What to do when STRUGGLING with LR

Nabintou-1

Hi all:

My current average for an LR section is -8, BR -4. Is there anything in particular you've done/would advise for being stuck here? Specifically, should I try going through the LR portion of the CC again? I've thoroughly gone through it once, and skimmed through it a second time right before I started drilling Q types. Personally, I don't think fundamentals is my issue because when I'm BRing/reviewing questions I answered incorrectly, it makes sense to me where I went wrong. Just wishing I could catch those while answering the first/second time. Tips greatly appreciated!

Thank YOU in advance.

keets993

Hey Nabintou,

I've found that when I get a question wrong during BR I broadly put it into one of three categories: (1) misunderstood the question stem; (2) misunderstood the stimulus; (3) misunderstood the answer choices. Surprisingly, (1) still happens and I don't even mean those odd question types where you might not be sure of what's going on, I mean there's a kind of 'automatic' or tunnel mode that happens. They punish us for not actively reading, so if you have these types of errors then I'd suggest that before you circle the key-word 'weaken' just read the whole stem to make sure you know exactly what you're being asked to weaken.

(2) and (3) are the most common. Anything that falls into (2) is basically when you think you understood or had an adequate understanding of the structure or content but you didn't. Say for example, a parallel flaw question where you recognized that the flaw is whole/part but you didn't take a few extra seconds upfront to think about exactly how it's whole/part. So when you reach the answer choices, you're going through them with an incomplete understanding of the stimulus. Your anticipation could also be what traps you because you think you understood but you really didn't. If your foundations are solid, then it's the more difficult questions where an incomplete understanding with trip you up because of subtlty. Try to figure out exactly why you thought the argument was stating one thing and you thought another, perhaps you need to remold what a causal relationship looks like, etc.

It's more or less the same with (3). You have a good understanding of the stimulus but somehow one of the trap answer choices baited you. I like to think of every incorrect answer choice as a trap that the writers came up with, not just the particularly enticing ones. You need to figure out exactly why you choose that specific answer. Since it's post-BR analysis, being unsure isn't really an option because when you finish BR-ing a question you should be so confident that you have the correct answer you're ready to lay down your life for it (or you know something less dramatic). You could've chosen it because of (2) where you actually didn't understand the stimulus; perhaps you made an unwarranted assumption; maybe you failed to recognize that the support was too strong. I've found that everytime I choose a wrong answer it's generally because my understanding of a term or concept needs to be broaded. Like you know the idea of an assumption because it's covered so extensively in the curriculum so you don't need to revisit for that reason, but then there's a question you get wrong because turns out you need to remold your understanding of what constitues an assumption. I've found method of reasoning and argument part questions particularly helpful for solidfying your understanding of certain terms or broader concepts. You can also work with someone else like a tutor, they might be able to see the gaps better or point out where you missed something.

I hope that helped!

Nabintou-1

@keets993 that was super helpful. And just made a lot of sense. I'm going to try thinking of my errors in those categories to see if it helps. Also appreciated the BR reminder (just dramatic enough because I think that's definitely something I'm still working on perfecting: spending as much time as it takes on BR in an attempt to reach that level of confidence in an ans. choice.

Thanks so much.

Ohnoeshalpme

Try to see if there are trends in your BR misses! Maybe you struggle with a specific question type that others find easy. If so, try to drill that question type. It's really simple advice and you probably heard it a million times on here but it's the tried and true method.