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Re-taker here. I think one of the reasons I didn't do as well as I had hoped was my review strategy and not spending enough time really reflecting on why I got a question wrong. I've already developed the "blind review" 7SAGE method. Though it is obviously very time consuming, I don't doubt that it will help me. Right now I'm trying develop my own set of questions I'll ask myself.

I think a lot of my problem comes with completely understanding the stimulus and being able to pull out the relevant parts in my mind under timed conditions. It's a real skill that 180 test takes do well and, as far as I know, has to be learned through sheer repetition and practice. Anyway, here's what I have:

1. Did I understand the question stimulus? If I did not, did I attempt to map the central components for some clarity?
2. Did I understand exactly what the question stem was asking me to do? (i.e. question type)
3. Can I identify the main things I should be looking for (common incorrect answers, what the right answer will address) given the question type?

If I can answer yes to all three of these questions, then I believe that I should be getting the answer choice right on the second go through. Any additional thoughts would be helpful!!

#2 is the most important since each question type will dictate your approach. You cannot always predict #3, though you should be familiar with common wrong answer types. Make sure you are looking at the specific question too.... Why was the right answer the correct one? Did any wrong answers appeal to you.. If so, make sure you can explain why it was wrong. Hold yourself to a standard of being able to teach all the questions that tripped you up to someone else, not just some vague understanding of why you got it wrong - when you reach this level, you know you will have truly mastered that problem. If you need help with this, manhattan has a forum where teachers explain the answers to many LR questions (nearly every one).

linkx13 wrote: 1. Did I understand the question stimulus? If I did not, did I attempt to map the central components for some clarity?
2. Did I understand exactly what the question stem was asking me to do? (i.e. question type)
3. Can I identify the main things I should be looking for (common incorrect answers, what the right answer will address) given the question type?

If I can answer yes to all three of these questions, then I believe that I should be getting the answer choice right on the second go through. Any additional thoughts would be helpful!!

Answering yes to these in retrospect will help you determine if you understood the question, but answering them won't help you understand future questions. You need to develop a set of questions that will help you take what you learn from this question to other questions.

So here are my recommendations:
1) Why is the right answer right?
2) Why is the wrong answer wrong?
(standard)
Now, on to the more important ones:
3) What about the wrong answer made me think it was right? This will help you avoid the same trick in the future
4) What about the right answer made me think it was wrong? You decided against it for a reason - figure out what that is so they can't mask the correct answer in the same way in the future.
And, finally, a new one since you seem to be having issues with finding the important parts of the stimulus:
5) Where in the stimulus could I have found the answer? Figure out which sentences/clauses contributed to finding the answer, and which ones were background/fluff meant to confuse you away from it.