Super Desperate situation #2, going over troubling Qs.

[lathlee]

Dear admins,

This is another huge dilemma i am currently going through which I don't know how to overcome: It is advised to go over the questions that took too long of time to get it right or got incorrect in first place.

I am a competitive person and hates losing: At night, I would like to go over the scenarios where I didn't do well and get pissed off; I also have pretty good personal memory.

So therefore if I go over the questions I got wrong or too long even after month later, many of them (But not all)I remember what is the correct answer after just reading Question stem and questions. Another interesting aspect is the memory helps me by helping me remember why I got incorrect last times and Some of them i actually used the logic bible techniques to got it correct but some of them I just got it correct by the reattempts through the sheer power of remembering. which I don't think it will help me on my skill improvement.

What should I do?

[Jon Denning]

Hey lathlee - to me it sounds like you may be focusing on the wrong aspect of review here, where you're worried about performance when you need to concentrate of process. I'll explain.

Knowing that the correct answer is A or B or whatever might make your success when re-answering that question suspect, but getting questions right on your second or third attempt (after having checked your answers following attempt #1) isn't the point. The goal of redoing questions once you know which answer is right and which are wrong is to understand WHY they're right and wrong! You need to comprehend the mechanics of the question, the underlying reasoning the test makers are using to justify selecting the correct answer and eliminating the rest.

So if I'm reviewing a question and I know (C) is right, then picking (C) from memory is obviously no great accomplishment. But I don't care about that. Instead I want to make sure I can explain why (C) is right—what should I have recognized on my first attempt that would allow me to select this answer?—and why the other four are to be avoided—literally what reasons would LSAC give to show that (A), and (B) etc all fail the assigned task? That's the purpose of review.

Don't use it as a test of your ability to answer the questions then. Rather imagine you're going to explain that question and its answers to someone else, and think about the reasons you would offer for choosing the right answer and removing the others. If you can see those reasons clearly then the next time you encounter a brand new but similar situation you'll be far better at attacking it!

I hope that helps!