How can one hit 170s?

Comments

• 13 Likes

  Gabriel M. Member

  August 2020 42 karma

  Hey! For me, I struggle with LR a lot. A strategy that really helped me was this:
  I would go through LR sections (usually in the early preptests) and only read the stimulus. Read it thoroughly, but read it once. Once you get to that last full stop, you’re done, don’t go back, cover it up. Then do the following:
  1. Explain what you just read (I usually write it down, but you can say it aloud too).
  2. Categorize the type of stimuli (Argument? Premise Set? Debate? Controversy?).
  3. If it’s an argument, what’s the flaw? If it’s a premise set, what’s the inference? If it’s a debate, what’s the point at issue? If it’s a controversy, how can you resolve it?Write that down too! And only look at the argument again once you got all of this down so you can correct what you got wrong.
  DON’T read the answer choices. DON’T try to answer the question after that. Seriously.
  If you do this consistently (I tried to do this at least with one section a day), your memory and analysis will improve, and you’ll be able to read the stimuli quicker and move to the answer choices more sure about what you read and probs already with the inference or flaw in your head! But most importantly, if you do this often, you’ll start to notice patterns. Really. You’ll start to see how formulaic it is.
  It got me from -16 in LR every prep test to ~ -3.
  With RC I don’t really have a lot to say except that the answers are always in the passage.
  I’m taking the test in October too, so good luck to us!
  Hope this helped a bit
• fruitjam Member

  August 2020 70 karma

  Wow thank you so much! That sounds like a great idea. I will practice that method today! ) good luck on your journey!!
• sasha_a7 Member

  August 2020 5 karma

  Hey Gabriel,

  That's great advice! Thanks for sharing that. I am giving that a try now, but I was wondering, how do you check to make sure that you correctly understood the flaw of an argument or correctly made an inference from a set of facts?

  When looking at the explanation videos on 7sage or really any other source, they do not always break down the argument or set of facts, but rather just explain the answer to the question. Do you have any advice on how you make sure you are actually understanding accurately?

  Thanks!
• serenas3 Member

  August 2020 17 karma

  The above strategy is actually from The Loophole by Ellen Cassidy, I highly recommend it!
• 1 Like

  Ozzy Sheikh Member

  August 2020 115 karma

  @sasha_a7 Read every sentence carefully. Examine every word/phrase and make sure you fully understood it before moving on to the next one. It takes some practice, you may take some time to improve but the diligent effort will definitely bring your mental clarity/understanding to a higher level.
• sasha_a7 Member

  August 2020 5 karma

  @"Ozzy Sheikh" Thank you!!