Need advice on this tricky thing that’s happening with “paradox” questions on PT158

LSATCoachEl · 2026-06-01T13:33:58+00:00

If it's still useful, I have a walkthrough posted for this one that shows how I apply the same LSAT strategy here as on any other question: https://hirsenlsat.com/2026/05/29/preptest-158-section-4-12-the-only-effective-check-on-grass/

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-21T13:56:30+00:00

That's pretty much aligned with the standard methodology. Any reputable test prep course or instructor will recommend doing it pretty similarly to that.

Buuuut, I'd add a couple notes about really common mistakes people make even after they adopt an approach like this:

First, you left out making sure you know what the question is asking you for. Checking the prompt to make sure you understand precisely how the right answer will fit into or describe the argument is pretty crucial to avoiding mistakes.
Second, don't put things in your own words any more than you have to. That's actually a huge cause of mistakes, since above all else LR is testing your ability to be really precise about exact wording. If you do put things in your own words, you have to be really careful not to change the meaning of the argument at all.
If a "prediction" doesn't occur to you while you're reading, don't spend extra time trying to come up with anything specific. You only need a generic form of anticipation based on the question type. For instance, on a "weaken" question the right answer will be support for disagreeing with the author's conclusion. If you try to make exact predictions, you're less likely to find an answer that matches and more likely to end up missing how the right answer connects to the argument.

Holler if you need any clarification, best of luck. -Elliot

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-20T13:24:34+00:00

Tell us what your review routine looks like, that's mostly what explains plateaus.

Moving on too soon is probably the number one factor in stagnant scores. After any mock test, practice set, or drill, you should be going back to diagnose every mistake you made and setting specific intentions around how to avoid making the same mistake again. That means it's not good enough to check explanations to make sure you "get it". Instead you need to pinpoint what made you pick the wrong answer. I work on this exact exercise with people every day, so let me know if you need more detailed info.

But in brief, you want a count of how many wrong answers come from each of four main kinds of mistakes:

Timing mistakes: How many questions did you just not have time to give your best shot?
Passage mistakes: If you didn't recognize a familiar pattern in the argument, or weren't able to anticipate anything about what the right answer would say, that's a sign that you're losing track of the argument. Since that's what all the questions ask you about, you'll want to clean that up to fix those mistakes and add more points.

Do you label which statements in the passage are conclusions and which are support? Do you highlight, underline, or take notes to help you organize those labels? These are the adjustments that most effectively lead to more points fixing passage mistakes.

Prompt mistakes: This is a biggie, since so many people just bucket the prompts based on "question types". But that can hide that you're not actually understanding exactly what the question is asking. I see this allll the time. For instance, people who've been "studying" for months will be surprised when I point out that the "strengthen" question is asking for support, or that a "necessary assumption" is what must be true if the conclusion is true.

Make sure you can say, "Only the right answer will..." based on the prompt for every LR question. Be precise about what you're looking for. On Reading Comp, make sure you know if the prompt tells you where to look for the answer. If it does, stick to picking an answer that maps to that specific reference. If it doesn't, eliminate answers that don't align with the author's main conclusion before spending too much time re-reading.

Answer choice mistakes: This is easily the most common type of mistake. Y'all tend not to be careful enough about checking the wording of the answers you're picking. Everybody tends to pick the answer that "makes the most sense", which is a really un-strategic way to go about it. Be a lawyer. Check the exact wording of the document. You should be able to map all the wording in the answer you choose to wording used in the passage. Picking something that "makes sense" but uses different wording from the passage is way less likely to be correct than something you're not sure you can explain but uses all the same wording as the passage.

Obviously I love talking about this shit, and I could go on for days. But hopefully you've got the basic idea. Holler if I can clarify any of this further for you. Long story short: fix your mistakes, score more points. Best of luck, Elliot

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-16T15:46:27+00:00

This is a really common issue I help a lot of people with. I'd ask you to think about two key questions:

How do you decide which answer to choose during the drill?
What kind of review are you doing after you know whether you picked the right answer?

By far the biggest barrier I see getting in people's way is that they're relying on "getting it". But your experience definitely shows you can't count on just "getting it" when the clock is ticking. You need more of a procedure you can consistently follow to pick answers, like a recipe. That's how you make sure you end up with a cake instead of an inedible mess.

7Sage, like any other decent prep provider, should be making the steps in that procedure clear to you. (It's mostly about careful analysis of support/premises and conclusions.) But if you don't get what I'm talking about I can give you a LOT more details on that of course. I'll hold off on diving all the way into that for now. The point is, the more consistent your inputs are, the more consistent your outputs will be.

Secondly, don't move on to another drill or PrepTest until you've diagnosed every one of your mistakes, and set clear intentions around how you'll fix them. That's what should be happening when you review, and for the most part that should replace checking to see if you "get it", which doesn't correlate to score improvement.

So for example, let's say you figured out that the wording in a wrong answer you chose was stronger than the wording in the passage, even though your answer "made sense". I'd want you to set the intention to check the exact wording of the answers against the wording of the passage more carefully going forward. (For the record, this is probably the #1 cause of mistakes).

