Getting originally correct questions wrong when BR-ing (+ Reading comp Advice)

abisin1234abisin1234 Alum Member
in General 171 karma
I recently did a preptest (PT 42) and scored within my average score (Which is good!) but usually my BR score is 10 points higher (which is always encouraging) but this time around my BR score was only 5 points higher. When I looked through to see what went wrong, I noticed that a large amount of the questions I had originally gotten correct under exam conditions, I then got wrong through blind review.

-I'm just curious if this is a common occurrence?
-Have I reached a point where I can intuitively tackle questions under timed conditions but when I stop to try to figure things out without time limitations then I over think things? -- If so, I'm not sure how to deal with that (a bit of a gamble to hope that my intuition is sound)


Also, I've noticed my RC sections have consistently been horrible ranging from -13 to -11.
-What are everyone's advice on drilling RC?
-I'm trying to use the memory method but I'm not sure how much annotation I'm allowed to do as I read.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • DallasOnFireDallasOnFire Member
    edited September 2016 249 karma
    Happens all the time. Why, you ask? Because you got lucky the first time. It means you didn't really understand why you picked why you did.

    RC drilling is an interesting beast. I am between -2 to -5 each section so I am far form the expert, but my journey looked something like this:
    1. Establishing a standard technique for approaching and reading RC sections through countless drilling (1-38)
    2. Mastering time management for reading the passage/doing questions (more time spent on the latter)
    3. Understanding that imperfect information for an answer choice is a time-water and should not be considered. 99% of the time the answer is clearly supported and any half-answer or answer that forces you to infer something or subtly assume something is wrong.
    4. Realizing Author's Attitude and Opposition Attitudes are the most important things in figuring out passages.
    5. Drilling again for consistency.
  • AlexAlex Alum Member ⭐
    23929 karma
    @abisin1234

    It happens, not uncommon at all. It is a symptom that you are answering questions too intuitively. Intuition can be great and very helpful, but don't let it trump your understanding of arguments, support, and conditional logic! If you are switching to wrong answers during BR it means you need to review and make sure you understand 100% why each answer is wrong or right. I recommend writing it out. You'd be surprised how different it is when you actually have to write it out rather than just articulate a reason in your mind...

    For RC here is how I got decent at RC (I still have a lot of work to go, but it is a far cry from the -10 on my diagnostic)

    I used a mélange of the memory method & The LSAT Trainer RC method
    I drilled tons of RC passages untimed.
    And after a while I found myself being able to read a sentence/paragraph and say to myself "They are definitely going to ask about that." In short, I began to predict what they would ask because I was beginning to see the patterns.
    I learned that to do well on RC that I needed to read differently than I had been.
    I stopped reading it like I read a novel and read it more like I did when skimming a History textbook. (Looking for the main point) I stopped getting hung up on every word/detail. You can always go back and find a date...
  • LsatbreakingnewsLsatbreakingnews Alum Member
    392 karma
    You're second guessing yourself...obviously you chose the right answer the first time because it caught your attention out of 5 answer choices.
  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27900 karma
    @DallasOnFire said:
    Happens all the time. Why, you ask? Because you got lucky the first time. It means you didn't really understand why you picked why you did.
    This one.
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