Help with LR drilling

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• 2 Likes

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  June 2017 23929 karma

  @subconsciously said:
  Hello everyone,

  I am in the process of drilling 1-2 LR sections per day from PT's 1-35 and am having some issues. I seem to be going right around 20/25 on most sections and was wondering if anyone could recommend any improvements to my methodology.

  What I usually do is take each section timed and then go back through and read the questions that I circled for BR over again and make any changes that I see fit after spending more time on each question. I then jot down some reasoning for the answer choices that I am struggling between before choosing one. After this I go back through and check my answers, reviewing further any of the ones that I got wrong. As of right now, I am only at PT 14 so I don't have any of the JY explanation videos to reference.

  Also, it seems to me that through the 4 sections of LR that I've done so far (I only just started drilling LR this week), flaw questions seem to be killing me according to the spreadsheet that I'm keeping for drilling LR. I am currently working through the LSAT Trainer while fool proofing games so maybe this will help?

  Any advice would be appreciated!

  Have you finished the 7Sage CC?

  If not, then definitely consider doing that first before burning any more sections. If you have already completed it, always go back and re-watch CC lessons for the things you need to review. IF it's flaws, rewatch the lesson on Flaws. Memorizing the list of common flaws helped me quite a bit as did The LSAT Trainer's section on flaws.

  When you BR, consider using a clean copy instead of the marked up section you circled the answers on. This will ensure that you have an unbiased second look at the question without the distraction of the answer you thought was right. When we do this we risk that subconsciously we may try to defend a wrong answer or perhaps abandon a right answer. Clean copy BR is best!

  Another thing that helped me with LR is writing little maxims or rules for the questions I would get wrong. I wanted to do everything I could to ensure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Sometimes it was as simple as just jotting down "when doing Weaken questions make sure not to attack the support..." It's nice to compile a list of helpful tips/rules for the different question types so you can review them before you take another section/PT.
• 1 Like

  NotMyName Alum Member Sage ⭐

  June 2017 edited June 2017 5320 karma

  @"Alex Divine"

  Another thing that helped me with LR is writing little maxims or rules for the questions I would get wrong. I wanted to do everything I could to ensure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Sometimes it was as simple as just jotting down "when doing Weaken questions make sure not to attack the support..." It's nice to compile a list of helpful tips/rules for the different question types so you can review them before you take another section/PT.

  I can't express my enthusiastic agreement for creating maxims enough. The LSAT has a relatively small playbook of "tricks" that they make the most of by combining them in various ways. That means our weaknesses are typically less than I think we generally imagine -- it's just that we can miss several questions all due to a single weakness. Writing these mistakes/weaknesses down in a concise format makes improvement easier by cutting away at the "bigness" of it. Instead of "I need to get better at LR" we can say "I need watch out for meaning shifts, memorize flaw types, and improve my lawgic translations".
• 2 Likes

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  June 2017 23929 karma

  @jkatz1488 said:
  @"Alex Divine"

  Another thing that helped me with LR is writing little maxims or rules for the questions I would get wrong. I wanted to do everything I could to ensure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Sometimes it was as simple as just jotting down "when doing Weaken questions make sure not to attack the support..." It's nice to compile a list of helpful tips/rules for the different question types so you can review them before you take another section/PT.

  I can't express my enthusiastic agreement for creating maxims enough. The LSAT has a relatively small playbook of "tricks" that they make the most of by combining them in various ways. That means our weaknesses are typically less than I think we generally imagine -- it's just that we can miss several questions all due to a single weakness. Writing these mistakes/weaknesses down in a concise format makes improvement easier by cutting away at the "bigness" of it. Instead of "I need to get better at LR" we can say "I need watch out for meaning shifts, memorize flaw types, and improve my lawgic translations".

  Exactly! It took me a few months of prep, but I realized that you are 100% correct. There are only a number of tricks they have up their sleeves. Once you start eliminating specific weaknesses/issues you have the ability to improve almost exponentially because many of the tricks are repeated and combined.
• jack.igoe Member

  June 2017 544 karma

  @"Alex Divine" said:

  @jkatz1488 said:
  @"Alex Divine"

  Another thing that helped me with LR is writing little maxims or rules for the questions I would get wrong. I wanted to do everything I could to ensure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Sometimes it was as simple as just jotting down "when doing Weaken questions make sure not to attack the support..." It's nice to compile a list of helpful tips/rules for the different question types so you can review them before you take another section/PT.

  I can't express my enthusiastic agreement for creating maxims enough. The LSAT has a relatively small playbook of "tricks" that they make the most of by combining them in various ways. That means our weaknesses are typically less than I think we generally imagine -- it's just that we can miss several questions all due to a single weakness. Writing these mistakes/weaknesses down in a concise format makes improvement easier by cutting away at the "bigness" of it. Instead of "I need to get better at LR" we can say "I need watch out for meaning shifts, memorize flaw types, and improve my lawgic translations".

  Exactly! It took me a few months of prep, but I realized that you are 100% correct. There are only a number of tricks they have up their sleeves. Once you start eliminating specific weaknesses/issues you have the ability to improve almost exponentially because many of the tricks are repeated and combined.

  Thanks guys! I will for sure start using the clean copy BR method. I never thought of that implicit bias or writing out explanations for each of the AC's whether or not they were crossed out. Will definitely start doing this while I drill.

  I finished the CC about a month ago and have started to focus on fool proofing LG. I'm doing LR in order to keep up to speed with those skills.
• 2 Likes

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  June 2017 23929 karma

  @jackigoe said:

  @"Alex Divine" said:

  @jkatz1488 said:
  @"Alex Divine"

  Another thing that helped me with LR is writing little maxims or rules for the questions I would get wrong. I wanted to do everything I could to ensure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Sometimes it was as simple as just jotting down "when doing Weaken questions make sure not to attack the support..." It's nice to compile a list of helpful tips/rules for the different question types so you can review them before you take another section/PT.

  I can't express my enthusiastic agreement for creating maxims enough. The LSAT has a relatively small playbook of "tricks" that they make the most of by combining them in various ways. That means our weaknesses are typically less than I think we generally imagine -- it's just that we can miss several questions all due to a single weakness. Writing these mistakes/weaknesses down in a concise format makes improvement easier by cutting away at the "bigness" of it. Instead of "I need to get better at LR" we can say "I need watch out for meaning shifts, memorize flaw types, and improve my lawgic translations".

  Exactly! It took me a few months of prep, but I realized that you are 100% correct. There are only a number of tricks they have up their sleeves. Once you start eliminating specific weaknesses/issues you have the ability to improve almost exponentially because many of the tricks are repeated and combined.

  Thanks guys! I will for sure start using the clean copy BR method. I never thought of that implicit bias or writing out explanations for each of the AC's whether or not they were crossed out. Will definitely start doing this while I drill.

  I finished the CC about a month ago and have started to focus on fool proofing LG. I'm doing LR in order to keep up to speed with those skills.

  Awesome! Yeah, I think Nicole Hopkins an old mentor/Sage who is now in law school invented the clean copy method while she was prepping. I know it has certainly helped me quite a bit.

  And good idea to keep working on other sections while fool proofing. I've noticed that after even 3 or 4 days without seeing any LR my skills starts to atrophy and my pace is much slower.