LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling Forum

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vuthy

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LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by vuthy » Mon Jul 15, 2013 2:52 pm

Probably just need a pep talk or something, but my LR scores have gone from a combined -6 in my PTs (before studying a lick) to about -12 in my latest PTs. Real kick in the nuts today when I got -15 (-15!!) on PT 56. I've been drilling Cambridge very systematically, following advice here. Even bought the 7Sage course. And yet I'm making way more mistakes now, and barely finishing, whereas before I had time to go back and check answers.

My theory is that I'm overthinking, trying to apply new rules/knowledge, and that this is causing problems. Just curious if anyone else experienced this kind of "darkest before the dawn" thing.

(FWIW, I'm consistently RC-2 and LG-1, so I feel like I have the potential to clear 170, but LR really has me upside down right now.)

Anybody had similar experience and/or have advice? Thanks.

Darmody

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by Darmody » Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:00 pm

You should just go back to what was working for you imo. Some people work differently and these strategies from LSAT guides don't work for them.

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vuthy

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by vuthy » Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:03 pm

I suppose. Just hard to believe my own instincts are better than all this collected wisdom. That certainly wasn't true with LG, where on my own I was -12 when I started. But maybe you're right.

elg

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by elg » Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:12 pm

I was sort of the same way, getting most LR right without any outside strategy, however, I have found that to get those last few questions right you really need a structured approach that things like mlsat give you. Not to say its impossible to get them all right if you keep doing it your way, just how it was for me. Also, its very common to go way down when starting to use a new strategy, but there's a reason all these book exist, and it's to give you a guideline to deal with any question so that you do not have to waste time thinking about the best way to answer a particular questions type.

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mindarmed

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by mindarmed » Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:28 pm

Darmody wrote:You should just go back to what was working for you imo. Some people work differently and these strategies from LSAT guides don't work for them.
tcr, i found a lot of the manhattan/PS methods for LG to be awful. i just used my own intuition and applied the problem solving techniques i used/learned my engineering curriculum

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Bratva

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by Bratva » Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:34 pm

elg wrote:I was sort of the same way, getting most LR right without any outside strategy, however, I have found that to get those last few questions right you really need a structured approach that things like mlsat give you. Not to say its impossible to get them all right if you keep doing it your way, just how it was for me. Also, its very common to go way down when starting to use a new strategy, but there's a reason all these book exist, and it's to give you a guideline to deal with any question so that you do not have to waste time thinking about the best way to answer a particular questions type.

I concur.
I have been going through the same problem. Used to get 2-4 LR questions wrong (for both sections) and for the past 3 pts i've been getting 8 wrong...I think it's because the more you drill, the more you try to use the new approaches you learn but because you haven't mastered them completely, it messes you up even more. But i feel like once you completely master the skills you recently learned, you'll do way better than you did initially without any techniques. :)
i've been just looking over the questions i've gotten wrong and really sit down to analyze each one and to slowly use the approaches i've learned to try to solve them.

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vuthy

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by vuthy » Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:13 pm

Cool. Good to know I'm not alone. I think what's been most surprising to me is that I'm missing some pretty easy questions, where I did not used to do that. That's what leads me to believe it's over-thinking, at least in part. Anyway, gotta trust the process I guess.

kiyoku

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by kiyoku » Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:07 pm

If you see the -15 as part of a graph, you might be scared that this is some sort of a trend.

Rather than seeing it as a trend, I think you might want to take all of those questions you got wrong and try to pin point all of the different weaknesses that you have. Those are glorious opportunities to plug your leaks.

essyct

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by essyct » Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:12 pm

This whole thread is really encouraging! I recently took a PT and got -15 on the combined LR sections (-10 on one of them alone! :shock: ) which is about twice as much as I had ben able to go before. What was even more frustrating was the fact that about 5 of them were the first couple of questions of the sections and fairly easy to immediately spot the correct answer once I went back to review.

Literally EVERY other question I got wrong, I either was in between two choices and picked the wrong one right off or I had the right answer bubbled in and then went back and changed it during the extra 5-8 minutes I had to review. Any tips to avoid second guessing myself....other than to just not do it?? lol

Anyway, since I don't have any problems finish sections on time, now I've been holding off on taking more PTs and have focused on drilling using the Cambridge packets.

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vuthy

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Re: LR getting A LOT worse now that I'm studying/drilling

Post by vuthy » Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:41 pm

kiyoku wrote:
Rather than seeing it as a trend, I think you might want to take all of those questions you got wrong and try to pin point all of the different weaknesses that you have. Those are glorious opportunities to plug your leaks.

Totally. I do blind review, and fortunately (I think!) I get nearly all of them right and can explain them prior to scoring. But unfortunately there's no real pattern. Some easy, some hard. All different question types. So I do think it's like when a golfer is rebuilding his swing. It's a mess, all clubs, until it's not.

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