Logical Reasoning Help

ToddHonas

If anyone has any tips on LR, I would appreciate it. I have been studying for about 3 months and have gone through Core Curriculum and several practice tests, I have also went through Ellen Cassidy's Loophole book.

I have consistently drilled around -6 to -10 and would like to get down to -3 to -5 for LR sections. Looking at patterns I do well in Q's 1-10 yet I usually miss 5 or 6 in a row in the back half of the section 17-25.

Any tips would be appreciated!!

TwentyStarGeneral

There's a lot to say here...

(1) General approach: I read every stimulus with a skeptical and aggressive posture. I search first for the conclusion, then the support, and last the flaw or flawed assumption. If there is no conclusion (and thus no argument), I figure out what type of question it is and prephrase if possible (this is all similar to what she advocates in the Loophole). As I read, I also break the argument down and figure out what each part is doing structurally and why it is included.

(2) When you learn a new question type, you need to drill that question type using the exact system you learned for eliminating wrong answers and then choosing the right answer. If you don't apply the system, you have a bunch of theory that you can't apply. In general, you want to learn one new type a day using this process, while continuing to drill the old types using the system you learned.

(3) Be elimination focused, rather than right answer focused. This will greatly increase your accuracy. Remember that every wrong answer is wrong for objective reasons that should follow the system you learned. Gut feeling or intuition are not reliable guides on harder questions.

(4) Learn, memorize, and master your common flaws. Practice looking for them in every question with an argument. That will give you a big advantage on 8 out of the 14 question types.

(5) Be diligent in blind reviewing, reading good explanations, and completing your wrong answer journal.

(6) When doing (4), spend a lot of time thinking about your erroneous thought process or method that caused you to choose the right answer and then thinking about how you can fix it and guard against it on future questions.

(7) Apply what you learned in (4) and (5) to old wrong answers from that same type and new questions from that same type (5-10~).

I hope all that helps.

Kyle L. Pereira

@TwentyStarGeneral I had a similar question to Todd, I appreciate you sharing. When it comes to the wrong answer journal, should I be including wrong questions in drills in the Loophole book or solely practice tests? I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

TwentyStarGeneral

The wrong answer journal should include anything you get wrong in any practice you do, specifically for LR and RC. For LG, I didn't do a wrong answer journal, but I did similar work in a spreadsheet that I had for fool proofing logic games. For logic games, I would write the mistakes I made in the game and how to avoid them for future games. The general goals for practice questions should be to practice your technique, to learn from your mistakes and learn how to not repeat them, and to learn the recurring patterns that will make you faster.

canihazJD

Don't focus on the number of questions you're missing, rather the reasons why you are missing them. That's what review should address. At -10 I would start with:
- ensuring you have a solid, mechanical, automatic strategy for each question type
- deliberate translation training... really this encompasses QType strategies which are just memorized stem translations. Most mistakes result from some translation issue, but it never feels like something we need to prioritize. You do. Prompting you to think you "get" something you really don't is an LSAC psychometrician's go-to trick.
- making sure you have adequate depth of written review. What was the content trying to do, how did you react, how should you have reacted, and what will you do to get that way?
- developing a deliberate and aggressive approach to timing

All warrant their own discussion, but the CC and blog/forum address all of this stuff.