Great LR tip for improving confidence

manuayarra

Hey everyone! I guess we're all kinda freaking out about the june thing. Here's a good, solid, full-proof conclusion that I've come up with after taking several prep tests in the last couple of weeks.
Now, I think my abilities range from somewhere in the 160s to 174/5, but this tip might apply to others as well. I had prepared extensively through the winter getting consistent scores 170+ (three consecutive 170, 171, 172). After continuing with a softer preparation through april/may, and then restarting full-on a couple of weeks ago I noticed that my logical reasoning score had gone way down. I was freaking out, missing 3-5 questions per section, without confidence/certainty. I decided to buy a book of advanced lsat that collects a lot of harder questions from earlier tests so I could improve my accuracy. But although it worked to get some concepts straight, it was a psychological killer. I was really second-guessing myself all the time because I would often think the questions were way harder than they really were or I was trying to come up with an absolute reason of why I was getting some questions wrong, started taking a reductionist formal approach to the questions.
So then I decided to tackle LR the way I had in the past (individual sections) in a relaxed (but accurately timed) manner, blind method and then checking the answers shortly afterwards. I started improving a lot (down to -2,-3 and then -1, -2) and I had a sort of epiphany.
Although many of you already know that formal logic is not that important for this section some of you might use it to gain more certainty and avoid some mistakes. That's the most dangerous thing you could do. Basically, avoiding over-abstraction and focusing on the reading comprehension skill of LR is KEY. I mean, yes, you could avoid some mistakes by getting to the core with abstract thinking but the questions that really call for that kind of thinking appear usually once or twice in a section, no more. There are many more mistakes that you can avoid by reading closely and scrutinizing the terms of the premises and conclusions, which is way easier and less time consuming.
I hope this is useful, it has definitely worked back for me as I'm back in the 170s train and hope to stay there all the way to the real thing.

Bret Cypel

Thanks

chase62442

I definitely agree with this. When I start getting anxious and over-thinking lr problems, I start getting them wrong. It's better for me if I relax (especially at the beginning of a section; after I've moved on to the middle I just stop stressing because I'm thinking, I guess?) Also, if I take too many practice tests or lr section tests in a short amount of time, I start overthinking things and start performing worse.

James Ray

I agree, the same thing happens to me. You have to rely o your intuition. Breaking out all the logic is for training. I think it should only be used in test when you are stumped and have extra time to go back or you are uncertain and the same.

[Deleted User]

I'd advocate the opposite

especially with Must be True, Soft MBT, 50% of sufficient assumptions, Parallel, Parallel flaw, and Principle/Application.

It helps out quite a bit to either diagram or just diagram the tendencies or correlations the stimulus states.

When you're fatigued, just writing on the side of the question the results, correlations, and diagramming the formal logic helps keep you sharp. Otherwise, you risk getting lost in the details and forgetting stuff.

Intuition is good only if you know the fundamentals already and why incorrect answers are incorrect. If you try using intuition as a beginner or novice it may not work out as well as you would hope.

brainwvs

I think that what made you improve was the fact that you gained self confidence. You were kinder to yourself.That was the biggest lesson to learn. I use formal thinking pretty much constantly. In LR and in RC as well. For me it is a huge help. So I don't think that dropping this was the reason you improved. But there is a sure way to make my scores drop: by telling myself that I don't know how to do this. Normally I am 100% accurate in every section but I have made myself loose 5 questions in a single section when I have worked myself up over nothing. I am mainly training my mind now lol..