Constantly getting the easiest questions wrong?

TorontoVSall

I legitimately have near 100% accuracy on five star questions, but am constantly getting one and two stars wrong. I just did a PT and got 171, but I missed 4 1-star LR questions. It just doesn't make sense to me, how do I train myself to go for the obvious answers when necessary? For example PT66 S2 Q8. I spent 2.6 minutes on this question and got it wrong, meanwhile getting every single 4 and 5 star question correct in under 1.25 minutes.

Woodsy_567

I have the same problem. I tend to really overthink the easy questions, making them harder than they are. I’m still working on changing this, but I think what’s helped is taking a step back and remembering that there are easy questions and that those questions have obvious (or at least, more obvious) answers. No need to make it more complicated than it actually is.

Gee-dawg

I do this too and it's super frustrating. My problem is that I tend to overthink easy questions thinking there is no way the very obvious answer choice is the right one. I am hoping this gets better with practice. I would love to know other people's strategies on how to avoid this as well.

Logician

@Gee-dawg @Woodsy_567 @TOvsEverybody this is actually one of the common fallacies the LSAT writers spoke about. Many people fall prey to simple questions because they “cannot believe the answer is that easy, there must be some trick”. This is not the case, some of the questions are just easy by design. So when you see a very obvious answer, pick it and move on (not to mention the 4 incorrect ACs are usually horribly horribly wrong for the easy questions). I know it’s easier said than done as I’ve also gotten easy questions wrong for this very reason and subsequently wanted to shoot myself in the foot. But, what I’ve done to remedy the situation is just keep in mind that there will be a few questions that will be easy freebies, so when you see them rejoice and don’t overthink! And if for some reason you can’t seem to find the correct ac cause you’re overthinking, focus on the horribly wrong ACs.

Hope this helps!

Lolo1996

Word. I make so many errors like this. Like I find the right AC in like 30 seconds, then i think no, that cant be, and I change my AC to a wrong one. Very annoying.

I made a rule for myself: I am not allowed to change my answer after I pick unless i am 100% sure. This is not 90% sure, this is 100% sure. This helped me break through the 160’s. Maybe my rule will help you? Either way, your score is fantastic, so I would not worry too much

Woodsy_567

@Lolo1996 I like that rule! Thank you for sharing.
@Logician Yes, very helpful to remember there are some easy freebies that shouldn’t be questioned! Pick it and move on!

Gee-dawg

@Logician @Lolo1996 thanks guys, something definitely to work on.

TorontoVSall

Thank you for all the responses guys, this has been very helpful for me and I am sure, many others.

drbrown2

The question you referred to is a bit more descriptive, so I can see how you may have had a lapse in concentration or weren't connecting with the answer choices for some reason. When that happens it is best to circle and move on. Come back with fresh eyes if you have time. Getting that question right in 2.6 minutes is bad enough, but getting it wrong because you still weren't understanding it and couldn't move on to the next question is a real area to focus on going forward.

My biggest issue was breaking bad timing habits, and I recognized that it was hard for me to move on from questions I wasn't understanding because I was able to figure it out given enough time. Skip and try to get a second pass at those questions.

Also, the difficulty level of the question is irrelevant if you misread the stimulus or misunderstand the argument structure. Easy questions become impossible because you are not seeing the flaw or whatever the question type may be. This happens because of simple reading errors, lack of focus, whatever. Again, skip and come back to it later on.