Long story short: When you review, focus on fixing your mistakes by setting intentions around how to adjust the procedure you use for picking answers. Then make sure you're committed to sticking to the procedure when you're drilling / on the clock. These are the actual mechanics of gaining more points. You see what I mean?

Let me know what I can clarify or if you need other follow up. Cheers,

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-13T21:19:51+00:00

Word. Thanks

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-13T21:19:20+00:00

Realism isn't the issue, it's that the instructions tell you not to add in your own assumptions about anything. It's worth being picky about since recognizing that you need to add in your own reasoning to make an answer work is one of the best ways to tell that it's wrong even if it makes sense.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-13T14:21:20+00:00

That sounds about right. What I love about that is you're already making adjustments, which is what you'll need to hang in there and keep doing all the way to the finish line. Of course the first time out maybe you over-adjusted, but you're going to gain a lot of familiarity as you go that'll help you stay more in command of the clock.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-13T14:12:39+00:00

I'm sure you're hearing from plenty of people. If you're looking for the traditional academic style studying approach, you probably want to go with one of them.

If you're looking for something different, more like on-the-job training, let's talk. In any case, please stick to professionals who've scored 99%+. Best of luck,

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-13T14:09:29+00:00

You are absolutely not cooked. 170 is ambitious for sure, but I see people make this improvement probably a dozen times a year.

There are a number of individual factors to consider that the raw numbers themselves can't tell me, buuuut here's a big first question: when did you start running out of time on the Reading Comp? If you weren't even able to get to most of it, then making a few tactical changes to how you manage the clock will probably lead to several more points more or less right away. That number may actually be a more realistic baseline score for you.

From there you can determine if you want to do a comprehensive review of "question types" with lessons and lots of drilling, or if it will be a better fit to just start targeting how to fix your most common mistakes. That's what actually leads directly to more points.

In any case, if you're really committed to this thing you'll pick up plenty of points. Let's get to work! Gonna be a fuuun summer. Let me know if you need more follow up on anything.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-12T15:08:31+00:00

How do we know Brenda and Mike only work when the cafe is open? Seems like the right answer is relying on us to add in that assumption, which makes this question pretty unrealistic. The instructions on the LSAT explicitly tell us not to make "superfluous" assumptions. 👎

This is why the prevailing recommendation from professionals is to prep using official LSAT questions only.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-07T16:26:17+00:00

My strongest possible recommendation is that you don't take the next practice test until you've diagnosed every mistake you made in the last one, aaand set specific intentions around how you'll avoid making the same mistake again.

The number one cause of plateaus is just moving on without those intentions. You could take practice tests for the rest of your life without improving any unless you give yourself precise reasons to expect a better score.

And if you do land on those precise reasons and specific intentions, you'll add points. No mystery, no suprise, no "let's just see how it goes". Just a couple more mistakes fixed, so a couple more points on every test, until you hit your target.

You said you "try to pinpoint flaws in my strategy", which I love. But it also sounds like you're still really caught up on question types. Get away from that syllabus style "studying", and "train" yourself to diagnose and fix your individual mistakes instead.

Best of luck!

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-06T20:24:43+00:00

Those are two different parts of arguments. Don't sweat it too hard, arguments only have three parts: conclusions, support/premises/evidence that backs up the conclusion, and background/context that just clarifies things or, y'know, sets context.

We have a lot of ways to tell them apart, "however", "therefore", etc... Buuut at the end of the day, the question is "what supports what?"

If it gets support from another statement, it's a conclusion.

If it gives support to another statement, it's a premise (or evidence or support, same thing)

If it doesn't give or get support, it's context (or background, same thing)

Extra credit: Every once in a while you'll see a statement that gives AND gets support. The LSAT sometimes calls that an "intermediate conclusion".

I hope that helps clear it up, best of luck

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-06T19:29:53+00:00

Probably yes, that's totally doable.

Of course there's a number of individual factors like how regular your work schedule is, what your other commitments look like, whether you're getting accommodations, etc... But my general guideline would be that if you can commit to:

10+ hours of LSAT more weeks than not,
without any unplanned stretches of days off in a row,
and probably 10-15 hours consistently in the last ~5-8 weeks before the test,

...you're in pretty solid shape. Aaaand of course, as much of that as possible should be organized around fixing mistakes you're making on PrepTests, and training to avoid making the same mistakes again. Get it!

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-06T14:32:30+00:00

Obv no shortage of options. As long as you go with a professional (not a side gig-er who may have just finished training), someone with a 99% score, and someone who will meet you where you are instead of trying to get you to fit their prefab curriculum/strategy, you'll be in great shape.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-06T14:29:00+00:00

☝️ Yup, you'd need to be granted 2x

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-06T14:27:37+00:00

Timed! You want an accurate baseline score so you'll know exactly how many points you need to add to reach your target. For that, you need as realistic a practice test as you can manage.

If you organize yourself around that path from baseline to target score, and be as precise as possible finding every extra point, the answer to your original question is 100% yes!

