LR Better at BR

Idavidngo

Whenever I go back to the questions and blind review all of them, my number of missed questions for both of the sections on the LR would significantly drop. For example, on PT 54, I got (ugh) -19 wrong and when I go back to figure the questions out w/o looking at the explanations, I would get -5 wrong.

It seems that I know how to do them, however, it took me longer to answer them (compared to the 1:40 min avg./question).
I also notice that I have more wrong answers on #17-#26. Yet, when I really look at those questions, they're actually pretty easy!

I assume that I am: a) Intimidated by the wordy questions (that usually characterize #17-26) b) Intimidated by my thinking that #17-26 are the most difficult ones.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do any of you 7-sagers have ANY suggestion/advice on how I should tackle the LR?
I'm taking PT 55 today, and I'm going to start answering #17-26. Perhaps, I'd be less intimidated near the start of the test.

Pacifico

Your BR is supposed to be higher than your timed score, so if you think that is a "problem" then yes almost everyone has that "problem". Not sure how many PTs you've done but it sounds like you have some issues with your fundamentals if you're getting 9-10 wrong per section. If you don't know where your actual weaknesses are then you might need to do a few more PTs just to build up your analytics. Also, you need to get out of your head about this #17-26 stuff. Especially on the more recent tests the difficulty is all over the place so getting wrapped up in this stuff is going to seriously hurt your mental abilities to actually focus on the tasks at hand. I would advise against doing those first because it invites serious bubbling errors and for those tests where the latter half is harder then you will invariably end up wasting too much time on harder questions rather than answering easier ones at the beginning and you will run out of time. They're all worth one point each so don't sink five minutes into answering one when you could answer five.

Also, don't be intimidated by wordy questions, in fact, don't be intimidated by any questions. It really sounds like you are just way to in your head about all this and you're psyching yourself out. You need to just chill out, focus on the task of each question, use POE, and get the right answer. If you tell yourself that 17-26 are harder then even if they are easy, your brain will make them harder for you. Stop creating this self-fulfilling prophecy and retake control of your prep. You take the LSAT, don't let the LSAT take you.

bSM45LSAT

@Pacifico said:
Stop creating this self-fulfilling prophecy and retake control of your prep. You take the LSAT, don't let the LSAT take you.

Preach it brother! Preaaaaaaach.

We need to start an LSAT famous quotes thread.

littlesnickers

I did the LR out of order that way too, per the suggestion of another 7Sager. I don't want to say that you should or shouldn't do this, but if you're thinking about it I would encourage you not to write it off without trying it.

It really helped me, particularly to stay confident and calm during the test. It's true that in the later practice tests, the difficulty level is more mixed through the section, but the first half of the section does have those really easy questions that could totally be knocked out in thirty-ish seconds. The problem with going in order was that I ended up spending about twice as long on them just because I would start off too slow and steady. And the second half of the section more often has those really wordy questions. When I started with those instead of going in order, I was less rushed and thus less likely to miss those pesky key words that make or break answer choices.