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Should I VERY briefly look over the question stem before reading the stimulus? Some books emphasize NEVER doing that, but last week a Princeton Review instructor came to my school to give a brief prep course. He explained why reading the question stem first is preferable, but I wanted to see what you all think? Thanks!

not worth it.

it's best if you can read the stimulus and get a good grasp of it on the fly and then read the stem.

Thanks for the advice. But, I'm still wondering if the 1-2 seconds (MAX) that it takes to see what kind of question it is, then be able to read the stimulus with that in mind, is really that detrimental v. reading the stimulus without knowing what the question will be

Teflon_Don wrote:Thanks for the advice. But, I'm still wondering if the 1-2 seconds (MAX) that it takes to see what kind of question it is, then be able to read the stimulus with that in mind, is really that detrimental v. reading the stimulus without knowing what the question will be

FWIW, I have seen many people on this board raise their score from simply doing this. I, as well, do this and find its better because I know what I'm looking for and will help me pre-phrase my answer before hitting the answer choices.

Try it and see if you like it better. There is no right or wrong answer to your question; its simply a matter of preference.

Another question, is it smart to skip a question that looks "difficult" or "time consuming" (parallel reasoning, etc.)? The instructor that visited said to skip them and come back to them, since all questions are worth the same. Realistically does this make sense?

Teflon_Don wrote:Another question, is it smart to skip a question that looks "difficult" or "time consuming" (parallel reasoning, etc.)? The instructor that visited said to skip them and come back to them, since all questions are worth the same. Realistically does this make sense?

IMHO, I would skip parallel reasoning questions. You may have to read 5 passages to get 1 answer. That's a high opportunity cost for just one point.

I like reading the question stem first. Apparently one of the potential problems of this approach is that people will struggle a little with understanding the stimulus if they are trying to keep the question stem in their mind simultaneously. For me, this was slightly true at first, but after a couple practice tests, it was not an issue at all. Figuring out what type of question it is takes less than a second. A glance at the question stem is all that is needed because the format is so familiar that it is unnecessary to read it word for word to understand the purpose for reading the stimulus. Even if I choose to read the question in more detail afterwards, this only amounts to an extra 30 seconds which I believe is more than made up in knowing what to look for in the stimulus. I probably save that much time just in one question reading only for the main point rather than trying to understand the argument well enough to discover an assumption.

There are a lot of people who firmly believe you should only read the stem after the stim, and an equally opinionated group who believe the opposite. I read the stem first and found that focused reading helped me stay engaged. Regardless, there's tons of time before your test so you I'd try it. If it makes sense and works for you, do it.

As for skipping parallel questions, it really depends on your goals and how you go through LR. If you're the kind of test taker who skips questions and finishes just as time is being called (or you don't finish at all) then skipping the time-suck questions might help. However, if you're going to be approaching the 170s you'll be shooting to answer all the questions accurately. In this case, if you can finish 5+ minutes early and go back to the one or two you skipped, that's feasible.

Hope that helps.

Velocity advocates it. I just could never do it. I think I like it in theory, but in the heat of the moment I just went right to the argument and would never remember to look at the stem first. I eventually just stopped trying.

bernaldiaz wrote:Velocity advocates it. I just could never do it. I think I like it in theory, but in the heat of the moment I just went right to the argument and would never remember to look at the stem first. I eventually just stopped trying.

Yeah, it took a lot of training for me. I knew it made sense to do it and I liked the technique, but I really had to do a lot of work to break the habit of reading things in order.

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FYI, LR two question sets based off the same stimulus stopped appearing on the test many years ago. LSAC benched them for some reason.