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Logic Games Urgent Help!!!!
RunawayJury
Alum Member
Apologizing for the essay in advance but ...HI guys, I think I've posted regarding this topic before, but as the test date draws closer this issue is becoming more pressing for me. I did a PT last week and I got a 150, I've improved overall in RC and and LR, but I want to add I got this score while COMPLETELY bombing the LG section (I'd rather not say what I got but I pretty much failed). I know my issue is not one of understanding, because I BRd the LG section first just to see what I would have gotten if I had answered like I know I can and my overall score went up to a 158 (18/23 after BR on LG). My goal is a 160 and I feel like this section is the only thing holding me back from achieving it. I don't know what else to do at this point, I've done hundreds and hundreds of LG questions, and done so many timed LG sections I've lost count. Like I said I know that I understand it but I just can't do it under timed constraints and I know it which causes me to panic during the PT. Do you guys have any suggestions of what else I can do? I've practiced so much and I feel like its not really helping because like I said i DO understand it, I just feel like I can't do it on time. I'm open to tutoring, or just about anything at this point.
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Comments
Your story sounds a lot like mine. I needed roughly 2,000 games to get my first ever perfect section on a fresh LG. Whatever you are doing right now with games in your review, you’ve got to change that approach to net a greater increase. The problem here is that any thorough diagnostic of the issue and implementation of a plan to get LG gains, is going to take more than 2 weeks, in my estimation. For awhile I thought quantity was a substitute for quality when it came to drilling games. For me it wasn’t. Your BR score is promising, but the gap between BR and timed tells me that you are not implementing the inferences or rules as efficiently as you should be. I’m leading towards ruling out the timing pressures and the possible anxieties those pressures bring on because your other sections have improved. This is probably a case of memorizing reoccurring inferences and constantly pushing rules together to form new ones.
David
I was in a similar boat. Honestly what they say about LG is true. But for some people it takes a lot more time. I'm still not perfect and panic occasionally but I'm a hell of a lot better than I was 3 months ago. I had to push my test date back a couple times and it's made all the difference. If you know you have get a 160 (you're BR implies that you can) then don't stress yourself out by going into the test without having mastered LG.
You said you've done hundreds of questions but how are you doing them? Are you foolproofing each question and keeping track of what types give you the most trouble?
How I've been doing them is usually timed sections then checking answers, something I noticed is that on my first try I won't do great (usually around 12 or 13/22) but on my second try I am SIGNIFICANTLY better (around 20 or 21/22 correct) but after a while I stopped doing games more than once because I know that for sure I can get it on my second try. But on a fresh new set, I always struggle out of the gate
I will agree with what has been said above. A couple of weeks is a tight time line. Can you still make gains? Absolutely. You have the knowledge but you just need to put pen to paper under the gun effectively. I would recommend working on timed individual games along with timed sections. This not only gives you timed experience but also build your instincts of when to cut your losses and move on from a troubling game/question. Review and understand the mistakes you make and WHY you made them.
You have to realize and be confident that you have the knowledge and understand you can do this under pressure. You got this!
Make sure you don't stop reviewing after each timed section. I was having the same issue but I eventually realized that I my problem was that I was running out of time for every single section. Then worrying about not having enough time to finish made my accuracy decrease, I wouldn't have realized this though if I would have stopped doing blind review. Even if you know you can get the games on the 2nd try you should still do them a second time no matter what. It helps you to see things that you can't pick up on by just seeing that you missed a certain number. I would advise taking 1 day off of LG work entirely, come back the next day, take a whole section and go through it like you have all the time in the world, push out all the inferences you can before you jump into the questions and draw every sub game board that you can as well (another problem I head when worrying about time was just jumping into the questions without seeing how the rules played out on the gameboard and how they influenced each other). Stop at the 35min mark, notice where you're at, then pick up a red pen/pencil and BR anything and everything you didn't get to. It will take a few tries to notice an increase in your score, but if you don't let the stress get to you, you WILL get there, especially considering all of the work you've put in already. You can do this. Trust me, I was in the same position the week before last and now I do a new section of LG or 2 everyday and I don't miss more than 2. You just have to give yourself time to recognize your very specific issues. It could be that you always misread a rule or never draw out sub game boards, or something like that. Give yourself time to reflect and pick up on these things during BR. After you check your BR score for each game compare that to your actual score for each game and ask yourself why you scored differently. Be as specific as possible when you're answering this question. Write the reasons down directly on the game if you need to, this will only help you to resolve your errors next time. Good luck, I believe in you.
You said that you improved significantly the second time you did the game. Why was that? Is it because you had seen the video explanation, memorized the inferences, knew when to split? Or was it a fresh clean new take without looking at the answers/explanation. If it's the former then your score might be inflated. If it's the latter then your score can probably be attributed, at least somewhat, to panic and more importantly, bad habits.
Are you keeping stock of every item, circling floaters, pushing out inferences with each new rule? Do you read rules multiple times? Do you cross the whole AC for acceptable situation questions? Do you focus on the questions that come with additional premises/conditionals first before tackling the naked CBT/MBT/MBF questions that they generally sneak in as the second or third question of the game? Do you strategically eliminate/skip past answer choices or just brute force your way through? Have you noticed a pattern in the type of questions or inferences you miss? And lastly, do you tape yourself doing games?
The answers to these questions will help you come closer to diagnosing your weakness your LG while doing a section. Once you diagnose it, it will be easier to come up with a plan to solve it.
thanks for your input, and just to answer your question anytime I do attempt it a second time, I never look at the answers or videos. I simply just try it again and notice there were so many inferences I missed that would have saved me time
thank you so much, this means a lot, I appreciate you taking time outta your day to offer your insight
Okay so it's definitely probably the habits then. Try do to some untimed games (so keep the timer on but don't try to finish by a specific time) and make sure you're pushing out as many inferences as you can upfront. Even if you spend 5-10 minutes just doing diagrams to get into that habit. And check out that other list of questions about habits and see if you're implementing those.
While you can definitely improve on LG, as others said, 2 weeks is mostly too short of a time to make really large gains. Since you do generally know how to do these, I think for the Sept test you should focus on your test-taking skills.
I'm guessing that you are rushing and trying to complete all 4 games. My first advice is to not worry about running out of time for the LG section. Slow down, work through the games just like you do in practice. If you were to only attempt 3 of the games but got all of the questions right, you'd already be better off than the 12/13 out of 22.
Also, work on a skipping strategy for LG. Are there specific game types you are worse at? If grouping games always throw you off, when you see a grouping game on the test, just move on to the next one. Save that for last, if you have time. I realized that the rule substitution questions were a major time suck for me. I decided to skip any rule substitution questions and come back if time allows. That immediately brought my score up by around 3 or 4 questions. I'd been letting those bog me down so much that I didn't have enough time for the last game. By giving up 1 point on other games, I was able to attack all 4 and make up for any that I skipped.
If you decide to take again in November, I think there's much more you could do to raise your score. But with your sights set on September, I think you'd be better off working on your test strategy to maximize what you can do.