Blind Review - Gut or Overthinking Forum

[Judgeasaurus_Rex]

So I always blind review my PTs in their entirety after finishing them and taking a break to recharge my brain. Most of the time I am able to catch my mistakes and raise by blind review score to the mid-high 170s. However, sometimes I find that I read too much into a question, second guess my original answer and end up changing a correct answer into an incorrect one during BR.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this sort of problem? Anyone have any tips for BR? I've heard that many people recommend writing out why each of the 4 incorrect answers are incorrect and why the one correct one is correct or using a business card to block each answer choice until you verify why each one is correct/incorrect. Have either one of these two techniques proven to be effective for people here in the forums?

[mjsjr]

Hi there! I have some thoughts:

Sometimes I feel the answer choice I initially chose strongly affects reasoning skills when I blind review. This happens mainly when I come across a very tough question where I thought every answer choice was incorrect, and I had to convince myself that the answer choice I picked was the correct response. I've now conditioned myself to recognize whenever this is happening and to completely start over and throw out all of my thoughts about the answer choices. This helps a lot, because I found that once I had taken steps to convince myself that the answer I picked was correct, I would overlook something in a better answer choice because I just wanted to be done with the question. So, divorcing yourself from any attachment to answer choices sometimes helps a lot. Sorry if that seems obvious to you, but it definitely helped me.

Other than that, I strongly agree that writing out why an answer choice is wrong or right is a fantastic idea, and it has personally helped me. I think this really helps to build up elimination skills for the future as well because you develop a recognition of incorrect answer choices. Again, you have to be careful to avoid convincing yourself that an answer choice is correct merely because you don't fully understand the question. If you do that, then you'll just be articulating your already suspect reasoning. If you can't seem to find the correct answer choice, reread the stimulus and try to isolate the conclusion and identify different gaps/assumptions/flaws, or, in the case of fact-based stimuli, try to articulate what must/can't be true based on the facts; then go back to the answer choices with your refreshed understanding, and attempt to avoid that always tempting relationship to your original answer choice.

Sometimes it helps to just leave a question alone for a little while as well and come back later with a different mindset. This has probably happened to me a handful of times with some of the toughest questions. Sometimes the question was then much easier; sometimes it was still really tough. But I think coming back later always helped me eventually understand the question on a different level.

I know this may seem like advice directed towards someone who consistently picks the wrong answer choice (whereas you are describing a situation where you changed your answer choice from the correct one to the incorrect one); but I think the accuracy issue you're experiencing can be helped by following the methods you and I have both referenced.

[Dcc617]

So I always blind review my PTs in their entirety after finishing them and taking a break to recharge my brain. Most of the time I am able to catch my mistakes and raise by blind review score to the mid-high 170s. However, sometimes I find that I read too much into a question, second guess my original answer and end up changing a correct answer into an incorrect one during BR.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this sort of problem? Anyone have any tips for BR? I've heard that many people recommend writing out why each of the 4 incorrect answers are incorrect and why the one correct one is correct or using a business card to block each answer choice until you verify why each one is correct/incorrect. Have either one of these two techniques proven to be effective for people here in the forums?

I went through a phase in my studying where in some difficult questions I would narrow it down to two answers and then overthink into picking the wrong one. I fixed it by realizing that the test usually isn't that subtle, and if you're down to two answers and one seems right, but the other could be right if you think about it enough, then you should just pick the one that seems right. It's almost never the case where the right answer requires 15 steps of reasoning.

[Manhattan Prep Matt]

I went through a phase in my studying where in some difficult questions I would narrow it down to two answers and then overthink into picking the wrong one. I fixed it by realizing that the test usually isn't that subtle, and if you're down to two answers and one seems right, but the other could be right if you think about it enough, then you should just pick the one that seems right. It's almost never the case where the right answer requires 15 steps of reasoning.

I call this "right because" vs. "right if". Those steps of reasoning usually involve you walking through a series of assumptions, all of which would need to be true in order for that answer to be correct - in other words, the answer would be right if.... But, for the LSAT, we can't have answers that are based on our assumptions. If, however, you explain an answer as "right because..." it usually involves fewer mental contortions, no inferences, and is thus correct.