What did you guys do to correct stupid mistakes in LR? Forum

[chesterfan1230]

So I took the June 2004 LSAT today, 4 sections fully timed.

LR1: -11 Of which 5 were stupid mistakes from mis reading something. I went back later on and looked at these 5 and was like how did I miss that...
LR2: -7, of which 3 were stupid mistakes.
LG: -2 more stupid mistakes. Basically overlooked a small fact
Reading Comp: -7 (not enough time for the last passage)

I got a 159 making all these mistakes and a 167 if I hadn't made the mistakes.

When I went back and looked at these they were so easy that I got them right of the bat. I need to fix this problem because I'm taking the exam in 2 weeks and have want to get this done with. I'm definitely not having a concept problem because I can get all the tough ones, In fact the ones I get wrong are generally easier than others.

Any help or advise from how you corrected this issue would be awesome!

Thanks!

[Tiago Splitter]

I tried not to let myself believe I missed 35% of the questions because of stupid mistakes.

[Obelisk18]

So I took the June 2004 LSAT today, 4 sections fully timed.

LR1: -11 Of which 5 were stupid mistakes from mis reading something. I went back later on and looked at these 5 and was like how did I miss that...
LR2: -7, of which 3 were stupid mistakes.
LG: -2 more stupid mistakes. Basically overlooked a small fact
Reading Comp: -7 (not enough time for the last passage)

I got a 159 making all these mistakes and a 167 if I hadn't made the mistakes.

When I went back and looked at these they were so easy that I got them right of the bat. I need to fix this problem because I'm taking the exam in 2 weeks and have want to get this done with. I'm definitely not having a concept problem because I can get all the tough ones, In fact the ones I get wrong are generally easier than others.

Any help or advise from how you corrected this issue would be awesome!

Thanks!

Try underlining key words in the question and the stimulus. I've had the same problem from time to time. The other day, I got one LR question wrong because it asked "which one of the following would violate the above principle?" or something like that. But I was so used to seeing "which one of the following would conform to the above principle" that I was just flabbergasted. 2 of the AC's seemed to conform to the principle, two seemed irrelevant, and one violated it. Had I read the question properly, I would have easily selected the right answer. All the prep books say this and it's really true- before you even look at the answers (and potentially before you look at the stimulus) make sure you're very clear about what the question is asking you and what the right answer should look like.

[chesterfan1230]

So I took the June 2004 LSAT today, 4 sections fully timed.

LR1: -11 Of which 5 were stupid mistakes from mis reading something. I went back later on and looked at these 5 and was like how did I miss that...
LR2: -7, of which 3 were stupid mistakes.
LG: -2 more stupid mistakes. Basically overlooked a small fact
Reading Comp: -7 (not enough time for the last passage)

I got a 159 making all these mistakes and a 167 if I hadn't made the mistakes.

When I went back and looked at these they were so easy that I got them right of the bat. I need to fix this problem because I'm taking the exam in 2 weeks and have want to get this done with. I'm definitely not having a concept problem because I can get all the tough ones, In fact the ones I get wrong are generally easier than others.

Any help or advise from how you corrected this issue would be awesome!

Thanks!

Try underlining key words in the question and the stimulus. I've had the same problem from time to time. The other day, I got one LR question wrong because it asked "which one of the following would violate the above principle?" or something like that. But I was so used to seeing "which one of the following would conform to the above principle" that I was just flabbergasted. 2 of the AC's seemed to conform to the principle, two seemed irrelevant, and one violated it. Had I read the question properly, I would have easily selected the right answer. All the prep books say this and it's really true- before you even look at the answers (and potentially before you look at the stimulus) make sure you're very clear about what the question is asking you and what the right answer should look like.

Good idea. I'm hoping I can change this up in next 2 weeks

[GoldenGloves]

I tried not to let myself believe I missed 35% of the questions because of stupid mistakes.

This is TCR.

[buckythebadger]

I tried not to let myself believe I missed 35% of the questions because of stupid mistakes.

This is TCR.

I definitely agree with this. Its very easily to tell yourself "oh well I'm not going to make that stupid mistake come game day so my score will be much better". This is wrong. If your making the mistakes now, your going to make them on test day.

When you review, figure out if there are certain types of problems that you are missing. For myself, when I get to a problem that I should be able to figure out but I realize I misread somewhere (can easily happen in the first 10 questions), I take a deep breath and spend 2 seconds refreshing my brain. Give yourself that time to help you re-focus and then re-attack the problem.

[Samara]

How are you on time? Do you have at least a couple minutes left over at the end of the section? What I do is mark ones that I'm not completely sure about, mark down my top choice in case I run out of time, then go back to them at the end. Do not sit there agonizing over a question. If you don't get it fairly quickly, move on and come back. I find that often when I return to a question later, I catch that key word I missed the first time and the answer become clear.

Not to pile on, but often when I check my wrong answers, the right answer suddenly seems clear as day. I wouldn't necessarily call that a stupid mistake though. Part of the challenge of the LSAT is the ability to read very carefully and thoroughly in a compressed time period. It only seems stupid when you have the answer in front of you. The good news is that if you're understanding the mistakes easily, it should be easy to correct them.

[chesterfan1230]

How are you on time? Do you have at least a couple minutes left over at the end of the section? What I do is mark ones that I'm not completely sure about, mark down my top choice in case I run out of time, then go back to them at the end. Do not sit there agonizing over a question. If you don't get it fairly quickly, move on and come back. I find that often when I return to a question later, I catch that key word I missed the first time and the answer become clear.

Not to pile on, but often when I check my wrong answers, the right answer suddenly seems clear as day. I wouldn't necessarily call that a stupid mistake though. Part of the challenge of the LSAT is the ability to read very carefully and thoroughly in a compressed time period. It only seems stupid when you have the answer in front of you. The good news is that if you're understanding the mistakes easily, it should be easy to correct them.

I'm pretty slow on timing for Logical reasoning. I usually get to either 21 or 23 of the questions out of 25.
I think for me its just the fact that I need to cope with the time restrictions during the exam.

[Angrygeopolitically]

Go over every wrong answer and write down a sentence on exactly why each answer choice was wrong. Do not generalize.
Buy Cambridge's hardest LR problems and do 50 a day after each practice test.

[clouds101]

What I found beneficial was redoing PTs with hard logical reasoning problems. At first, I'd allow myself 45 minutes (I started to reason out each problem and go through ALL answer choices even if I remembered the answer) and now I've whittled that down to 30 minutes.