Best tips from high performers. DEC LSAT Forum

[paulshortys10]

Besides the obvious tips on how to go an LR, LG, or an RC question, what not to obvious tips can you give regarding how to perform better. I routine do well on the RC section so I think the most important part is focusing on the passage and trying to get the most out of it the first time reading it. I practice trying to answer the questions by just reading the passage once and not going back to it, that way i learn to grab the most detail from it.

What sorts of LG tips can you give? I specifically need tips on finishing on time. I seem to have a hard time with 1 problem every time that ends up taking me 12+ minutes.

What sorts of LR tips can you give? I keep missing 7+ per section. I usually finish with about 2-3 questions left too. it's not that i don't know how to answer the questions(i've read the bible, and other guides to the LR many times), it's that i feel i sometimes miss details in questions or answers, sometimes i rush a question, and sometimes i get lost in the language of the question(english is my second language)

[nylost]

Besides the obvious tips on how to go an LR, LG, or an RC question, what not to obvious tips can you give regarding how to perform better. I routine do well on the RC section so I think the most important part is focusing on the passage and trying to get the most out of it the first time reading it. I practice trying to answer the questions by just reading the passage once and not going back to it, that way i learn to grab the most detail from it.

What sorts of LG tips can you give? I specifically need tips on finishing on time. I seem to have a hard time with 1 problem every time that ends up taking me 12+ minutes.

What sorts of LR tips can you give? I keep missing 7+ per section. I usually finish with about 2-3 questions left too. it's not that i don't know how to answer the questions(i've read the bible, and other guides to the LR many times), it's that i feel i sometimes miss details in questions or answers, sometimes i rush a question, and sometimes i get lost in the language of the question(english is my second language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3lGKMXYOG8

[Tainted_Praise]

Besides the obvious tips on how to go an LR, LG, or an RC question, what not to obvious tips can you give regarding how to perform better. I routine do well on the RC section so I think the most important part is focusing on the passage and trying to get the most out of it the first time reading it. I practice trying to answer the questions by just reading the passage once and not going back to it, that way i learn to grab the most detail from it.

What sorts of LG tips can you give? I specifically need tips on finishing on time. I seem to have a hard time with 1 problem every time that ends up taking me 12+ minutes.

What sorts of LR tips can you give? I keep missing 7+ per section. I usually finish with about 2-3 questions left too. it's not that i don't know how to answer the questions(i've read the bible, and other guides to the LR many times), it's that i feel i sometimes miss details in questions or answers, sometimes i rush a question, and sometimes i get lost in the language of the question(english is my second language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3lGKMXYOG8

[lolol10]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUKqGV-8kWU

[paulshortys10]

Besides the obvious tips on how to go an LR, LG, or an RC question, what not to obvious tips can you give regarding how to perform better. I routine do well on the RC section so I think the most important part is focusing on the passage and trying to get the most out of it the first time reading it. I practice trying to answer the questions by just reading the passage once and not going back to it, that way i learn to grab the most detail from it.

What sorts of LG tips can you give? I specifically need tips on finishing on time. I seem to have a hard time with 1 problem every time that ends up taking me 12+ minutes.

What sorts of LR tips can you give? I keep missing 7+ per section. I usually finish with about 2-3 questions left too. it's not that i don't know how to answer the questions(i've read the bible, and other guides to the LR many times), it's that i feel i sometimes miss details in questions or answers, sometimes i rush a question, and sometimes i get lost in the language of the question(english is my second language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3lGKMXYOG8

lol what the hell

[longdaysjourney]

I've been talking about Atlas so much that I feel like a sales rep., but after a few months of the Powerscore Bibles, the Atlas coursebooks helped me tremendously.

They made helped me to become quicker and more efficient on the games and to develop a methodical approach to RC.

[longdaysjourney]

What sorts of LG tips can you give? I specifically need tips on finishing on time. I seem to have a hard time with 1 problem every time that ends up taking me 12+ minutes.

That's not a problem, you just need to get quicker at the easier games. I almost always got -0's LG while prepping, but that didn't mean that I never took 15 min. on a really hard game. Overall the sections balance out, where you can make the largest gains are on the easiest problems...a big mistake is to devote all your study time to the "toughest" games

[paulshortys10]

What tips did atlas offer that were any different to powerscore? I need the most help with LR

[Ragged]

Tips for LR. Go over every answer identifying correct and incorrect chices and explaining why.


Tips for LG. Do LGs from PTs 7-35 several times untill you really get them. If you can get the older LG (which are more difficult) you will ace the LGs from current tests.


RC. No real tip. Maybe read more technical books. But not tip as to how to do the section.


