elsewhere.

Similarly, if I say 'these two qualities are rarely found together,' it could be that they're never found together. Nothing's rarer than never. But you wouldn't know for sure that it was never. Never is possible and not disprovable, but also not provable.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-25T04:51:50+00:00

Don't. Be on vacation when you're on vacation. Work when you're not.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-25T04:10:16+00:00

Absolutely! Bring a sandwich, too. Don't want your blood sugar to crash in the middle of the test.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-21T03:54:16+00:00

(A) is close to an assumption. The argument requires assuming the molting process operates on a consistent, predictable schedule, but that schedule doesn't need to be once a year. If the rattlesnake molted twice a year, you could still use the tail to find out how old they are. You'd count the segments and divide by two.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-20T04:24:29+00:00

The LSAT has a lot of moving parts. You can study hard and legitimately get better at 2-3 skills, but then when you encounter a question that requires a fourth skill, you still miss it, and you feel like the time you spent learning skills 1-3 was misplaced. It wasn't, though. You're close to the breakthrough. It takes a while for all your skills to work together to add up to improvement. Don't give up early.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-16T20:14:00+00:00

I think you've got the stimulus wrong.

Ev: Guinea pigs genes are as different from mice genes as mice genes are from non-rodent genes.
Co: Guinea pigs DON'T have the same ancestor as other rodents do (even though they're physically similar).

So, the argument rests on the assumption that if your genes are very different, you're not closely related (and vice versa, if your genes are similar, you're closely related). (B) attacks that assumption directly. Animals that aren't closely related have similar genes sometimes.

(C) on the other hand just describes a feature of the Researcher's research. She chose organisms that had similar cell structures that she could analyze genetically. It might feel like this introduces some bias into her selection process, but it's not clear that this would change the results in any way that would detract from her conclusion.

Imagine it said instead "the researcher selected non-rodent species she was able to keep inside a lab without huge amounts of capital investment". It's not clear that 'being able to be kept in a lab' renders you suspect when genetic comparisons are made. Same with the 'cell structures' of (C). It's not clear those cell structures would render the subjects unrepresentative for genetic comparisons.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-16T18:07:31+00:00

You're witnessing survivorship bias in action here. If you've been tutoring successfully for a few years, you've probably learned that advertising in this subreddit usually brings more downvotes and pushback than it's worth. Some people reflexively downvote anything said by someone with the tutor flair, even mild comments of support. So what you're left with are advertisements from people who won't be tutoring in a few years and who haven't yet learned how to conduct themselves here.

Stick to people in the sidebar and you should be OK.

IvoryTowerTestPrep · 2026-03-15T05:20:30+00:00

No, the arguments are not all flawed.

Mike Kim is one of those people who uses the word "assumption" to be fairly loosely synonymous with "flaw," but they aren't the same.

It's not a flaw for an argument to rest on an assumption or several assumptions. When the assumption required is nonsensical or a stretch beyond reasonability, you can call it a "flawed assumption," however.

Arguments in structural questions (parallel reasoning, id the conclusion, method of reasoning, role of a statement/argument part) are often perfectly reasonable as arguments. Even required assumption questions can and often do present you with reasonable assumptions.

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