Do you need to know facts etc for the LNAT essay?

I see alot of practice paper answers on the essay sections by people who have clearly researched and polished whilst writing it up, with the use of stats and figures to back up arguments. My question is, for the real LNAT, how would you provide evidence on a random subject to support your arguments? Or do you just blag it in an essay structure? Any advice from those who have already sat it would be appreciated.

Reply 1

LapizLazuliStar

Not really, it's mostly just extracts and questions based on those extracts. As for the essay though, I read that you don't need to know any actual facts, and that if you wanted to essentially make facts up in order to suit your essay then that's fine, so long as you put that the "facts" are just your assumptions.

Reply 2

Ray04

Original post by LapizLazuliStar

Yeah im asking because most of the ones people have written and ive seen online, look too polished if you know what i mean. Like they obviously took time to structure, add evidence etc. If we're on a timer im sure most people would be blagging their way through without planning it. I can barely do essays in class on the spot nevermind in test conditions. It also potentially determines my uni offers, which only adds to the pressure. What sort of subjects would you recommend me reading up on? Ive got well over a month till i sit mine so im not too stressed as of yet haha

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

Ray04

Original post by JohnGreek

The way you've faced this question is misleading.

You need to know facts, obviously, but they can be retained organically - there's no need for you to go learning recent history out of a book or something. After all, most questions touch upon fairly modern debates (I've seen or heard of ones on religion, burkhas, university tuition and admissions, cars and pollution, gentrification, and so on).

The best suggestion for preparing for the factual side is simply to keep on top of the news, and read explainers/background articles wherever possible to allow you to understand a topic in sightly more detail (the BBC and the Guardian do these quite well).

Thanks for the advice, you seem to know what you're talking about lol & its probably because most of my subjects are essay based which require me to back up my arguments with facts/statistics as evidence, so im inclined to think thats the best way to have a strong essay.

Any other advice you can give me? Or sites/resources i can use to prepare?

Reply 4

Estreth

You need to know facts in the sense that if you're asked a question about contemporary politics, you need to know what the question's referring to. So for instance, someone brought up a question on here recently about whether someone wearing a burkini in a European country was as offensive as wearing a bikini in a Muslim country. So obviously you need to know what a burkini is, and have some sense of why this has been discussed recently.

You don't need to know facts in the sense that you don't need to cite any empirical evidence for the factual statements you make (although if they look very implausible it might be useful).

Tthe question will not be asking you to make the kind of argument that requires much empirical evidence anyway. So on the burkini/bikini question, you need to think about things like:

- what is the religious meaning of Muslim dress codes?
- what reasons might one have for wanting to wear a bikini?
- how important is religious freedom and what does it require?
- is there 'reasonable' and 'unreasonable' offence?
- are we obliged to accommodate our behaviour to the social expectations of the countries we visit?

None of those requires any 'facts', still less statistics. To pursue the example further: you don't need to even think about things like:

- what proportion of Muslims are in fact offended by the wearing of bikinis?
- what is the law on dress in xyz Muslim countries or in Europe?

I can't even think of any more of the kind of (basically) irrelevant facts that people are likely to throw into this question, but hopefully you get the idea!

Reply 5

kirstybecs

For my essay, I used no figures and just drew from other news stories related to my essay question that I could confidently write about.

There's no need to have 5000 facts and figures on random subjects, don't worry.

Reply 6

BH13

I just took my LNAT and am sure I made a factual mistake. I was referencing historical events and said X happened, but then Y happened due to Z. In actuality it was Y happened, then X happened due to Z. It was simply a mistake of ordering events. It was my fault really for using a historical example on the essay. How dentrimental to my application do you feel this will be? I feel my multiple choice was excellent. (30+)

Reply 7

Estreth

Original post by BH13

Not very detrimental, as long as the mistake isn't utterly ridiculous. It will also help if your example as (incorrectly) stated does actually illustrate the point you were making.

Do you need to know facts etc for the LNAT essay?

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