1.5 weeks and score dropping - help? Forum

[NotHermione]

I've been scoring consistently between 169 and 173 for the last month or so but my last two tests were 166 and 164 and I'm getting concerned.

A significant part is adjusting to 60+ PrepTests, which I will be focusing on for a lot of the next week, but does anyone have any other advice? My RC is pretty solid at -3 no matter what, but my LR and LG are fluctuating way more than they used to on the newer tests. I've been studying since June with a 40-50 hour per week full-time job and have completely given up my life for this, so to end up back where I was several months ago is really disheartening - any suggestions on mastering the newer LR/LG sections would be wonderful.

[jttoplawschools93]

for logic games i've noticed the newer ones are a lot more question oriented, meaning there aren't as many front end inferences and you have to create more hypotheticals. I think if you practice doing those and working on splitting game boards correctly etc, you'll see a lot more consistency. just make sure you got that brute force down

[NotHermione]

for logic games i've noticed the newer ones are a lot more question oriented, meaning there aren't as many front end inferences and you have to create more hypotheticals. I think if you practice doing those and working on splitting game boards correctly etc, you'll see a lot more consistency. just make sure you got that brute force down

GREAT observation - now that I think of it that is completely true. Thanks!

[Jeffort]

for logic games i've noticed the newer ones are a lot more question oriented, meaning there aren't as many front end inferences and you have to create more hypotheticals. I think if you practice doing those and working on splitting game boards correctly etc, you'll see a lot more consistency. just make sure you got that brute force down

GREAT observation - now that I think of it that is completely true. Thanks!

Unfortunately this is NOT true. The logic games section is the purely deductive logic section of the test. Saying that modern games have fewer deductions is like saying that modern fatty foods are less fatty. Brute force is and will always be the back-up strategy to use when you cannot efficiently solve questions by making deductions because you failed to find them. There are always deductions to be found. Some games just have more up front deductions while others that have less up-front, and more context specific ones to be made from information provided in questions that relates to some deduction/rule/limitation you could and should have put into your set-up before heading to the questions.

Learn how to break games down and find possibility limiting deductions, they are there to be found if you look for them and know how to find them. Just recognize that it won't always be one or two big key deductions that makes all the questions easier, its frequently several simple little scattered deductions that limit certain aspects of a game where different questions play off different deductions rather than most questions relating back to one or two big key deductions like is the case on other 'front-end' games.

Games with less front-end deductions can and should still be solved more through deduction driven methods than pure brute force/building a bunch of trial and error hypotheticals. In those cases you can still solve most questions without much or even any full blown trial and error hypothetical work if you focus on using deduction based methods to eliminate answer choices. In those cases you are finding and seeing deductions about how certain answer choices relate to the game and/or extra info in the question stem to pick or eliminate them via on the spot deductions rather than just plugging what each answer says into a hypo to try it out.

[bobtheblob916]

My score also dropped a few points when I started the 60s, so don't worry too much, just keep truckin' on.

I found LR to be harder in these recent tests. The prompts are longer - almost every stimulus is at least 3 or 4 sentences long, whereas in earlier tests, the early questions would usually be 2-3 sentences. You get used to the new style after a few PTs though, and drilling always helps.

[Otunga]

My score also dropped a few points when I started the 60s, so don't worry too much, just keep truckin' on.

I found LR to be harder in these recent tests. The prompts are longer - almost every stimulus is at least 3 or 4 sentences long, whereas in earlier tests, the early questions would usually be 2-3 sentences. You get used to the new style after a few PTs though, and drilling always helps.

I disagree. Excluding 70, the recent tests tend to have cleaner, shorter prompts than the tests before them, especially the ancient tests where the prompts are fairly long.

...an easy disagreement q is in the works here.

[bp shinners]

Unfortunately this is NOT true. The logic games section is the purely deductive logic section of the test. Saying that modern games have fewer deductions is like saying that modern fatty foods are less fatty. Brute force is and will always be the back-up strategy to use when you cannot efficiently solve questions by making deductions because you failed to find them. There are always deductions to be found. Some games just have more up front deductions while others that have less up-front, and more context specific ones to be made from information provided in questions that relates to some deduction/rule/limitation you could and should have put into your set-up before heading to the questions.

Quoted for truth.

The last couple of years have featured games that bridge traditional game types (think tiered grouping for the mauve dinos), which have freaked people out and caused them to spend too much time building a setup. This has caused panic, which has led to abandoning the deductions step and moving straight to the questions, thus forcing a brute-force approach. Which, in turn, makes them feel like this was the only way to approach the section.

It's simply not true. There are still deductions to be made, and there's not a trend towards fewer deductions.