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Logical Reasoning

emilycyoung1emilycyoung1 Free Trial Member
in General 234 karma
I used to be great at LR getting anywhere from 3-4 questions wrong per section. Now I have actually been getting worse at it and improved drastically in logic games. Has this happened to anyone and is there any advice you can give on how to study and improve? I have been doing BR but sometimes it just ends up making me second guess my answers, is it sometimes ok to do BR by knowing which questions you go wrong but not the answers? Assumption questions are definitely the hardest questions for me.
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  • leejayleeleejaylee Alum Member
    edited July 2016 218 karma
    LR is a tricky little guy. Don't be so caught up on your mistakes. We are human after all.

    For me, when I get LR questions incorrect, it's heavily due to not understanding the stimulus correctly or misinterpreting part of the stimulus. Both of these are mainly due to me not concentrating and focusing. Don't lose your focus in LR. LR is full with tricky answer choices.

    Be confident in your answer choices. If you are down to two answer choices, during BR, think of why each one could be wrong or right. You don't have any time limit. Get yourself some night-vision goggles (this is a joke), and rip apart the stimulus inside out.

    I don't think it's bad to BR by going through the questions you got wrong (but then again this isn't pure BR anymore haha) . Just don't cheat yourself, saying things like, "oh this must be right because the answer choice says so". Sometimes there will be questions where I confidently choose an answer choice (even after BR). After looking at the answer, I realize I got too ahead of myself, and didn't read the other answer choices clearly.

    Assumption questions are definitely up there in the "hard" category for the LSAT. Be able to differentiate NA vs. SA question types. Once you got that down, remember what J.Y. tells you about these. You're basically finding a missing premise that supports your conclusion.

    For NA, that answer choice MUST BE TRUE to make the argument VALID (hence negation tests), the missing premise is usually subtle.
    For SA, that answer choice CAN BE TRUE to make the argument VERY STRONG to the point that it could be valid (The missing premise is strong).

    The hardest assumption questions are where in a NA question, a SA answer choice is available. That's when you need to be able to differentiate between a premise that is NEEDED/REQUIRED vs. a premise that is TOO STRONG/NOT TRUE FOR ALL CASES.

  • stepharizonastepharizona Alum Member
    3197 karma
    @emilycyoung1 said:
    I have been doing BR but sometimes it just ends up making me second guess my answers, is it sometimes ok to do BR by knowing which questions you go wrong but not the answers?
    No. Don't look at the answers to know which ones you missed. You are only short changing your self and an important learning opportunity. You need to really dig in and as @"Nicole Hopkins" said in her office hours write out (and in full sentences) why you thought the wrong answers were wrong and the right answers were right, You might second guess yourself in BR, but if you can convince yourself to move from a right answer to a wrong answer, that shows you what traps you might fall for as well as a potential lack in understanding.

    BR is crucial to the development of your skills.

    As a total cheater of the system for a long time I would check answers in the app just to know how many I got wrong, (but wouldn't know which ones), but my focus was on the WRONG thing. The score doesn't matter, your understanding of each question does. Now I have to make up for all of that. It didn't seem like cheating at the time, but it totally was.

    BRing properly can take a LOT of time, BUT you can learn as much if not more from it than taking a test. It is where you form your strategies.
  • MrSamIamMrSamIam Inactive ⭐
    2086 karma
    Can I assume that this sudden switch from being a LR boss to an LG boss and slightly weaker in LR is because you focused much of your attention on LG while also ignoring LR?
    If that's the case, go back and drill the problem sets (especially NA/SA since you're having trouble with them). Once you feel comfortable with each and every problem type, drill an entire LR section.
  • blah170blahblah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐
    3545 karma
    I have been doing BR but sometimes it just ends up making me second guess my answers,
    This is exactly what BR is supposed to test. If you're shaky, that means your reasoning is unsound in some way.
    Is it sometimes ok to do BR by knowing which questions you go wrong but not the answers?
    No. You've already eliminated 1 answer choice, which is evidence of the answer choice that is most likely going to trip you up on the real test.
    Assumption questions are definitely the hardest questions for me.
    It's great that you know this. Now go drill those problem sets!

    Also, what affects LR is different for everyone. For @leejaylee, he misses LR questions because he misinterprets the stimulus. I miss LR questions because I misinterpret an answer choice and improperly assume what the role of the answer choice is doing in strengthening/weakening an argument. You need to figure out where your mistakes are coming from and be flexible in your assessments/studying. For example, my trend for missing arguments went something like this:
    1) Missed by argument type
    2) Missed by argument structure in the stimulus
    3) Missing by answer choices.

    At each stage, I had to do something new to overcome those weaknesses.
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