What to do if you do not understand stimulus?

mzoodle

What should I do if I read the stimulus but don't understand it? Some on 7sage have suggested skipping the question. However, obviously if I skip it I will likely get it wrong, but if I try to understand it I have a better chance to get it right. Thoughts?

akistotle

I think you already asked the same question and got answers from 7Sagers.
https://7sage.com/forums/discussion/11894/what-to-do-if-you-do-not-understand-the-stimulus

@mzoodle said:
However, obviously if I skip it I will likely get it wrong, but if I try to understand it I have a better chance to get it right.

Why do you think so? Of course, if you spend like 5 minutes on one question, you will likely to get that one question correct, but you will probably miss 5 other questions. Remember, every question is worth the same point :

Why You Must Skip Questions on the LSAT

https://7sage.com/lesson/why-you-must-skip-questions-on-the-lsat/

hon132

There's no extra penalty for leaving a question blank or for getting one wrong but if you don't understand the stimulus at all after reading it once or twice, you're risking time to do other questions. There really isn't much you can do. Guess and come back later or skip and come back later.

Alex

@mzoodle said:
What should I do if I read the stimulus but don't understand it? Some on 7sage have suggested skipping the question. However, obviously if I skip it I will likely get it wrong, but if I try to understand it I have a better chance to get it right. Thoughts?

@akistotle and I share similar thoughts.

I know it's a bit counter-intuitive to skip questions. I think because on a lot of our schooling, skipping a questions is indicative that we don't understand it and are essentially relinquishing the point. However, on the LSAT, skipping is a strategy. I'll tell you one thing for certain, without skipping I would have never been able to eventually start going -3 on LR sections. I was stuck at -5 or 6 until I began implementing a skipping strategy.

Also, sometimes the questions you skip are exactly the ones you might be likely to get wrong. That's actually one argument for skipping these questions.

I don't necessarily believe spending anymore of a REASONABLE amount of time on certain questions under timed conditions are going to increase your chances of getting it right. I mean that as crazy as it may sound. Sometimes the question has you confused and you need to either come back with a fresh set of eyes at the end if time allows, or just take the loss because you aren't getting something. I've sat during BR and looked at certain questions for 45 minutes. I just didn't understand a concept. No amount of time on the test was going to help me get it correct.

It's better to miss number 17 and go on to get the rest correct than to spend 4 minutes on it, get it wrong anyway, and then not have time to finish the section.

If you haven't already, please, please, watch the seminar on Skipping. JY and a few 170+ scorers explain exactly why it is so important. Before I watched it I felt just like you... It just didn't make sense to me to skip. It was because it was equating skipping with giving up/getting it wrong.

doyouevenLSAT

On average how often do you guys skip questions? 4-5 times a PT 6-7? Is there a mindset that by this minute count i want to have at least seen all of them? then know i can go back with 15 mins to do rest?

I know that if you read it once and are still lost after reading stim/stem/ac/ that you just skip. But are there definite tells of ones that are skip-able immediately? For instance, like if you see gigantic wordcount, that contains science words?

I actually read that blog yesterday i did not even know it existed on here.

Also, recently I did my first PT PT1 and the two LR sections i left at least half the questions on both sections untouched. I only did it just to get a feel and it was the last two sections after getting wrecked on LG and that circle game!

ajcrowel

I agree with Alex Divine. The other nice thing about skipping is that is allows your brain to do a "soft reset" and get a "fresh pair of eyes" on the question when you come back to it. You'd be amazed how much question difficultly is the mind's inability to parse through dense language or miss one key indicator word (such words are negations or causal in nature).

Also, the knowledge that you "finished" the section with 3 questions left between #'s 8-22 and have 6+ minutes on the clock is like steroids for your confidence. You get this huge amount of adrenaline and I'm sure it's probably similar in nature to what counter-terrorism guys who charge into a building with precise training and take out the bad guys like clockwork feel as they breach the room. I'm pretty sure that's part of what allowed me to go only -1 in LR on test day. So, skip for the win.

Alex

@MichaelTheArchAngel said:
On average how often do you guys skip questions? 4-5 times a PT 6-7? Is there a mindset that by this minute count i want to have at least seen all of them? then know i can go back with 15 mins to do rest?

I know that if you read it once and are still lost after reading stim/stem/ac/ that you just skip. But are there definite tells of ones that are skip-able immediately? For instance, like if you see gigantic wordcount, that contains science words?

I actually read that blog yesterday i did not even know it existed on here.

Also, recently I did my first PT PT1 and the two LR sections i left at least half the questions on both sections untouched. I only did it just to get a feel and it was the last two sections after getting wrecked on LG and that circle game!

Yeah, that sounds about right. At least for me... I skip maybe 4-5 questions per LR section. I rarely skip an LG question, if so, 1-2 per section tops. I didn't do the early PTs you're asking about, but instead used them for drilling purposes.

I wish I could figure out a way to have 15 minutes to go back. I wouldn't really focus on having a ton of amount of time to go back at this point. You want to make sure your fundamentals and skill set is there before you worry too much about all this stuff.

No, I never skip RC passages by certain words or anything like that. I try to make those decisions by having a bit more information. However, I think it may be wise to consider skipping passages like this, if you absolutely know you suck at X Type of passages.