Faster timing on Weakening Q's?

cm214998

Hey everyone! I just wanted some suggestions or techniques for approaching weakening q's. I'm finding that while timing myself, I take a longer time or I rush when solving weakening questions because I take too long. I average around 1 minute and half, sometimes closer to 2 mins, even on the easier questions. I think it's because I'm trying to reason it out completely (find all alternative assumptions, etc.) However, on blind review my accuracy is pretty good, as I'll usually get all or almost all of them right. Are there any techniques or strategies you guys use in order to increase speed on weakening q's, or even all LR question types? Thanks!

Not Ralph Nader

@cm214998 the fact that you are getting almost all of them right on BR shows you got the fundamentals for weakening question. It is a great practice that you try to find all the assumption which the argument makes but under time condition your approach should be different.

Some of the arguments use causation framework that leave a huge gap in their reasoning; for these ones the moment you find the problem go hunting for the right answer choice. For some other weakening questions especially the more difficult ones it is not easy to anticipate the right answer choice and keep in mind the nature of weakening questions make it possible to have some answer choices that are seem random but actually attack the argument support structure. I find it helpful to identify the method of reasoning for these questions in addition to argument support for answering such harder weakening questions.

There are three method of reasoning that LSAT writers use often, causation, argument by analogy and, phenomenon & hypothesis. Each one of them can be weaken in a particular way. For example for arguments by analogy if you can find an answer choice that shows the two concept that are being analogized differ in some major terms then you weaken the argument.

I have put a link below to a webinar by one of the Sages who explains the above method in much more detail.

Sage Nicole shares her personal approach to weaken and strengthen questions

https://7sage.com/webinar/weaken-strengthen/

I hope this helps.

Alex

@"Not Ralph Nader" said:

I have put a link below to a webinar by one of the Sages who explains the above method in much more detail.

Sage Nicole shares her personal approach to weaken and strengthen questions

https://7sage.com/webinar/weaken-strengthen/

I watched this over the summer when I began my prep and I found this webinar extremely helpful. Highly recommended!

Sami

@cm214998

I think the answer in my opinion is "it depends". The thing with LSAT that I have learned is that some questions are designed to take a bit of time. The only way to be able to do these questions accurately is to have some "bank time" or time that you have saved by going faster on easier questions and use them on difficult questions.

For going faster on easier weakening questions, yes, the webinars posted above is amazing. I would also recommend revisiting core-curriculum on weakening questions. It really helps to revisit the core-curriculum for me; I learn new stuff that I had missed the first and even second time.

For the harder questions, unfortunately they do take up a bit of time. So have some bank time at the end of your section and use it to do these questions that do end up taking a bit of time.

Cant Get Right

Great advice already. All I really have to add to that is, for what it's worth, Weaken/Strengthen are the hardest question types on the LSAT. If that's where you're losing a bit of your time, things could be worse. You do want to get through the easier ones, but even those can be tricky. It sounds like you're just doing way too much work. You're trying to achieve BR level understanding under time, and that is going to wreck your score. In BR, keep at it: Find everything there is buried in the stimulus and in every answer choice. Under time, you only want to understand well enough to get the right answer. Once your understanding is sufficient to answer the question correctly, you're wasting time by thinking about it any further.

Another thing I'd add, particularly for the harder incarnations of these question types, is that what makes them so hard is just how abstract and nebulous they can be. I find that, for me, prephrasing can be really really dangerous on these. I like to just arrive at an understanding of the argument and then proceed into the answer choices with an open mind. If you start eliminating answer choices because they don't match a prephrase, you're going to struggle.

cm214998

Thank you everyone! Your advice is always appreciated! I will def check out the webinar, could really come in handy!