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LSAT Material For GMAT Verbal Study
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Earlier this week, I wrote about the similarities and differences between the GMAT and the LSAT, the law-school admissions exam. To summarize: Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension on the two tests are closely related, but on the LSAT, those question types are more difficult.
GMAT Verbal Study Material
Before turning to the LSAT, I want to emphasize that the best GMAT study material is that written by the test-makers. It's even more true about GMAT Verbal than GMAT Quantitative--you will best prepare for the exam if you practice with the most realistic examples possible.
You'll find those examples in the Official Guide and in the GMATPrep practice exams. My Total GMAT Verbal is a helpful supplement to those resources.
If You Run Out of Material
If you exhaust the available GMAT Quant material, it's a small step over to my Total GMAT Math or specialized question sets. But while there are plenty of Verbal resources on the market, most of them just aren't very good.
If you use, for instance, a Kaplan GMAT verbal book, you'll see plenty of examples and learn some new strategies. However, there are key differences in style and tone between Kaplan-generated questions and the real thing. Kaplan materials do a great job of training you to answer Kaplan questions, but for many students, that doesn't translate to the exam itself!
This is where LSAT study materials will come in handy.
Different Test, Same Style
LSAT Critical Reasoning (the LSAT calls it "Logical Reasoning," but it's the same stuff) and Reading Comprehension are a little different from the same question types on the GMAT. As mentioned above, they are more difficult--specifically, passages are longer and the reasoning can be more convoluted.
However, the style, tone, and argument structures used in LSAT CR and RC questions are almost identical to those you'll find in the GMAT.
Best of all, you can find a lot more "official" LSAT material on the market than you can for the GMAT. This book contains ten full-length LSATs; the testmakers have followed that up with another one, also containing ten full-length exams.
In short, it's like two extra--advanced!--GMAT Official Guides for Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning.
Expectations
Don't expect to have as much success with LSAT material, and certainly give yourself a little extra time to work through the harder questions. But, just as you would with GMAT materials, study the answer choices--both right and wrong--carefully. That's yet another way in which the two tests are similar.
Once you've done a hundred or so LSAT CR & RC items, GMAT questions will feel much easier. And that can translate into a higher score on test day.
About the author: Jeff Sackmann has written many GMAT preparation books, including the popular Total GMAT Math, Total GMAT Verbal, and GMAT 111. He has also created explanations for problems in The Official Guide, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.
Total GMAT Verbal
The comprehensive guide to the GMAT Verbal section. Recognize, dissect, and master every question type
you'll face on the test. Everything you need, all in one place, including 100+ realistic practice questions. |