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Getting worse in LR..

JohnJohn Free Trial Member
edited September 2013 in Logical Reasoning 10 karma
I took the June and decided to retake it again this October. Over the first part of my studying after the June test I was feeling really good about my progress. Recently however, my LR scores have been tanking.

I have been Blind Reviewing everything and taking a lot of time to really dig into the questions I get wrong. I also seem to understand most of the arguments and answer choices; on Blind Review usually end up with -1 or -2 and that process had seemed to be really helping me for a while (especially on LG and RC). I am also not pressed for time when taking sections or PT's... I have been getting 6 or 7 wrong regardless of whether I slow down and take almost the whole 35 min or go at a faster pace of around 27 min (or anywhere in-between)

Right now my plan is to go back and redo the LR lessons from the course, as my best scores came right when I had finished all the lessons. I feeling like I have such a good understanding of the test which is why I am kind of at a loss. Any advice or strategies that people have found useful is more than welcomed, thanks (... am I sleeping, eating and at least going outside now and then)

Comments

  • msdaisy16msdaisy16 Free Trial Member
    46 karma
    It sounds as if your doing perfectly fine on your prep tests. Exactly what is the problem because if your only missing 6 or 7 that puts you in the 170 range?
  • JohnJohn Free Trial Member
    10 karma
    -6 per section of LR*, sorry. I would like to work myself into the 170 range. Just wondering if anyone else has stalled/regressed and was able to break through
  • KK Free Trial Member
    edited September 2013 345 karma
    I've gotten from -10 to -12 on LR to -8 :/

    LR is proving to be very difficult to improve. Honestly I think to do well in LR you need to train your brain to be as relaxed as possible. There could be like spiders, snakes, a couple lions, etc. in the room but your brain should be able to ignore them all (180 > bodily harm haha) and focus.

    It is hard to focus though when there's so much pressure!

    Before you take the test, sit and be calm for like 5-10 min. Take some deep breaths. Then go!

  • Eric FuEric Fu Free Trial Member
    73 karma
    I second K's advice: keeping your calm is key. I cannot begin to describe how many times I wanted to do one of these (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻, but told myself to just relax, keep my cool, and just carry on. Now, I know it's easier said than done, but you have got to find your own method of keeping calm. Every second you are spending being frustrated or pissed is a second not spent on the question in front of you.
  • EuripidesFanEuripidesFan Free Trial Member
    83 karma
    You need to go in with a warrior mindset and know for certain that one of the answer choices is definitely correct, the other 4 are wrong, and you don't wanna goof up on a question that will make you wanna smack your own head when you go back to it and realize it was one you could have gotten right.
  • Auran BucklesAuran Buckles Free Trial Member
    34 karma
    I haven't been improving on LR as much as I would like to, but I have found certain things that are helpful.

    Pacing yourself is important. I have the 180 watch that shows me where I should be at which question, but I've realized that distributing the questions evenly doesn't help improve my score. I started only giving myself 1 min per question for the first 7/8 questions, and always leave that flaw/parallel reasoning question for last because it takes up so much time (about 1/3 of the time I don't get to finish it). This has worked for me. I think it's important to know what kind of distribution yields the highest score for you, and that sometimes making smart sacrifices are for the better.

    Another thing I've been doing is doing a set of problems before I take a full-length preptest, about 10-12 questions in 8-10 mins. It has helped me get into an "LR mode". It's an advice I saw on a 175+ scorer's blog. I think I'll be doing the same on test day as well.

    Anyway, good luck to all!
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