I wanted to ask for some advice on how to correct LR errors during BR (which I hope will follow me to timed tests eventually). I have mastered the art of circling questions I have trouble with in LR (The questions I miss are part of the group of questions I circled). However, during BR, despite spending a large amount of time reviewing - I am unable to get the question right. I am SURE that I have the right answer - the one that I circled during the test. So not quite the confidence error described by J.Y., but still an error in confidence.
Any advice or methods on how to correct this? My game plan is to put these questions together and drill them / write out my reasoning / watch videos / correct reasoning / drill again. But considering that I'm making these errors consistently, I would love some help.
Thanks!
Comments
I have an idea (I'm going to see if it works)... I haven't tried it yet but in case it's helpful I'll share it here with you and perhaps we can compare results -- have you considered just retaking the entire LR section, but reorganized by question type? The LSAT Trainer website has that helpful question breakdown pdf. Or maybe there's some feature on the 7Sage exam review page that lets us sort by question type? If there is, I haven't quite figured it out yet.
My theory is that if I group problems together by type, my brain will be utterly focused on the task presented in the question stem (which I seem to have issues with). This way I can borrow from whatever I was doing right for the other similar questions I answered correctly, and apply that process to those trickier ones. (Does that make sense?)
I guess I'm essentially generating "problem sets" from previously taken exams. I really hope it helps.
There is a feature on 7Sage exam review - When you are in the Questions tab of the LSAT Analytics page, you can sort by the "tag" category and you can do that for as little or many tests as you would like and it will organize the questions by type.
To solve this problem of "not understanding," I drilled my weaknesses using the Cambridge packets, which is just another way of doing what @pseudonymous recommends. The principle is the same: you're solidifying and internalizing skills that are necessary for this specific question type by grouping them together. I also realized that taking more tests really reduced the amount of "omg I don't know what this answer choice means" errors.
I hope drilling and just taking more practice tests or timed sections helps you with this problem. I completely sympathize because I know it's incredibly frustrating and I hope you find a solution to your problem!
@pseudonymous : how did you bold and embed a link into your comment?
I html lol. When I was a preteen, I had a blog with a pretty impressive viewership (read: 2 people, my mom and my best friend. :-P)
@"Nilesh S" I think that's a good idea to look at other resources too - to get many perspectives on how to reason through the question.
@emli1000 Eventually, I understand why the right answer choice is right - but I have trouble eliminating wrong answer choices - and I seem to have the unhelpful knack of centering in on non-important parts of the stimulus. But I am going to take your suggestions of watching videos.
- Watch 7Sage lessons on the specific question type.
- Drill practice sets by question type to "solidify and internalize skills that are necessary for this specific question type by grouping them together."
- Retake PT LR sections by question type.
- During BR - focus on understanding the argument.
- During BR - Write out your reasoning of why you think the answer is right and why you think the others are wrong - for circled questions.
- Determine correct reasoning through group BR and/or explanation videos.
- Use every resource possible to understand question - 7Sage, Manhattan, LSATHacks, etc.
- Compare your reasoning to explanation videos / group BR to determine your error of reasoning.
- Find what element is missing from your reasoning or what process you are using incorrectly.
- Track errors of reasoning by question type in Excel spreadsheet.
- Find patterns in errors to correct future mistakes.
- Repeat X100. lol.
Please keep adding to the thread if you have other methods that have worked for you!