prephrasing answers - do you do this? Forum

[jeans]

Both Kaplan and Powerscore suggest prephrasing answers on RC and LR. I understand the value of doing it in practice, but do you do this under timed conditions? I totally don't understand how it's efficient to be sitting there imagining what the answer might be instead of looking at the choices when the clock is ticking. For people that do this, can you explain how it works or how often you do it or anything? Thank you so much.

[quasi-stellar]

I sometimes do that, but it is only possible when you clearly see what is wrong with the argument. Other times i simply go on to eliminate choices.

[wjun15]

i tried but its not effective, unless you know right away what the flaw is. otherwise it just takes too much time.

[jayn3]

i make mental tick marks when i see something that's likely to be part of a question....nothing written, just keep it in short-term memory. it's a lot easier to do with LR than with RC because passages are shorter.

[forty-two]

I almost always did this for LR, and I found it to be really helpful. It does more time upfront to figure out what's exactly wrong with the argument, but it helped me to go through the answer choices more quickly and accurately because I already knew what I was looking for. So, it would take me the same amount of time to answer the question, but there was a better chance that I'd get it right. Also, I didn't come up with a perfect answer for every question...figuring out the flaw or gap was usually enough.

Good luck!

[lebob]

i only prephrase for those "the conclusion drawn follows logically if which one of the following is assumed" questions, and only if i can spot the terms relatively quickly.

for ex, i write a very, very short relationship, like X ---> Y. and i look for the X--->Y in the choices.

this helps me not get confused when i come across answer choices that sound really good but have the relationship backwards (they ALWAYS have 1 of these)
They'll have something that turns out to be Y---->X. instead of sitting around moaning and groaning, i'll just look at my X--->Y relationship, and cancel it out.


but yea, speed is crucial here, so if you waste valuable time, eff it

[PDaddy]

Both Kaplan and Powerscore suggest prephrasing answers on RC and LR. I understand the value of doing it in practice, but do you do this under timed conditions? I totally don't understand how it's efficient to be sitting there imagining what the answer might be instead of looking at the choices when the clock is ticking. For people that do this, can you explain how it works or how often you do it or anything? Thank you so much.

You don't have to get the right answer in your head, although you'll often be close if you pracxtice doing it. Prephrasing is meant mostly to keep your brain in attack mode. It doesn't even matter what answer you come up with. The point is that you are already thinking about what a correct answer might look like. It is helpful. If you are still conscious of the fact that you are doing it, you haven't done it enough; it should be so second nature that you do it without realizing it.

I am thinking of a re-take in October, so I have been practicing.

[halfwaygone]

I absolutely did this, and I scored 172. If I decide to re-take and go for a closer to 180 score in October, I'll do it again.

Sure, reading speed is the issue. If you have a high reading rate to begin with, it's easier to do. But with the LR questions, you don't lose that much time, and you save a lot more if you're leaping to the right conclusions. (It's harder with RC, though I would try to spot parts I thought would be asked about.)

It does become second nature. It really helped me practice when I was breaking the test into sections (I started out untimed then went timed then went timed-with-less-time) to study because I would "make a case" against the flaw. Then pick it, and then I could see if my WHY was the same as the answer. Not just if I'd picked the right answer, but the right answer for the right reason.

[tomwatts]

The point is to have a reasonable idea what you're looking for in the answer choices so that you can eliminate more quickly. Sometimes you may be off track, and on some questions you really can't (e.g. "Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?"), but when you can, if you practice it a little, it's pretty useful. It does create the need for additional procedures when you 1) see what you were expecting in the answer choices, 2) don't see what you're expecting in the answer choices, or 3) can't predict an answer at all when you think you should be able to, but in each case it's still helpful because you have a better idea of the strategy that you need to employ at each step.

This may sound overly complicated, but I have always thought of the LSAT as being the application of a series of processes to questions, each of which fits within some sort of hierarchy or list of steps.