For those who go 0 to -2 per LR section, do you understand everything in the stimulus?

Comments

• 1 Like

  Seeking Perfection Alum Member

  July 2017 4428 karma

  I'm naturally a fairly fast reader, but on the logical reasoning section I always read everything (although it takes less time to read the question stem than the rest since they are all similar to past stems).

  I think there is probably less text to read on the LR section than the reading comprehension section so I doubt that the time spent reading is your major problem if you can complete the reading comprehension, but not the logical reasoning.

  Rather it is probably your time spent thinking (or outlining if you are still doing much of that). The only way to really speed the thinking up is to get used to seeing the underlying logic of the stimuli intuitively. This saves you time on the thinking and lets you sort through the answer choices quicker for the answer you expect which might save you some time finding the right choice or elliminating the wrong ones.

  I usually miss 0-2 questions on the LR section and generally have 5 or so minutes to go back and check any that I was slightly uncertain of or if I am fully confident check to make sure I didn't make a bubbling mistake.

  On the other hand, I usually finish the reading comprehension section with hardly any time to spare and often have to consciously rush through some questions I would rather spend more time on.
• 1 Like

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  July 2017 23929 karma

  @lsnnnnn0011 said:
  I understand that a key to master the LR section is to focus only on the core of the stimulus as a stimulus usually consists of unimportant details and fluffs (especially stimuli in the recent tests are denser than those in the old ones). But do you guys ever skim when the stimulus is very long and dense? Or do you just decide to focus on certain parts of the stimulus (the core) AFTER reading/understanding everything said in the stimulus?

  Thanks!!!

  I tend to miss about -3/-4 so take my post with a grain of salt.

  I do not ever "skim" but I do zero in on the argument core and make sure I 100% understand what the argument being made is and what the support for that conclusion/argument is. And, yeah, depending on the question type, that core is all you're going to need to focus on anyway, while ignoring and weeding through the excess verbiage (context sometimes does matter, though)
• 1 Like

  dantlee14 Free Trial Member

  July 2017 617 karma

  I always read the full stimulus, underline/bracket the main conclusion (I write the letter "C" next to it), then go into the answer choices. Make sure you read every answer choice, too. Way too many trap answers are placed right before the real answer to risk skipping answer choices, even when you're 99% confident.
• 3 Likes

  Jonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐

  July 2017 6869 karma

  How can you tell what's important and what's not in an argument without reading and understanding the whole thing first?
• dantlee14 Free Trial Member

  July 2017 617 karma

  @"Jonathan Wang" said:
  How can you tell what's important and what's not in an argument without reading and understanding the whole thing first?

  map h4x that's how
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  July 2017 23929 karma

  @dantlee14 said:

  @"Jonathan Wang" said:
  How can you tell what's important and what's not in an argument without reading and understanding the whole thing first?

  map h4x that's how

  LMAO!!!

  Still, good point.
• lsnnnnn0011 Alum Member

  July 2017 227 karma

  Thanks everyone for wonderful insights!!!!
• amedley88 Alum Member

  July 2017 378 karma

  @"Alex Divine" said:

  @lsnnnnn0011 said:
  I understand that a key to master the LR section is to focus only on the core of the stimulus as a stimulus usually consists of unimportant details and fluffs (especially stimuli in the recent tests are denser than those in the old ones). But do you guys ever skim when the stimulus is very long and dense? Or do you just decide to focus on certain parts of the stimulus (the core) AFTER reading/understanding everything said in the stimulus?

  Thanks!!!

  I tend to miss about -3/-4 so take my post with a grain of salt.

  I do not ever "skim" but I do zero in on the argument core and make sure I 100% understand what the argument being made is and what the support for that conclusion/argument is. And, yeah, depending on the question type, that core is all you're going to need to focus on anyway, while ignoring and weeding through the excess verbiage (context sometimes does matter, though)

  This... Also, once you become very familiar with the basics in the CC (i.e. identifying main / sub-conclusions and their supporting premises, identifying all the LR question types, knowing your conditional logic and being able to quickly identify the 19 types of flawed arguments) it will be easier for you to eliminate blatantly wrong answer choices (just as important as finding the right one) and be able to come to the right answer even if you are not 100% certain what is being said.
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  July 2017 23929 karma

  @amedley88 said:

  @"Alex Divine" said:

  @lsnnnnn0011 said:
  I understand that a key to master the LR section is to focus only on the core of the stimulus as a stimulus usually consists of unimportant details and fluffs (especially stimuli in the recent tests are denser than those in the old ones). But do you guys ever skim when the stimulus is very long and dense? Or do you just decide to focus on certain parts of the stimulus (the core) AFTER reading/understanding everything said in the stimulus?

  Thanks!!!

  I tend to miss about -3/-4 so take my post with a grain of salt.

  I do not ever "skim" but I do zero in on the argument core and make sure I 100% understand what the argument being made is and what the support for that conclusion/argument is. And, yeah, depending on the question type, that core is all you're going to need to focus on anyway, while ignoring and weeding through the excess verbiage (context sometimes does matter, though)

  This... Also, once you become very familiar with the basics in the CC (i.e. identifying main / sub-conclusions and their supporting premises, identifying all the LR question types, knowing your conditional logic and being able to quickly identify the 19 types of flawed arguments) it will be easier for you to eliminate blatantly wrong answer choices (just as important as finding the right one) and be able to come to the right answer even if you are not 100% certain what is being said.

  Yes, absolutely once you get through the LR fundamentals in the CC you will feel like a new person attacking these questions.