Given a statement in “if X, then Y” format, most people are perfectly comfortable writing it down in shorthand (X → Y) and forming the contrapositive (No Y → No X). However, there’s one formal logic keyword that distracts and confuses more test takers than any other: unless.

While some people continually struggle with “if” vs. “only if” (remember, “if” indicates a sufficient condition; “only if” indicates a necessary condition), “unless” is a virtually universal stumper. However, like with any concept on the LSAT, dealing with this issue comes down to understanding it.

To help, let’s use an analogy from the world of politics: Unless you were born in the United States, you cannot become President of the United States.… Read full post

Anyone familiar with Kaplan’s Method for Logical Reasoning knows that we recommend reading the question stem before reading (or untangling, as we like to say) the stimulus. This isn’t just some arbitrary decision; it’s a reasoned recommendation that merits justification.

1. Many people who read the stimulus first will then read the question stem, realize what the question is looking for, and have to read the stimulus a second time to pick up anything they missed. That means reading up to a dozen or more lines of text twice. If you know the question ahead of time, you can read the stimulus just once, gather the information you need, and answer the question in less time.… Read full post