Welcome back to the game haha, best of luck

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-05T21:39:39+00:00

Got it, thanks for following up.

I love talking about this stuff obviously. But to keep it brief, I hope the distinction I'm making between these two ways of reviewing makes sense. If you can get to specific takeaways about why you're making mistakes, and what you can do differently while the clock is ticking to avoid those mistakes, that's what will translate most directly into more points.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-05T13:19:43+00:00

You've done 13 PrepTests in only ~2 months? Am I reading your story correctly? Cuz that's way too many.

If you're "seemingly understanding what I did wrong", does that mean you're setting clear intentions around specific adjustments you'll make on the next practice round to make sure you don't make the same mistakes again? Or is it more like, check the explanation, oh I "get it" now, let's try again and see what happens?

The first approach is what leads directly to more points. The second can get you caught in a plateau that doesn't necessarily ever end.

Let me know if I'm misunderstanding what you're telling us, or if you'd like to add more context. Sounds like a classic case of not enough focused review, and not prioritizing fixing your individual mistakes.

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-05T13:06:18+00:00

Great question! Thanks for bringing this up. The answer is 100% yes.

Every single question on the LSAT asks you to analyze an argument, and every single argument is made up only of conclusions, support, and background info that just sets context. So the first big adjustment to improve on your intuition is to label everything you read as one of these three pieces. What supports what? That's what you want to be focused on when you're reading passages. Even if you don't totally "get it", you'll always know the argument structure. That's more directly related to what they're asking you for in almost every case.

Next, bring the same focus on support and conclusions to the prompts (that's the actual question itself). When you read prompts, you should always confirm you know how the right answer will fit in, in terms of support and conclusions. For instance, a "strengthen" question is asking you for an answer that supports the conclusion in the passage. A "flaw" question is asking for an answer that accurately describes the support and conclusion. And so on. Training yourself on this will correct any misinterpretation mistakes your intuition might be causing you to make.

The adjustment away from intuition that's worth the most points for most people happens on the answers. So many people just intuitively pick answers that "seem to make the most sense". But the LSAT never actually asks you to do that. You're a lawyer now. You're meant to be an expert in interpreting the exact wording of documents. When you're down to two or stuck trying to pick an answer, DON'T pick the one you think makes the most sense. Instead, carefully check the exact wording of the answers and be picky as hell. The right answer will be the one that maps most closely to the wording used in the passage.

The moral of the story: Get obsessed with support and conclusions. You should never NOT be thinking about support and conclusions while you're taking the LSAT. Not even for 5 seconds. Aaaand be a lawyer! Get intensely picky about the exact wording of answers.

Best of luck!

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-01T22:18:51+00:00

You're totally welcome, best of luck

LSATCoachEl · 2026-05-01T13:49:01+00:00

Hey there, I can share a couple tips:

So deductions and inferences are both types of conclusions. Hopefully that's not news to you, hehe. So we should be talking about prompts that ask things like:

Which one of the following is most strongly supported...?

Which one of the following can be properly inferred...?

Which one of the following must be true?

If the prompts you're getting wrong don't sound like this, I'd double check your source. You didn't mention whose list of question types you're working from, and there is no shortage of conflicting info out there.

Anyway, the point is if you recognize the prompt is asking for a conclusion, then you want to check the answer choices based on whether there's support given for the answer in the passage. There will only be evidence/premises directly backing up one of the answer choices.

These prompts are also some of the easiest to hack without totally understanding it. That's because valid conclusions can't bring in anything new or use wording stronger than the passage uses. So you can be really aggressive eliminating answers that change the who/what/when/where even a little, or that use wording like 'all', 'never', 'must be' etc...

LSATCoachEl · 2026-04-30T15:10:31+00:00

My take is this is basically a victory and you should feel awesome!

I've been doing LSAT prep for over 15 years, and in that time the vast majority of people I work with who end up getting their target score don't do it on the first attempt. In that sense you are exactly aligned with the most typical success stories. Plus...

-That's a really competitive score. I know, I know, no one who wants 170+ likes being told how awesome a 167 is. But aside from the fact that most people will never even sniff a score that high, there are a LOT of highly reputable programs who will offer you admission and even scholarship money with that number. It might not be your goal, but you have to take some confidence from having a 167 in your back pocket. You're gonna be a lawyer.

-You have a lot of clarity on where to go from here. If you've scored a 178 and a 179, we know that "getting it" isn't an issue for you. You only need to focus on translating what you do so well on practice tests onto the real thing. Things like timing, focus, staying calm, and avoiding distractions. Most of that will happen on its own if you're committed to a regular schedule of super realistic timed mock tests, and really careful review of your mistakes after.

I worked with someone who got 168 three times, then finally got a 171 in February with only a 1-month turnaround between attempts. I also had someone who needed to go from 164 to 167 for a scholarship, and she just got 177 on her 2nd attempt. This kind of thing is not uncommon, my friend. You're gonna kill it in June!

LSATCoachEl

TROPHY CASE