About reviewing tests... Forum

[deputamadre]

Is it best to review them right after you take them? I usually get a lot of questions wrong so it takes awhile. Most of the time I finish the PT around 12-1 in the morning so its not really realistic for me to stay up to 3am reviewing it. Yes, it can take me up to 3 hours reviewing a test.

I usually review 1 section then go to bed and finish in the morning. Is this ok?

[CMDantes]

I like to do the reviewing the next morning, sometimes staggering the sections throughout the day.

[Shrimps]

Whatever works for you.. but if you make a lot of mistakes, reviewing them should be far more important - and more time consuming - than taking the test itself. And reviews are more helpful, I think, when you still remember the question and the reason you picked the wrong answer. This way you can compare the reasoning that led you to the wrong choice with correct reasoning, which is more important than learning why, say, (B) is the correct answer.

Remember, when you're reviewing your answers, you should not be so much analyzing the questions you got wrong (who cares about those? you're not running into them again) as analyzing YOURSELF - your faulty reasoning, that is - and making adjustments to it.

WHY did I think this way about this question that I got wrong? How do I stop thinking this way? (that's why you should keep a log of your mistakes with your explanations of how and why you got them wrong and see if there's a pattern).

To do this, I think it would be preferable to check the mistakes immediately after the test.. when you still remember your reasoning.

Another tool to see if you have a pattern in mistakes (by type of question):

http://www.kaplanlogin.com/dl/LSAT/lsat ... qrater.asp

Saw it mentioned on this forum a few days ago. Could be useful.

[traehekat]

Review the test within a day or so, but be thorough. If you are getting a fair amount wrong, reviewing should take more time than the time it takes to complete the test itself. Review all questions wrong, and look at every single answer choice. Actually write out why each answer choice is either right or wrong.

This, and taking a lot of PTs, is the key to success.

[abbas123]

Review the test within a day or so, but be thorough. If you are getting a fair amount wrong, reviewing should take more time than the time it takes to complete the test itself. Review all questions wrong, and look at every single answer choice. Actually write out why each answer choice is either right or wrong.

This, and taking a lot of PTs, is the key to success.

ive seen this tip mentioned before but not really sure how to do this.

does anyone have an example of how to write out their thought process for right and wrong answer choices? how long should it take? i just ask because it could become really time consuming. thanks.

[cubswin]

Reviewing is important, but I think some people over-review. Going over every single answer to every single question for every test you take is probably over-kill.

I would usually review the day-after, but sometimes when I took a test in the morning, I would review that night. Breaking up the sections of the test, like somebody above mentioned, worked great for me. Review is pretty dull, so I think doing it in small bits helped me get more out of it.

Review all questions wrong, and look at every single answer choice. Actually write out why each answer choice is either right or wrong.

This might work for certain types of learners, but I never did this and doubt I would have benefitted much. Going over the questions and thinking about them was enough for me. Many of the answers on LR questions are egregiously stupid; writing out an explanation for why those answers are wrong seems like a waste of time and energy to me. To each his own, I suppose.