Struggling with Flaws--How Do I get Better

Joy_M_LSAT

This is my weakest Question Type, and although I have practiced memorizing all 20 flaws I have trouble recognizing them on the LSAT because I am often stuck between two answer choices. What should I do? What was your method or how do you approach this QT in terms of improvement?

Sami

Hi

So the issue with flaws in general is that they are not just prevalent in flaw questions but also in other question types.

What really helped me was once I had the flaw list memorized, and I mean not just the name of the flaw but why that is actually a flaw. For example why can't you actually conclude from necessary to sufficient. Once I myself had that understanding, in blind review I started writing a paragraph down for each flaw question and what makes this stimulus flawed. What words are associated with certain flaws as well as devising a strategy that I would write down about how in future I would handle this stimulus so I won't make the same mistake. I would then cut out these questions and I had them organized in zip log bags by flaw types; for some of them I had my own names for some flaw. I would always keep them with them and whenever I would have time I would take them out and go through them.

I believe most flaw questions are repeats of other similar question. So the more you invest upfront the likelihood that you will avoid the same mistake in future will also increase.

One good thing about flaw question is you can pretty much always anticipate the answer before you go through the answer choices. In reviews you should ask yourself if you got a question wrong because you didn't understand it, or didn't attempt a pre phrase, or the way an answer choice was written was confusing so you missed it. This will help you narrow down to your problem areas as well as help you increase in speed.

I am sure other people also have their own ways, but this is what helped me the most. I wish you all the best.

Good luck

dennisgerrard

anticipate the answer.great method!

Joy_M_LSAT

yeah power score said that

EmmaWI88

I'd say the best thing is to drill the question type and memorize the common flaws. Anticipating the answer is really good and will help you get much less thrown off by trick answer choices. But this will only come with practice and more exposure.

Sami

Also, I wanted to go over a bit about your question of being often stuck with two answer choices. I think there are a couple of things that can be happening:

1. You couldn't identify a flaw when you first read the stimulus but went to the answers anyways: I would say if you read a stimulus during timed PT and you don't know what the flaw is, skip this question the first time without going through the answers. Not knowing what flaw is going to get you trapped in tricky answer choices as LSAT is designed to get at our weaknesses. The good thing about coming back after you have skipped it the first time is your mind has had time to reset and a 2nd read sometimes helps your mind see the flaw. But if you don't know initially and get into the answer choices, you are going to spend a lot of time debating the answer choices. The method above is faster.

2. You had a pre-phrase but turns out none of the answer choices matched. When this happens skip it the first time. Come back to it again at the end of section when you have time, re-read the stimulus and see if a different flaw comes to mind. This is because you missed something the first time you read it.
Or you could have identified the right flaw but the answer choice is stated in a different way than you were thinking. This is where you want to learn the different ways LSAT answers can say the same flaw. (This is of course going to happen in Blind Review).

* The thing with getting stuck with two answer choices in flaw questions is that a flaw in a stimulus is a very specific flaw, so when you are stuck between two answer choices, and they equally match your prephrase, that does say your understanding of that particular flaw needs to improve. So in blind review, try to see why your pre-phrase (the answer you anticipated) was a little different from the correct flaw. (this is the part in my opinion where I improved the most)

I really hope this helps you.

J.Y. Ping

This is great, @Sami !

Adding on to your point 2 above. This happens sometimes with over-confidence errors. You read the stim and there are in fact 2 flaws. You identified flaw 1. It's up to the LSAT writers which flaw they want to go with. But they'll almost never pass up a chance to create a trap. (In fact, that's likely why they planted 2 flaws.) What they'll do is write an attractive trap answer that looks like it's addressing flaw 1 but actually, it's not. You have to read carefully not to fall for it. Flaw 2 is the right but subtle answer.

Not Ralph Nader

@Joy_M_LSAT I would emphasis on drilling the flaw questions. I improved my accuracy on flaw questions significantly after drilling around 60 of them in three sessions (20 questions per session). I went through flaw list before each drilling session then timed myself using a stopwatch. After I answering all of them I would BR them thoroughly and then watch J.Y. explanation for each one of them. I saw an improvement in my score very shortly, and this helped me to see flawed reasoning in other question types stimulus. There is also a great webinar by one of the Sages on various flaws watching it really helped me, I actually watched it twice. Knowing flaw types is necessary but not sufficient to master flaw questions, you got to drill them.


Sage Jimmy (173) takes us to Logical Reasoning: Flaw bootcamp:
https://7sage.com/webinar/flaw-intensive/


Online Stopwatch with split timer
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/split-timer

Creasey LSAT

One way to get better might be to make up a stimulus in your own words for every flaw.

Also, every flaw can essentially be rephrased into the words "takes for granted that..." and "fails to consider that...". One I realized this (thanks to The LSAT Trainer), it started to make a little more sense to me.

Joy_M_LSAT

@Creasey LSAT I did this along with trying to paraphrase the stimulus in my own words

Joy_M_LSAT

@Sami Thank you for the advice!