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Any success stories on LR and what you're study method was like?

Redentore3337Redentore3337 Alum Member

Hello 7sage club!

I'm wondering if there are any success stories out there about LR and what that person did to overcome their weaknesses. Currently, I keep getting 8-10 questions wrong on the LR section. I've taken at least 10 PT's, I've done the 7sage core curriculum, and I do the sections timed. I don't find that time is an issue at all, on the contrary, I'll have 6 minutes or so to spare. So I'm just looking to see if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm planning to take the September LSAT so I still got quite a bit of time.

Thanks!

Comments

  • FixedDiceFixedDice Member
    1804 karma

    Try solving PTs untimed for a month or two. Since you said you have about six minutes left yet get 8-10 questions wrong on each section, it sounds like you are not deliberating your answer choices enough.

  • akistotleakistotle Member 🍌🍌
    9372 karma

    Hi @Redentore3337,

    What is your BR score per section? Under the timed condition, how many questions do you circle? In your second round, do you get to go back to questions you circled and change answers?

    I recommend this webinar by @"Cant Get Right":
    https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/

    There are tons of success stories! I used to miss 7-10 questions but now in 3-5 questions range. You will get there! :blush:

  • Redentore3337Redentore3337 Alum Member
    350 karma

    @akistotle said:
    Hi @Redentore3337,

    What is your BR score per section? Under the timed condition, how many questions do you circle? In your second round, do you get to go back to questions you circled and change answers?
    For some reason my BR score isn't that much different because when I go back and change my answer, I still get it wrong, which shows a fundamental problem with how I'm seeing the question
    I recommend this webinar by @"Cant Get Right":
    https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/

    There are tons of success stories! I used to miss 7-10 questions but now in 3-5 questions range. You will get there! :blush:

    I'm actually listening to that right now. It's good to know that its very possible!

  • m.c lshopefulm.c lshopeful Alum Member
    614 karma

    Now that you've done 10 PT's... I would say to go back and re-do the LR part of the core curriculum. Honestly, I have not come across better LR materials than what is available through the core curriculum. If you do it again, you will see the core curriculum differently now that you've taken more tests and you will give better attention to the important aspects of each lesson.

    You have so much time that you really want to be practicing the correct way as early as possible. You aren't in panic mode where you have to "make it work" and only gain a few points in improvement. I think that 10 tests with proper blind review (or go back through each question if you didn't blind review) is enough to identify a lot of shortcomings that you didn't get on your first round of learning the fundamentals in the core curriculum. It's too hard to learn everything through the first time on LR if you haven't had a lot of experience with this type of stuff in philosophy classes or something. Maybe you got 50% of it the first time and it took you through 10 PT's with some sort of direction on how to tackle the problems... but now you need to go back through and absorb up to the 80%+ mark before you can put it behind you and only refer back to specific question types you are having problems with.

    RC feels like a lot of banging your head against the wall with slow improvements while you improve your reading of complex material in different subjects.... and LG is quite robotic where repetition can give you reliable improvements... but LR is really about adding tools to your LR toolbox. You need to learn to use about 25 tools, and then learn to use them effortlessly in unique ways. So, if you are still missing 8-10, then you are clearly still making mistakes in selecting the correct tool or using the tool in the correct way. Go back to the learning material now that you've gained some perspective and see the details you missed the first time through.

    Best of luck!

  • lsatplaylistlsatplaylist Member
    edited February 2018 5249 karma

    Maybe also ask about some questions in the forums as it often helps to talk about it.

  • SamiSami Live Member Sage 7Sage Tutor
    10774 karma

    A blanket strategy that is really helpful for LR is to draw parallel arguments for each LR questions you missed. This helps us see not only the pattern behind the stimulus but also puts us in the shoes of LSAT writers. Most stimulus in LR have an argument structure that is cookie cutter and it repeats a lot in different contexts. Even the 5 star questions have a cookie cutter pattern behind them -they are just sometimes rare or hard because of the grammar or have harder to predict the answer choices like those science based strengthening questions.

    A more specific strategy for those 8-10 questions you missed is to understand why you missed them. Was it over-confidence error where you thought you had the right answer but got it wrong or did you mark it for a second round because you knew you didn't have the right answer and then missed it? Most people have both these issues.

    If it was an over-confidence error, we have to see what that means. Missing 0-1 questions on average because of overconfidence is actually okay. It's the price we pay for speed. But more than that and we have to start answering what led us to pick the wrong answer? Answering that questions is pertinent to avoiding a lot of overconfidence errors in future. It could be because you thought you completely understood what was wrong with the stimulus but you were wrong. This means learning an argument. It could also be because there were two flaws and you were only focused on one or it could be because of technique - you moved on from the question at a point where more work still needed to be done. There could also be other reasons and the answer to that could be different based on what you were doing.

    If you had marked the question for round two and still missed it, you have to increase your understanding of the stimulus. Watch JY's videos, draw parallel argument and parallel answer choices to that stimulus. If it was a grammar issue like not paying attention to referential phrasing etc, see if you need to do some drills focused on grammar to help with that.

    One thing that I think that is really helpful is to see deeper than just focusing on question type. For example, if you are weak on Sufficient assumption question type it could be because you don't know what to do with that question type but it could also be because you need to strengthen your fundamentals like valid and invalid argument forms and get better at seeing the inferences without having to draw them out.

    I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any more questions. : )

  • 179 karma

    I did a week of intense FLAW work that significantly helped me:


    1. I typed up descriptions for approx. 20 flaw types.

    2. Using the 5 most recent PTs, I labeled each Flaw Q (as 1 of the 20 flaw types).

    3. I grouped the Qs together by Flaw type, and typed out the correct AC for each Flaw Q.
      —Ie, all the “correlation=/=causation” correct ACs together; all the “hasty generalization” correct ACs together; all the “sampling error” correct ACs together... you get the idea.

    4. I wrote out “key indicators” that generally occur in the stimulus for each Flaw Type.
      EX:
      ---- Temporal Error = A shift in language denoting past/present/future.
      ---- Sample too Small = MUST EXPLICITLY state (with description words/ #s) that the sample is too small to be representative.

    5. I put the 20 FLAW types into 1 of 4 groups (Perspective Flaws, Causation Flaws, Analogies Analogous Enough Flaws, Phenomenon—Hypothesis Flaws)

    This SERIOUSLY helped my speed and accuracy in answering Flaw Qs; it also helped with identifying weaknesses/connections in Weakening, Strengthening & RRE questions.


    Ohh, I also did some MSS work that helped using the MSS PT--70-79 set; I labeled each MSS Q based on the following:

    What is presented in the Stimulus
    ----Conditional Logic
    ----Correlation
    ----Phenomenon
    ----Comparison

    What the ✔AC does
    ----Combines Statements
    ----Makes Reasonable Assumptions (I wrote out the reasonable assumption)
    ----Focuses on One Statement
    ----Emphasis on "price is right" rules

  • Redentore3337Redentore3337 Alum Member
    350 karma

    Thank you guys! It's really nice to have this kind of support :smile:

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