how to stop reading rules wrong in LG????

Comments

• Lolo1996 Member

  November 2019 498 karma

  Slow down

  Read it twice

  Read it 3 times

  Take a minute and reread it again and again

  This eats up a minute of your time

  but it is so much better to do this than to read it wrong, F* up a whole game, realize midway you did it wrong, freak out, go back and try to fix it, and out yourself 10 minutes (and then your freaking out and rush through the next game or games and make more careless errors)

  At least this was my experience

  Read every single word

  slowly
• 1 Like

  TheDeterminedC Member

  November 2019 edited November 2019 1025 karma

  So this is exactly what I leaned from a Sage and it helped so much.

  1) I go to half speed reading when going over the rules. The time tradeoff of missing words in a rule is 10x worse than just slowing down in the first place.

  2) Translate each rule to "lawgic" and put a horizontal line to the left of the rule AFTER the translation is finished. Repeat for every rule.

  3) Now start with the first question, which is usually the acceptable situation question. Go back to the first written rule given by LSAC to eliminate an answer choice that violates it AND verify the initial translation was correct.

  4) After using the written rule again for the first question, now put a vertical line by the rule. A cross, which is now formed by the method, means that you have initially translated it and it has then been double checked as being correctly translated.

  Strengths: I like this method because it puts a bit of space in-between the translation and the double-checking. The time distance from the first read to the second is very helpful. Using this method I caught a mistake in one of my translations while on step #3 on my real take. Also, rather than translations being used to check for an answer in the first question (which could be incorrectly translated), the written rules are the source. This removes one layer of a potential mistake.

  Weaknesses: What slips by this method is if one incorrectly reads a rule wrong and then after coming back to it 30-40 seconds later, they read it the same incorrect way. It also adds time. I would say it adds around 30-35 seconds to the section when using this method.
• EveryCookCanGovern Alum Member

  November 2019 401 karma

  I tried numerous things for this. I found that rereading can sometimes create an "obsession" where you find yourself rereading a rule 5..6..7 times. At least for me this was the case. I would advise to read it slowly once and limit yourself to one reread. Sometimes even reading slowly we can misread. When this happens I have a hierarchy I follow to find my mistake, because eventually you will realize there is some incongruity with your set up not matching any answer choice: First, reread the question stem. If the error isn't there, then reread the questions. And if the error isn't there, only then go back to your translations and the question stimulus. This way if the error is just question based you won't waste time looking for the mistake in your setup when it isn't there.