LR BIBLE PG. 319 # 1

[kristinaroz93]

"Psychiatrist: Take any visceral emotion you care to consider..."

Is my line of reasoning/diagramming for this problem correct:

premise:Visceral emotion---> always situation in which it is healthy to express that emotion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
conclusion: always situation where it is healthy to express one's anger

so we have
premise: A-->B
conclusion: B occurs

So now we need A occurs.

And A is: Anger is a visceral emotion (our missing link for the justify the conclusion problem)

Thanks in advance!

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Kristina,

Thanks for the question! Let me turn this around on you, as I would if I was in a tutoring situation: how confident are you in your analysis? And do you have any doubts? If so, why?

Thanks!

[kristinaroz93]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your response! I did use this line of reasoning to get the correct Answer. However, I am not very confident in my analysis:( I have doubts as to whether I labeled all the elements correctly.


Best,

Kristina

[Dave Killoran]

Ok, then we'll keep on with this approach for the moment

What parts do you question, and why? why do you suspect that you may have mislabeled any or all parts?

And when you say not very confident, is it that you have 10% confidence? 50%? 90%?

Based on your reply, I'll either keep asking questions, or stop and address the larger point. So, we'll see what happens next!

Thanks!

[kristinaroz93]

Hi Dave,

I have little confidence with how I approached this problem, since it does not downright have conditional reasoning indicators, I was not sure how to diagram it out (maybe there is no conditional logic that could be the other issue of me trying to force it).

So we have this statement, "Take any visceral emotion you care to consider. There are always situations in which it is healthy to express that emotion", which I think should actually be diagrammed as follows:
always situation in which it is healthy to express --->Visceral emotion

Then the last sentence, which is the conclusion reads: "There's always situtions where it is healthy to express one's anger".

So if we diagram we get:

premise: always situation in which it is healthy to express --->Visceral emotion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
conclusion: always situation where it is healthy to express one's anger

and so we have A-->B occurs
C occurs (since we have a new element in the conclusion)
and so now we just need to connect B and C (b-->c) to justify the conclusion.

Am I getting closer?

I guess, maybe now that I really look at it there is just no conditional logic and I should have just looked for new elements and connected them (i.e. anger). But what I did instead was try and look for some kind of scientific way to approach the problem via the diagram above, but it just may not work for this problem.....

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Kristina,

So let's talk a bit what has happened here. Your initial analysis of the problem was correct. The question I asked, whether you were confident or not, was designed to see how strongly you felt about what you had written. A test, as it were, of whether or not you really understood the concept or whether you were somewhat guessing. With your second analysis, you've talked yourself out of your original position, which tells me that your first analysis was either a bit of luck or that your confidence is relatively low (or a little of both, most likely). So, what I did from there was go back through a number of your previous posts, to get a broader sense of what you were asking and how you were asking it. I have two thoughts/suggestions for you:

• 1. Your understanding of what's happening is really good, but your confidence in that understanding must become stronger.
  
  I know that a lot of the questions you've asked are of the "this is what I think, am I right?" variety, and there's nothing at all wrong with that (it's a very common learning style). One thing I'd like to see from you, though, is a stronger belief in your perceptions and analysis. The question in this thread is a perfect example because you were 100% right in your initial analysis. And even though you mentioned that you saw no obvious conditional indicators, I think you were picking up on the use of "always" in the stimulus. It was just a bit non-traditional so it threw you off. The LSAT is made up of tons of slight changes on standard concepts, so this is something you will see a lot, and must adjust to.
  
  It's easy enough for me to say, "Hey, you need to believe in yourself more!" but much harder to actually make that happen Just hearing that you are pretty good in your analysis might help. When I read your first reply to me in this thread ("However, I am not very confident in my analysis:( I have doubts as to whether I labeled all the elements correctly.") I was actually surprised since you had nailed the problem so well. You had all of the pieces, you had them well-organized, and you had used that understanding to produce the correct answer. My concern is that on other questions that your doubts are possibly causing you to change correct answers (and this should be something you track for a bit: how often do you change answers, and when that occurs, does it typically cause a positive or negative impact, or none at all?).
  
  Additionally, if you can, can you remind me of how many of our Test Mentality resources you have used thus far? For free public use we have released a free seminars and a set of articles about confidence and so forth. How many of those have you seen/read?
  