General tip. Starting doing 30 minute sections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUKqGV-8kWU

That movie was horrible.

[jwmalone87]

Tips for LG. Do LGs from PTs 7-35 several times untill you really get them. If you can get the older LG (which are more difficult) you will ace the LGs from current tests.

As someone who just needs to hold serve on logic games to get a 165 (seriously, just let me finish 3 games!), I think this is great advice.

I took both June and October and had mental breakdowns on both games sections and I feel like something needs to change in my preparation. Will complete LGB and go through every LG timed section I can get my hands on.

Also, to help with LR timing, make sure you're not reading every AC, especially for easier questions on the first 4 pages. Predict your answer, find it, move on and don't second guess yourself.

[Norlan]

I would suggest to nail each question in LG in 1 min, that is, if you get 7 questions in 1 game, finish the whole game in 7 minutes, keep it consistent and develop into a habit so you'll get the sense of it on the real thing

[incompetentia]

LR: Never spend more than 150 seconds on a single question on your first pass at it. If you reach this mark, star it and move on.

25 questions in 35 minutes is an average of 84 seconds per question. Spending 5 of those minutes on one question cuts that average to 72. Considering that reading the stem and prephrasing will probably be a minimum of 30 seconds by itself, this hurts more than imagined.

Assuming you didn't have too many of these, you'll still finish with time to take a fresh look at these and usually pick at least one of the choices you were agonizing over. If not, you're usually down to a 1/2 or 1/3 guess at the worst and you saved the extra time thinking about it.

[danicalifornia]

any tips for RC? thanks!

[labeauche]

I got this from a couple friends who knocked it out of the park. I took a test a day for three weeks. I went from averaging around 165 when I started, to averaging 176 in the last week. I walked into the test without any stress or qualms with time because I was so used to the test. I work full time so it took some serious time management, but I feel great about the test.

[ze2151]

don't take the test until you get to the point that you finish every section in time and you're no longer guessing. if you want to be an elite scorer, you don't have points to waste. make every answer a positive choice. if you're not there yet, then don't take the test. i firmly believe, as a general rule, that there is no ceiling for people willing to put in the effort.

[typ3]

The most important thing to becoming better at the LSAT is really being able to slay the easy/medium questions quickly.
The second most important thing to a high score on the LSAT (it's voiced in the "How I got a 180 posts") Stop looking for the right answer and start looking for four wrong answers-- this will result in big break throughs in LR and RC

Many people tell you to focus on the hard ones to improve pacing but this isn't the best advice. You're likely to pick up the most time on easy questions. Harder questions require conceptual nearly abstract thinking. Try to finish your LR sections in 30 minutes through all 25 problems. Then spend the last 5 minutes going back to the difficult problems that you answered and were unsure on or skipped to double check.

Generally for pacing I recommend,

8 Minutes for 1-10. 10 Minutes 10-17. 12 Minutes 17-25.

As you may or may not have noticed. The first 10 problems are cake with the difficulty on 9 or 10 being a medium/hard question. 10-17 increase in difficulty. Problems 18-23 tend to be the hardest on a section. Problems 24 & 25 tend to trail off and be medium/easy questions.

The key to getting tough questions right has a lot to do with having more time to think about and comparing wording between answers and the stimulus.


In Logic Games, I recommend the same of finishing in 30 minutes. Get really efficient at the 2 easy/medium games on the test. You can bank about 2-3 minutes per game here. Similarly, try to finish the medium/hard game in 8 minutes. This way you give yourself a bunch of extra time if needed to spend on the difficult game. This game you likely won't finish in under 8 minutes. So having a big pool to pull from is really important. Also, be extra careful on could be true except and must be false except etc. These questions often require you to think about a bunch of hypotheticals and it is easy to be hasty and mark an answer that could hold true or false in a different hypothetical.

To improve at logic games repeat old ones 2-3 times perfectly and under 7 minutes.
I redo all my old games twice and if I miss a question or an inference on the second or third time I make myself do it another 2-3 times. I repeat my games until I can do them flawlessly.

For Reading Comprehension--

Read for structure. This sounds so cliche. But dissect the passage like a LR stimulus. Just mark the conclusion of each paragraph, and the evidence. Add additional notation for view points or terms if need be. When you get to each RC question, don't go solely on memory unless it is blatantly written for the 130 test takers. Reread the line in the passage (It'll take an extra 10-15 seconds at most) and will allow you knock out out of scope / incorrect answers quickly.

Many people are afraid in RC to go back to the passage because they feel they're pressed for time. But finding the line in the passage and reading the relevant evidence cuts off time you spend on the answer choices improving overall speed.