I have trouble skipping questions. I really do not like how it feels. Some questions are deceptively hard. Some questions are deceptively easy. If I push the door open on any mindset that says "damn, this one is hard, that is okay, I'll come back later," I don't trust my nervous self to know where to draw that line come test day.
I draw confidence from the linear progress of advancing through the test, and if I get to question 20-25 and I look back at a line of answered/not-answered questions that resembles swiss cheese, I will for sure freak out. I prefer to give each answer a very strong "college try" and come back later if I have time just to look at it again. I am a 170-175 scorer and this is what works for me.
Someone (Bailey I think?) on the 7Sage podcast said that they skip around half of the questions on the first pass through any section. Then they go back and scoop up more and maybe flag one or two to go back to at the very end. Going to try this on some PTs. It makes sense especially as you’re getting into the groove.
But how do you know which ones are the "hard" ones? Do you read all of them first, or do you just assume that the long questions are the most difficult?
Agree with what Colin said, but it will be a judgement you have to make for yourself sometimes after reading the stimulus and question stem. I've also heard that you should almost always skip parallel structure questions because they are hard and take the longest (having to analyze 6 arguments instead of just 1 since all answers are arguments).
Strangely, this isn't covered in this course for some reason. Generally, questions get harder the further along the 25 questions you go. Sometimes the test writers purposely put the hardest question at like #22 so you waste time on it and don't have enough time to then do a good analysis of 23, 24, and 25.
Also, more generally, this lesson sort of explains it. Read the stimulus and the question stem, and judge if it's too hard for you to answer based on what you know of yourself and that type of question.
This is a dumb question, but if we skip a question and don't have time to go back and do it thoroughly, should we fill in a random bubble just to have an answer in there? or leave it blank completely?
I would fill it in due to the chance you might not get back in time. LSAT does not punish you for an incorrect answer choice, you either get it right or you do not. Let's say you get 20 out of 25 right, but you skipped five. If you left them blank, that is a 20/25 score, if you guessed wrong, that is still a 20/25 score. But perhaps if you guess, you could get a 21/25 or 22/25 (if the universe loves you).
I heard a good LR analogy that ironically is also about trees, which summarizes the idea in the last paragraphs: don't sacrifice the forest for one silly tree
Will you get punished for leaving it blank? Or should you fill in every answer even if you aren't sure (making a quick educated guess)? I hate leaving questions blank and so isn't it better giving yourself a 1 in 5 chance of getting it right instead of no chance? #feedback
@joy.c.kim I personally feel the same way and i also dont move on after reading the premise because the answer choice could be super obvious, so i read the premise to see if i can eliminate any answers and "skip" moreseo by making an educated guess and flagging it to come back. At the very least, I'd recommend narrowing it to 2 or 3 answers before you leave it unanswered so you have a better chance of guessing right at the last minute
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15 comments
I have trouble skipping questions. I really do not like how it feels. Some questions are deceptively hard. Some questions are deceptively easy. If I push the door open on any mindset that says "damn, this one is hard, that is okay, I'll come back later," I don't trust my nervous self to know where to draw that line come test day.
I draw confidence from the linear progress of advancing through the test, and if I get to question 20-25 and I look back at a line of answered/not-answered questions that resembles swiss cheese, I will for sure freak out. I prefer to give each answer a very strong "college try" and come back later if I have time just to look at it again. I am a 170-175 scorer and this is what works for me.
Yes, I really need to start doing this!
THIS IS SUCH A GREAT ANALOGY THANK YOU
Those are macadamia nuts, which are delicious nuts. A coconut is also delicious, but is not a nut.
macadamia nut → delicious
coconut → delicious
coconut → /nut
Someone (Bailey I think?) on the 7Sage podcast said that they skip around half of the questions on the first pass through any section. Then they go back and scoop up more and maybe flag one or two to go back to at the very end. Going to try this on some PTs. It makes sense especially as you’re getting into the groove.
But how do you know which ones are the "hard" ones? Do you read all of them first, or do you just assume that the long questions are the most difficult?
Agree with what Colin said, but it will be a judgement you have to make for yourself sometimes after reading the stimulus and question stem. I've also heard that you should almost always skip parallel structure questions because they are hard and take the longest (having to analyze 6 arguments instead of just 1 since all answers are arguments).
Strangely, this isn't covered in this course for some reason. Generally, questions get harder the further along the 25 questions you go. Sometimes the test writers purposely put the hardest question at like #22 so you waste time on it and don't have enough time to then do a good analysis of 23, 24, and 25.
Also, more generally, this lesson sort of explains it. Read the stimulus and the question stem, and judge if it's too hard for you to answer based on what you know of yourself and that type of question.
This is a dumb question, but if we skip a question and don't have time to go back and do it thoroughly, should we fill in a random bubble just to have an answer in there? or leave it blank completely?
I would fill it in due to the chance you might not get back in time. LSAT does not punish you for an incorrect answer choice, you either get it right or you do not. Let's say you get 20 out of 25 right, but you skipped five. If you left them blank, that is a 20/25 score, if you guessed wrong, that is still a 20/25 score. But perhaps if you guess, you could get a 21/25 or 22/25 (if the universe loves you).
I heard a good LR analogy that ironically is also about trees, which summarizes the idea in the last paragraphs: don't sacrifice the forest for one silly tree
Will you get punished for leaving it blank? Or should you fill in every answer even if you aren't sure (making a quick educated guess)? I hate leaving questions blank and so isn't it better giving yourself a 1 in 5 chance of getting it right instead of no chance? #feedback
@joy.c.kim I personally feel the same way and i also dont move on after reading the premise because the answer choice could be super obvious, so i read the premise to see if i can eliminate any answers and "skip" moreseo by making an educated guess and flagging it to come back. At the very least, I'd recommend narrowing it to 2 or 3 answers before you leave it unanswered so you have a better chance of guessing right at the last minute
Oops
Strong argument by analogy!