Strategies for the last 10 or so LR questions?

Redentore3337

Hello,

So I'm finding that I'm doing fairly well on the LR section until I get to Q's18-26 and then for some reason, I can't get a hold of the remaining questions. Obviously these are the more difficult questions, but I was wondering what strategies people used in order to combat this difficulty besides just studying more. For example, has anyone tried doing those questions first? Any tips or advise are welcome, I just keep hitting a wall every time I get to those later questions and I wanted to know how other people dealt with it effecively.

Thanks!

10000019

"Obviously these are the more difficult questions"
What PTs have you taken? IMO it isn't a guarantee that the later questions are more difficult.

"has anyone tried doing those questions first"
I've never heard of that strategy before. I think it's a bad idea for the following reasons: you're wasting time skipping to the end of the section; you're potentially missing out on easy questions (I've never seen a 5 star difficulty Q1).

When you get to Q18 how much time do you have left? When you tackle Q18-26 untimed, do you get them all correct?

Redentore3337

What PTs have you taken? IMO it isn't a guarantee that the later questions are more difficult.
I just completed 7sage's core curriculum so I'm starting with PT's 29-38. I've done the first two so far, but its probably my 6th or so PT, and that's the pattern I've noticed and I've heard the same critique from others. So it's obvious to me personally I guess.

When you get to Q18 how much time do you have left? When you tackle Q18-26 untimed, do you get them all correct?

I have a good amount of time left. I find that whether I do it timed or untimed there isn't that much of a difference. I don't think its the pressure of the time that's getting me, it just seems like they get noticeably harder, and I'm wondering if besides studying more, that I'm just not understanding something. I'm doing the blind review, but I keep getting around 8 to 12 wrong, and most of them are in the last 8 or so questions.

Thanks.

Seeking Perfection

@Redentore3337 said:

What PTs have you taken? IMO it isn't a guarantee that the later questions are more difficult.
I just completed 7sage's core curriculum so I'm starting with PT's 29-38. I've done the first two so far, but its probably my 6th or so PT, and that's the pattern I've noticed and I've heard the same critique from others. So it's obvious to me personally I guess.

When you get to Q18 how much time do you have left? When you tackle Q18-26 untimed, do you get them all correct?

I have a good amount of time left. I find that whether I do it timed or untimed there isn't that much of a difference. I don't think its the pressure of the time that's getting me, it just seems like they get noticeably harder, and I'm wondering if besides studying more, that I'm just not understanding something. I'm doing the blind review, but I keep getting around 8 to 12 wrong, and most of them are in the last 8 or so questions.

Thanks.

I'm not sure why the effect would be that strong. The later questions tend to be harder, but they are not that much harder and there can be hard questions in the middle and easy questions at the end.

Either way, the same strategies that solve questions 1- 17 solve 18-26 or 27. They are not fundamentally different and are not always even more difficult though there do tend to be more hard questions as you get deeper into the section.

If you miss them in blind review, you need to figure out how to get them right. Either find an explanation online somewhere or if you have it use JYs explanation. If it still doesn't make sense, go back to the lessons for that problem type from the core curriculum until you fully understand.

Things like changing the order only can help if you know how to do the question, but are having trouble with time pressure or something like that. If you are getting them wrong in blind review, you just don't know how to do that question type well enough. The solution is simple. You need to go back and learn that question type better.

Good luck!

westcoastbestcoast

I agree that the last 10 aren't necessarily the hardest and the first 10 arent the easiest. If anything I have seen difficult and/or time sink questions placed in the first 10 and some gimme questions in the last 10. I think its better to see a holistic view of the section rather than be focused on the first and last 10

Cant Get Right

If you're missing them in BR, there is no strategic approach that is going to make things click. You've got to figure out why you're missing them. Like others, I agree that the later questions are not necessarily harder, but the section does trend from easier to harder so as a group I do think it's fair to say that the average difficulty of the final ten questions will be higher than the average difficulty of the first ten questions.

One thing I've noticed is that the logical structures of harder questions are rarely more complex than those of the easier questions. It's usually harder language that increases difficulty rather than harder logic. So make sure you're focusing on language and grammar as well as logic. Break down grammatical structures, diagram sentences, and pay special attention to the little details that can complicate the subject matter such as relative language and referential phrasing.

Redentore3337

Thanks guys, all very helpful advise!

Kateryna

I tried doing those questions first, in fact, I just started doing each PT from the end for LR. Now, I did it only when I was learning my basics, for tests up to 36. I also started doing it only when I could not increase my score and my basics were very strong. I was missing around -3/-4 per section and could not improve. I started doing them from end because I believed there is a strong psychological factor for me that just blocked my thinking as in my head the questions were difficult. In fact, they are not. It is all in your head. Overall, it just help me to realize that each question is easy to conquer if you have your basics nailed.

m.c lshopeful

I agree that the average difficulty of the last 10 is higher than the average difficulty of the first 10.... but as the LSAT teaches us, we cannot attribute a quality of the whole to the parts and vice versa ;P

I think the others are right in saying that you should approach each question individually because you might be hurting yourself by anticipating Q25 to be a monster and then you over-analyze an easy question and get it wrong. The ones I've missed most often in my PT's have been in the last 10 questions too though...

Maybe it's just me but I find the reading in the stimulus to be pretty much the same difficulty for the entirety of LR. The difference between difficult and easy questions comes in the subtlety of the argument AND the difficulty in the answer choices... Sometimes I will have a hard time on my first quick read-through of Q3 but I see that it's a strengthen question and I just assume that the answer choices will be so different and obvious from each other that I can find the correct answer without reading the stimulus again. This isn't usually true for later questions because I find the answer choices to be so nuanced. Even if I fully understand a stimulus on a topic I have a lot of background experience with the answer choices can trip me up. It's the answer choices that separate difficult questions from easy questions in my opinion.

LR is hard... and there are usually always 4-5 questions that will really stretch your ability. Find those questions you just can't connect to the correct answer choice even when you know what the correct answer choice is... and when you find that question, just sit with it in front of you and hold yourself prisoner until you feel your brain physically make the missing connection! (Ok, you can't exactly feel that but you'll know the feeling ) Some of my best days of learning included 2hrs on 5 LR questions haha Lots of sitting, staring, re-reading, asking my cat for answers... sometimes reading someone else's explanation just isn't good enough and you gotta make yourself suffer for a while until it makes sense.

Good luck!

Redentore3337

Thanks again guys!