Your Favorite Mistakes Forum

[nooooo]

I thought that by highlighting and saluting those wrong (mostly trap) answers that always leave us wanting to use our prep tests to papercut our wrists, we could alleviate their mystique and maybe help each other spot them out there.

This also applies to general answer choices that work as a group to mess with us, for instance, making the correct answer seem wrong by proxy or contrast. Also, by general test-making strategies you've noticed that have pulled a fast one on you. LSAC, you clever devil.

I'll start:

Logic Reasoning: (flaw) when every answer (except the correct one) mentions the data, and the real answer is about the method being flawed. I always see it as out of scope and want to cry afterwards.

Logic Games: the words "at least" in the rules. 1-4 questions not mentioning or needing for you to utilize that bit of knowledge, and your subsequent forgetting about it until the last problem in the set mentions it. Cut to - rechecking every answer to make sure and general panic.

Reading Comprehension: Let me spend 3-4 paragraphs explaining (with no hint of bias) how a certain theory based on years (decades, centuries) of studies is supported by everyone. Then here are a few sentences towards the end why we shouldn't really buy into it, or reconsider our views, or simply not believe it. Oh! First question is Main Point, good luck with that.

I have found myself laughing at times when I get certain questions wrong, and I hope that a bit of humility and sharing of angst might allow us to catch these issues before they, well, become issues.

I also feel that if by the end of my LSAT studies I'm not able to teach a class on Mexican/African American Literature, the dangers of cholestoral, or how to effectively arrange arbitrary objects on a shelf, I've done a disservice to the test.

[PourMeTea]

Post removed.

[nooooo]

You know, I saw my spell check allow "cholesterol" with the "a" and I re-typed it a few times because it thought it looked funny.

As for the LR example, PT 50.4.12. It was a weaken, not flaw, my bad.

[RhymesLikeDimes]

Main Point questions where it's 50/50 broad vs. narrow. I seem to go the wrong way every time.

[JazzOne]

One of the tips I will throw out there is to be aware of confirmation bias. When I miss a question, it is frequently due to the fact that I liked one of the early answer choices, and then my analysis of the remaining answer choices became lax. I call it confirmation bias because I have already made up my mind that answer B, for example, is correct, so I read the rest of the answer choices with the aim of eliminating them. I presuppose that the later ACs are incorrect, so I am quick to eliminate them.

The correction for this is to alter the threshold for eliminating answers once you like an answer choice. More specifically, you should be less willing to eliminate a choice after leaving one in. Stated differently, once you like an AC, you need to be certain that subsequent answer choices are incorrect before eliminating them.

[crestor]

Why would you have a favorite mistake?

[bp shinners]

That last shot of tequila and a girl whose name I can't remember...

Wait, you mean on the LSAT?

[crestor]

That last shot of tequila and a girl whose name I can't remember...

Wait, you mean on the LSAT?

[Straw_Mandible]

One of the tips I will throw out there is to be aware of confirmation bias. When I miss a question, it is frequently due to the fact that I liked one of the early answer choices, and then my analysis of the remaining answer choices became lax. I call it confirmation bias because I have already made up my mind that answer B, for example, is correct, so I read the rest of the answer choices with the aim of eliminating them. I presuppose that the later ACs are incorrect, so I am quick to eliminate them.

The correction for this is to alter the threshold for eliminating answers once you like an answer choice. More specifically, you should be less willing to eliminate a choice after leaving one in. Stated differently, once you like an AC, you need to be certain that subsequent answer choices are incorrect before eliminating them.

I've found that the best way to avoid confirmation bias is to make it your first priority to eliminate wrong ACs, and to not even attempt to locate the correct answer until you have gone thoroughly through the process of elimination. You may have suspicions that a certain answer may be correct as you go through, but rather than trying to confirm it, just leave it for future consideration until there are only one or two ACs standing.

Re: favorite mistakes -- In 53.3.16, I misread the word "imitate," so I thought the poor kindergarten teachers were being intimidated by their students.