ideas to improving LR/RC in final month

ankovic989

Hi all --

I am feeling a little defeated by LR. I've been studying for almost a year and I seriously feel like I haven't improved at all when I see my score. My diagnostic was 153, so there has been SOME improvement. However, I am BRing in the 170s and have gotten 180 before! This gives me SOME hope that I can get there, but what gives? I cannot seem to figure out how to master this section!

For overall PTs, I have scored typically between 160-167 (one 168). I took PT 80 today and got a 161 (-7LR S1, -7 RC, -3 LG, -10 LR S4). The LG score was a bit abnormal for me, it was a reassignment game that threw me off. I am so hoping to get a 168-170 range on my test in July, but I honestly have no clue how to go about improving. I've had a tutor, but that particular person was not helpful for me.

Anyways, I am going to really focus on LR and RC this last month. I wouldn't say I am struggling consistently with one type of question because it truly seems it is all over the place! Maybe principle questions? I struggle with the questions that are level 4/5 in difficulty. I realize a lot of the time I am making careless mistakes either due to misreading or being overly critical of one AC, but not the other. It is very common for me to be stuck on two ACs. Any advice on how to improve AC confidence specifically in the newer tests? I've tried hyper skipping, but still struggle to find extra time at the end to go back or I struggle to refresh my mind and convince myself that I haven't selected the right choice.

For RC, I seem to always struggle with questions that have to do with inferring what the author would be likely to agree with or weaken/strengthen. This section is usually -4 or -7 for me.

What kind of studying should I be doing this last month to close the gap? At this point I am seriously stressing over whether or not it is even POSSIBLE to grab a few more points on the test considering how long it seems I have stayed in the mid-160s..

I would really appreciate any advice!!

Andrew_Neiman

Sent you a pm

danielbrowning208

Do you have a skipping strategy for LR? Giving yourself enough time to figure out those tough questions is the key to mastering LR. But having enough time requires that you use your time efficiently on the easier questions and that you don't spend too much time on any one question.

For those author inference questions in RC, it may help to go into the questions with a general prephrase of the author's position. Then, you won't be as likely to get lost in the answer choices.

Chris Nguyen

Hey there! There are two things that can improve your score on LR:

1) Learning formal logic and reasoning
2) Specific Section Strategy

It sounds like you need to work on number 2.

Here are some things in my strategy that I used to improve in LR.

1) I am always on high active reading and engagement mode. I read slow and try my best to process everything to make sure I truly understand the stimulus AND the answer choice. (Sometimes people forget that answer choices are hard and take time to process, too!) You might think reading slow is a waste of time, but it's the exact opposite. You're more confident in what you're reading which lets you be more aggressive and fast, and you're less likely to make silly mistakes.

2) Because I'm trying my absolute best to process everything, I only get to read the stimulus once. If I do not understand what I read, I immediately skip the question. (It's harder than you think to actually do! Your instinct is to reread, but it will be a waste of time. You already tried your hardest to engage with it. Skip and come back when you attempt everything else.)

3) When attempting the answer choices, I almost never go back to read the stimulus, unless it is to clarify a detail that will only take no more than 5 seconds. Trying to go back to grasp a logical relationship or connect inferences is never worth your time.

4) If I eliminated all of the answer choices, I skip the question. DO NOT go back and reread every answer choice again. Absolute waste of time, assuming you're following rule 1, which you should be!

5) If I eliminated some answers but I'm down to two or three answer choices: Reassess each answer choice with an open mind (no biases is important! You can't be against or for any specific answer choice.) and choose which answer you think is best. If you still don't know, skip and immediately move on.

Also, you sound very stressed out. Which is totally understandable. This test is hard and there can be a lot of emotions flowing through because of it. But remember to breathe and take a step back. Try your best to have a positive attitude so you're not burning out.

I hope this helps you! Good luck studying! pm me if you have any questions I can answer.

ARMANC74

@Christopherr I think those are all excellent points and I pretty much do the same thing. Only thing I do differently is that when I'm down to two answer choices that are really close i review the stimulus once again opposed to a gloss over. Usually i have to do that for the harder questions so i feel the time spent ensuring I'm correct is justified because getting the 4/5 star questions right are what elevate a good score to a great score

ankovic989

Thanks, Daniel! I am definitely trying to work through that. I have a bit of a bad habit of spending too much time reading a perplexing stimulus and AC instead of skipping it and coming back to it.

