Increasing LR scores

slipchum

Logical reasoning is absolutely destroying my LSAT scores- i'm only getting like 60-70% of the questions correct. Im having trouble with FLAW, MSS in particular. I have re-watched and re-did all the tutorials and it hasn't seemed to help. Any tips or tricks will be greatly appreciated.

joegotbored-1

Drill on nothing but Flaw and MSS questions for a whole day. Every 20 questions or so, BR them and then watch the corresponding videos. Correct and then do another 20 until, ad infinitum.

You can find them grouped for sale by category in books and online. You can also print them here if you have old PTs.

chrijani7

Take the time to do some untimed drills going through each step in slow motion. For example for a flaw question. Read the question stem, then read the stimulus. Mark the premise and conclusion. Now, before you go into the answer choices try and think a few reason how the premise(s) do not support the conclusion. Go into the answer choices and see if your pre-phrase was there. Also cross out any choices and either mentally or by writing it down next to it, why the answer choice is incorrect. At this point you should be able to determine which answer is correct.

Honestly doing that for at least a few LR sections is what helped me go from like -7-10 to around -2/-4 now. Take the time to understand the questions, speed will come naturally as you get used of doing this, I promise. Also become familiar with the specifics involved for each question. So for example with Flaws again, understanding the majority of the different types of flaws helps with being able to pre-phrasing. Being able to say this is a correlation causation error, or necessity/sufficient error makes picking apart answers SO much easier.

joegotbored-1

@chrijani7 is right about being able to identify the type of flaw being really helpful. There is a lesson that has a PDF of many of the most common flaw types. Does anyone happen to have that link handy? I'm too tired to search for it right now, but it's printed and sitting on my desk. (19 Common Argument Flaws if you want to search in your course syllabus on the main page)

Read them over before each set of drills. So like 10 questions, BR, videos, internalize, read 19 flaws, 10 questions, BR, etc.

In case that file happens to be unavailable to you because you're on the free program or something, another exercise that would help: Look up a list of argument flaws and write them on index cards, 1 per card. On the back, write a VERY short 1 or 2 sentence argument that uses that flaw. Make it obvious. For example: 9 out of 10 dentists agree that lifting weights is bad for your ankles - then flip side - Inappropriate Appeal to Authority. Or: The President's limo, the Beast, gets 4 MPG so his new proposal raise minimum fuel economy to 35MPG must not be a big priority to him - flip side - Ad Nominee.

Then drill on those every morning while you're waking up, brushing teeth, eating cereal, whatever. If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball - if you can spot a flaw while sleepy, then when you're hyper alert during a PT, you'll see it without even thinking.