Part 1 · Logical Reasoning with your AI · Free · about 20 minutes
1.1 Reading an argument: premise, conclusion, gap
Find the conclusion, the premises and the gap between them yourself first, then use your AI to test your reading.
Step 1 · The traditional method
The traditional method: conclusion, premises, gap
Every Logical Reasoning question starts with an argument: a conclusion that the author wants you to accept and premises offered as reasons. The first skill is to find them. Look for the claim that the rest of the stimulus is working to support. Words such as ‘therefore’, ‘so’ and ‘it follows’ often mark the conclusion, but many arguments have no marker, so ask: what is the author trying to convince me of?
The second skill is to find the gap: the distance between what the premises establish and what the conclusion claims. A premise about evening borrowing does not establish a conclusion about total borrowing; a premise about one group does not establish a claim about every group. Assumption, strengthen, weaken and flaw questions are all questions about that gap.
Method: read the stimulus once, mark the conclusion, restate each premise in a few words, and write down the gap in one sentence before you look at the answer choices. Then read the choices asking which one connects to the gap.
Step 2 · The AI workflow
Use your own AI, the careful way
Do the reading yourself first: conclusion, premises, gap, in a few words. Then use your AI to test it. The aim is to find where your reading and the AI’s differ, and to settle every difference by going back to the text.
Compare my reading
Here is an argument: [paste]. My reading: conclusion = [yours]; premises = [yours]; gap = [yours]. Without giving me the answer to any question about it, tell me where your own reading differs from mine and quote the words of the argument that support each difference.
Why it works, and what you still check: The quotation requirement is what lets you check the AI. If it cannot quote, treat the difference with suspicion.
Find the gap only
Here is an argument: [paste]. State the gap between premises and conclusion in one sentence. Do not mention any answer choices.
Why it works, and what you still check: Keeping the answer choices out stops the AI from reasoning backwards from the answer it prefers.
Ask the sceptical question
For the argument below, give me the two strongest reasons a sceptic would not accept the conclusion, each in one sentence and each tied to a specific premise: [paste].
Why it works, and what you still check: Tying each reason to a premise keeps it honest. Judge for yourself whether each reason really exposes a gap.
Step 3 · Catch the tutor’s mistake
Find the errors in this explanation
Below is a question and an AI’s explanation of it. The answer key is in the source pack. Find the sentences that do not stand up against the argument and the key.
The situation
You attempted this question, then asked your AI to explain the answer. You have the question and the key.
What you asked your AI
Explain why the answer to this question is correct, and tell me how to approach questions like it.
Everything in this exercise, the argument, the answer choices and the AI’s explanation, is invented for this course. Use only the source pack below: nothing outside it counts.
The AI’s explanation
For each sentence, decide: is it supported by the source pack, or is there a problem? Choose the kind of problem if you can.
1.The conclusion is that the longer hours have increased the total number of books borrowed by residents.
2.The evidence is that evening borrowing rose by 40 percent.
3.The argument is therefore valid, because a 40 percent rise in evening borrowing proves a rise in total borrowing.
4.The gap is between a rise in evening borrowing and a rise in total borrowing.
5.Choice C closes the gap by ruling out that borrowers simply moved from other hours.
6.This is the classic ‘temporal displacement fallacy’ named in LSAC’s official Logical Reasoning guide.
7.Choice B is wrong because the number of branches is always irrelevant to any argument about a library.
8.The director has surveyed residents and confirmed that few of them borrowed at other times of day.
9.Choices A, D and E can be ignored without being read.
10.Only choice C addresses whether the extra evening borrowing was additional.
Step 4 · Your checklist
Keep this beside you
- I mark the conclusion and restate the premises before reading the choices.
- I write the gap in one sentence myself before asking the AI.
- When the AI’s reading differs from mine, I go back to the words of the argument.
- I ask for quotations so I can check what it says.
- I ignore invented labels, ‘always’ rules and facts that are not in the question.
The LSAT is taken without AI, and this course never suggests otherwise. Everything here is about how you prepare. We are not affiliated with LSAC; every question in this course is our own.