How long into your studying until you could internalize what each question is asking, quickly?

spinosanspinosan Alum Member
in Logical Reasoning 187 karma

Most of the time when I slow down and read the question aloud I understand the logic and the reasoning. But when I try to do problem sets under timed conditions I wind up getting most of the hard questions (160+) incorrect. It feels like I just don't comprehend the question correctly in the heat of the moment because it is written in such a dense format. Anyone else have this issue and if so, does it fade with time?

For reference I'm about 2 weeks into full time (but frankly unfocused) study, planning on taking the September LSAT

Comments

  • BinghamtonDaveBinghamtonDave Alum Member ⭐ 🍌🍌
    8716 karma

    for all questions stems? it took me about 2-3 months. for the patterns of reasoning contained within the questions? this was a constant process of learning right up till test day.

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27902 karma

    Agree with @BinghamtonDave . Learning by question type was a few months. Realizing that learning question types was only the tip of the iceberg was another six months. Mastering everything under the surface is still ongoing. With a 176 official score and years of studying and teaching, I came across a question yesterday that I just straight up don't understand, even in BR. I'm about to try and crack it open, so will (hopefully) be learning something new today.

  • Nunuboy1994Nunuboy1994 Free Trial Member
    346 karma

    This is a good question but I think the answers you receive will be varied. For example, a person’s LSAT learning curve could depend on what age they started studying. One friend of mine spent 2 years studying for the LSAT and eventually scored a 179. I myself am 24 and was first exposed to the LSAT when I was 20. Today I am helping tutoring a friend on the test, and although I haven’t really practiced any LSAT questions in a year I’ve noticed that the questions have become a lot clearer. For example, sometimes I would understand what the question stimulus is asking but not understand what the answer choices mean. But now I see everything a lot more clearly- this could just be from doing a lot of reading.

  • spinosanspinosan Alum Member
    187 karma

    That's very reassuring to know that I'm not the only one struggling with reading these questions on this test. Thank you guys for all your input! @Nunuboy1994 anything in particular that you've been reading that's helped you with this test? Or just in general?

  • Pride Only HurtsPride Only Hurts Alum Member
    2186 karma

    @"Cant Get Right" said:
    Agree with @BinghamtonDave . I came across a question yesterday that I just straight up don't understand, even in BR.

    Really curious about what question you’re referring to. I’ve also come across questions like this. Last time this happened it was a 3 star question! So frustrating.

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27902 karma

    @"Pride Only Hurts" said:
    Really curious about what question you’re referring to. I’ve also come across questions like this. Last time this happened it was a 3 star question! So frustrating.

    Yeah, I have a few of these. For 78.1.6 and 81.2.22, I feel like I fully understand and just straight up take issue with the soundness of the credited responses. For 78.3.7 and 85.3.17 I'm not sure I fully understand, and just can't quite see how the credited responses are correct.

    Overall, I think I only missed two of the four the first time I came across them, and that, I think, should be the main takeaway. 50% is a great outcome on this set of questions, all things considered. You don't have to fully understand to get a question right. A reliable process for how to handle these situations is vital to good testing strategy and will pick you up a lot of points.

  • Nunuboy1994Nunuboy1994 Free Trial Member
    346 karma

    @spinosan said:
    That's very reassuring to know that I'm not the only one struggling with reading these questions on this test. Thank you guys for all your input! @Nunuboy1994 anything in particular that you've been reading that's helped you with this test? Or just in general? I highly recommend the reading The Economist, as well as Law review articles and scholarly journals. A lot of books out there are just written at a basic level and are designed for the lay reader. For example, lots of self improvement books avoid using high level rhetoric or language. If they did they probably wouldn’t sell to the masses. I think some of it just comes over time too. For example, I know the feeling you’re talking about when a LR stimulus looks really intimidating because of 1 or 2 words you don’t know, because a sentence sounds or expresses a complex idea or even really because there’s a lot of information to take in. I recently cracked open a copy of Powerscore’s LR Reasoning Bible that I hadn’t touched in 2 years. Looking over some questions, I was surprised by much more clearly I was able to understand the stimulus and answer choices. I think some improvement might just come over time; this is why I think it’s better to start LSAT prep when you’re a little.bit younger. But those are just my thoughts everyone’s different after all.

  • Gee-dawgGee-dawg Member
    319 karma

    Are you going through 7sage core curriculum or something else?

  • spinosanspinosan Alum Member
    187 karma

    @Gee-dawg I'm doing the core curriculum! I'm probably halfway through the LR section

  • Gee-dawgGee-dawg Member
    319 karma

    I would really try to understand the concepts first and not worry about doing timed questions at this time point. Once you get comfortable you will start seeing the patterns. Then I would start timing.
    This has helped me not to panic too much when I am timing myself.

  • gabes900-1gabes900-1 Member
    855 karma

    I’ve had this problem/feeling since I began studying. I have managed to get a grasp of the individual LR question types over the past few months under timed conditions. However, over the past two weeks I am starting to focus more on the larger logical picture inside each stimulus and zero in on the MOR and inferences of the arguments presented. By doing this, I have seen improvements in internalizing the material but I am still a long long way from mastery. The grind is real...

  • spinosanspinosan Alum Member
    187 karma

    @"Mage of Reason" said:
    I’ve had this problem/feeling since I began studying. I have managed to get a grasp of the individual LR question types over the past few months under timed conditions. However, over the past two weeks I am starting to focus more on the larger logical picture inside each stimulus and zero in on the MOR and inferences of the arguments presented. By doing this, I have seen improvements in internalizing the material but I am still a long long way from mastery. The grind is real...

    Thanks I'm gonna give that method a try and see if it sticks, good luck to you!

  • spinosanspinosan Alum Member
    187 karma

    @"Gee-dawg" said:
    I would really try to understand the concepts first and not worry about doing timed questions at this time point. Once you get comfortable you will start seeing the patterns. Then I would start timing.
    This has helped me not to panic too much when I am timing myself.

    I think you're right, slowing down has given me the opportunity to voice out my reasoning and avoid some simple but recurring mistakes i've been having so i think i'll give that a try too, thank you!

  • gabes900-1gabes900-1 Member
    855 karma

    @spinosan Sounds good, no problem. Good luck to you as well!

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