@danielbrowning208 said:
Do you have a skipping strategy for LR? Giving yourself enough time to figure out those tough questions is the key to mastering LR. But having enough time requires that you use your time efficiently on the easier questions and that you don't spend too much time on any one question.

For those author inference questions in RC, it may help to go into the questions with a general prephrase of the author's position. Then, you won't be as likely to get lost in the answer choices.

ankovic989

Wow, Christopherr - thank you so much for the great advice!! You are absolutely right that it is harder to read the stimulus only once. I've definitely been struggling to build my instinct on when to just skip a question. I took PT 81 and went -7 on section 2 (first LR section), but realized 3 of the misses were do to silly mistakes like misreading or not noticing a connection the first read through. I think the time pressure gets to me at times. I hope that in the next couple of weeks that I can try to work on skipping the questions using this advice.

I've noticed that I usually tend to miss all of the "level 5" difficulty questions. Do you have any ideas on how to increase accuracy there? Is it just drilling the more difficult questions? I always go back and review all the questions I miss to try to understand what went wrong, but I guess my attempt is somewhat futile in long term improvement.

And you are absolutely right -- I was definitely stressed when I wrote this and took it slow last week with studying to step back a bit.

Thank you again!

@Christopherr said:
Hey there! There are two things that can improve your score on LR:

1) Learning formal logic and reasoning
2) Specific Section Strategy

It sounds like you need to work on number 2.

Here are some things in my strategy that I used to improve in LR.

1) I am always on high active reading and engagement mode. I read slow and try my best to process everything to make sure I truly understand the stimulus AND the answer choice. (Sometimes people forget that answer choices are hard and take time to process, too!) You might think reading slow is a waste of time, but it's the exact opposite. You're more confident in what you're reading which lets you be more aggressive and fast, and you're less likely to make silly mistakes.

2) Because I'm trying my absolute best to process everything, I only get to read the stimulus once. If I do not understand what I read, I immediately skip the question. (It's harder than you think to actually do! Your instinct is to reread, but it will be a waste of time. You already tried your hardest to engage with it. Skip and come back when you attempt everything else.)

3) When attempting the answer choices, I almost never go back to read the stimulus, unless it is to clarify a detail that will only take no more than 5 seconds. Trying to go back to grasp a logical relationship or connect inferences is never worth your time.

4) If I eliminated all of the answer choices, I skip the question. DO NOT go back and reread every answer choice again. Absolute waste of time, assuming you're following rule 1, which you should be!

5) If I eliminated some answers but I'm down to two or three answer choices: Reassess each answer choice with an open mind (no biases is important! You can't be against or for any specific answer choice.) and choose which answer you think is best. If you still don't know, skip and immediately move on.

Also, you sound very stressed out. Which is totally understandable. This test is hard and there can be a lot of emotions flowing through because of it. But remember to breathe and take a step back. Try your best to have a positive attitude so you're not burning out.

I hope this helps you! Good luck studying! pm me if you have any questions I can answer.

Chris Nguyen

Hey @ankovic989 I'm so sorry dude I just saw your question and I feel so bad for not answering it until now!

So basically when you are down to those curve breaker 5-star questions, the first step is to recognize that it is a very hard question. These types of questions are ones that you honestly don't want to attempt until you're finished tackling all the easier ones first. They are all worth the same amount of points, so why spend all your time for the chance of getting one question correct when you could've for sure gotten two easier ones correct?

Now - say that these 5 star questions are the only ones you have left to do in your timed section. The reason why you're not getting them correct is because there's something you're missing - whether it be because it's a very hard logical concept or because there's highly complex grammatical structures in the stimulus. Take the time you have left to look at this question with a big magnifying glass, to break down every single sentence and argument as clearly as you can. Doing this will give you the best chances of getting the question correct.

And of course, sometimes you won't get them correct, that's why they're very hard questions! And that's what blind review is for

I hope this helps! Sorry for the late reply!

seriously

Hey! About a month ago I instituted a system wherein I started typing up "post PT reviews." For each of the questions that I missed or marked as difficult in a PT, I would write down why I found it challenging and why I missed it or why I avoided missing it. Then, I would compile advice on the question from JY's videos, and from online forums. I would print out this document, and re-read it every day until I took my next PT. This has really helped me see the patterns in my errors on the test, and also helped me work out the structure of the test. Once I started doing it, I saw an immediate 5 point score jump--most of which came from LR.

I hope that makes sense! PM me if you have more questions.