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• 3 Likes

  lsathopeful Alum Member

  December 2014 edited December 2014 268 karma

  Try it out both ways.
  
  No matter what anyone says, at the end of the day, do what works best for you.
  
  Personally, I find that each question type has a different strategy, and if I take the time to look at the question stem before reading the stimulus, I'll know exactly how to approach that specific question.
  
  It makes me more efficient, so for me it is definitely critical.
• 3 Likes

  turnercm Alum Member ⏰ 🍌

  December 2014 770 karma

  I always read the question stem first.
  
  If I read the stimulus first, there is the guarantee that once I read the question stem, I'll HAVE to re-read the stimulus. If I read the question stem first, I most likely will know what I'm looking for and won't have to read it again. It has saved me a lot of time.
• 1 Like

  harrismegan Member

  December 2014 2074 karma

  I always read the Question stem first. Then I know what "path" to go down.... either find the conclusion/premise, or piece together the information for an inference.
• 2 Likes

  alexroark5 Alum Member Inactive ⭐

  December 2014 edited December 2014 812 karma

  Here is some correspondence between a Manhattan Tutor and I on TLS that might be helpful. I had the same exact question you do.
  
  Hi Christine,
  
  I just wanted to ask your opinion on this matter. I have been through both the Manhattan LR book as well as the Powerscore LR Bible. While there are a lot of similarities in the material of both, one important way that your two companies disagree is in whether or not to read the question stem first.
  
  I know that Manhattan recommends to read the stem first in order to employ the appropriate strategies in attacking a particular question type.
  
  I am wondering however, how the writers of Manhattan would respond to Powerscore's objection that reading the stem first requires the test taker to juggle too many ideas at once in their head making their job of understanding the stimulus more challenging (especially on more complex stimuli). Do you think this is a legitimate concern that Powerscore is raising with regards to the strategy of reading the stem first?
  
  Thank you for your time!
  
  Warm Regards,
  
  Alex
  
  
  Alex!
  
  So sorry for my delay in responding to you. This week has been wildly busy!
  
  My short answer is that I vehemently disagree with the underlying assumptions in that particular objection. So, here's the thing - one doesn't read the question stem in order to determine a grand and complex operating strategy. Instead, you read to determine more generally whether a question is an Inference question or an Assumption-family question.
  
  That completely changes my mindset in how I read, and I would be mentally holding my breath without that information. I want to know, before I begin, if I'm supposed to be skeptical of this idiot author, or completely accepting of this factual information. These two are such wildly different mental states that without knowing which one I'm in, I'd be hamstrung in processing the information from the jump. I'd have to just hang on to it, and then *reanalyze it* when I finally hit the stem.
  
  The stem, therefore, is not some random, additional piece of information to "juggle", but rather a clear cut instruction on the WAY that I am supposed to read the stimulus. If I don't know *how* to be reading the stimulus, I'll just have to do it again once I figure out what my job is supposed to be.
  
  If I'm in an assumption-family question, I'm hunting for the premise-->conclusion core right from the jump, and already assessing the gaps as I read. But for inference questions, I'm just taking in the information as true, and not hunting for a premise and conclusion that generally aren't there.
  
  So, again, rather than complicating the task of reading, I believe the stem information clarifies the task, right from the beginning.
  
  What are your thoughts?
  
  ~Christine
• lsathopeful Alum Member

  December 2014 268 karma

  Great post @alexroark5. Thanks for sharing!