Flaw Questions

kestes2

I've been drilling Flaw questions pretty hard the last two days and I'm not making much of an improvement. On the easier questions (lvl1-3) I can easily identify the flaw and rarely miss. On harder questions (lvl 4&5) I seem to struggle much more and often rely on the answer choices to identify the flaw for me in the few I am able to get right. Is there something I could do to try and improve this question type?

AlexRexeger

Admittedly, flaw type questions are one of my weaknesses. I would really suggest getting the LSAT Trainer though. The drills in there really help you hone in on your flaw skills.

Also, if after a test I really can’t figure out a question, I diagram it out. I write out the conclusion (in laymens terms) and then write out the premises (again in laymen’s terms). Then I try to determine where the jump in reasoning was and try to figure out what assumption they needed to make to get to the conclusion that wasn’t explicitly said in the stimulus. While flaw type questions are still not really my strongest question type, I think that helped me recognize flaws quicker in actual timed conditions.

Grey Warden

@kestes2 first of all it is awesome that for difficulty 1-3 you are able to identify the flaws with rare misses. I would also like to say that for some of the hardest questions it is okay to let the answer choices let you feed the flaw so do not feel too bad about relying on the ACs sometimes.
I would suggest to go through the list of some common flaws if you have not already at https://7sage.com/lesson/19-common-argument-flaws/ and study it thoroughly and think of making your own arguments to solidify the understanding. I think that helps a lot.
You may also want to think about the mistakes you are making deeply - are they common among some specific question types or are they related to you making a mistake in processing the stimulus for example not able to correctly identify the structure of the stimulus. You may then specifically target these weaknesses by maybe going through the relevant part of the curriculum again.
For tough questions i feel it also helps to isolate the fluff and focus on the argument except when the context may provide useful information to answer the question.
I suggest that while you are drilling these questions circle the ones you are unsure of and take some time off after the drill. When you come back to review the questions use a fresh print and type out the reasoning behind eliminating an AC and keeping an AC. Doing this repeatedly will make you better not only on the hard questions but will also improve your timing on the actual full length sections.