How to BR?

Phyxius1

Curious to hear from the 7Sage community about BR strategy. Not sure if I need to go back to the CC to get a better grasp on it, but hoping people could provide constructive criticism to my approaches- I feel good about my BR approach for RC and LG, but not so for LR.

LR: Do you do the whole section over again and do it untimed (while being mindful of questions that are taking longer than 1:25) or only the questions you got wrong and circled? I usually do the latter, but I wanted to see if anyone has benefited from the former or another approach. I want to get the most I can out of PTs, but I do not want to spend so much time BRing to the point where the additional time I put in does not improve my learning.

RC: I read the passage and type out MP, purpose, tone, viewpoints, structure and paragraph summaries in a word doc and do the questions and then watch JY's videos to compare passage analysis and question approach.

LG: I usually just try and do the section again without watching the videos (and try to finish the games under timed restraints) and if I am really stuck I will go to the video to point myself in the right direction. After the section is done, I watch the videos to see how I could improve game board set up and how I can better approach questions (eliminate ACs quicker and developing instincts to test one AC over another).

help.

Cant Get Right

Don't worry about time at all. For me, it was not uncommon to spend upwards of an hour on a single question in BR. BR is about theory and understanding, not strategy and execution. Only BR questions you've circled, but after BR, analyze any and all errors with great scrutiny to answer as precisely as possible exactly why you missed the question. For RC and LG, you pretty much just redo any game or passage for which you have any circles; I'm not really sure there's anything else to do but start from the beginning and just do the whole thing. Again though, don't worry about time issues at this point.

Phyxius1

Appreciate the feedback Riley. Your AMA was extremely helpful by the way. I have adopted mantras like you did but at the question type level (for each question type) for LR and my RC strategy for typing in a separate word doc I got from your AMA. Honestly the hardest thing for me to replicate is your time aggression- I have not been able to do 25 questions in 30 minutes let alone 25. I really struggle with time and usually add 5 minutes on the clock to each section- when I do that I usually score high 160s/low 170s but without I am around 158-162 (my target score is 165). RC is what kills me (usually -7 to -9).

Rosenkranz

I humbly suggest not adding five minutes to the clock during timed sessions. I have been listening to the 7sage podcast, on which multiple high scorers have talked about aggressively skipping around to find the low hanging fruit that will ensure that they are leaving more challenging, and thereby less likely to obtained points, for the end.

I recently fell ill and have just recovered. But before I got sick, this confident jumping around to find the questions I wanted to answer was what was moving me from the high 150's and low 160's into the mid-160's.

So instead of leaving you with one of the witticisms I've gleaned from Cicero or Wilde or Hitchens:

"I get up, and nothin' gets me down
You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around
And I know, baby, just how you feel
You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real....

.... might as well JUMP!"

It was either this, Kris Kross or House of Pain.
And just why there so many "jump" themed songs?
Trick question!
Everyone back to LSATing!

Respectfully.

keets993

Honestly the hardest thing for me to replicate is your time aggression- I have not been able to do 25 questions in 30 minutes let alone 25.

You don't have to do 25 in 25. I think 25 in 25 is a great strategy but that's all it is, a strategy. Not every strategy works for everyone. Plus, I think that's a helpful strategy if you're in the mid-high 160s and want to get even higher.

I really struggle with time and usually add 5 minutes on the clock to each section- when I do that I usually score high 160s/low 170s but without I am around 158-162 (my target score is 165). RC is what kills me (usually -7 to -9).

Reaaaally don't do this! If that's how you train then you're going to screw yourself over for test day. Bad habits are had to get rid of and you're just doing yourself a disservice by doing this. Don't do anything during timed conditions that you won't be able to have replicated during test day. You won't magically be able to score higher during test day with less time.

Phyxius1

Thanks keets I am going to break that bad habit. I know that excelling under timed conditions is not something that just magically happens and needs to be learned from practice.

Rosenkranz- just out of curiousity (I know its different from person to person), but how long did that jump from low 160s to mid 160s take you using the confidence approach?

Rule No 8

I do not blind review all the questions. However, I have taken roughly five preptests that have been used up all ready (PT and BR) and then went through every single logical reasoning question untimed and wrote out every single reason I could think of for why each logical reasoning answer choice was either wrong or right. This has helped my accuracy immensely! I am still struggling with timing and the harder questions, but this really helped me see patterns and get better at finding answer choices that were wrong quicker. I used to look for one reason an answer choice was wrong, but by looking for every reason an answer choice could be wrong it makes me see new things that are wrong on other questions in other tests now.