Missing Only Easy Questions

MPeabody

I'm in kind of a weird spot. At this point, I'm getting nearly all difficult questions, including ones I initially flag for BR, correct. But I still end up missing 1-3 questions per section- on questions that I breeze through. The obvious answer is to slow down, but in order to get the difficult questions right, I need every second that I'm given. Were I to slow down up front, I wouldn't be able to finish the section. I know to reach for the low-hanging fruit but that doesn't seem to apply here. I'm not missing any specific type of questions and my stupid mistakes vary. (Sometimes I misread the stimulus, sometimes the answers, or I don't give myself enough time to fully understand the argument.) But there is a confidence error every time. I also know that practice increases speed, so theoretically I should be able to get faster on the difficult questions to leave myself more time up front, but I'm pretty sure I've maxed out my pace. Any advice on how to drill out the stupid is most appreciated!

iceman322

I was making some confidence errors as well and it really helped when I started reading and eliminating all the wrong ACs even when I felt 100% confident that one was right. If you feel like you don't have time to eliminate all the ACs, try and at least read an eliminate one or two other ACs to give yourself the opportunity to check your reasoning. And if you are still feeling crunched for time, at the very least mark for BR any questions with wrong ACs left that you have not yet eliminated. If it is truly a confidence error, you should be able to catch any mistakes in BR. But of course, the best thing to do would be to get a little faster so you can eliminate all the wrong ACs!

username

I find that my "stupid mistakes" are almost invariably a result of misreading the stimulus or question or what have you. The problem is that misreadings are usually a function of focus, speed and confidence... which are the three things you seem to be suggesting that you can't improve on haha.

I'd focus on practicing being fully present on each question. Really make sure that you've read each part of the question without focusing on pressing forward so much (as time pressure often pushes us to do). Also, focus on identifying the underlying structure of each question. The correct answers repeat themselves so often in structure that you can minimize the superfluous details of each question. This should allow you to move more quickly with each question, but also perhaps let you recognize more intuitively when you're making one of those "stupid mistakes."

If you're not utilizing an efficient skipping around strategy, that would be a good place to start. It sounds dumb, initially, when your goal is to complete all questions correctly. BUT, the real benefit of skipping around is that it reorganizes the manner in which that time pressure manifests. This gives you a lot more emotional space to focus on each question. You don't necessarily have to get faster if you get more efficient with your time allocation.

Tl;dr: get in the zone, dude.

Alex

I completely agree with @username. Definitely skip harder questions if you're not already skipping. You don't want to be needing every single second in order to finish on time. Also, make sure there's no pattern to the easy questions you're missing. For the longest time I was missing easy parallel and flaw questions because I sucked at Parallel and flaw questions themselves.

Mellow_Z

@"Alex Divine" said:
I completely agree with @username. Definitely skip harder questions if you're not already skipping. You don't want to be needing every single second in order to finish on time. Also, make sure there's no pattern to the easy questions you're missing. For the longest time I was missing easy parallel and flaw questions because I sucked at Parallel and flaw questions themselves.

Only skip the hard ones if you are spending an immense amount of time on them. If you're sticking to 1.5-2 minutes on the hard ones and getting them correct, don't skip them.

I think on 7sage it's popular to use these "buzzword" type solutions anywhere and everywhere.. but they always aren't the best advice.

As @iceman322 pointed out, it could be confidence related.. for example, my historically most incorrect answer out of LR sections is question # 3. I don't know why, but you best believe that in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about it when I get to #3.. and as a result I'm sure my confidence goes to shit early on in the section, and I have to gather back steam. I also tend to miss easier questions on LR, and I've found it's a momentum thing. I'll miss one, or think I miss one, or spend an above average amount of time on an easy question early on, and then I'm off my A game for at least the next 5 questions. Maybe just focus on doing some drilling of 1-3 star questions and really focus on finishing them with an average time of >1 minute per question. It'll help you see common trends, and it'll help you keep your timing up. If you are rushing too fast on these easy types (you should definitely record your timed sections if you aren't already, so that you can see how much time you spend on each question), maybe just slow down and reread the argument a 2nd time, or reread the question stem. It might be that you are trying to compensate on time so that you have more time for the harder questions, but in reality you aren't spending enough time on the easier ones. If you rush through them and miss 4 easy questions, but it allows you to answer 2 hard ones correctly, then it isn't worth it.

MPeabody

All of this advice is amazing--you guys are the best! I was expecting a lot of "just keep practicing!" responses, but you blew my mind with your insight and spot-on tips.

