Feeling Stuck on LR Forum

[ac8876a]

While taking practice LR, I keep getting about -8 right now. Haven't been improving for the last two weeks now. After I check my practices, I always review LSAT explanations for each question, but it doesn't seem as if this is helping me improve my score. Anybody have suggestions to change my review?

[zeglo]

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[ac8876a]

-Look for patterns; the same questions are asked a lot, even with similar topics like medicine or experiments
-With any question that has a flaw, so a lot of them, it should be quickly apparent what that is. Maybe an assumption is left out, maybe there are alternative explanations - look for these as your read. There are common flaws such as appealing to a source without authority on a topic, attacking a person rather than an argument, or saying something must be right simply because an alternative explanation is wrong (when they could both be wrong)
-Don't assume anything; no outside knowledge or thoughts
-Keep practicing; you will learn to juggle the information in your head faster.
-Practice your timing; wear a watch. You should hit the first 10 questions in about 12 minutes max. Wearing a watch helped me immensely, seriously. Just wind it to 12 each section, and when it hits the 7, that's 35 minutes. Over time, it became almost automatic to use a watch.

Background: I started at around -9 or 10 on LR (153 diagnostic). I fluctuate between like -2 on a good day to -5 on a bad day. Your best bet to improve is learn timing and the different kinds of flawed arguments via practice. Answers repeat themselves.

thanks for the detailed suggestions, very informative. I have been using early prep tests, from 1 to like 20. do you think they differ greatly from the most recent ones?

[zeglo]

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[fliptrip]

-Look for patterns; the same questions are asked a lot, even with similar topics like medicine or experiments
-With any question that has a flaw, so a lot of them, it should be quickly apparent what that is. Maybe an assumption is left out, maybe there are alternative explanations - look for these as your read. There are common flaws such as appealing to a source without authority on a topic, attacking a person rather than an argument, or saying something must be right simply because an alternative explanation is wrong (when they could both be wrong)
-Don't assume anything; no outside knowledge or thoughts
-Keep practicing; you will learn to juggle the information in your head faster.
-Practice your timing; wear a watch. You should hit the first 10 questions in about 12 minutes max. Wearing a watch helped me immensely, seriously. Just wind it to 12 each section, and when it hits the 7, that's 35 minutes. Over time, it became almost automatic to use a watch.

Background: I started at around -9 or 10 on LR (153 diagnostic). I fluctuate between like -2 on a good day to -5 on a bad day. Your best bet to improve is learn timing and the different kinds of flawed arguments via practice. Answers repeat themselves.

thanks for the detailed suggestions, very informative. I have been using early prep tests, from 1 to like 20. do you think they differ greatly from the most recent ones?

Oh my god you have to be careful. While the type of questions really hasn't changed a ton, the way in which they are asked has changed significantly. It is better to start with more recent tests and then pivot backwards later when you have enough experience to recognize questions that are phrased in a way they aren't asked anymore.

Also, the key to LR is having a comprehensive analysis of every type and have a strategy to attack every type. There are different opinions on this, but here's an example. Again, this is not canon, this is just flip's typology.

1. Conclusion family--inference and main conclusion questions
2. Assumption-Sufficient and Necessary
3. Flaw
4. Analyze-including role, evaluate, point at issue
5. Pattern
6. Principle--both apply the principle and derive the principle
7. Paradox
8. Formal Logic
9. Strengthen/Weaken

Getting this down cold is critical to getting to consistent high performance on the section. For instance, "new" information can be used in a Strengthen/Weaken or Paradox answer, but it's majorly verboten in a conclusion family answer.

Another note...I firmly don't think you should be stressing timing before you have mastered your strategy and improved your accuracy. Learning how to apply weak strategies quickly is just going to make you faster in producing wrong answers.

Good luck and keep at it!

[Blueprint Mithun]

While taking practice LR, I keep getting about -8 right now. Haven't been improving for the last two weeks now. After I check my practices, I always review LSAT explanations for each question, but it doesn't seem as if this is helping me improve my score. Anybody have suggestions to change my review?

LR has a lot of variety in terms of question types. At this stage, you need to figure out which ones are giving you the most trouble, and work on improving your skills at those. So when you review a section, if you got 3 Necessary Assumption questions wrong, that's a clear sign to focus on working on that question type. Go back and re-examine the methods for approaching that q.type. Start drilling those questions, first slowly and with the methods in front of you. Keep going until it becomes second nature. It might be stressful to work on what are essentially the most difficult questions for you, but it's the best way to continue to improve.

At Blueprint, we always stress the importance of actively anticipating answers. After you've read the prompt and stimulus, think critically about what the correct answer might look like. Don't simply jump into the answer choices unprepared - this will make you vulnerable to tricky answers. Use your knowledge of the question types and your experience practicing in the past to help formulate an ideal answer.

PTs 1-20 definitely have a different style from current PTs. However, the q.types have basically remained the same, so any preptest will provide useful practice. Hope that helps!