Wrong Answers to LR Questions

dkm169207

Hey Folks,

I need help with something.

It seems that whenever I get an LR question wrong, it's one of my contenders, but I just don't see the right answerr in the moment. What's especially frustrating is that the correct answer is either immediately before or immediately after the answer that I choose.

Any guidance or tips?

NotMyName

At the time when you answer the question, are you confident in your selection (the wrong AC)? There are 2 suggestions which may help. First, keep BRing thoroughly and discussing the questions with the forum (or in person with someone ideally). If you chose the wrong AC, and you haven't misread anything, then it most likely comes down to a gap in your knowledge. And that just takes proper studying and time to resolve. Second, are you skipping questions? Many times in a section I find myself debating between two AC on a question which I know is now difficult. I find my time is much better spent just skipping that and returning later on. I usually see this more clearly.

btate87

Jkatz's skip advice is golden. It's amazing how much easier some questions are with a bit of space.

This sounds like just the underlying struggle with LR. It's easy to think it's a specific issue because 1) we feel more frustrated when we ALMOST get the right answer and 2) we ignore all the questions that were down to contenders that we got right and only remember the contenders on which we chose poorly. So I think it's really just practice. Do more sections and make sure you save every question you miss and return to it frequently until it's obvious.

I do have a specific suggestions for in-process work, though. Some questions there are specific strategies that are more helpful, but the most universal tactics I have for questions that have multiple tempting answers is to focus on two qualities. 1) Do any of my contenders use language that is too strong or too weak? (I.e. Some or Most when it should be All) 2) Are any answer choices too vague or specific? A lot of bad contenders I fall for will use language that doesn't actually say what I think it does. Double check key words to make sure they are exact matches to the conclusion or a key premise. For instance, does the conclusion mention puppies and the answer says pets or vice versa?

catgonzalez1974

It depends on the question stem. So for a strengthening, I would chose the stronger answer choice. If its an inference I would chose the more passive answer choice. There was link I found, that helped me a lot on getting the correct AC after I narrowed it down to 2, I don't want to link to it here. It seems disrespectful to send to a competitor site, but you can google something like LSAT down to 2 possible answer choices. But jkatz has it right,, usually I just missed a word on the conclusion/support tie that will help me eliminate that last one.

NotMyName

usually I just missed a word on the conclusion/support tie that will help me eliminate that last one.

Yup! and giving your mind some space from the question and skipping will give yourself the best odds of resolving that misread. being stubborn and spending 2+ minutes with a question because "i know i can get it i'm just missing something" is dumb and will probably cost you more than just that question.