  
  2. I want you to institute a 24-hour waiting period before asking any questions, and before you post a question I want you to review it prior to posting it.
  
  Perhaps surprisingly, this goes hand-in-hand with the above point. I feel as if most of your questions are ones that you are pretty close to having internally resolved, and as my colleague Jon noted in another thread (http://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewto ... =13&t=7651 ), when you have that moment of illumination it is far stronger than when someone else tells you the answer. I want to make sure that you are giving yourself the best chance to lock in on what you think the answer is, which I hope will raise your confidence and belief in yourself. I realize that you've said it's hard to move on without having your question immediately answered, but I'm asking you to try—I truly believe it is the best approach for you (plus, in many cases, it takes at least an hour or two before there is an answer posted, so you are already waiting in most cases).
  
  In addition, when posting, I want you to continue to explain what you were thinking. I believe that more often than not you'll see that you were already in the right vicinity

Anyway, those are just two quick thoughts from glancing through a bunch of your posts. You can use it or not use it as you choose. Thanks!

[kristinaroz93]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your in depth post, I really appreicate it. I actually really wanted someone to assess me on whether my grasp on the concepts was good based on what I was asking and how I was asking it. It makes me really happy that you wrote, "Your understanding of what's happening is really good"!

You are also 100 percent right, my confidence is greatly lacking with this test, it is true. It is because I feel there are so many elements that go into solving each and every problem and a lot of nit pickiness involved and I don't want to contently assume my thought processes are correct when they are not in fact and keep going at it in that way. When the validation comes of what I was thinking was right, it feels so much better, and I know I can reuse that kind of thought process again and again. However, I will try my best to keep note of what bothers me and wait 24 hrs before posting in the future. And only if I still cannot figure it out at that point, will I post about it to the forum. Also, I apologize in advance for how many posts I have made thus far, since I know and appreciate that there is someone on the other side who takes time out of their day to answer me- this has never been lost on me. And you guys have been really amazing about it all and so I really thank you for it! However, I am not sure I can change my confidence levels until I get more comfortable with this tests and its patterns.

(Also, I have not looked into that many test mentality resources, but would like to=) )


On another note may I ask one question of you, since you have read through my previous posts:

1) Based on the types of questions I ask and how I approach the problems, do you genuinely think there is there a possibility for me to score well on this exam?

I await your honest response =)

Best,

Hopeful fufture law student (Kristina)

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Kristina,

Thanks for the reply! A few thoughts for you:

The following blog post I made last Monday has links to several different resources we offer: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/how-to- ... -your-nose. I think that just reading some of those articles will help you, and if you can, definitely sit through the Test Mentality seminar. It's worth just thinking about those topics, and I'm a firm believer that how you mentally approach the test has a big impact on your results.

You ask if you can score well. Yes, you can. Just your analysis on the question that started this thread is proof that you have what it takes to isolate the critical elements of an LSAT problem, see how everything is aligned, and then solve the problem. What I think throws you off is that sometimes you have trouble with certain concepts or questions. I'm here to tell you that that is true for every person who takes this test It's simply a really hard test, and so the fact that some of this stuff isn't clear at first (or even a few days later) is not an indication that anything is wrong; it's completely natural. You can't let those difficulties throw you off, and you have to focus on the fact that you do have strengths and comfort zones.

Last, this isn't about too many posts. You're not anywhere close to the most frequent poster this forum has ever seen, and you are always extremely gracious in asking questions and responding to the answers you receive. We really appreciate that! My advice (or really, it's Jon's advice) is about wanting you to think about this test in a slightly different way, or perhaps better stated, wanting you to think about how you learn about and perceive this test in a slightly different way. It might help a lot, or it might not. But it's worth a try so you'll have to let us know if you think it makes a positive difference.

Ok, that's it for now, but obviously we'll continue talking as you work through the materials. Keep working hard and stay positive!

[kristinaroz93]

Hi Dave,

I really appreciate all your input. I will do my best to utilizie it before the test as well as look into the test mentality resources! Thank you for taking tme out of your day to help answer my questions and give me advice in general=) You guys on this forum here are really amazing!


Best,

Kristina