Self-study
Hello all, I've been studying for the LSAT for a couple of months now and I'm finding myself stuck at that nefarious -2 to -4 mark on both LR and RC, but I can't seem to consistently perform better than that. My primary issue is that I struggle to effectively return to questions and assess them tabula rasa.
When I re-read a stimulus & answer options, I find myself going down the exact same mental pathways I did originally and rarely changing my answer. I only catch about 20% of my errors this way, and I know I could do better than this. It's not a matter of time spent on questions either, I tend to have about 9-12 minutes extra per section. Nor is it a matter of not enough time spent on specific questions, if I'm unsure of a question I will spend 2-4 minutes on it before answering, and these are consistently the ones I get wrong (My time per question is super bimodal).
For those who have dealt with similar challenges in their LSAT journey, what are some tips/tricks/techniques that you found most helpful for effective in-section review?
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I had the same problem. I still do, but it is less than before. You might need to be a super genius to remove that problem completely.
One tip I have is be kind to your working memory. Stop at the end of every sentence, or every comma, and make note of what you know and do not know.
"Marion will be a suspect only if it is decided that the murderer wore red."
Ok. So if they decide the murderer wore red, Marion COULD be a suspect. Red is necessary, not sufficient to make Marion a suspect. If they do not decide the murderer wore red, Marion is not a suspect. It isn't that the murderer actually wore red, only that it was DECIDED that they wore red. Got it.
^I make notes in my head like that as I go. I find the going quickly is where you clog up your memory and make a bad mental pathway that you fall into even if you try re-reading.
Do you find that you read answer choices and think, "Huh, is this a problem/idea I didn't think of" and then go back and look for evidence in the passage? I do that more frequently now that I am better.