LSAT Reading Comprehension case studies
LSAT Reading Comprehension · Put your knowledge to work in context.
LSAT Reading Comprehension is one of the multiple-choice question types on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), a standardized test used by law schools as part of the JD admissions process. It is designed for applicants preparing to enter law school, and it measures the ability to read lengthy, dense, argumentative, and expository material with understanding and insight - the kind of reading legal study and practice demand. The LSAT Reading Comprehension case studies are 5 cases and about 1,887 words.
1Guilds, Samples, and the Monopoly Portrait
A humanities journal article opens by noting that the standard account of medieval craft guilds as innovation-stifling monopolies rests on a sample of 37 statutes, all from cities with more than 20,000 residents. The author then observes that roughly 80 percent of documented guilds operated in towns of fewer than 5,000 people, where statutes typically mandated shared tools, standardized weights, and rotating apprenticeship slots.
417 words, about 2 min2Foxes, Noise, and the Attention Tax
A behavioral ecology passage reports a field experiment at 24 urban fox dens. At 12 randomly chosen dens, researchers played continuous traffic noise at 60 decibels for two weeks; at the other 12 they played ambient park sound at the same volume.
380 words, about 2 min3The Silent Spring and the Unreliable Baseline
A literary-critical essay begins with an 1889 diary entry by a naturalist who laments a 'silent spring' with no birdsong. The essay then reveals that the same year's regional agricultural records document a severe locust outbreak and that the diarist was recovering from an illness that kept him indoors.
367 words, about 2 min4Path Dependence and the Keyboard Example
An economics passage explains path dependence through the QWERTY keyboard: the layout was adopted early and persisted not because it was fastest but because training materials and user habits created switching costs. The author argues that path dependence is strongest when coordination costs are high-when many users must switch together-and weakest when switching costs fall on isolated individuals.
364 words, about 2 min5Rent Transparency: Two Readings of the Same Data
Two passages discuss a city's 2019 rent-transparency ordinance. Passage A reports that after the law, 1,200 listings disclosed mandatory fees and that average search time fell from nine weeks to seven; it concludes that disclosure corrected an information asymmetry that had favored landlords.
359 words, about 2 min