Weird PT pattern

MTreigys

Recently in tests, with regards to the LR section, I've been scoring perfect or near perfect on all the four-star/five-star "curve breaker" questions, though been getting some three star and two star questions wrong, and on the occasion a one-star question too. What could the possible cause be you think? Seems like an odd pattern I want to fix as I really think I can master LR once I fix this issue. Note, I almost always get more 3 star and 2 star questions wrong than 4/5 star questions.

Hal Incandenza

Are you rushing the earlier questions? Do you understand your mistake when you review? It seems like maybe you’re overthinking the easier questions?

Chris Nguyen

Hey there!

So there was definitely a time in my studies that I started doing really well on 4/5 star questions and not so great on 1-3 star questions. Unfortunately, it could be a number of issues that's causing this. One of my issues was that I I was taking easier questions for granted and skimming through them, not really understanding what I was reading.

Your issue might be that. Or it might not. In fact, it might not have anything to do with the question being a 3 star question (correlation doesn't imply causation right?). I can play a guessing game right now and tell you the tons of common issues it might be, but the only one that can really answer what's going on is you. Your job is to come up with hypotheses, test those hypotheses, and then when you're satisfied, come up with a plan to fix the issue.

Here are some questions you can ask and things you can do below to help you out:

-What exactly went down under timed conditions?
It's important to know the play by play so you have information you need to diagnose what's going on. Let's say you found out you eliminated the correct answer choice. That gives you a clue on the question you need to ask yourself next. "Why did I eliminate the correct answer choice?"

Side note - If you're having trouble remembering exactly what went down, I recommend screen recording yourself during a timed section and re-watching the LR questions that you had an issue with.

-Am I doing something different when I attempt 4/5 star questions?
Answering this question will tell you if the question difficulty influences at all how you're approaching the question, and whether it is something you should look into in depth, or it's something entirely different.

Once you figure out the problem, then your next step is to create a plan to fix this problem. For me it was to tell myself to chill out, slow down, and make a hard rule to never go into the answer choices if I don't have an understanding of how the premises are giving support to the conclusion.

That plan might help for you. But it also might not. It just depends on what the issue is in the first place. Hopefully, this can get you started in diagnosing your own issues.

Btw - this is exactly what we help students with in 7Sage's tutoring program. It's not just about how to find the correct answer. It's about helping you diagnose the issues in your thought process, and coming up with ways to fix it. We don't fish for you. We teach you how to fish.

If you're interested in learning more, you can schedule a free 30-minute consult with one of our tutors here: https://calendly.com/7sage-consult/7sage-tutoring-free-consult?utm_source=DF_C

Also feel free to check out a podcast where I talk about diagnosing issues on LR: