#Help: Difficult LR Practice Sets – Is there any fool proof method? What do you do?

Trusttheprocess

Hey 7sagers,

Just towards the latter end of completing the CC. However, doing the later LR problems for each question type – the really difficult questions are getting to me. The problem sets in which each question is scaled 5/5 (hardest) – I seem to do 2/5 on those. When reviewing over the problems, this what I notice:
- I always select the trap AC
- Messed up on a detail or make a really really stupid mistake
- Or the confusing language gets to me

I am sure others have probably gone through these sort of slumps with these difficult LR questions and– just wanted to know what are ways/techniques folks have overcome this? Is there a full-proof method for LR LOL? Do you re-do these problem sets afterwards?

Not sure what to do – b/c these type of problem sets are getting to me. For the other LR problem sets usually get perfect or at most one wrong.

Any help is much appreciated.

chicago234

Save questions that you struggle with and practice them by being able to explain why 4 of the answer choices are incorrect, and why the other choice is correct. If you're just finishing the CC I wouldn't worry too much, and your scores are already really really good. Keep doing the problems and thoroughly reviewing questions you don't understand fully, even if you get the right answer.
Everyone is different with how they interact with the question. in the questions that you got incorrect, Are you eliminating the correct answer choice? Are you able to correctly eliminate some/most of the answer choices? Have you eliminated 3 and are stuck with the trap AC and the correct AC and are hovering between the two? Obviously you want to get the answer right but being able to increase your odds is super helpful. Don't just review the question, but also review how you reasoned through the question, especially if you're eliminating the correct AC. Hope this helps!

Trusttheprocess

Hey,

Thanks for the response. I would say I have an issue of crossing out the right AC as if it was the wrong one. Most of the time - it's b/c I misread something and when I come back to watch JY's videos I feel so stupid for making that mistake.

But yeah.... do you keep on re-doing these problems?

chicago234

I generally don't redo the problem with a clean version, as I would do for LG. I just keep the marked up version and review where I messed up and why I messed up. Generally for the tough questions there's a very specific part of the stimulus I did not retain, sometimes even a shift of a noun modified by an adj in the stimulus to a noun without the adj as an answer choice that makes the answer incorrect. Keep reviewing it and notice patterns in the questions as you continue to review missed answer choices

Sara_3080

I would say don't watch JY's videos until you've done absolutely everything you can to understand the question on your own. If you're timing yourself right now, then blind review whatever questions you are unsure about after your time is up and try to write down or explain out loud your reasoning for why each other answer choice is wrong and why the one you picked is right. I know it's tempting to jump to the video and watch the explanation after spending a few minutes with the question buy try to resist doing that, because then you're not optimizing the opportunity to get there on your own. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking we totally understand the question after watching the video explanation but we don't truly understand until we can explain it all on our own.

Also, you can't foolproof LR in the same way we do LG, but what I've done is gather every LR question I've gotten wrong in the last 8 or so PTs I've taken into a question set and print it out. Then I go through every question untimed and answer them, explaining the reasoning to myself. I don't always remember the mistakes I made on a PT from like a month ago so its helpful to see if I can look at it again and get the right answer with the correct reasoning. Sometimes I even get the wrong answer AGAIN haha (and on a question I've BR'ed before too!) but that just means it's a big weakness of mine that I find and address.

jkjohnson1991

@Sars_2000 Literally going through that process now. And yes, have gotten a few wrong that I've BR'd in the past. Very frustrating but like you said it identifies a glaring weakness and is just an opportunity to get better.

LSATready

I'm having the same issue. I easily eliminate the 3 wrong answer choices, and have to choose, or sometimes guess, between the trap answer and the right answer. Unfortunately, the trap answer has been winning. I have 2 days to get this right!