How to Read the LR Section Difficulty Score?

ahnendc-1

Hey Everyone!

Just curious about how you all are using (if at all) the Section Difficulty meter for Logical Reasoning?

I'm drilling LR sections in-between practice tests and there is obviously some fluctuation from section to section; part of that is being only 3 months into my studies (completed CC ~month ago) so there is naturally some variability in my scores. But the other components are of course luck and difficulty.

Anyways, I'm trying to track my progress and it obviously is not going to be linear but I'm curious to what extent, if any, I can assess my progress with the section difficulty meter. For example, is a -2 in a 1star section more or less equal to a -4 in a 4star section; conversely, is a -5 in a 2star section much worse than a -5 in a 4star section?

Does anyone alternatively try to gauge the difficulty by looking at the curve of the test? (obvious drawback here is that it's including potentially a very difficult LG or RC section)?

Maybe the 'right' answer here is to not be too focused on the score (minus whatever) and be instead focused on BR performance and understanding lol but to the extent that a (perhaps over-)emphasis on the raw score is somewhat inevitable, what are your thoughts?

jeff.wongkachi

I think you've keyed into the right answer in your last sentence here. You have to remember that the Difficulty scores are just trends anyway. To use a flaw from LR: Just because it's generally difficult for the set (ie. us) it doesn't mean that difficulty transfers to the part (ie. you). We all have different weaknesses. Someone's 4* might be your 1*, and someone else's 2* might be your 5*.

The way I use the difficulty scores is to see how difficult a question generally is, and see how I compare to it. Am I getting all the 5*s for one type right? Then I also look at what people chose, and if a lot of people chose particular wrong answers, I try to look into why that's a trap answer and listen to the explanation.

ahnendc-1

@"jeff.wongkachi" appreciate the feedback, haven't yet really focused on questions that I get right but maybe were traps for others and picking apart the logic of why it is a genuine trap; that's interesting though and I'll try to start to do that