Another night of stress, trouble, and feeling discouraged.

mynameisjeff

Today I went through the CC part about flaw questions on the LR. Everything was going great up until this part. I thought I was making progress, I was able to do so well on everything else and the Set for other LRs were not bad at all.

Flaw has given me some major trouble and tonight I just broke down. I missed so many questions back to back. I read the comment sections after each set and some of them would say "5 out of 5" or "4 out of 5" and it made me feel so bad about myself. I haven't missed this many in a row in a very long time. why now? what am I doing wrong? I'm taking notes the same way. I'm listening to every detail that JY and other sage students has to offer. I made sure to learn from my mistakes, but with every new question that I miss, I just feel like I won't ever get it.

Tonight I started really questioning myself and started doubting myself and that "maybe I can't take the LSAT".
Tough night.

ebalde1234

We all have doubts on the lsat journey - many have quit , but your ability to tackle the Lsat will be to push past the limits imposed on yourself .flaw questions are subjectively harder . Maybe take a break from Lsat studying (day or 2 ) don’t compare your progress to other people (some people inflate their scores ). Focus on your personal journey , good luck

ebalde1234

You’ll find most of us have imposter syndrome lol

Seeking Perfection

Selection bias is the nature of the internet. No one ever posts to say they scored a 2 or a 3 out of 5. Nor do people post saying they think they are making moderate progress.

Instead people post when they need support or help or when they are proud and want to be congratulated. There have been plenty who came before you and got every possible score on those problem sets. Some just were more likely to speak in the comment section than others.

Maybe take a day or two break at least from LR(but maybe from the LSAT for the 4th) and come back to the flaw questions fresh and rejuvinated.

keets993

As always, seeking perfection is on point. You'll also find more stories online about people whose final score was above 160. Doesn't necessarily mean that more people's final take was above a 160. That's actually a flaw! Generalizing based on a sample that may not be representative.

Flaw questions are tough for two reasons. The first is that they, much like MBT and MSS questions, make assumptions that are not challenged in the real world as they are on the lsat. Our brains automatically supply the information because the ways our minds function we accept the truth of what's being told to us. Well, I do. If they said correlation implies causation I'd be like they're scientists, this is a scientific journal, this stuff has been peer reviewed, why would these authors risk their reputation and research like this? While in reality I know that people don't always state the truth, the long winded point I'm trying to make is that certain assumptions might be reasonable in the real world, but you will get punished for on the test.

The second aspect is the descriptive aspect. Up until now the questions you've tackled dealt with specific cases and scenarios and you looked for specific weakness of those arguments. While they were cookie cutter in the sense that they contained broader themes and structures, you didn't necessarily perceive them as such. Whereas the flaw question describe the flaw using certain abstract words. Perhaps that's what contributing to your trouble with the set. It's definetly something that bothered me at first as well.

Remember that with flaw you're looking for a flaw in the support. The premises don't support the conclusion. Your job is to describe why. Take a couple days away to clear your mind and refresh yourself!

jhbm_nyc

For the longest time, flaw was my worst LR q type. I thought it was enough to memorize the types of flaw, but actually recognizing a flaw in an argument - and then matching it with the correct answer choice - turned out to be a whole other beast.

What I did was I collected and categorized flaw Q's like pokemon. For example, I printed/handwrote Q's all using sufficiency/necessity confusion. I did a postpartum analysis breaking down the argument, explaining each answer choice, and writing out takeaways/lessons learned. For each of the wrong answer choices, try to change it to match the flaw in the argument or rewrite the argument to match the flaw in each answer choice. After doing this (for a long time), I don't remember the last time I got a flaw Q wrong.

For the Q stem, make sure to answer what it's actually asking: "The argument is flawed in that it takes for granted/presumes..." versus "The argument is flawed in that it overlooks/fails to consider..." This is often the first test for factual accuracy the answer choice must pass - whether it correctly describes the argument's flaw as assuming or failing to assume something.

For the answer choices, esp with abstract language, match each phrase (phenomenon, illustration, factor, etc.) to each part of the stimulus. Be very literal and maintain a high standard of rigor (don't just say the answer choice "feels" like it's the flaw). For example, for the circular reasoning flaw, you need to be able to point out that the premise is literally the same as the conclusion. For shift in meaning of a word, you need to point out the definition of the word used in one way in the argument and then a second definition for how it's used in different way.

Structure of the answer choice is important, too. You need to be able to match the premise and conclusion if described in the answer choices. For example, "fails to consider the possibility that even if [insert premise here] is true, it may be that [insert conclusion here] is NOT true." Wrong trap answer choices often gets things backwards.

Hope this helps! It takes time and practice, but it's totally possible to train your brain to break down reasoning structure and extract the flaw in any argument.

mynameisjeff

@keets993 @ebalde1234 @"Seeking Perfection" @jhbm_nyc Thank you guys so much! Means a lot. I'm going to take a break from Flaws today and just really clear my mind and come back with a fresh start.

samantha.ashley92

Ugh, I really hate flaw questions. What I did with my hardest sections (legit got a level 1 weaken question wrong on my LR drill) is kept practicing them until I cried, then set all of that study material aside. I plan on getting a tutor when I'm done with the CC because I clearly can't nail that stuff on my own. For now, why kill my confidence?

Also, keep in mind that most people don't have Ultimate+, so they don't have access to the hardest questions, like we do. So if you're struggling with the hard problem sets, you're only comparing yourself with the Ultimate+ crew. That's not a representative sample of how most test takers would do on those questions. Plus, I'm pretty sure that 7Sagers are far superior to the randos learning out of how-to books. You got this. Breathe and keep rolling with the punches.

mynameisjeff

@"samantha.ashley92" said:
Ugh, I really hate flaw questions. What I did with my hardest sections (legit got a level 1 weaken question wrong on my LR drill) is kept practicing them until I cried, then set all of that study material aside. I plan on getting a tutor when I'm done with the CC because I clearly can't nail that stuff on my own. For now, why kill my confidence?

Also, keep in mind that most people don't have Ultimate+, so they don't have access to the hardest questions, like we do. So if you're struggling with the hard problem sets, you're only comparing yourself with the Ultimate+ crew. That's not a representative sample of how most test takers would do on those questions. Plus, I'm pretty sure that 7Sagers are far superior to the randos learning out of how-to books. You got this. Breathe and keep rolling with the punches.

Thank you so much! You are completely right, I've been taking it easy and just soaking in the CC.
Again thank you so much for your advice