Struggling with LR, why? Forum

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Cicero, Fin. III 16

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Struggling with LR, why?

Post by Cicero, Fin. III 16 » Sun May 13, 2012 6:20 pm

I'm consistently getting -5 or (gasp!) -7 on my LR sections, as opposed to -1 or -2 on both Games and RC.

With a month to go, any suggestions?

iowalum

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Re: Struggling with LR, why?

Post by iowalum » Sun May 13, 2012 6:32 pm

What kinds of problems/how are you on time?

The best thing to do is categorize the types of games you do well/poorly on and concentrate on those types. Also, what study aids have you used so far?

I found it helpful to go slowly through a few sections and underline the different parts of the argument to the point that identifying premises, conclusions, etc. was natural. If you find yourself running out of time figure out where you lose the most - e.g. I had a hard time with parallel reasoning, so I did those last because they sucked up my time. Review your sections the next day and take enough time that you could explain the correct answer to someone else.

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Cicero, Fin. III 16

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Re: Struggling with LR, why?

Post by Cicero, Fin. III 16 » Sun May 13, 2012 6:42 pm

iowalum wrote:What kinds of problems/how are you on time?

The best thing to do is categorize the types of games you do well/poorly on and concentrate on those types. Also, what study aids have you used so far?

I found it helpful to go slowly through a few sections and underline the different parts of the argument to the point that identifying premises, conclusions, etc. was natural. If you find yourself running out of time figure out where you lose the most - e.g. I had a hard time with parallel reasoning, so I did those last because they sucked up my time. Review your sections the next day and take enough time that you could explain the correct answer to someone else.
I'm usually finishing right before the buzzer. Only that close to 'time' because I'm spending more than two minutes per troublesome question. Usually they're flaws.

I'm using the Bibles and taking the old exams. I also have packets full of LR question by type.

iowalum

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Re: Struggling with LR, why?

Post by iowalum » Sun May 13, 2012 8:46 pm

Cicero, Fin. III 16 wrote:
iowalum wrote:What kinds of problems/how are you on time?

The best thing to do is categorize the types of games you do well/poorly on and concentrate on those types. Also, what study aids have you used so far?

I found it helpful to go slowly through a few sections and underline the different parts of the argument to the point that identifying premises, conclusions, etc. was natural. If you find yourself running out of time figure out where you lose the most - e.g. I had a hard time with parallel reasoning, so I did those last because they sucked up my time. Review your sections the next day and take enough time that you could explain the correct answer to someone else.
I'm usually finishing right before the buzzer. Only that close to 'time' because I'm spending more than two minutes per troublesome question. Usually they're flaws.

I'm using the Bibles and taking the old exams. I also have packets full of LR question by type.
So, if you can identify flaws and probably a few other types that are difficult go through as many of those as you have and spend enough time on each one that you can thoroughly understand and explain why the correct answer is correct and why the others aren't. One rule that helped me in LR is that the correct answer is 100% correct and the others are 100% incorrect - it's easy (especially with LR) to think that several answers have merits, but you need to get to the point where you can completely dispute each one.

Also, how are you doing on the rest of the section? I tried a few methods - going last to first, doing 1-10 then 20-24/6 then 10-20 (which worked sometimes but is hit and miss), but nothing makes up for a solid strategy for identifying each part of the argument and its purpose quickly. Underline if you need to.

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