Any solid "attack" startegy/tips for LR Qs 21-25/26/27? Forum

[justbubbles]

My Powerscore instructor told us this... and we all know that LR Qs 21-25/26/27 are more difficult, verbose, challenging (formal logic, parallel reasoning), etc

Anyone care to share any tips on "attacking" these time consuming questions? It seems as though most of my -4/-5 on LR us around the Qs 21 and above. Some things that come to mind:

- Do them first (I think this is bad strategy, because I'd like to get the easier ones out of the way first)
- A quick glance at the stem/stimulus, then quickly decide to attack or save till then end (and guess!)
- Practice more PTs for Qs 21 and beyond (this doesn't help me at all).

Anything other tips/strategy for these last few LR Qs that take me for a spin?

Thanks!

[YaSvoboden]

I have played with this the past couple days and have gotten some personal bests on LR, but I am not to the point of advocating it as a solid strategy and doubt that I ever will be. But here's an idea.

Whenever a certain letter is underrepresented in the first 20, it will almost always be overrepresented in the last few of the section. When deciding on the tougher ones, and that underrepresented letter (probably shows up 3 times in the first 20) seems as good as anything else, pick it.

There are some glaringly obvious flaws to this strategy, namely that a single wrong answer in the first 20 can screw the whole thing up, but give it a shot if it seems applicable.

[justbubbles]

Thanks!

Actually, I think you're on to something there.

Of course, your "strategy" (something along the lines of probabilities) isn't scientific by any means, but it's something worth considering, especially when you're under a time crunch.

Also, often times we can filter out the obvious wrong answers, so if it's wasting time between choosing two "correct answer" contenders, then using your probability strategy, a shot at a worthwhile guess in the interest of time might not be so bad.

I'm happy to hear more tips!

[tourdeforcex]

i would attack 21-27 by making sure i have plenty of time for them.

my usual time break down would be first 20 questions in 15 min. then the last 5-7 questions for 15-20 minutes / checking over all my answers (this assumes you double check answers, some people don't)

[justbubbles]

Thanks! The time management (ie. breakdown that you allude to) also seems plausible.

For me personally, breezing through 20 q's in 15 mins might be a bit ambitious, but I get the idea. I'll try it with a few PTs and see how it goes. Thanks!

Also, this not to suggest that LR q's 1-20 are easy, because after all, they are some crazy ones in there (even early on in the single digits!) that can get you stuck.

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

I'm not a fan of the answer distribution tactic - at most how many questions will you bag with this versus more serious approaches - 1?

I'd focus on the timing issue. If 15 in 15 isn't plausible yet, then go for this idea: if you're presently getting 6 wrong in each section, then take a practice section and force yourself to choose 4 tough questions, probably some of which will be in the end of section range, which you will make an educated guess on after 40 seconds.

Other than for small groups of test takers on both end of the spectrum, the questions fall into 3 groups: easy, tough and impossible. Try thinking that you need to get all or nearly all of the easy questions right (and do it quickly), few if any of the impossible questions right (and do it quickly), and most, if not all of the tough questions right (using the time you saved on the other two groups).

One last idea, often the last one or two questions are not as hard as the few before them, so try doing those first and when you hit 18. I personally couldn't have the self-control to do that during the test, but maybe you do.

[justbubbles]

Thanks very much, Noah. That was helpful.

[mickeyD]

Yeah, as far as answer distribution goes, I never choose an answer based on it. However I do use it sometimes to prevent me from eliminating answer choices too quickly. For example, the LRB tells you that a common trick is to place a very attractive wrong answer at (C), when the correct answer is actually (D), because when the time is running down, many test takers will read an answer choice that sounds right, circle it, and move on. They also tell you that sometimes after a challenging stimulus, they'll place the correct answer at (A), so you glance over it before you fully understand the question, and then place a very wrong attractive answer choice at (E), where it "resonates" in your mind, causing you to choose it because you didn't analyze (A) too well.

You obviously should take information like this with a grain of salt, as it's not science by any means, but over the course of taking dozens of practice tests, you see tricks like this often enough. For this reason I will often double-check (A) near the end of a section, and I ALWAYS read all 5 answer choices to make sure I'm not getting caught in that (C) (D) trick.