Advice for Drilling LR

italian_taco

I'm currently floating around mid to high 160s and I'm trying to consistently get into the170s (I'm taking the flex in July so I have about 3 weeks left). I'm drilling my weakest LR question types but I feel like it's not as productive as it can be. I make problem sets say for NA questions with a blend of Medium, Hard, Harder NA's from old exams and I do them untimed really trying go through each question (out of 15 fo them I get about give or take 2-4 wrong) but I haven't really seen an improvement in my LR scores, it's only been like missing 6 on average to missing like 5/4 on average now per LR section. Do people who have been in similar situations have any advice on improving and getting consistently -2/-3 on LR sections? Should I not be doing these drills untimed? In addition I also do timed LR sections btw but been really trying to get NA's and Weaken questions on lock.

Chris Nguyen

Hey there!

I think you're right about drilling. Unless there's a very apparent question type that you are always getting wrong, drilling might not be the answer. If you are particularly missing NA questions, what helped me was a two step process:

1) Take the everything the stimulus says to be true

2) Go through the answer choices and ask yourself "what MUST be true?"

If it's not just NA's that are the case, it might be something deeper. When you're at the level you're scoring (which is very good), it takes a higher level of self awareness to improve. You need to look at what you got wrong and truly ask yourself why you got the question wrong. You have to be as inquisitive as a little toddler that always keeps asking their parents "why?".

Here's a few example scenarios:

-You got a 5 star question wrong even during blind review. But looking at it through different eyes, you see what you misread or misunderstood and it makes sense when JY explains it. But still you must ask yourself why you got this question wrong. "Because it was an NA question" doesn't cut it anymore when you want to improve into the 170s. Was it convoluted grammar? If so, then slowing down and truly grasping and engaging with the stimulus may be the correct answer. Was it because you mistook the answer choice to say something else? Then you need to spend more time actively breaking down answer choices. Did you truly have no chance at getting this question correct and you spent 4 minutes trying to do so? Then take note that you may have a tendency to sink your time into hard questions when you should be skipping and going for the low hanging fruit.

Another scenario:

-You got question 8 wrong, the answer was E and you picked D due to overconfidence. You ask yourself why. You find out it was because you misread E. But WHY did you misread E? You find out it was because you swore D was the right answer and checked out and kinda rushed through E. Then, ask yourself WHY did you rush through E? Then you find out the its because you were pressured with time and you already spent so much time going through answers A-D that and you wanted to save time by quickly reading E. Through asking "why" so many times you've come across the root cause. Yes, the correct answer is because you misread E, but that doesn't help you improve. What helps you improve is the reason why you misread E. Because you felt rushed for time. So now, the solution can be to notice that feeling when you feel rushed for time, and deliberately take your time reading ALL of the answer choices so that mistake won't happen again.

Truly asking yourself "why" you got this question incorrect and following that trail to the root causes of the problem will help you come up with better solutions to improving your score. Also, this is where a tutor can be very beneficial for you. It's sometimes hard to see what you're doing wrong when you're in the thick of things and your nerves and anxiety are high. A tutor can give you an outside perspective that you are not seeing yourself. I hope this helps! Happy studying!