Staying focused

shegotit

How do you tackle logical reasoning statements without having to read it three to four times just to comprehend what the statement is saying? Should you read the statement first then the question or the question then the statement? Am I the only one who keeps reading it over and over again?

keets993

I generally read the question stem first because if I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing it's harder to understand the stimulus.

If you're doing it under time and after one or two reads you don't understand what the stimulus is saying just circle it and move on. No point agonizing over something you don't understand, no reason to panic. Especially when there are other questions to answer.

Something that I find useful is active reading. So I nod along and think 'ok sure' and repeat what I just read. I might think up of questions or be hesitant about conclusions that the stimulus has drawn. 'OK so the two things happened roughly around the same period as one another and you're just going to straight to causation?' Generally trying to engage with the information presented and make it interesting.

When you're not worried about time, I find that marking the structure of course helps to parse the grammar or the content of the stimulus. Sometimes the reason I find a question difficult is because it throws information at me that I'm not comfortable with, like agriculture. At that times google is a good friend. The uncertainty of whether I'm missing something because of my lack of knowledge is prevalent in those types of questions.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You get better at dealing with it the more exposure you get. It would take me a few reads when I first started the curriculum to understand what information the stimulus was presenting.

Ohnoeshalpme

Reading the question stem first is advantageous because it gives you a strategy for reading the passage. For example, if you read question stem first and see that it's a main point question, you don't have to waste your time with details like you would if it were parallel method of reasoning.

In terms of needing to read a question over and over again, this is what the LSAT is testing. You will improve over time - the question stems will become comfortable and you won't have to read the passage more than once usually.

brigitte

Don't think of the stimulus as a stimulus. It's a set of individual sentences. Read each sentence one at a time and break long sentences up into halves or even thirds. Understand each part one at a time and don't read further unless you can restate what you just read. Think critically about every single thing you read.

Simple Man

Revisit this:

https://7sage.com/pdf/?ss_file=lsat/lessons/logical-reasoning-flowchart-revisited.pdf&_wpnonce=396cd3ce7d

I found myself really not engaging in the stimulus or the stem, and having to go back multiple times. Read every sentence in the stimulus carefully and really identify how it's functioning. Is it a premise? A conclusion? Context? You have to become a very active reader. Once you become fairly good at that you can start anticipating answers and the test becomes much easier!

jyarmo

I would also suggest trying to visualize what you read. As simple as that sounds, it can help with the brain fog that for me is what would cause me to read and re-read to figure things out. To be sure, my visualizations are inexact but it's enough to pull me through or out of that 'what the hell am I reading' mode/fog. That being said, there is always at least one or two that baffle me on an LR section and I just skip them and (hopefully) get back to them. Fresh eyes can usually clear it all up too. Oh, and I definitely read the question first.

shegotit

Thank you guys so much for the feedback!