Let's talk about careless LR mistakes Forum

[Louis1127]

So I'm reviewing LR from a PT, TLS-style. It's intense, introspective, and extremely productive.

But then I get to an LR question, that, upon review, the answer just pops out of the page. It's so obvious. The problem is: how the hell did I miss it on the PT?

I am aware of the following idea that is held by many TLS tutors and LSAT masters: Saying that errors are simply "careless" is a cop out- there is usually something more going on.

But these questions, especially those that are of low or moderate difficulty, I do not know how to review them.

Obviously, I want to cut down on my errors where I just straight up misread something or I just don't understand the argument/stimulus. But I don't know how to review when the answer is just so obvious during review.

I know this is a tough question to answer, but any advice?

[GreenTee]

My advice: Consider your in-test mental state. Figure out what you can do to keep your thinking sharp, precise, and accurate while you're moving at high speeds. If you finish with a few minutes to spare, tell yourself to slow down on you're next section and double/triple-check your decisions as you're making them. Don't move ahead until you're sure. If you're struggling with timing, and you don't think you can slow down, figure out a way to keep yourself in the game and attentive while you're solving questions.

[BillPackets]

pretty much the story of my lsat life. idk just gotta pay attention to every word. its hard sometimes.

[fra]

I used to have this issue a lot. What helped me was reading every answer choice and crossing out every 'obviously incorrect' choice. Choosing the correct answer and eliminating the 4 incorrect means that I have a safety net on every question. Any question that I can't eliminate 4 answers to gets circled and reviewed.
This takes longer and I've found that when I'm tired and not taking the prt seriously I let this slip. That's when I start getting foolish mistakes again.

If you are finishing sections with plenty of time to spare then I recommend this method.

[AOT]

I used to have this issue a lot. What helped me was reading every answer choice and crossing out every 'obviously incorrect' choice. Choosing the correct answer and eliminating the 4 incorrect means that I have a safety net on every question. Any question that I can't eliminate 4 answers to gets circled and reviewed.
This takes longer and I've found that when I'm tired and not taking the prt seriously I let this slip. That's when I start getting foolish mistakes again.

If you are finishing sections with plenty of time to spare then I recommend this method.

Yup this. If you can spare an extra 5-10 secs per question then use it

[InPursuitOfaPassion]

Dont underestimate sleep and nutrition! When I havent had decent sleeps in a while, I notice silly errors increase even if I dont necessarily feel tired.

[Hand]

don't underestimate caffeine

[RobertGolddust]

Seems like something Ritalin would fix

[Clyde Frog]

Make sure you get an appropriate amount of sleep.

[greenapples]

How do you review PT TLS style?

[Pizzaburger]

I found it to be very helpful just to write a little "P" next to the premise and a little "C" next to the conclusion of common LR questions. While it is a really minor and quick notation to make, for some reason it always helped me to catch careless errors while I was making them in first-time testing conditions. Before doing this I would make 5-6 careless errors per test and after it was down to 2-3.

[vracovino]

I found it to be very helpful just to write a little "P" next to the premise and a little "C" next to the conclusion of common LR questions. While it is a really minor and quick notation to make, for some reason it always helped me to catch careless errors while I was making them in first-time testing conditions. Before doing this I would make 5-6 careless errors per test and after it was down to 2-3.

Helped me as well, although I only do this for the conclusion.

[pkraft1]

I'm generally -1 or -2 on both LRs combined, but I've noticed that when I don't get enough sleep, that can go up as high as -5. nutrition is also a big part of that.

The tendency to disregard carelessness as an excuse is because it doesn't provide a means to address it. You should still categorize mistakes as "careless" if that is indeed what they are, but realize that carelessness has to be due to something; otherwise, you are just doomed to always make those mistakes. I take these mistakes, ensure that it has nothing to do with understanding the question, and catalog it in my head as a reason why I really need to get my sleeping schedule in line.

My plan to mitigate these mistakes is to wake up earlier than I'll need to on test day. Then for the day before and of the test, I'll wake up when I need to in order to get to my testing facility on time and do what I need to in the morning. My goal with this is to feel well rested, instead of feeling like I'm just waking up to an alarm clock.

[RZ5646]

So I'm reviewing LR from a PT, TLS-style. It's intense, introspective, and extremely productive.

What exactly is your review process? (or just go ahead and link me if it's explained elsewhere)

[Louis1127]

So, my review process for LR is this:

During the PT, if there is a question that I am not 100 percent sure on, and I mean 100 percent sure, I circle it. When I review, I type out an explanation on a googledoc of what the argument is saying, any flaws I see, maybe a prephrase if I think it will help, and then an explanation of why each answer choice is right or wrong.

I do all of the above without looking at any explanation- I want MY thoughts first, and then I'll compare them to the experts' thoughts to see where I went wrong, if I did. I usually do this through either the Manhattan forums, google, or Hacking the LSAT's explanations.

If it is a concept issue, then I make a note of that on another googledoc called "shit that I didn't know but now know". I Review this googledoc periodically throughout my prep. But usually, my mistakes are about either a "careless error" like I described in my original post, or because I did not understand what the argument was saying (it's worth mentioning that if there is an argument that I didn't understand, it goes on my "shit that I didn't know that I now know" googledoc). So it is really the careless errors I am concerned about.

A few of you mentioned sleep. It never really occurred to me that that is a huge component of reducing silly mistakes. I have to take a PT at 7:30 central time tomorrow, so I am going to try and get a good night's sleep tonight and hopefully be in tip-top shape mentally for tomorrow morning.

Feel free to critique anything and/or keep adding comments.

One positive is that I have improved so much on LR (relative to where I started from, don't want to sound like an LR master, lol) that it has come to the point where the careless errors are what's keeping me out of the -0/-1/-2 range for each LR section, which is a good thing!

[03152016]

review everything, whether you got it wrong or right
have you correctly identified the argument parts? the question type? what strategy to use?
did you apply the strategy correctly? if not, why not?
why is the right answer right? try to articulate in terms of your strategy ("a is right because it bridges this premise and this conclusion")
why are the wrong answers wrong? again, articulate ("b is wrong because it shifts scope")
if you answered incorrectly, why? what, SPECIFICALLY, are you going to do next test to remedy this?

sounds like a lot but with practice it doesn't take forever
when i prepped it was about 40 minutes to an hour per lr section review