Does "Pre-phrase" = Prediction? And is it actually wise to do so?

Comments

• Accounts Playable Live Sage ⭐

  January 2016 3107 karma

  1.) Yes. A "pre-phase" is what you anticipate the answer to be before you read the answer choices. It is useful to do at least 99% of the time because it solidifies the argument in your brain, and it makes eliminating wrong answer choices easier to do while also giving you a concrete reason to pick an answer choice. During BR or when you are doing the curriculum's problem sets, cover up the answer choices and don't look at them until you have come up with a concrete anticipated answer choice.
  
  2.) Practice. Practice. Practice. And then practice some more. Understand what the common flaw types are on LR and see if you can spot the flaw. For other question types, such as SA questions, think of your own SA that's needed to make the argument valid. Each question type has its own strategy.
  
  3.) It is extremely helpful, and once you are good at it, it saves you a ton of time on LR sections.
• kclubs323 Alum Member Inactive ⭐

  January 2016 275 karma

  (1) Yes, you are essentially predicting the correct answer choice.
  (2) How far along in your prep are you? If you're still in the early stages, I'd spend a lot of time reviewing the core curriculum to at least get your mind thinking in a particular way for each type of question. That way, it facilitates your ability to pre-phrase. Personally, I think my best pre-phrase practice comes from my Blind Review. Because I am spending as much as needed on a particular question, I am allowing myself to think about everything that could be possible, within the constraints of the stimulus and the question stem. And as I do more Blind Reviews, I'm finding it much easier and more intuitive to pre-phrase.
  (3) I think it's extremely helpful and actually necessary in order to score well on the LSAT. It saves time that could be spent on a much harder question.
  
  Hope this helps, best of luck!
• kclubs323 Alum Member Inactive ⭐

  January 2016 275 karma

  Another thing that may help is to memorize the list of flawed methods of reasoning that 7Sage provides.
• LetsHigh5 Alum Member

  January 2016 703 karma

  Thanks for your advice. "Pre-phrasing"/predicting is something I intuitively do anyway. However, I wanted to throw question #3 into the mix anyway, just in case some people might have argued that their intuition had duped them more often than not and that it was better to read the ACs with a "clean mind". It sounds like precisely the opposite is true.
  
  I especially appreciate your comments on BR, too. From everything that I've ever read on "deliberate practice" and how crucial it is to mastery in a given subject, BR seems to be perfectly aligned to that for the LSAT. When I start PT'ing in a few months, that's when the real work begins.
  
  I'm early into my studies (Phase 1, for those following Mike Kim's temporal framework). I've got about two months under my belt and I'm not taking the test until September. Until then, I'll be sloggin' away.
  
  Thanks again!
  
  
  
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  January 2016 8021 karma

  Pre-phrasing is very valuable in many circumstances. However you should not let the perfect become the enemy of the good in this situation by taking too long to try and pre-phrase at the expense of going into the ACs and seeing what is being offered up. Certain question types are very amenable to pre-phrasing (e.g.- MP, AP, SA, Weakening) whereas others may not be (e.g.- NA, MBT, PR, PF).
• allan.kogan Member

  January 2016 64 karma

  It is the key to being able to answering all of the LR sections without having to guess on any due to a time constraint. Especially with Strengthening, Weakening, Flawed methods of reasoning questions. Which by the way take up like 50 percent of the LSAT logical reasoning section. (Including Must Be Trues) I just realized this recently. And you are so much more accurate to especially on sufficient assumption questions pre-phasing is key. Sometimes the stimulus is so convoluted with conditional reasoning, and pre-phashing I have noticed helps cool the nerves because it makes you more confident than having to map out conditional reasoning statements within a minute and twenty four seconds. 7Sage you guys really taught me how to scum this test haha.
• Quick Silver Alum Inactive Sage

  February 2016 1049 karma

  1 has been ansswers so...
  
  2. The standard I like is make as good a prediction(s) as you can -
  A. If a general prediction or elements of what you'd look for is as far as you can take it, great.
  B. Depending on the question, nothing wrong with thinking of as many prediction(S) of possible answer(S)
  
  3. YES it is immensely helpful. Especially for avoiding attractors because you've now got a standard to compare all answers too - AND it forces you to process the question more/think it through which overall is more helpful.
  
  I want to add that it's so important, you need to make it a HABIT. For all 100/101 questions on the LSAT I make predictions for EVERY one of them - that's how helpful I find it :-)
• LetsHigh5 Alum Member

  February 2016 703 karma

  Thanks again for the new and very thorough comments. I'll definitely keep your advice in mind as I move forward in the curriculum and PT'ing in a few months.
• MrSamIam Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2086 karma

  1) Yes, prephrase often refers to predicting what the answer could be prior to reading the answer choices.
  
  2) I hate trying to predict the exact answer. It seems like a waste of time, unless you're doing a SA or MBT question. Instead, try predicting the answer in a broad sense. For example, instead of "The answer is probably chickens clucking 4 times does not cause the moon to set" I would prephrase, "Chickens don't affect the moon." Terrible example, but I think you get the point.
  
  3) Sometimes it is. Other times, it seems like a waste of time. If a potential answer naturally jumps at me (before looking at the answer choices) then I'll use it to prephrase. If not, I'll make sure that I absolutely understand the stimulus, then quickly come up with a potential answer.
  I've noticed that when I go in blind, the wrong answers seem to tempt me more. If I already know what I'm looking for, wrong answers that would have otherwise been tempting, seem silly.
• Nicole Hopkins Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 4344 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  However you should not let the perfect become the enemy of the good in this situation by taking too long to try and pre-phrase at the expense of going into the ACs and seeing what is being offered up. Certain question types are very amenable to pre-phrasing (e.g.- MP, AP, SA, Weakening) whereas others may not be (e.g.- NA, MBT, PR, PF).
  

  Facts