How to improve LR?

unrealsimon

I find myself constantly getting 5-8 questions wrong on each LR section, which really hurts my final score. I noted down my weak types of questions and revised them, and made sure I understood the questions. But somehow I still make mistakes for these type of questions in the next PT.
Anyone has a good strategy on how to improve specific question types? I always try to finish all questions, but I don't know if I should be doing this instead of spending more time on the hard questions I'm struggling with.
Thanks!

mjjohns6

When I miss a certain type of questions I usually revisit the lessons in the course and go through every single video & re-do practice problems. When I take the next PT and I read the question stem and realize that those were giving me a hard time before I try to spend a little more time reading the stimulus. Because sometimes I may skip the little details trying to finish every questions in the section under time.

rkwright

Throughout LR, in the problems I get wrong, I try to figure out what it was that tricked or confused me. This could be ignorance of different flaws, or problems mapping problems quick enough. Once I see the weakness that was exploited, I watch the video to understand JY or Jon's thought process, then try to internalize it.

One thing that may help would be to copy all of the questions you've ever gotten wrong, and make them into one long LR packet. Then you can do the packet over again, going through the necessary thought processes to solve each question.

When you solve the questions again, don't take shortcuts because you know the right answers. Write out reasons for why each answer choice is wrong, and why the right one is correct. This will help you internalize the necessary thought processes for answering questions.

DISCLAIMER: This is not fool-proof. Some LR sections simply play off your weaknesses better than others. I've gone from going -0 on both sections to going -7 in back-to-back preptests. The key is to stay focused during LR, while finding a balance between figuring out every answer with complete certainty and finishing the section with time to spare (very few people who I know can do both)

Post Scriptum: As you do more LR questions, you begin to see the answer before you read the choices. For Flaw, you'll see the flaw that is made, and then quickly match it up with the answers given. Same with Necessary Assumption, when you can intuitively locate the jump, and with SA, when you get really good at mapping out relationships and can do it in your head. This type of pattern recognition only comes through practice, in a way similar to LG.

I hope this helps!

unrealsimon

Thanks a lot guys! These were some really helpful tips!

vandyzach

I type out explanations for myself like what Phillip Kraft does (he posts them on the LSAT page of reddit). It really helps me see where my mistakes are.

Nilesh S

This is REALLY valuable info... thanks a lot guys. Just the discussion I was looking for.

dubistdu

This post was really helpful. Thank you.

Peter

What I found the hardest about LR is often its confusing arrangement of words. What helped me improve significantly was writing down the stimulus, my answer choice and the correct answer choice of every problem I've had issues with by hand several times over (unfortunately this includes parallel reasoning questions as well). This helped me internalize the language so that at least understanding each problem becomes second nature.

lsathopeful

Two tips:
1. Make an effort to finish the easy questions quickly (as long as you are still accurate) so that you have more time for the hard questions that require more effort
2. Make sure you take the time to identify premise and conclusion - this is half the battle, and will really help you answer the question (either by helping you eliminate answers, or spotting the right answer)

Nilesh S

What I'm doing is checking for a trend of wrong LR questions over a set of a few tests and if a pattern emerges then RETOOLING with respect to those particular areas (by going through the foundations and problem sets again) and finally drilling some old PT sections to see how I fare w.r.t. those kinds of questions if they are in a mix.