What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do on the LSAT
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So, you’re in the test, and things are going well. Or not. But, you’re coping, and working through all the problems as best you can. And then it hits: that one thing you just. don’t. get.
And wow, that’s a really sickening feeling.
Will this wreck your test? Honestly, it could. And you obviously don’t want that. So what do you do when you don’t know what to do on the LSAT?
First, take a breath.
Always keep in mind that if something is incomprehensible to you, it’s incomprehensible to a lot of other people too. You’re not the only one struggling. The test is difficult for everyone! (Fun fact: even us Manhattan Prep instructors find the LSAT exhausting. I mean really, truly, mentally draining.)
So, when you don’t know what to do, start by taking a breath. Close your eyes, breathe deeply: in then out, in then out. Two deep breaths.
Open your eyes. You may be in better shape than you think you are.
Second, move on.
Unless you’re looking at the last question of the section, you shouldn’t be wrestling with the “unwrestlable”. If a rock is in front of you, and a hard place is behind you, take a jump to the left. (And then a step to the right, if you’re a Rocky Horror Picture Show fan! But I digress…)
Don’t sit there and stare at something you don’t get. Move on to the next LR problem, or the next RC passage, or the next game. You don’t have to answer the questions in order!
Third, put your backup strategy into play.
You’ve got a backup plan for everything on the LSAT. Logic Games where you can’t see any deductions? It’s time to dive in and start drawing diagrams! Don’t understand the RC passage? Well, let’s play the “match the terms” game! Don’t know which LR strengthen choice is correct? Choose the answer that shares the most words with the conclusion!
Let’s see how this plays out with an actual RC passage. If you’ve got it, I’m looking at the third passage in PT 61, Section 1. Let’s say you’re reading this, and get into Passage B, and realize you’re not reading English anymore. Or if this is English, it’s certainly not English you understand!!! Just look at this quote: “an individual to mean something by uttering x, the individual must intend, in expressing x, to induce an audience to believe something and must also intend the utterance to be recognized as so intended.” Who wrote this?!?!
So are you lost? Will you get all the questions wrong?!? Maybe not, if you’ve got a decent backup plan. Let’s look at the first question of the passage. Ok, it’s a both passages question, and a primary purpose question. So you want something that shows up in both. And you want to avoid choices that have extreme language.
Let’s start with avoiding extreme language: choice C says “most likely”, and choice D says “all other animals”. Let’s drop those.
Now let’s drop any choice that has terminology that you can’t find in both passages. All three of the remaining choices in some way discuss animal communication, so put that aside, that won’t be helpful.
Choice A says “prevaricating”, lying: do both passages talk about lying? Nope, only passage B. So drop choice A.
B vs E: “conscious intention” vs “scientific consensus”. (Do I have some magic, mystical LSAT reason for focusing on those words? Of course not. But they’re two short phrases that I understand, and that I can use as anchors when I scan the passages.)
Passage A uses the words “inadvertent”, “aware”, and “goal-directed”. Passage B uses the words “intend” and “conscious intention.” You found five similar terms to “conscious intention” across both passages. And one of the passages’ terms is a complete copy of the term in the answer choice. Take that choice.
Fourth, remember you don’t have to be perfect.
Look at the scoring chart for any test. What’s your goal score? 170? How many questions can you still miss and score a 170? In PT 61, you can miss 11 questions and still get a 170. If you can just eliminate 2 wrong choices from each question on the passage we just examined, you would still expect to only miss 4. That hurts, but that alone won’t drop you below a 170. So don’t panic when you seem to be stuck!!!! ?
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hris Gentry is a Manhattan Prep LSAT, GMAT, and GRE instructor who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Chris received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Clemson and JD from Emory University School of Law before realizing that he genuinely enjoys the challenge of standardized tests, and his true passion is teaching. Chris’ dual-pronged approach to understanding each test question has helped countless of his students to achieve their goal scores. What are you waiting for? Check out Chris’ upcoming LSAT courses here.