How can I stop doubting myself?

devn2599

Often, when doing RC passages, I doubt myself. The answers I select feel like they're half guessing, but I am usually correct. Anybody have any advice on how I can go about having more confidence in my answers?

JDream2025

Do a drill where you go through a passage and pick an answer choice where you’re 90% sure, and move on. Don’t change it. That’s the drill. And see how that works. You definitely need confidence when taking this test.

Sophumbra

You don't want to lose significant time cancelling out wrong answers on a question you've already gotten correct but feel tentative about. That would be the best way to increase your confidence in your choices, ruling out the wrong options, but RC usually challenges takers to move quickly and cover a lot of ground. Instead, you can find more confidence in your selecting ability by going over your thought processes on RC questions during review. Explanation videos can be great for this. If you find that JY or another LSAT expert got the correct answer by thinking how you did, more or less, you can reassure yourself that the level of doubt you have mid-exam when answering RC questions is inconsistent with the degree of doubt you should feel. Just knowing that, despite how you may feel, you know from experience that you actually know what you're doing can embolden you during a section's challenges.

LivinLaVidaLSAT

Being able to identify specific lines in the passage to prove the right answer right and disprove the wrong answers should boost your confidence/comfort level with RC. You can start with just doing one passage and going back to find the support in the passage for the answer you selected (before checking answers). If you selected the right answer, you will find lines in the passage to support it. If you can't find support, find lines to prove/disprove the other answers you were considering. The more you practice, the faster you'll get with quickly taking a look back at the passage to help you feel comfortable picking/eliminating answers. When time allows, you can use this review technique for all answers in a passage every once in awhile.
Also, know that RC tends to be the section where most people are not 100% confident in every answer they select under timed conditions. The time crunch is real here! This is just the nature of the section and a part of prep you'll have to get comfortable with. Good luck!