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Accuracy

Daniel2433Daniel2433 Alum Member
in General 138 karma
What are some suggestion on being as accurate as you can be when it comes to LR & RC? Especially when you get down to 2 answer choices? I feel like I don't really know what I'm looking for when I I'm fumbling 2 answer choices in my head.

I'm guessing just read better? But how would you suggest to really get the information in front of you as clear as you can? Paraphrasing gets you the idea but towards the 15ish mark there are pieces of information that you miss when you paraphrase that are essential to the stimulus that are hard to keep in a paraphrase.

Any suggestion that you think could help or that helped for you would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma
    What helped me was implementing a skipping strategy and revising the basics.

    As far as getting down to two answer choices: Try to find why one of them is wrong. Remember that one answer is 100% correct and the four others are 100% wrong.

    Also, try to see what type of questions you are missing and review the lessons on them to see what characteristics wrong answer choices will have.
  • Daniel2433Daniel2433 Alum Member
    edited November 2016 138 karma
    Hey Alex thanks for responding! What do you mean by skipping strategy?

    The question type I miss the most are Flaw questions. I'm currently reading the LSAT trainer since it gives tips on how to understand the reasoning structure of the arguments.

    Do you have suggestions to really understand the flaws? I've memorized the different flaw types but there's times where I can't name them and they're just making an assumption or concluding their argument in an invalid way.
  • Q.E.DQ.E.D Alum Member
    556 karma
    implementing a skipping strategy
    I've been chatty lately, but I want to second this. If for some reason you have a brain fart and a question is holding you up, mark it and come back later. Get good at deciding whether it's gonna work out with a question. Lingering too long can blow your pace and cause unnecessary careless errors, and you'll prob get it wrong anyway. You might even find the answer is obvious on the second pass after you finish the other probs.
  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma
    @dmtavera1 said:
    Hey Alex thanks for responding! What do you mean by skipping strategy?

    The question type I miss the most are Flaw questions. I'm currently reading the LSAT trainer since it gives tips on how to understand the reasoning structure of the arguments.

    Do you have suggestions to really understand the flaws? I've memorized the different flaw types but there's times where I can't name them and they're just making an assumption or concluding their argument in an invalid way.
    No problem!

    So a skipping strategy is just a plan to skip questions on the test (most commonly used on the logical reasoning section). Almost every high scorer I know uses one. I'm sure that sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but it doesn't mean you give up on the question forever; it simply means you come back if you have time at the end.

    This will do a few things:

    First, it will let you get to the "low hanging fruit" or easier questions up ahead. Remember, all points are worth the same on the test. So if you get stuck on #13 you are likely wasting time on a question you're probably going to get wrong anyway and take time away from getting to easier ones. We often forget, but one can score a 180 and still miss 1-2 questions.

    Second, it will allow you tome come back to it with a fresh mindset. When we get stuck on questions it is near impossible to see it from a new perspective, which is most likely exactly what we need to understand it and get it correct. Skipping it and coming back will allow you to approach it with a fresh mindset and increase your chances of getting it correct.

    Here is an entire webinar JY and some of the Sages (170+ scorers) participated in. Check it out!

    https://7sage.com/webinar/skip-it/
    @dmtavera1 said:
    Do you have suggestions to really understand the flaws? I've memorized the different flaw types but there's times where I can't name them and they're just making an assumption or concluding their argument in an invalid way.
    For flaws, I memorized the list JY gave us in the core curriculum and that helped a lot. I am also a fan of The LSAT Trainer and found that to help me too. I think Flaws are one of those question types that you really have to do a lot of to get good at. The LSAC can make them very tricky by sometimes including 2 flaws, one hidden and one obvious flaw, then banking on you falling for the trap... Once you do a good amount of them, you get better.

    So while it is good to memorize the flaws and put a label on the flaw committed, it is just as important to understand the argument and the flaw on a deeper level. Another webinar that helped me immensely was the Flaw webinar led by Sage Jimmy (173). If you're still having trouble with Flaws, check this one out too!

    Good luck :)
  • SherryS1SherryS1 Member
    477 karma
    When stuck between two, I've found it helpful to quickly glance back at the relationship between the conclusion and premises and remind myself of the question type. I don't mean re-read in full - it's more like I just prime myself with what's relevant - maybe 5 sec.

    Often this helps me avoid trap answer choices that don't have direct bearing on the key relationship or helps me flag any questionable shifts in language. Sometimes the other answer choices can also cloud my thinking and this serves as a quick reset.

    If I still don't feel confident, I'll force myself to guess between the two answers, circle the question and come back to it. Looking at the question with "fresh" eyes after running through the rest of the questions is super helpful.
  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27809 karma
    @SherryS1 said:
    Looking at the question with "fresh" eyes after running through the rest of the questions is super helpful.
    This is what usually does it for me in these situations.
  • SprinklesSprinkles Alum Member
    11542 karma
    @Q.E.D said:
    I've been chatty lately
    we like chatty.
  • SprinklesSprinkles Alum Member
    11542 karma
    @SherryS1 said:
    Looking at the question with "fresh" eyes after running through the rest of the questions is super helpful.
    Yup! it's easy to get attached to a question, but your best option is to move on and return to it.
  • loosekanenloosekanen Alum Member
    138 karma
    @dmtavera1 the good news is that, since you are missing flaw questions, these are some of the easiest questions to improve on since they are both so prevalent and so repetitive. I'm struggling with them as well and the best advice for those is to just do a ton of them until you start to recognize the same answers over and over and are able to quickly understand why the wrong answers are wrong.
    Also, be careful of selection bias. You may think that you had it down to the last two but I have found that oftentimes I am struggling between two wrong answers while I had arbitrarily eliminated a better answer by being too strict about wording. This might help as well. If I don't have it relatively confident I don't let myself debate between a 50/50. I skip it and come back and redo the question if I have time. If I don't, at the end I'll just pick one of the two. The extra time wasted isn't going to be worth moving my perception toward a 55% answer over a 45% one.
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