top scorers: to read or not to read the question stem first? Forum

[phillywc]

You can do both. A lot of the people real into the LSAT seem to insist on stem first but I just read them straight through and was fine.

[DetroitRed]

I think reading the stem first is really helpful, especially if you're liable to miss LR questions by virtue of misreading key words. That was my problem; nothing in LR really stumped me, but I would miss a "not" or an "except" and be totally screwed. Since reading stems first, I've gone from -1/-2 per section to -0/-1 per two sections.

[Christine (MLSAT)]

I always read the stem first, and honestly can't imagine not doing that. I know that some people prefer the reverse (and score quite well), but for me personally, it would be so counter-intuitive! I do advise my students to try stem-first, for these reasons:

I don't really care whether a question is assumption vs. weaken or flaw, though - there's little to no identifiable variation in the way that the argument is written among those question types. However, I care VERY MUCH about whether I'm dealing with an assumption-family question that has a premise-->conclusion structure, or an inference type question where I'm taking everything as facts.

That completely changes my mindset in how I read, and I would be mentally holding my breath without that information. I want to know, before I begin, if I'm supposed to be skeptical of this idiot author, or completely accepting of this factual information. These two are such wildly different mental states that without knowing which one I'm in, I'd be hamstrung in processing the information from the jump. I'd have to just hang on to it, and then *reanalyze it* when I finally hit the stem.

That would annoy the heck out of me!

But, you know, to each their own. I have a few friends/colleagues who prefer the stimulus first (a small minority). I think they're crazy, but they're smart cookies who did well on the LSAT, so who am I to judge!

[KDLMaj]

I don't really care whether a question is assumption vs. weaken or flaw, though - there's little to no identifiable variation in the way that the argument is written among those question types. However, I care VERY MUCH about whether I'm dealing with an assumption-family question that has a premise-->conclusion structure, or an inference type question where I'm taking everything as facts.

Correct. There is no difference between any of the assumption family stims. They are indistinguishable from each other. The ONLY difference is the format of the answer choice (determined by the specific assumption family question type)

[LSATneurotic]

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