I’ll begin this journal with a riddle:

“A father and his son get into a car accident. The man dies instantly, and the son gets taken to the emergency room. The surgeon takes one look down at him and says, "I can't operate on him, he's my son!" How is this possible?”

Just think about it and try to give an answer.

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Recently, I've been thinking about taking a test called Law School Admission Test (“LSAT”), the purpose of which is to test the skills necessary for success in the first year of law school. I have an intention to pursuit a higher law degree for it will be conducive to my career development even though I’m in my 30’s, as well as enhancing my critical thinking abilities.

So I’ve been reading a study guide. The introduction of the book regarding training your brain/thought is well said, especially the analogy used. I’ll just copy and paste the content and share it with you:

“Imagine riding an elephant.

You can just sit on top of the animal and choose not to do anything. If so, the elephant will do as it chooses, and you will go along for the ride. But if you have the understanding and motivation, you can train this elephant to do what you would like—you can train it to take you where you want to go, for example, or you can train it to lift heavy things for you. This is of great benefit because—and this is very important—you are not capable of doing the work that the elephant does. The rider who is happiest and wisest is the one who understands how to control the elephant, and does not try to do the work himself.

The analogy of a rider and an elephant is commonly used in educational circles to discuss the relationship between our conscious mind and our unconscious mind. If you don't control your unconscious, it can drift. If you train it, it can do amazing things for you.”

For personal memorizing purpose, I summarized some bullet points for logic training regarding different sections of LSAT:

1. For Logical Reasoning:

1)    Foundation to build: Ability to understand arguments, and more specifically, ability to see the faults in arguments.

2)    Next, develop question-specific strategies, starting first with those questions that most directly ask you about the faulty reasoning and gradually panning out to other question types.

3)    Last, bring together all the skills developed into the test.

2. For Logic Games:

Foundation to build: ability to diagram Logic Games scenarios and rules, i.e. translate scenarios and rules into diagrams.

3. For Reading Comprehension:

Foundation to build: understanding and recognizing reasoning structure, i.e., reading for organization rather than details which leads to effective problem-solving strategies.

*Reasoning structure refers to the roles that various parts of the passage play relative to one another. Main point, opinion, and background are examples of the types of roles that are relevant to reasoning structure. An effective way to think about reasoning structure is to ask, "Why has the author written this part?" If you can answer that question successfully, you can feel confident that you understand the reasoning structure.

Answer to the riddle first written above is that the surgeon is the mother. Are you stumped by it? Please leave your comments.