how often do you write out/visualize LR question?

youbbyun

hey all,

in many of JY's LR explanation videos, he often visualizes the LR stimulus - either by drawing something, or diagramming, or putting some numbers down. Note : this 'writing stuff down' isn't just for conditional logic, but for other things as well.

often, i find that for very long and convoluted LR stimuluses, i need to write some things down to keep track of the various relationships among the various variables. this is especially true for LR questions that are very math heavy/a math problem in disguise.

anyway, do other people do this...or do they manage to just keep it all in their head? any advice or comments would be appreciated. thanks!

NotMyName

When it's conditional logic, I'll map it out it if I can't keep track of it. As I've become more and more comfortable, I'm mapping out less and less. I used to have to skip these questions too and save them for my second round because my mapping was slow. Now it's fast enough that I can still get the question done in under a minute.

For non-conditional stimuli, if I need to draw something like a diagram then I'm probably skipping and saving that work for my second round. But I will do this from time to time especially for highly visual stimuli. There was one MBT question that dealt with changing air temperature in the atmosphere and I drew it out.

Sami

I think JY is writing it down for explanation purposes. I wouldn't do it under time, unless it happens to be one of the few questions at the end that you circled and you decide out of all of them, this is the one you can get correct the fastest.

If it was conditional logic, I would say do the drills till you can make the inferences without writing down anything.

But if you find that as you are reading the stimulus it is very tough and to understand it you will have to spend time writing/drawing things out, skip it. Get the ones you can get correct faster first.

Writing things down can make you also miss on the complexity of the grammar as writing is simplifying it. A lot of the answer choices are about understanding the complexity and scope. So definitely do this at the end.

btate87

@jkatz1488 said:
When it's conditional logic, I'll map it out it if I can't keep track of it. As I've become more and more comfortable, I'm mapping out less and less. I used to have to skip these questions too and save them for my second round because my mapping was slow. Now it's fast enough that I can still get the question done in under a minute.

For non-conditional stimuli, if I need to draw something like a diagram then I'm probably skipping and saving that work for my second round. But I will do this from time to time especially for highly visual stimuli. There was one MBT question that dealt with changing air temperature in the atmosphere and I drew it out.

This is pretty much how my sections go as well. I would say I diagram maybe 1-2 per PT, often 0. I've maybe drawn a non-conditional diagram once in my last three PTs.

Ohnoeshalpme

I don't think that writing anything down is necessary for most questions. If you have time at the end of the section and your skips are still giving you trouble you can try and use some diagramming to help yourself see the question in a new way

Return On Inference

I diagram some of the more difficult parallel reasoning/parallel flaw questions that lend themselves to being diagrammed (some parallel questions are weird and don't fit well into conditional logic).

For example PT45 S1 Q25 is a fairly difficult parallel reasoning question, and while doing the timed exam I was able to do it in less than a minute because I diagrammed the stimulus and the ACs. The correct AC mirrors the stimulus perfectly, so you can just pick it and move on without needing to look at the other incorrect ACs.

Occasionally I will diagram SA arguments as well.