Averaging -10 on LR Forum

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LSATobsessed

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Averaging -10 on LR

Post by LSATobsessed » Sat Feb 23, 2013 4:50 pm

I started prepping in December with the Bibles which I finished. Then i got 7Sage, and I went through all their LR videos. But I am stick at minus 10 average on LR for each section.

How can I overcome this? I am aiming for -5 or less a section.

A pattern I saw is that I usually get the first 10 or so right. I get a ton of the 11-20 wrong and I usually get the last 5 right.
I spend 10 minutes on the first 10 problems.

Can anything help me? I am considering blueprint in class.
And I also may go through my LR bible again.

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gaud

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by gaud » Sat Feb 23, 2013 4:53 pm

Pick up Manhattan's LR Guide.

When you review each problem, write out explanations for why each answer is either correct or incorrect. (whether or not you received credit for the question). If you did miss the problem, think about why. Were you tricked? If so, how? Were you reading too fast? You really need to focus on understanding why each choice is either wrong or right and it will help you as you move forward. The test is standardized, keep that in mind, once you get an idea of the tricks that they use and the logical jumps they want you to make, you'll be headed in the right direction.

Good luck!

LSATobsessed

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by LSATobsessed » Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:27 pm

Thanks for the advise gaud

I have also been using more older test to get to this average. Can anybody recommend me a prep test's LR sections to take so that I can get a gist of where I am at if I were to take a recent test?

Don't know whether this would make much of a difference in my scoring or not.

totoro

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by totoro » Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:35 pm

Definitely review why you got each question wrong; also review the questions you weren't sure about.
Make sure you are also approaching each type of question differently - they ask for different things, and sometimes the wrong answer would be a correct answer to a different question type - so you need to adapt your mode of thinking to each question. Have you read Manhattan LR guide? They will teach you how to do this.
Finally, like the previous poster said, you just need to take a lot of PT's. Some of the questions (and topics) will get more familiar with time and you will be able to recognize common traps.

The first 10 questions in 10 minutes is good for timing. The questions are ordered in terms of difficulty, so the 12-18 range is usually the hardest questions, with the questions getting slightly easier at the end, and all the easiest ones at the beginning, so it's not surprising that you're seeing that pattern.

Take a recent PT if you want, but if anything I would just try to get down to -5 using the above advice. My LR scores actually dropped dramatically when I started PTing 60 and up, because the wrong answer choices are much better worded/tighter on recent tests, while they tend to be slightly more obvious on some of the older tests.

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TheThriller

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by TheThriller » Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:49 pm

Try these self-study guides. I have worked through all of them.

Manhattan - will give you a "Broad to Narrow" construction of how to analyze LR question. Manhattan starts with general concepts and builds off of them to hit on individual question types.

Powerscore - will give you a "Individual Narrow" construction. While Powerscore places specific question types into certain groups, the guide takes a more individualized approach to each. There is a little lack of continuity of "LR understanding" that is present in Manhattan. This may a method that works well for some and I will credit it for my foundation of LR practices but Manhattan really took me from missing 4-6 each section to 0-2 each section.

Velocity - A little bit of both, but I don't think I would recommend the program to anyone as the videos are actually more cumbersome than beneficial.

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Daily_Double

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by Daily_Double » Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:00 pm

If you can read the question stem (however you label it, I mean the actual question) identify the question type, what answers to look for, which answers not to look for, both of these involve scope, in seconds, before even moving to the question stimulus (once again, labels don't matter, in this case I mean the prompt/passage), then it's not a lack of conceptual work. Rather it is a lack of experience, so start drilling the ones and twos from Cambridge. This will allow you to identify and resolve some, if not most of your weaknesses. Next, move to PTs. Start with the thirties. I'm not a fan of 1-29.

If you fail to satisfy the sufficient condition, then reread the LRB, pay special attention to the detailed analysis of conditional logic, formal logic, causation, and the explanation of flaws. Then move to Manhattan, their approach is great. Then move to Cambridge and PTs. Don't forget to thoroughly review the questions you answered incorrectly and the ones you are unsure about.

You'll get there eventually, good luck.

LSATobsessed

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Re: Averaging -10 on LR

Post by LSATobsessed » Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:41 pm

I really appreciate all the great advice !!!

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