Breaking an LR Slump Forum

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beezneez

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Breaking an LR Slump

Post by beezneez » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:45 pm

Hi all,

For the last 12 LR timed practice sessions I've been getting exactly 5-7 wrong. Looked for patterns among question types and can't find any, and I assume like most people 4-5 occur after questions 15 (stamina could be an issue). I can usually get about 22/25 etc untimed, but when timed by numbers go down to 18-20/25. I've also tried starting a Q15 etc with the SAME results.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Going through PS again, this time making notes, and reviewing the LR part Steve's 6 month plan again. Anything else I can try? Is there hope to break this slump and be PT'ing in the 20s by Oct? Could it be a flaw in my basic abilities? Perhaps a reading speed, or a concentration thing? My GPA is 3.8, so I think I can do this!

Thanks so much!

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flippacious

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by flippacious » Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:04 pm

How do you review? You could try keeping track of exactly why you get a question wrong. For every question you miss or are not 100% sure about (say you narrow it two answer choices, but guess the right one) ask yourself these four questions:

1. Why is the right answer right?
2. Why is the wrong answer wrong?
3. What about the wrong answer made me think it was right?
4. What about the right answer made me think it was wrong?

Pay attention to your answers to these questions, especially #3 and #4, and you should pick up on a pattern besides question types. Figure out what types of answers trick you into thinking they're right and why these answers are wrong.

You could also try taking a section timed and not looking at the answer key right away. Instead, go through the questions again, untimed, and try to "grade" yourself and catch your mistakes on your own. The key is doing this shortly after the timed section, so you can remember exactly what you were thinking. I tried this recently and it really made my mistakes stand out, I thought it was helpful.

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CalAlumni

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by CalAlumni » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:17 pm

What PT's have you been doing?

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sabanist

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by sabanist » Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:36 pm

flippacious wrote:How do you review? You could try keeping track of exactly why you get a question wrong. For every question you miss or are not 100% sure about (say you narrow it two answer choices, but guess the right one) ask yourself these four questions:

1. Why is the right answer right?
2. Why is the wrong answer wrong?
3. What about the wrong answer made me think it was right?
4. What about the right answer made me think it was wrong?

Pay attention to your answers to these questions, especially #3 and #4, and you should pick up on a pattern besides question types. Figure out what types of answers trick you into thinking they're right and why these answers are wrong.

You could also try taking a section timed and not looking at the answer key right away. Instead, go through the questions again, untimed, and try to "grade" yourself and catch your mistakes on your own. The key is doing this shortly after the timed section, so you can remember exactly what you were thinking. I tried this recently and it really made my mistakes stand out, I thought it was helpful.
+1, excellent advice.

Also, the problem with it occurring after Q15 is probably less of a stamina issue and more of a difficulty issue. I often find that the questions I struggle with the most are 15-20, with a slight decline in difficulty after that, and I think some people have said the same.
Reviewing the LRB helped me as well (forgot ALL about the negation technique etc. by test day, which would have helped me a lot), and failing that, some people have said doing Manhattan LR in addition to the LRB helped them.
Good luck!

lederhosen

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by lederhosen » Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:49 am

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Last edited by lederhosen on Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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beautyistruth

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by beautyistruth » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:59 am

This advice is good. I took a cold practice test today. (Cold, because in the past, I've taken the earlier practice tests, and questions from the Kaplan Mastery Practice/Big Blue Book crop up all over the place. I'm very sure that seeing questions I've done, picked apart and thoroughly studied inaccurately inflate my score, time, and confidence). I was shocked. By far the worst score I had gotten in a LR section since my very first cold diagnostic. I think that I'll go through and write down the answers to the above mentioned questions 1-4.

Good luck!

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beezneez

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by beezneez » Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:43 pm

Thanks so much, all! Excellent advice and much appreciated.

My errors have been occurring in the last 8 questions, and I've been doing PTs 19-38, saving 40+ for timed, full lsat experience in the last 2 months. I;ve gone over the LRB and made notes and can now go -2 average untimed, so I think I understand things. Just need to start drilling and push it now.

Happy studying all. We'll kill this thing!

bbobby12

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by bbobby12 » Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:00 pm

Do a deeper analysis.. are you getting the last few questions wrong? Then it could be a fatigue issue. Or maybe you're getting a certain type of question wrong...see if you can see some similarities in the questions youre getting wrong...maybe its a small concept or trick youre getting sucked into each time

sama

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Re: Breaking an LR Slump

Post by sama » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:18 pm

Are all of these timed? If yes, maybe you can get rid of the timer and see if you can master it then go back to work on timing

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