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Absolute Vs. Relative on the LSAT

short and tall door

Relative terms are comparisons. The 1st door is *shorter* than the 2nd, but not short.

What are Absolute and Relative on the LSAT?

Absolute and relative are a cross-question type skill on LSAT logical reasoning. Absolute terms describe a set quantity, while relative terms make a comparison. So, rich and happy are absolute terms, richer and healthier are comparative, relative terms. A relative term if a comparative term.

That’s a nice, simple concept, so of course the LSAT will get it backwards repeatedly. On LSAT questions you’ll see authors confuse “healthier” for “healthy”. These aren’t the same thing. You and I are probably less healthy than olympic athletes. That doesn’t make us unhealthy.

Similarly, we’re probably both healthier than the majority of hospital patients. But that doesn’t make either of us healthy. Plenty of people are not in hospital but not healthy.

Relative terms, like healthier, just describe direction. If you eat a donut, you will be somewhat less healthy, but it’s likely not enough to make you unhealthy if you were in good health before you ate the donut.

These concepts are really quite simple, but the trick is spotting when the LSAT switches from absolute to relative in the middle of a complicated question. The key skill you need to practice is simply noticing when you see an absolute or relative term. You already know the difference between them.

Note: These terms are also known as comparative vs. absolute on the LSAT. Comparative means the same thing as relative: it is a comparison between two things, rather than an absolute level.

What makes absolute and relative confusing on Logical Reasoning

How does the LSAT make simple things so hard? Fast vs. faster seems easy….

The words sound the same. When you’re in the middle of a hard LR question, it is easy to miss that a question has moved from “rich” to “richer”. You are richer than most toddlers, but that doesn’t make you rich. You are poorer than most CEOs, but that doesn’t make you poor.

You have to train yourself to look for words ending in -er, and to notice comparisons, to see if there is an absolute vs. relative term.

Also, in everyday life, we tend to only use a relative word if the absolute word also applies. For example, you might say “if you eat healthy meals, your health will improve!”, when speaking to a healthy person. But it would be downright cruel to say that to someone who was very sick – yes, their health would improve from better nutrition, but it would not improve enough to make them healthy. It is not very motivational to tell someone “you will be slightly less sick if you do this, though you will remain very sick”.

So in everyday life, we have context and sensitivity and we generally only use absolute and relative when they match. But on the LSAT you need to use the literal meaning of words, so someone can and will use a relative term when the absolute isn’t true. e.g. confusing richer and rich.

Sample question with an absolute vs. relative flaw

runners

Run from the LSAT as fast as you can!

Conclusion: These new running shoes can’t help us run faster

Reasoning: Running shoes can help people run faster. But, we have trained hard and we are already extremely fast runners, faster than almost anyone.

Question: The argument is flawed because it fails to consider that

Answers:

  • A. Some running shoes are less effective than others at increasing speed
  • B. The runners are already at their maximum potential speed
  • C. A fast runner is not necessarily at their maximum running speed
  • D. Not all running shoes help increase speed
  • E. Other things increase speed more than running shoes

Correct answer: This question makes an absolute relative switch. The conclusion is about whether the shoes can help you go faster, a relative term. But the evidence is that the runners are fast, an absolute term.

So, the argument fails to consider that the runners could increase their speed even more. C describes this in an abstract way by pointing out that being fast doesn’t mean you have hit your maximum potential, and so better shoes might make you run relatively faster.

What are some key words to spot Absolute and Relative

Any comparison words are relative words, or words ending in -er.

Quantity words indicate an absolute quantity, though often within a range. For example, “all” is an absolute quantity. So is “some” though the range of “some” is enormous.

Whereas, words like “more” are relative. This is not a fixed quantity, but rather a comparison. So, a key difference is this: an absolute word refers to a single quantity. So, if you have some food, you have a certain amount. But if you have more food, that has to be in reference to how much food someone else has.

What are some examples of absolute vs. relative

This table shows examples of absolute terms, relative terms, and example errors. Note that the example errors are very stupid. The skill of the LSAT question writers it to take an obvious error like that and disguise it so you don’t notice. But the basic error is really dumb.

Absolute Relative Example Error
Healthy Less Healthy/Healthier You’ve eaten a donut, which hurts your health. You are now unhealthy.
Rich Richer/Poorer You’ve earned one dollar. You are now rich.
Hungry Hungrier/More full It has been five minutes since you ate and your hunger is increasing. You must be very hungry!
Sad Sadder/happier You didn’t get the juice you were expecting. You must be miserable. (Implied assumption that lack of juice makes you sadder)

How Common Are Absolute and Relative

LSAT questions based absolute/relative errors are quite common: roughly 2.5% of logical reasoning questions have tested this concept! That’s one in every 40 questions. Learning to spot this concept will flip a fair number of questions from hard to easy.

  • As a major concept, about 1.15% of LR questions test absolute vs. relative
  • As a minor concept, about 1.4 of LR questions test absolute vs. relative

As you can see from the list below, absolute vs. relative is present on reading comprehension questions, but it is much rarer.

Examples of Absolute and Relative Questions

Here are all the questions on LSATHacks which include absolute and relative. These are divided into questions where Absolute vs. Relative is the major concept vs. a minor concept. This is generally based on whether the idea is the basis of a right answer vs. being the basis of a wrong answer.

Major concept

Minor concept

Generally in these questions absolute or relative is present in a wrong answer choice.

The Bottom Line

Absolute vs. Relative is a concept that is easy to understand but hard to spot. It’s the difference between being rich (e.g. having $1 million dollars) and being richer (e.g. having one more dollar, but perhaps having only $1,000).

Take the questions above, redo the ones from preptests you’ve already done as a drill, and learn to spot this important concept. You’ll have one more essential logical reasoning in your toolbelt.

Absolute and Relative FAQ

What Sections will Absolute and Relative Appear on

Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. Logic Games sequencing games also use relative rules, such as B is before F, which puts B relatively before F but not in a fixed position. However, the concept is not key there.

How Common is Absolute and Relative

Once every few preptests you’ll have a question specifically testing absolute vs. relative. However it shows up much more frequently as a concept

What are common indicators of relative terms

Comparison terms, such as “more”, “bigger”, “less” and anything ending in -er

 

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