General Tips for LR Sections

[nkaminski306]

Hello,

I have been studying for the LSAT for approximately three months (I work full time as an engineer) and while I have made significant progress in all of the different sections I really need to improve on my logical reasoning scores. In timed preptests I score acceptably on the reading comprehension and logic games sections however I consistently get 8-10 wrong in the LR sections and as a result score in the 153 range which is below my goal.

I've read through all three of the powerscore bibles followed by the powerscore workbooks. Upon analyzing my preptest results and which questions I scored incorrectly on there doesn't appear to be any particular question type that is causing issues.

Any studying tips, recommendations or guidance in general would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance.

Nick

[Clay Cooper]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your question, it is a good one.

Here is the advice I can offer, based on my experience. Since your LR score is lagging behind your other two sections, that would seem to indicate that your reading skills are not to blame. I would focus instead on the following fundamental skills:

-Correctly identifying, every time, the conclusion (when there is a conclusion present). This is the single most important basic skill in LR; students who cannot consistently identify the conclusion are essentially wasting time practicing any other part of their LR approach. Moreover, as your accuracy at doing so increases, your score will correspondingly increase.

-Correctly identifying, every time, the question type. Our entire methodology is based upon specific attack techniques for specific question types, so knowing which question type you are facing is the sine qua non of LR - especially for improving from the level at which you are currently scoring. Getting better at this will require diligent practice and carefully checking your understanding of the question type against the book's listing for the question type.

-Increasing your understanding, skill, and comfort with conditional reasoning. Conditional reasoning is probably the single most important new and unfamiliar concept for most test-takers, and it really gets much easier with time and practice. Again, though, it is important that we practice it correctly; practicing it incorrectly (by not carefully checking our understanding against the book's) will only reinforce bad habits and is often the reason that students come to think of conditional reasoning as an impossibly difficult concept.

I think if you master these, your score will go up. I am very confident about that.

Keep working hard! I hope this helps.