Logical Reasoning - Doing Questions Out Of Order

[Dave Killoran]

This morning I received the following question, which I thought would be useful for other readers to see:

Hi Dave,

What do you think about doing LR sections out of order? A common issue for me is fatigue. My 2nd LR section is always worse than my 1st, and 3rd worse than 2nd (the same is true of the other section type that compromises the two experimental sections I do with each test). Within my last LR section, I perform most poorly on the last 5-10 questions. Among these questions, the issue is confined to Difficulty 3&4 questions.I typically have around 10 minutes left to review when I finish an LR section.

Do you think it could be beneficial to start somewhere in the middle of the test? How reliable is the belief that the hardest questions are towards the end? If it's relatively reliable I might be able to benefit from attacking the most difficult questions while still relatively fresh. A lot of the mistakes I make towards the end seem correct at the time and are obviously wrong when I score the test (which I do after a short break).

Thanks,

Thanks for the question! Just so everyone understands the question, the reader is asking whether he should take an LR section and begin with question 10 or 15, work to the end of the section, and then return to the start of the section and complete the remaining questions. This would have to be done on a per section basis, because of course you can't move around from section to section during the LSAT, and must work in only the section currently being administered.

My answer to whether this is a viable approach is No. First, when we analyze the relative difficulty of questions as you progress through the section, the easier questions tend to appear more frequently in the first half of the section (see LSAT Logical Reasoning: Question-by-Question Difficulty and LSAT Logical Reasoning: Individual Question Difficulty for more information on this). Because each question has the same weight (+1 for a correct answer, 0 for a wrong answer) but easier questions tend to take less time, if possible you'd prefer to work through all of the easier questions first. That allows you to build up correct answers and to typically build up extra time for later in the section (which can then be expended on the harder questions). Because question difficulty tends to start jumping up around question 12, if you implement a strategy where you start in the middle, you will on average be facing harder questions first. The effect of that could be to slow you down and not leave you completely confident that you are answering them correctly. Then, by the time you get to the easier questions, you will be running low on time (this is the case for most people, although apparently not for you). That's not an optimal performance pathway, and the better approach is to start at question 1 and move from there.

One consideration is that the questions aren't ordered in exact order from easiest to hardest, so there will be easier questions later in the section just as on occasion there will be harder questions in the first half. So, keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with skipping a questions and returning to it later. Another consideration is that much of the LSAT is psychological, and sometimes making changes to your approach increases your confidence since it feels as if you are taking control of the experience (as opposed to having the LSAT control you). So, if it felt right to you, perhaps you could modify you approach. For example, maybe you complete questions 1-15 in order, then jump to question 20 and complete 20-end, then return back to 16 to then finish the remaining questions. It's a small alteration, but mentally it might have a strong effect. That's just one of several modifications you could make, and you can choose whichever one felt right for you. But at the least, I'd do the first ten questions at the start of the section. They are your bedrock questions and ones you should expect to both get right and to complete relatively quickly.

Missing questions at the end of the section isn't unusual at all. You are usually lower on time (and thus the pressure is higher), and as you can see from the articles I linked, the questions are usually harder at the end. Thus, it's likely those are the factors affecting your performance there, and less so the "freshness" factor. But, if you feel strongly that the freshness element is having a negative effect, then the thing to do is build up your stamina by doing more sections, and practicing with full 5 section or even 6 section "overdriven" LSATs.

One last comment: if you have up to 10 minutes left in the section when you finish, you may be going a touch to fast on those harder questions. Have you thought a bout slowing down slightly once you get past questions 12 or so? That might be a big help in increasing your accuracy.

I hope that helps. Thanks!