Making Dumb Mistakes

Matthew LLC

So I was wondering what techniques I could use to prevent myself from making the same trivial errors. I've noticed that I'm making the same mistakes during timed practice, that I don't make during untimed, but for some reason I can't prevent myself from making them. It's weird. I'll take a timed section, make a mental note not to make a certain error during review, and then when I take a second time section and I'm confronted with the same type of question, I'll mess up and make the same type of error I sought so hard not to make.

jdawg113

drill drill drill.

It is really all comfortability and understanding. You want to just keep hammering away at questions along with PT's. Theres a good chance you are making these mistakes bc you want to get through the section and make sure you don't miss any questions, so you kind of rush and make these silly mistakes. The more comfortable you get and that the quicker you will become. With speed comes more time to make sure you read and process properly. Just make sure when you BR to note if you see all the mistakes then or after you grade. Also make sure you completely break down your reasoning at the time of answering vs reviewing and why you thought how you did when it was timed. It just takes time and effort. Keep pushing and you'll start to see less and less mistakes

brna0714

I agree with @jdawg113. Additionally, what has helped me is to stop thinking of them as "dumb mistakes." Like you, initially I was frustrated because I kept making mistakes that I thought were inexcusable. I eventually realized that there is no such thing as a dumb mistake on a test as difficult as the LSAT. The questions are specifically designed to create opportunities for those "dumb" mistakes. The stimulus will present a chance for confusion and then the answer choices will cash in on that confusion in the form of a trap answer choice. I now work to try to deconstruct the questions; I think about the writers and why they chose to present information the way they did or why an answer choice was worded a certain way. This strategy was translated into fewer "dumb mistakes" because I can (sometimes) see the traps before I fall in them. Hope that helps.

Alejandro

@brna0714 that's some Yoda talk right there..

brna0714

@alejoroarios Yoda talk is the best kind of talk.

brna0714

"Patience you must have, my young padawan." Okay, I'm done.

Matthew LLC

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll just keep drilling until I see improvement.

emli1000

Drill and BR. The more you BR the easier it be for you to learn the patterns of the LSAT. You'll also be able to spot your own mistakes.

Nilesh S

^^ this... it gets much better as you go along.. just drill and BR properly. Remember every LSAT question is a lesson and has a genetic twin and your LSAT is going to be made up of these "sister questions" for lack of a better term. When you drill and BR, your LSAT question sense gets better... you spot questions from the same family better and do not make the mistakes that you made the first few times on their genetic twins... and that shaves off time when you answer a section... consequently, you feel less rushed and pressured when you go through it and make fewer mistakes.

Allison M

I think that making dumb mistakes is fairly par for the course. I got practically every point at issue: agree question wrong, simply because I assumed it was a PAI: disagree Q. I found it helpful to accumulate a list of these errors and review it before PT (along with a list of solutions). For instance, I made a habit of double-checking all of my LG rules before proceeding to the questions, simply because I had made so many dumb mistakes as a result of improperly written rules. Being aware of these vulnerabilities can definitely help you avoid them.