LSAT vocabulary: Social science passages
Economics, sociology, and political science passages run on these terms. They name the forces the passage is arguing about.
All example sentences are original, written for this page. They are not from real LSAT passages.
The twelve words
- norm
- an accepted standard of behavior in a group
"In that office, working late was the norm, not the exception." - incentive
- something that motivates action
"The tax credit was an incentive for homeowners to install solar panels." - disparity
- a notable gap or difference between groups
"The report documented a wide disparity in funding between districts." - cohort
- a group sharing a characteristic, often age or year
"The study followed a cohort of students from kindergarten to graduation." - ideology
- a system of beliefs about how society should work
"The candidate's ideology shaped every policy she proposed." - longitudinal
- a study that follows subjects over a long period
"The longitudinal data showed effects that short studies had missed." - stratification
- division of society into ranked layers
"The passage examines stratification in cities with rapid growth." - assimilation
- the process of blending into a larger culture
"The author questions whether assimilation is the right goal for newcomers." - marginal
- on the edge; of minor importance
"The policy change had only a marginal effect on prices." - census
- an official count of a population
"The census recorded the town's population at just over forty thousand." - urbanization
- the growth of cities and movement of people into them
"Rapid urbanization strained the region's water supply." - demographic
- relating to the statistical structure of a population
"The demographic shifts changed which issues decided the election."
Self-check: fill in the word
Each sentence is missing one word from the list above. Guess first, then open the answer.
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The researchers tracked the same ____ of children for a full decade.
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cohort
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Lower prices gave shoppers a strong ____ to buy early.
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incentive
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The ____ between rich and poor neighborhoods kept widening.
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disparity
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The change was so small it was ____.
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marginal
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The ____ counted every household in the county.
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census
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Fast ____ brought new factories but also crowded schools.
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urbanization
Keep building
Three more lists, twelve words each, same format.