Questions wrong in clusters? Forum

[MyNameIsntJames]

So I got a question:

When doing LR sections, does anyone else get questions wrong in clusters? What I mean is, I'll take a LR section right and maybe get a -3, -4 or -5. But like 3/4 wrong answers will be within 5 questions of each other instead of spread out.

Is there a reason for this? Am I just having a brain fart in the middle of sections? From what I know about LSAT, the questions on the most recent tests (last 20 or so PTs) ascend in order difficulty wise through the end. But I crush the end of sections and stumble in the middle, whereas I used to get the first 20 or so right and falter at the end.

If anyone could shed light on this that would be great.

[Mikey]

The harder questions tend to be in the middle, so this may be why. Harder questions can show up anywhere, but you're always going to see a cluster of a few in the middle.

[nate3869]

It could just be that there is a cluster of a few hard questions in the middle, as Mikey posted.

Another alternative is that you may be letting a hard question throw you off your game (perhaps still debating which of two answer choices is correct when you've already moved onto the next question) and not getting your full focus back onto the question at hand until a few questions later.

[Blueprint Mithun]

So I got a question:

When doing LR sections, does anyone else get questions wrong in clusters? What I mean is, I'll take a LR section right and maybe get a -3, -4 or -5. But like 3/4 wrong answers will be within 5 questions of each other instead of spread out.

Is there a reason for this? Am I just having a brain fart in the middle of sections? From what I know about LSAT, the questions on the most recent tests (last 20 or so PTs) ascend in order difficulty wise through the end. But I crush the end of sections and stumble in the middle, whereas I used to get the first 20 or so right and falter at the end.

If anyone could shed light on this that would be great.

For LR, the questions do ascend in difficulty. I think wrong answers tend to happen around the middle of the section because that's when the questions start to get hard, but many people aren't prepared for it. I've seen some difficulty charts rate #15-20 as being harder than the last five, as well. I personally think it sort of varies, but the big takeaway is that you're going to have to step up your concentration for the last 10 questions of the section.

As for why you're getting questions wrong in clusters, it could be that one difficult question is throwing your focus off, like nate suggested. It's really important to be able to let things go and sort of mentally reset throughout the test, especially during LR, where no questions are related to each other. Each question is worth the same, no matter how easy or hard it is, so carrying baggage from one question to the next is just going to weigh you down and hurt your ability to concentrate.