PhoebeL747
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Jackie Chiles
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LSAT vocabulary

by PhoebeL747 Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:33 pm

I think the recent RC passages on the LSAT are harder, with more obscure vocabularies that I often need to look up after timed practice to get a more rounded understanding. I'm an international student and English is not my first language. Normally, reading scholarly articles without dictionary is not a problem but when there's only 3 mins to spare on a long passage, the vocabularies do interfere with my understanding :(
Some other fellow international students online thought that SAT or advanced TOEFL vocabulary books are enough for the LSAT, and GRE level vocabulary books are completely unnecessary. But their comments are from 2013. Can anybody please give me some advice on what material to use for building vocabularies for the modern LSAT?

Thanks in advance!
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ohthatpatrick
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Re: LSAT vocabulary

by ohthatpatrick Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:40 pm

Unfortunately, no, I don't have a good source in mind, other than RC reading comp.

When I think back to some of the vocab words I've seen that have surprised me or seemed fancy, I can remember stuff like:
vituperative
tacit
diaspora
adduced
obviate

All of those could potentially be found in a GRE vocab flashcard set. All of them could potentially NOT be found in such a set. The problem with studying vocab is that there are potentially hundreds or thousands of words we could learn, but we're only going to see a couple show up on the test and we don't know which ones.

So it's a risky value proposition to think that we should study hundreds or thousands of words for the sake of the three or four hard ones we MIGHT see on our test.

If we assign ourselves adult reading material (essays / editorials / articles), then we will potentially expose ourselves to topics and vocabulary that might assist us on LSAT.

I agree that more recent RC feels harder. The problem is they're not throwing in vocab words to purposefully quiz us on those words. They're just selecting writers whose prose is complex enough that it will pose a reading challenge.

The point of this test, from the perspective of the test writers and admissions people, is to predict who will succeed in law school. Naturally, succeeding in law school requires really sophisticated reading skills, including familiarity with advanced vocabulary.

I would either suggest reading older RC passages (so that you're getting the "two-fer" of adult reading material as well as LSAT editing style and length).

Otherwise, try reading any articles from the Harvard Law Review. They're pretty dense and wordy.

Hope this helps.
 
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Re: LSAT vocabulary

by PhoebeL747 Wed Aug 01, 2018 8:20 pm

That's great advice. Thank you Patrick!