When a Question is "Too Easy" Forum

[Lying Lawyer]

The more I study some question seem pretty easy. Not many but a handful just seem to be too easy almost. Now my problem is that since they all used to be hard sometimes I feel like I missed something and I overthink it. How do you overcome this? I don't want to miss an easy questions for something stupid.

[Kratos]

be confident

[malleus discentium]

They all used to be hard but now that you're studying some seem very easy? That's exactly what's supposed to happen

[iliketurtles123]

If you're getting them correct, then bravo.

However, I find a lot of LG and RC questions are made "too easy" but end up being incorrect

[Christine (MLSAT)]

This is pretty common as students improve on their LR skills.

One thing that you can do is simply use the question number as a bit of a guide. If you are working on a Q5, and it seems painfully easy - it probably is. But if you're looking at a Q19, then it's far more likely that you're missing something.

Obviously, that's not foolproof, and it will only give you a rough sense of how hard the question really ought to be.

Another thing that will help, though, is more confidence in your process. For instance, on Logic Games after you've set up your master diagram and made major inferences, there's a moment you have to ask 'have I made all the reasonable inferences? Is it time to move to the questions?' It's hard to know whether you're found all the inferences (legitimately straightforward) or whether you're still missing a few - how can you be sure?

There's a point you have to get to where you can say to yourself "Well, I've gone through the standard ways that inferences are often made, I've looked for connections, chunks, binaries to frame around, and consider the negative and positive side of rules, so I can be reasonably confident that I haven't missed anything major."

The same thing happens with LR: If you're confident in the steps of your process to break down the argument, and you've used it with care at every step, and the answer seems obvious - then trust your process. Now, if that bites you in the ass, and you get it wrong, the most important question is then "what went wrong in the process?".

[musedreverie]

.

[TLSanders]

You overcome it with practice. When you get used to encountering those "easy" questions, when you encounter more of them because so many of the patterns have become immediately obvious to you, the more comfortable you will be trusting that you just have a solid handle on that question.

[HYSorFUKit]

here's what i do:

when a question seems too easy, i immediately write it off as a product of my superior intelligence.

when a question seems too hard, i immediately write it off as a flawed or poorly written question.

[Lightworks]

Getting cute with easy questions is what killed me the first time I took the LSAT. If you really don't feel right, mark it and come back for a 2nd look, but don't try and read too much into questions. 9 times out of 10, "overly easy" is just "easy."

[Clyde Frog]

You should be able to fly through around 90% of the questions if you're targeting a 170+ score. The most important thing, in my opinion, is knowing the right answer before reading the answer choices and sticking with it. I very rarely move onto the answer choices without having a high level of confidence in what the right answer might be.

[Wieters]

Another thing that will help, though, is more confidence in your process.

I echo this and found it to be one of the most useful bits from the Manhattan books.

If you've gone through your process, dictated by steps taken and not time elapsed, and find the answer to be suspiciously self-evident to such a degree that it merits another look then go through your process again. If you go through it again, this time proactively trying to look at the stimulus/stem from another angle so as to guard against having missed something the first time, and yet still come to the same answer then choose it and move on.

The LSAT is a time-pressured test; I personally find that there simply isn't enough time to do questions more than twice and/or look at the clock to see how much time you have left to deliberate and/or have some sort of an internal debate as to the niceties. Trust your process, repeat it on a question if necessary and then move on.