HELP with improving LR section

laurengonz97

LR is my lowest scoring section by far! I'm getting really concerned about this. Are there any tips you guys recommend that will help me improve this section??

Should i just be practicing over and over again? or is there a better technique or trick for some questions that will ensure I get the right answers?
Anything helps! Im getting anxiety about this.

dillonritchi

Hey, I think the biggest issue for LR is that it is a mixed bag of the type of questions. Meaning that their are SO many different types of question types that it is hard to fully practice the techniques you need to learn in order to master this questions. For instance, you may have a really good grasp of Necessary Assumption Questions but really struggle with Weaken type questions. if you struggle with Weaken type questions then you are most likely going to do poorly on the LR sections because their are typically a lot of Weaken type questions within these sections even if you are super good with other types of questions. So, how do you know which question types you are struggling with? 7sage has a pretty cool analytical tool to help you with this. What you would need to do is to use some preptests and do the LR sections timed and then do a blind review all using the 7sage grader (which is under the resources section of the site). I would recommend you do a number of LR sections before you look at the analytics of this test. So what 7sage does is that it keeps track of which type of question you get wrong consistently throughout all these LR sections so you can see what question types you need to improve upon, and then you review the lessons under the 7sage main course and specifically practice on the type of LR questions that you consistently get wrong. This way it helps you with the types of questions that you are struggling on in the LR section! I hope this helps:)

tams2018

The one thing in common with LR: arguments. Are you correctly isolating them?

Find the argument FIRST before you seek assumptions, strengthen, weaken, etc.

Beast Mode

Reviewing your fundamentals by going over the cc and doing untimed practice to figure out your thinking process as you approach the questions will help you to see your weak areas and improve your accuracy.

Alex

@tams2018 said:
The one thing in common with LR: arguments. Are you correctly isolating them?

Find the argument FIRST before you seek assumptions, strengthen, weaken, etc.

@"Beast Mode" said:
Reviewing your fundamentals by going over the cc and doing untimed practice to figure out your thinking process as you approach the questions will help you to see your weak areas and improve your accuracy.

Couldn’t agree more with this advice.

LR is complicated because it has so many different variables and question types. There are no easy tricks or tips, silver bullets or shortcuts to getting better.

As @tams2018 said above, a crucial skill is your ability to both understand and isolate the arguments before you do anything else. I would argue that this is the most important skill on LR.

I reviewed the CC until almost everything was second nature. I did this in conjunction with tons of untimed work. I think there’s a lot of value in untimed work... my thinking was, “if I can’t nail everything and anything untimed, I sure as hell won’t do better under the gun.” And with that in mind I changed my prep. I stopped taking PTs. I stopped doing timed work. I reviewed the CC and did a ton of untimed drills and sections. I consider this to be one of the most important turning points in my prep.

So, if you want to get better at LR, I would suggest doing everything you can to master the basics. Because that’s really all there is ...

Understanding on this test is never binary. It’s never that you either 100% get it or 0% get it. There’s always room for improvement with the fundamentals. Always.

For example, my logic was strong but I was constantly having to second guess myself and diagram out logic chains on easy-medium LR questions. That under-confidence and time spent diagramming out the logic robbed me of time on the harder questions. In turn, my score plateaued until I was able to really know this stuff like the back of my hand.

Use the CC like you would a piece of exercise equipment. The more you use it, the more progress you’ll see.

Best of luck!

laurengonz97

Thanks everyone!