Sufficient Study Time + Tackling the "Hardest" Questions

PLS_Henry-1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Hello, I've been studying rather ineffectively on my own since January until May, which was when I got 7Sage. Although I must say my understanding and ability to answer questions correctly greatly increased many fold, I am struggling with the level 5 hardest questions, such as RC and LR (THIS one especially). Like many people, I would want to get a 170+ (And I truly believe 7Sage is able to help many people including myself in doing this), I do know that it is best to be able to tackle every question possible to maximize those chances. Is there a specific strategy in tackling these? Or is it the same standard core curriculum strategies, but to a mastery level form? (And extremely careful reading...) I'm doing pretty well on everything else, but once I go up against these level 5 questions, I get destroyed, with the occasional correct one or two.

On another note, I intend on taking the September LSAT. I'm just wondering if 40 hour week study sessions throughout the summer will help me get to the 170+ area.

7sagelsatstudent180

Level 5 questions are curve breakers. I personally miss around half of them because I have trouble conceptualizing what the answer should be and fall for a trap choice or believe all of the answer choices are wrong. I recommend drilling level 4 and 5 answer choices in your problem area until they feel 2nd nature. Just remember that to be a sage, you only need to be 89-90% accurate.

runiggyrun

I find that for a lot of the level 5 questions, the ability to quickly spot wrong answers is often more important than the ability to identify the right answer on the first go. And the most attractive wrong answers are often wrong because of a single word that shifts compared to the stimulus (like going from "most" to "any", from "more" to "most" from "big cars" to "SUV's") or that is introduced in the answer choice but is not present in the stimulus.
The BR process is wonderful to train you in spotting those clues, especially if you make an effort to look for them when you review the wrong answers.

Cant Get Right

Agreed with @runiggyrun . Effective BR is where this really develops. Take the time to understand these, as long as it takes. Break down the stimulus. Write down an explanation of each answer choice, detailing why it is either right or wrong. If you're aiming for 170+ you can't ever let one go. You must come to view failing to achieve full understanding during BR as a complete catastrophe.

In addition to that, you do have to continually increase your mastery of the logic. Get it down so well that you don't have to consciously think about it. Logic should operate on the level of your heartbeat or breathing. If you're having to consciously make it happen, it's going to be really difficult to break into the 170s.

Nicole Hopkins

@"PLS_Henry" said:
I do know that it is best to be able to tackle every question possible to maximize those chances. Is there a specific strategy in tackling these?

I believe that getting 170+ is more a function of getting ALL the easy/moderate questions correct so that if you do miss the hardest questions, you've already gotten enough questions correct to cushion that blow.

Nicole Hopkins

@"Cant Get Right" said:
In addition to that, you do have to continually increase your mastery of the logic. Get it down so well that you don't have to consciously think about it. Logic should operate on the level of your heartbeat or breathing.

Agreed, 100%. You think you "get" logic—and you do, to an extent. But if you could get into a Sage's head and see how natural this is and how quickly we're able to manipulate complex phrasing in our heads, you might go back and review some of the logic lessons (and/or do the logic homework over ). And always hunt logic in the wild! I mean—things like our recent blog post