a pattern im noticing...plus a question Forum

[paulshortys10]

1. My worst section is LR by far. I average -7 per section....First 20 questions I usually miss -3, but last 5-6 questions i miss -5. What the hell is going on here?

2. Which question stems do you ALWAYS skip? like except/inference?

[Destined]

yeah id always skip those EXCEPT questions but also if I felt I was a little behind Id skip Parallel Reasoning and Parallel Flaw bc it takes soo much time to read off every answer choice

[incompetentia]

1. My worst section is LR by far. I average -7 per section....First 20 questions I usually miss -3, but last 5-6 questions i miss -5. What the hell is going on here?

Fuzzy math.


But seriously, I'm pretty sure LSAC puts most of their tricky/curveball LR questions toward the end. Concentration is key.

[edubs003]

yeah id always skip those EXCEPT questions but also if I felt I was a little behind Id skip Parallel Reasoning and Parallel Flaw bc it takes soo much time to read off every answer choice

Exactly!

[Richie Tenenbaum]

1. My worst section is LR by far. I average -7 per section....First 20 questions I usually miss -3, but last 5-6 questions i miss -5. What the hell is going on here?

2. Which question stems do you ALWAYS skip? like except/inference?

Speed up on the beginning of the section to allow yourself more time to properly answer the later questions. Example: Try first 10 questions in 10 minutes. If this messes with your accuracy, adjust accordingly.

Consistently skipping some q-types typically is a bad idea UNLESS 1) it's a parallel reasoning/flaw and you have timing issues, 2) it's around a 3-4 line inference question in the final 5 questions (this doesn't automatically mean this is going to be a nasty question, but there's a very good chance it's going to be).

I would skip questions fairly often in two instances: 1) when after reading the stimulus and stem I either knew it was a really nasty question or 2) when after reading the question plus the answers, I just didn't get it. Reading the stimulus once or twice can be fine, but re-reading it more than that is usually unproductive since your brain is probably making a reading error and it will just keep making the make mistake over and over again unless you come back to it with fresh eyes.

Selectively skipping questions and coming back to them is a good strategy imo. I would avg between 0 to -2 per LR section, but I would still usually skip around 4-5 questions and come back to them (either at the end of the page for the questions I thought were easier but I just didn't initially get, or at the very end for questions that were nasty).

[typ3]

Generally,

1-10 are Easy/Medium Questions
10-22 are Medium/Hard Questions
23-25 are Easy/Medium

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Generally,

1-10 are Easy/Medium Questions
10-22 are Medium/Hard Questions
23-25 are Easy/Medium

Meh, I would say 20-25 have a mix of very hard and easy.

Generally:
1-10 Easy/Medium
11-19 Medium/Hard
20-25 Medium/Hard with 1-2 Easy questions

[edubs003]

If you notice that you're spending more time on questions and still getting them wrong them skip those. What's the point if you're missing them? For me, that was Parallel Reasoning, and Parallel Flaw questions. They take longer and are usually more difficult.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

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[gdane]

1. My worst section is LR by far. I average -7 per section....First 20 questions I usually miss -3, but last 5-6 questions i miss -5. What the hell is going on here?

Fuzzy math.


But seriously, I'm pretty sure LSAC puts most of their tricky/curveball LR questions toward the end. Concentration is key.

Not on the last 6 or 7 tests. LSAC's getting cuter. They're starting to put toughies early on to throw people off.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

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[achilles]

I found that the most recent tests definitely had some harder ones throw in early on. I also missed #1 on one of them...but that was mainly and effect of my overconfidence. I rarely miss any from 20-25. But I still think that, in general, the first 10 are easier than the rest because I usually finish them in 10 minutes, but it takes me about 20+ min to finish the next 15-16

And I always skip the long parallel reasoning questions which usually show up in the late teens, because I know they take me longer to do. I always go back to them though

[gdane]

Is this a typical trend in the later PTs printed by LSAC or on the actual test? Both? I'm still in the 20s-30s range of their PTs and haven't really noticed this.

Practice tests are actual LSAT's.

Like I said, LSAC is getting cute. They are trying to do everything they can to confuse people. The 10-15 are the easiest "rule" no longer applies. My advice is to get the concepts down, practice on the early tests and leave 52-61 for the few weeks before you take the LSAT.