@iceman322 said:
I was making some confidence errors as well and it really helped when I started reading and eliminating all the wrong ACs even when I felt 100% confident that one was right. If you feel like you don't have time to eliminate all the ACs, try and at least read an eliminate one or two other ACs to give yourself the opportunity to check your reasoning.

This is such a good point. I think one of my problems is that although I do go through all the wrong ACs, I get rid of them too quickly because I anticipate that if something feels off about them, it MUST be wrong since it's such an easy question. After all, tricky questions are just tricky because of attractive answer choices. (MPeabody's argument is vulnerable to criticism because of like 12 different things.) Plus, slowing down on a couple of these answer choices to see which trap they are setting will help to confirm the reasoning and ensure that I've read the stimulus and stem correctly, even if I don't fully devote as much time as I'd like on every single AC.

@iceman322 said:
And if you are still feeling crunched for time, at the very least mark for BR any questions with wrong ACs left that you have not yet eliminated.

This issue with POE definitely stems from feeling like I don't have time to thoroughly justify every wrong answer, but you are right--if I can't fully eliminate each choice with the rigor I do on later questions, I should be coming back to them in the first place. Which goes along with the skipping advice some of you kind folks suggested.

@username said:
If you're not utilizing an efficient skipping around strategy, that would be a good place to start. It sounds dumb, initially, when your goal is to complete all questions correctly. BUT, the real benefit of skipping around is that it reorganizes the manner in which that time pressure manifests. This gives you a lot more emotional space to focus on each question.

Yes to all of this. I convinced myself that skipping was dumb for all but the hardest questions (~2 per section) since I plan on hitting every question with accuracy (if I can get rid of these stupid mistakes) and don't want to be rushed as the section gets more difficult. But because I feel so much pressure to get 10 in 10, I think maybe skipping some of the EASIER questions makes a lot of sense because that's where my feeling of pressure manifests and knowing I'll be able to finish with questions that are less challenging will allow me to attack them at a more appropriate pace.

@"Alex Divine" said:
Definitely skip harder questions if you're not already skipping. You don't want to be needing every single second in order to finish on time.

Do you think it makes sense to skip the easier questions as well as the harder ones? I am pretty good about skipping over the time sucks (speaking of parallel questions...). But maybe I'm off-base about skipping the easier ones?

@Mellow_Z said:
I also tend to miss easier questions on LR, and I've found it's a momentum thing. I'll miss one, or think I miss one, or spend an above average amount of time on an easy question early on, and then I'm off my A game for at least the next 5 questions. Maybe just focus on doing some drilling of 1-3 star questions and really focus on finishing them with an average time of >1 minute per question.

Get out of my head---this is exactly what happens. I start falling behind pace and panic. I think drilling the first 10 or so questions in a section will not only help with trends and timing and understanding what makes easier questions easier, but will also build confidence. Because I haven't found a pattern in type of question missed, I had no idea how to drill this effectively and you nailed it.

Thank you so much guys--this is life(LSAT)-changing stuff.

Alex

@MPeabody said:

@"Alex Divine" said:
Definitely skip harder questions if you're not already skipping. You don't want to be needing every single second in order to finish on time.

Do you think it makes sense to skip the easier questions as well as the harder ones? I am pretty good about skipping over the time sucks (speaking of parallel questions...). But maybe I'm off-base about skipping the easier ones?

Not necessarily. If it's an easy question then you'll probably just be able to knock it out. I should have elaborated in my post above, but skipping the harder ones not only puts time in the bank for you, but also helps you stay in the zone and not lose your momentum. So if you're already doing that, good job.

It could also be that because many of the easier questions are right at the beginning of a section you take time to build up momentum and therefore are missing some of the easier ones. Do you do some warm up before PTs/ timed sections?

MPeabody

@"Alex Divine" said:

@MPeabody said:

@"Alex Divine" said:
Definitely skip harder questions if you're not already skipping. You don't want to be needing every single second in order to finish on time.

Do you think it makes sense to skip the easier questions as well as the harder ones? I am pretty good about skipping over the time sucks (speaking of parallel questions...). But maybe I'm off-base about skipping the easier ones?

Not necessarily. If it's an easy question then you'll probably just be able to knock it out. I should have elaborated in my post above, but skipping the harder ones not only puts time in the bank for you, but also helps you stay in the zone and not lose your momentum. So if you're already doing that, good job.

It could also be that because many of the easier questions are right at the beginning of a section you take time to build up momentum and therefore are missing some of the easier ones. Do you do some warm up before PTs/ timed sections?

You're so right. I don't think I've given enough weight to the power of momentum before and during the section. I do warm up, but some days I will just do RC instead of LR since reading is the primary struggle on both RC and LR. I'm definitely going to start more inclusive warm-ups. Thank you so much!