Harder LR Questions

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  Matt Sorr Alum Member ⭐

  August 2023 edited August 2023 2245 karma

  Since you're still struggling with the questions in review when you're not timing yourself, it sounds like difficulty may be the only factor affecting your performance, aside from any possible mental block or anxiety you may have with the last few questions.

  Assuming difficulty is the main concern, I've found a few things have really helped me with improving on tougher questions.

  First, I force myself to have a strong grasp on the question's stimulus before looking at the answer choices. Often, tougher questions are tough purely because the answer choices are worded in confusing or abstract ways that prey on you not fully grasping the stimulus. If you proceed to the answer choices before you're confident that you understand the stimulus, they'll typically only increase your confusion. In practice, this usually looks like me reading the stimulus slowly, often re-reading sentences multiple times, and sometimes re-reading the entire stimulus once or twice before going into the answer choices. I'll happily spend 1-1.5 minutes on a denser stimulus if it means I fully grasp what it's saying, as it often makes navigating the answer choices feel much more like you feel on easier questions.

  Second, I look for every reason possible to eliminate answer choices. For example, sometimes with tougher questions, wrong answer choices are wrong purely because of one word. The word may be inaccurate, too strong, or too weak, but it won't characterize something in the argument correctly. This method causes me to sometimes arrive at the right answer on harder questions through eliminating the four wrong answers and being unable to find an issue with the correct answer. While I don't always feel 100% comfortable with the answer I select, this method helps to increase accuracy.

  Third, I thoroughly review how JY reads and understands the stimulus of any questions I missed or struggled with. Often when listening to his commentary, I'll realize I misunderstood something in the stimulus or didn't consider some possibilities. This helps you not make the same mistake on similar stimuli in the future and, after watching his thought process repeatedly, helps you to approach stimuli more tactfully.

  Last, I look for how JY justifies or dismisses answer choices. A wrong answer choice for one question often commits a similar error to a wrong answer choice for another question. Conversely, a correct answer choice may answer the question in a subtle way that is similar to a correct answer choice in another question. Studying why an answer choice is right or wrong will help you identify similar answer choices in the future.

  This list is by no means exhaustive, but it's just some of the main things I've found helpful. I hope this helps you a bit!
• AlexLSAT. Alum Member

  August 2023 edited August 2023 802 karma

  Matt Sorr's answer was spot on! It is also worth noting that a huge reason for people struggling towards the end of the section is that they aren't spending enough time on these harder questions. It's common for people to get to the end of the section with not enough time left. I try to take a minute per question up until the last 10 so that I have a longer amount of time to spend. Do not be afraid to spend a lot of time on curvebreakers, and also work on your speed in the easier part of the section so that you can have that time to spend.
• ivenoci799 Alum Member

  August 2023 6 karma

  Even if you aim for a 180, you have to use a good time strategy. That means skip hard questions and only go back to finish them once you have gone through the whole section. Struggling with a single hard question not only wastes time on this particular one, but also leaves you burdens of pressure since later questions are allocated with time. You will panic when you see the timer digit drops down sec by sec, and you thus perform ill.
  It is one thing to know the strategy, and one thing to apply the skill. I myself had the same problem (as a non-native speaker). Just let it go. You will improve eventually.
  It is also a good practice to give each question only 1 min until you reach the last 10 question. The last 10 questions will be left with around 15 mins, or even more. Just the same as AlexgLSAT suggested.