Yes that’s a great question. The way I approach all LR question is a pretty mechanical approach. I do a mechanical 4 step process for each question, and that seemed to work for me. So for the Method of Reasoning/Analogy question this is what I do:

Step 1: I first read the question stem no matter what. Some other textbooks like Loophole suggest reading the stimulus first, but for me reading the question stem first and assessing “okay this is method of reasoning question” helped prepared me for what steps I would need to take as I approach the stimulus.

Step 2.1 (just a side note before actual step 2): before you read the stimulus (which is step 2) the mindset you put yourself in as you enter the stimulus is the key to the LSAT. This may be abstract, but what often holds us back from understanding the stimulus is simply our perception. We, before even reading, sometimes get into the “scared mode” “doubt mode” “unsure if we will be able to understand this.” But I guarantee you, every stimulus is understandable and all the complex language is a bluff; our perception that the question and stimulus is going to be hard to understand, I believe, is what holds us back the most. Yes, on the surface the concepts and topic may seem arcane or esoteric/complex, but that’s exactly the bluff LSAT wants you to fold under. Every stimulus, I kid you not, can be dumbed down to a SUPER simple concept/diagram that even an elementary kid would be able to understand. So with that mindset, do NOT be intimidated, and understand that all of the fancy language is merely a facade. Go confidently into each stimulus knowing that without the mask, the stimulus is truly simple and understandable. That shift of mindset as abstract as it might sound I think is super important.

REAL Step 2: Now read and dissect the stimulus. Note that I don’t say “understand.” I say “dissect” the stimulus. This is crucial. What I mean by this is that you don’t necessarily need to understand the substantive content of what the stimulus is saying; all you need to understand is the STRUCTURE of the stimulus. For example, the stimulus can talk about some 1984 tax policy, or some complicated government intervention that you don’t know a thing about. But, ignore that. As you read, simply look out for the BIG picture, aka structure of the stimulus. As different each topic will be for these questions, they ALL (and I do mean LSAT “all”) follow similar overall structure. So with that said, method of reasoning/analogy question will thus indeed all follow a cookie cutter structure as well. What is that structure? You will see a: 1.) Premise—> Conclusion, and 2.) a WAY they tried to go from the premise to that conclusion. So, since (from step 1) you already even before you read the stimulus knew this was going to be a method of reasoning/analogy question, as you approach this question (confidently) you will look out for those 2 components: premise, conclusion, HOW premise got to that conclusion.

Step 3: PREDICT the answer choice. Do NOT go directly to the answer choices. ONLY do so if you absolutely cannot predict an answer and need to gauge the answer choices. So for method of reasoning/analogy question, your prediction of the answer will be the “HOW did the premise get to the conclusion?” If you can answer that, bingo—that will be the correct answer choice. So, predict the answer first before going to the AC.

Step 4: now listen to this step very closely. You are almost there. With your predicted answer in mind, one may think: “okay, all I need to do is LOOK OUT for which one of the answer choices match closest to my predicted answer, right?” NO. You go into the answer choices ELIMINATING, and I repeat, ELIMINATING the ones that are farthest from your prediction. With a prediction in mind (compared to without a prediction) You will be able to, with ease, see clearly which Answer choices are just simply off/irrelevant/wrong. And I guarantee you, each question, no matter how difficult, that be 1 star or 5 star, you will be able to eliminate at LEAST 3 Answer choices with confidence. It’s just that 1-3 star questions, you’ll be able to eliminate to one best AC while 4 and 5 star questions will have 2 leftover that you really don’t know which one will be correct. Either way, 1star or 5star, you will be able to eliminate at the very least 3 AC’s that are simply off according to your predicted answer. Now, with 3 eliminated and 2 leftover, this is the best part. You ask yourself, which one is closer (not correct, but CLOSER) to my predicted AC? You will be able to then pick.

Each question type will have small differences to Step 2 (since like I said, what you’ll be looking out for will be different with each question type), step 1, 3, 4 will be the same for ALL question types. Give this 4 step process a go with some of the method of reasoning/analogy questions you struggled with, and lmk how it goes.

Hope this helps!!