[incompetentia]

Fair enough. I think the questions I got stuck on in the October test might have been like a #7, a #11, and a #18.

Still finding time-consuming ones toward the back, though, if I'm not mistaken.

[gdane]

Fair enough. I think the questions I got stuck on in the October test might have been like a #7, a #11, and a #18.

Still finding time-consuming ones toward the back, though, if I'm not mistaken.

Definitely. Most of them are still in the traditional "16-22" range. However, its important to note that one should be ready to see tough ones early on.

I remember absolutely nothing about Oct 2010. Like nothing at all. How people can remember their exact answers, the exact questions that they struggled on and even the exact number of questions on each section is beyond me.

[dcman06]

Fair enough. I think the questions I got stuck on in the October test might have been like a #7, a #11, and a #18.

Still finding time-consuming ones toward the back, though, if I'm not mistaken.

Definitely. Most of them are still in the traditional "16-22" range. However, its important to note that one should be ready to see tough ones early on.

I remember absolutely nothing about Oct 2010. Like nothing at all. How people can remember their exact answers, the exact questions that they struggled on and even the exact number of questions on each section is beyond me.

You can say that again. The test seems like a blur now... If it didn't, I'd be stressing over it until the scores are out.

[PDaddy]

1. My worst section is LR by far. I average -7 per section....First 20 questions I usually miss -3, but last 5-6 questions i miss -5. What the hell is going on here?

2. Which question stems do you ALWAYS skip? like except/inference?

Do Parallel questions last...read them but if they immediately look cumbersome, skip them. Or you can develop a practice of just doing them last.

"All/Except" questions might be good to save as well.

Yes, the LSAT appears to put the most difficult questions at the end...not that the beginning of sections cannot also contain difficult questions, but there is a fairly reliable pattern.

That having been said, DO NOT RELY UPON IT. Approach with caution.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

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[gdane]

Is this a typical trend in the later PTs printed by LSAC or on the actual test? Both? I'm still in the 20s-30s range of their PTs and haven't really noticed this.

Practice tests are actual LSAT's.

Like I said, LSAC is getting cute. They are trying to do everything they can to confuse people. The 10-15 are the easiest "rule" no longer applies. My advice is to get the concepts down, practice on the early tests and leave 52-61 for the few weeks before you take the LSAT.

That was a pretty dumb question I asked, and it is a dumb question for many reasons. I should have asked how many surprises could I expect on test day, but there probably won't be if I take your advice.

Yup. I wasnt surprised at all when I found really early "tough" questions on PT's 58-60. I learned from the prior few PT's that tough ones were starting to show up earlier than expected.

Just relax though. LSAC compensates for this. They'll throw a really easy one somewhere in the section.

[incompetentia]

I remember absolutely nothing about Oct 2010. Like nothing at all. How people can remember their exact answers, the exact questions that they struggled on and even the exact number of questions on each section is beyond me.

Selective memory.

I can remember certain phrases from certain questions and things like the question numbers above, but I couldn't tell you anything about the answer choice letters even if I thought about it for an hour.

[AverageTutoring]

Yup. I wasnt surprised at all when I found really early "tough" questions on PT's 58-61. I learned from the prior few PT's that tough ones were starting to show up earlier than expected.

Just relax though. LSAC compensates for this. They'll throw a really easy one somewhere in the section.

Fixed

[mtrl]

One recommendation that worked for me was to do LR in the order of pages 1-4, then 7-8, then 5-6 of the section. This puts the questions roughly in the order of easiest to toughest. This way, you won't be as mentally exhausted for questions 20-25, and you'll still have a substantial amount of time to dig into the really hard ones on pages 5-6.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

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[lsatter]

I remember absolutely nothing about Oct 2010. Like nothing at all. How people can remember their exact answers, the exact questions that they struggled on and even the exact number of questions on each section is beyond me.

+1. It was really freaky in the immediately following days to know there was essentially a 5 hour gap in my saturday that I could remember nothing about (I have about five 1 second snatches, that reveal the topics of a couple of qs, and that I remembering counting at the end of each section that I'd bubbled as many answers as there were questions. Otherwise, total empty space. I could have been kidnapped by aliens, for all I know).