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LR success!
hawaiihi
Free Trial Member
Hi everyone,
Just thought I'd share some things I've learned in the course of studying for LR and that I'm really excited about!
I would like to say that I did go -1 on both LRs on my diagnostic and since then have only fluctuated in the -4 to 0 range. But I REALLY, REALLY want to emphasize that it didn't mean that I necessarily understood what I was doing or that I was any kind of master. I have no doubt that some of these good scores, especially on my diagnostic, had a lot more to do with luck.
I know this because I realize that my mindframe taking an LR section now is so, so different than before. 42 sections of LR later, and I can FEEL the way my brain has changed. 905 of the time now, I can already guess what the correct answer is going to be before I even start reading the multiple choice options. Whereas before, I used to run out of time, I finish with minutes to go... sometimes even 10 minutes left. Now, the only questions I get wrong are the really hard ones -- like 5-circle-difficulty scale hard. I want to emphasize that it's not because I'm any kind of genius, but because of tips, a lot of which I've learned from all of you.
Things that have helped:
- Read the question prompt before the stimulus. I wasn't doing this before, but it's so key to being able to predict the answer.
- Go over the questions that you missed. I have an Excel spreadsheet where I type out the logic of EVERY SINGLE LR question I've ever gotten wrong throughout 42 sections. I quote specific passages and quote specific answers. If (A) is the right answer, I also explain why (B), (C), (D), and (E) are wrong.
- Compile photos of the question types I got wrong most often. I have folders on my desktop labeled "Para," "NA," "Streng," "Weak." I email them to myself and keep them on my phone. On the train, I'll look at them and try to go over the logic in my head.
- Once I was able to break down the question types I most often got wrong, I made a point of identifying them in practice. When I'm studying and come across a "Weak" question, I'll literally write that in big block letters next to the prompt. It signals to my brain: Pay extra attention to this one. It works, too -- after I got a bunch of "Para" questions wrong, I did the above and haven't gotten one wrong since.
- The 20-for-20 rule is great. In other words, in practice, I try to aim to get the first 20 questions done in 20 minutes, then go back if I have time over ones I'm not sure of.
- When I've done unusually poorly on a timed section, I take the next one untimed. I take my time, leisurely. I give every question my full energy, even if it means just doing a page and coming back to the section later. I give myself the space to try and predict the answer before I read the multiple choice options. And usually, my score goes back up to where it should be afterwards.
- I give myself days to recover/avoid burnout.
- Pure practice. It's taken me a LOT of LRs to get here.
Anyway, I'm making this post because I want to emphasize that I really feel like my brain has changed. I feel so much more confident in my LR skills, not like I'm blundering my way through and hoping. For those of us who aren't happy with your scores, it's completely possible to improve! And for those of us who did well at first, there's still probably room for improvement. Thanks everyone!
Comments
Thanks for this!
Congrats!
Great post
Thank you for this.
Can you go more in depth about this process? I understand what you mean about writing why each answer is right or wrong, but what do you mean write out the logic of every single question you get wrong? What does writing out the logic look like for the questions that aren't your typical A-->B-->C logic or A causes B / correlation.
Also when you say 42 sections, do you mean 21 whole PT's? How many PT's have you done till you reached that range, just curious.
I've only done about 11 PTs. The rest of the sections are stand-alone practices.
Amazing story of determination. Congrats!
Love this. LR is my weakness and I've deployed almost all of the strategies you've listed. Progess is slow but happening. I was feeling discouraged and questioning if my strategies would be worth it especially with taking one timed section and the next untimed if I didn't perform well. This gave me the extra push to keep at it.
Thanks for this great description of your study process!
Yay! I'm so glad to hear that. I think building up confidence was really key to not falling apart on this most recent LSAT, and I think a lot of that confidence just comes with time.
It's funny you say that because I've felt this way as I've pushed through progressing in LR. The times I score low is when I lack confidence in myself and my ACs. I'll tend to change the correct answer to the wrong one or select the wrong one even if I have the correct AC as a contender.
The times I do great in LR either hitting my target score or coming close to it - I trust myself and go with the first answer I select. I'll only allow myself to change the answer if I have a justification... I also read somewhere that one should select an answer if they have at least 80% confidence. I used to stare at an AC until I felt 100% certain when sometimes there's wiggle room in ACs.
I'm sitting at the September exam and I'm still working at LR - any tips on giving myself a final push?
I think practice is key. Take the time to fully and deeply BR. Take the time to review the questions you got wrong and articulate why the correct answer is correct.
I think knowing the question types that you get wrong was also really helpful. On the test, it was like "Oh, a ____ question. I usually get these wrong because of [mistake]. And these usually follow [pattern]. I know because I typed out the explanation for all those other similar questions before."
One other silly thing that I think helped my confidence -- I would study in less-than-ideal noise conditions from time to time. I'd do an LR section on the train, while TV was playing in the room next to me, when doors slammed. I'd try to do LR questions when I was a little bit tired, after work, in the early morning. My thinking was, if I could do well on the train, or in the coffee shop, with all that going on, then I could ACE the section in the perfectly quiet, well-lit testing room with lots of sleep.
Like I said, I think so much of it is confidence. Confidence keeps you from spending unnecessary amounts of time on questions and allows you to move forward. Confidence keeps you from second-guessing obvious questions. Confidence allows you to see a hard question, recognize that feeling of reading it and understanding NOTHING, and then refocus and get it done.
Thanks for posting this!! I'm gonna go over all the LR questions I got wrong and put it in excel and go through the logic of each of them.
How long have you been studying like this for?
This is great for motivation. Continuous effort in LR does payoff. Just believe in the process and BR BR BR BR LOL.
@cvaldez74 these sound like great tips!
Does anyone have comments on surviving the different difficulty levels of LR drilling?
I studied like this for a month before my first LSAT (February 2018) and went from a diagnostic 165 to a 171 (under my PT range, definitely, but I was paralyzingly nervous). I then studied like this for a month and a half before the July 2018 LSAT, and the added month and a half made all the difference.
Great post and very inspiring. I wonder what you meant by taking a "photo" of the question types you got wrong? Do you literally take a photo of the entire question or just the question stem? I suppose if you got many "weaken" questions wrong you would only take one photo of that question type, not all? It would seem the question stem (weaken) would be redundant.
No, I take a photo of everything -- the stimulus, the question stem, the multiple choice answers, all. The point is having the whole thing so that when you're sitting on the bus/whatever, you can use it as a mental exercise. I take of multiple questions of the same type to get a better picture of what I need to work on.