How did you review your practice tests? Forum

[equestrian22]

I'm in the beginning phases of studying for the June LSAT. My completely cold diagnostic was a 158 and my first studied PT after a week was a 167. Obviously, no trend can be drawn from 2 exams, but how did those who have or are currently studying go over your tests? I'm debating between going over only those questions I got wrong vs every single question. Alternately, I'm marking secondary answers in the test itself to see whether or not I was at least debating between a right and wrong answer. Since time is of the essence, should I be saving some time by only revisiting wrong or questionable answers, or will it really behoove me to look at each question? I consistently score >90% on standardized tests, including the GRE that I recently took, so I'm aiming for that with the LSAT. Thanks in advance.

[Waggly Toast]

Reviewing all of the questions can really be beneficial. Reviewing the questions you answered correctly will help you review your throught process for obtaining the right answer and will subsequently help you in the long run.

[Cale39]

How exactly do people figure out how they go wrong on various questions. i read a question I got wrong, look at the correct answer and I can pretty much say "ohhh, ok, this one sounds better" but sometimes I can't explicitly say why the answer is correct and why the one I chose was wrong.

[Shrimps]

explanations of questions (Kaplan, others) can be helpful. Splurge, if that's what you need. But really, if you don't understand why your question is not correct (most often because it's unsupported by anything in the text), you need to re-read the whole question carefully.

[tomwatts]

As I see it, there are three categories of questions you've done:
* Questions you got wrong. These you need to review in order to figure out why you got them wrong and not make similar mistakes in the future.
* Questions you got right but took a long time on, weren't confident about, guessed, etc. These you need to review in order to make sure that you nail them in the future. You might miss something else like this (or just spend too long on it) in the future, and you want to avoid that.
* Questions you got right and thoroughly understood in an appropriate amount of time. These you want to look at again just so that you remember the question so that if you see something else like this in the future, you'll know that it works the same way.

So reviewing the third type of question — the one you totally nailed — might be pretty quick, but it's worth looking at it again just to spot patterns in the test.

[ljbc03]

thanks, watts. really helpful.

[Woozy]

If you've got nothing but time, review them all.

I only reviewed ones I was not sure of on first pass and ones I got wrong. The marginal benefit of additional time spent reviewing answers you got right and understood perfectly at first glance is tiny.

The most important thing is to review all questions that trip you up in some way, even if you do get them correct.

[Kobe_Teeth]

explanations of questions (Kaplan, others) can be helpful. Splurge, if that's what you need. But really, if you don't understand why your question is not correct (most often because it's unsupported by anything in the text), you need to re-read the whole question carefully.

This. Because when you go back through you might think "oh I get it" but you really don't.
Also, try to go over tight and wrong answers.

[equestrian22]

Thanks for the advice everyone, much appreciated.

[lakerfanimal]

This takes a while but it does help. Write out explanations for every single question whether you missed it or not (the ones you missed will probably have longer explanations)

[sgtgrumbles]

I only reviewed ones I was not sure of on first pass and ones I got wrong. The marginal benefit of additional time spent reviewing answers you got right and understood perfectly at first glance is tiny.

I haven't been reviewing long enough to know if this is solid advice, but it seems like the best strategy to me. I'm sure there may be a sliver of benefit to writing out explanations to questions you breezed through, but I don't see much of one.

While taking PTs, I circle any question that I'm even a little unsure of. Even if I've definitively ruled out the four "wrong" choices but just don't quite see how the leftover one is "all the way" right, I'll circle it. I circle very liberally. When I'm done, I'll list all the questions I got wrong and questions I circled and write out explanations for each. For those I got wrong I'll write out an explanation of why my answer was wrong and another explanation of why the correct answer was right. For those I circled but got correct, I'll only write out an explanation of why my answer was right. Some people will recommend writing out an explanation of why all four wrong choices are incorrect, but that also seems too masochistic to me.

EDIT: Also, if for a circled but correct question I was deciding between two answers and ultimately picked the right one, I'll write an explanation for why the other candidate was wrong.

[sgtgrumbles]

I'm curious to know why people (myself included) write out their own explanations rather than just reading the explanations given on, say, the Atlas forums. Do you feel like you absorb the lessons from your struggles better if you go through the process of picking apart the question yourself, rather than having the explanation handed to you? Do you ever go back and review your reviews, or are they just a way of making peace with the difficult questions and hopefully digesting the lessons the first time?

[Anaconda]

I'm curious to know why people (myself included) write out their own explanations rather than just reading the explanations given on, say, the Atlas forums. Do you feel like you absorb the lessons from your struggles better if you go through the process of picking apart the question yourself, rather than having the explanation handed to you? Do you ever go back and review your reviews, or are they just a way of making peace with the difficult questions and hopefully digesting the lessons the first time?

Way of making peace, and going through the full thought process.

[blhblahblah]

With a fine-tooth-comb

[Hedwig]

I have a file folder called LSAT Prep that contains my review files. For each test that I do, I write up a separate file on that test, go through each of the sections, reviewing each wrong answer (and difficult questions that I got right) and coming to a conclusion on why I got them wrong and why the right answer is the right answer. I did check the Atlas Forums but some of the questions I got wrong weren't discussed on there - and I found that after a certain amount of staring at the question and re-reading it, you can find your mistake and understand why your answer was wrong and why the real answer was right. I think it's better to agonize and not understand for 10 minutes why your wrong answer was wrong until you can figure it out yourself than to just have the answer handed to you - but hey, if you don't have that ten minutes to spare or aren't willing to spend that time, reading an answer explanation by someone else should be helpful.

In addition to each separate prep test, I have an LG Mistake Tracker, an LR Mistake Tracker, and an RC Mistake Tracker, where I track the prep test #, question # and type of question I got wrong (and which passage/game number I was on for LG/RC).

I also keep a file for Prep Test Tracking, which simply has scores and test numbers in it.

[Sandro]

Right now I'm going through all my LR sections and question by question writing it out on a flash card. This keeps me from rambling on (as I was doing at first on a word document, it went for pages and pages and pages. I think that might be counter productive as the LSAT is all about speed and concise thoughts.) and helps me abbreviate terms.

On each card I write

Type of Question (Flaw, Assumption, Weaken/Strengthen etc)
What the stimulus says in concise terms / the pre phrase you should get out of it
What question stem asks for
Answers A B C D E and why each one is right/wrong. Mark trap answers as well. Show how they connect or dont connect with the stimulus in the desired way.

I also circle questions I missed or think are good examples and throw them in a pile for later review.