Help with LR questions

september

Hello everyone,

While going through my last few practice tests , I have noticed that I have two consistent problems regarding LR sections.

1) I tend to re-read the stimulus at least twice, and sometimes more than twice, which wastes a lot of time. How can I fix this? Is there a way to make sure that I understand the stimulus well with one read? Also, how do I keep myself from being obfuscated?

2) This problem is similar to the first one. A lot of the times, when I get a question wrong, it is because I read the stimulus wrong, or misunderstood, or missed an important phrase here or there. How do I improve paying better attention to the finer details?

Thank you for your help!

BinghamtonDave

In my estimation, you will improve this by consciously paying attention to the stimulus through practice and repetition as well as a successful implementation of the Blind Review method. One of the pillars the LSAT tests is our reading ability. Our reading ability on this exam is defined by our understanding of precisely what the stimulus is saying and what it is not saying. The test writers build layers upon this general framework.

For instance, in a problem where differentiating between key terms is important, the test writers will often (intentionally) make those words look alike. An example of this phenomena can be found on PT 49 Section 2 Question 7. I've been speaking English for 28 years, yet a problem like that will catch me mixing up words if I am not paying full attention to what is being said.

Practice makes perfect in this respect. 7Sage has recently added printable drill sets in the core curriculum. These printable resources are a huge help.

As far as the double reading of the stimulus is concerned, on some problems this is unavoidable: I'm thinking here of PT 53 Section 1 Question 8. I had to read this 3 times to get a firm grasp on all the moving parts. The implementation of a pacing/skipping strategy is paramount here. My recommendation would be to find a strategy of skipping/pacing that works for you and adopt it full time. A necessary condition for success in this regard is the fact that there is going to have to be questions in which a single read is going to have suffice. These will be your "cookie cutter" questions. What I have found helpful in achieving success with cookie cutter questions is one day per week I deal only in cookie cutter questions. These are really, really important because the time we save on them, we bank for the harder questions. Tailor this to your needs as appropriate.

I hope the above recommendations help
David

annannann

I used to have a major problem with this as well. I think it comes with time and practice. Whenever I feel like my concentration is drifting, I literally tell myself I need to focus. Also, now I make sure I understand the sentence before moving onto the next sentence. Hope these tips work for you!

NotMyName

@BinghamtonDave

What I have found helpful in achieving success with cookie cutter questions is one day per week I deal only in cookie cutter questions.

How do you do this? I mean, how do you access a pool of strictly cookie cutter?

@ifty2nd as BinghamtonDave mentioned, the issue you raise is an Active Reading issue. The good news is that improving this in LR will carry over to RC and LG. And therefore, applying active reading strategies for RC can help on LR if applied appropriately. I may suggest you listen to this webinar and think about how you can augment this for LR. https://7sage.com/webinar/active-reading/

BinghamtonDave

@jkatz1488 How I do my cookie-cutter days is access 1-2 star questions through the question bank and really break them down. Some fit the mold of a cookie cutter reasoning and some fit the mold of just being really, really easy/transparent in their answer choices. These two groups can certainly overlap. I also take old sets (30s and 40 and some late 20s) and try to do 11 problems in 11 minutes: essentially certain pacing drills. I also use these days to focus on engaging the stimulus/drilling question stems through the 7Sage CC question stem quizzes. I might even throw in other drills. (As an aside, 7Sage now has drilling sets from particular PT ranges, something incredibly helpful.)

I also carry problems with me and review them basically everywhere I go. I used to think that the repetition of certain logic structures was something only super advanced genius test takers could "see" but it has been my experience that with enough thorough review, even I can see things clearer and clearer when I take a fresh PT.

Because vague descriptions are no help to anyone, allow me provide an example: today I took PT 56. Section 3 Question 10 on that exam was apparently a really difficult question, but just 12 days ago I reviewed PT 37 Section 2 Question 19, is the reasoning not almost entirely the same from these two questions? I mean, the assumption is almost identical. The sleight of hand reasoning and the assumption it carries is similar for both questions. I cannot be more thankful for missing 37-2-19, because I will never let reasoning like that slide by me again.

In much the same way, cookie cutter review has helped me with other questions.

I hope this helps, feel free to reach out with any further questions. (As of this writing, I don't know if this is the precise way cookie-cutter review has worked for others, but this is the way it has benefited me.)
David

NotMyName

@BinghamtonDave Woah... tremendous advice! I know mastery (real mastery, absolute fluency) of Lawgic is at the top of my list for busting through to 170. Good to hear you've seen results in that area. Love the tips on pacing and cookie-cutters too. Definitely going to incorporate these in some form once I'm out of CC.

tanes256

@BinghamtonDave that's some good stuff! I'll take a stab at this for the freaking flaw questions, ugh! Thanks for this!

Sami

Some great advice above. I'll just add my process as well.

@ifty2nd said:

1) I tend to re-read the stimulus at least twice, and sometimes more than twice, which wastes a lot of time. How can I fix this? Is there a way to make sure that I understand the stimulus well with one read? Also, how do I keep myself from being obfuscated?

So you have to do some drills and get into the habit of skipping questions. If you 1) don't understand the stimulus in your first read or 2) you don't think you have the right answer choice when you have read through them initially - I would say skip the question immediately.You really have to practice that on older materials. When you do that, you will realize your score will start improving as you will be getting more questions right in the same amount of time because you have skipped the hard questions and have had time to answer the easy ones. In addition, you don't want to read the stimulus twice right away. That's because you havn't had enough time away from the stimulus to realize what you missed during your first read. So come back during your second round but do not spend time on it upfront. You'll find you are more likely to spot the error when you come back to it at a later time.

2) This problem is similar to the first one. A lot of the times, when I get a question wrong, it is because I read the stimulus wrong, or misunderstood, or missed an important phrase here or there. How do I improve paying better attention to the finer details?

One of the things I do for BR is to also break down a stimulus not just in terms of its logic but also its grammar. Break down the noun, verb, and pronoun. Even though it takes longer to complete a BR this way, its good practice on how to read correctly so you don't miss out on key information. This way your brain becomes better trained to read for the correct things during timed test.

Good Luck!
-Keep us updated.

AllezAllez21

I like @Sami 's suggestion of giving some time to digest the stimulus.

I also think @jkatz1488 is right about active reading. JY also mentions in the live commentary video of PT37 the practice of tactile engagement with the text. That is, to use your fingers and pencil to follow along with the text. I think this practice helps to really focus you in. I also end up underlining things, not as a way of being able to go back through the text, but as a way to physically engrain an important word/idea into my memory. These methods do slow you down, but if you are better absorbing the content, it will ultimately save you time.