Struggling to Choose the Right Answer Between Two Choices in LSAT Logical Reasoning

[dwelldrain]

Hi everyone,

I’ve made steady progress in the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT, but I’m still encountering a frustrating pattern: when it comes down to two answer choices, I often pick the wrong one. This happened several times on PrepTest 85—specifically on questions 9, 13, 18, 19, and 22—where I narrowed it down correctly but failed to select the right answer.

I’ve noticed that I tend to struggle most with weaken, strengthen, and flaw questions. It feels like I either overthink the answer choices or second-guess myself out of the correct one. I’m looking to develop a more consistent and confident method for distinguishing between tempting wrong answers and the correct one.

Does anyone have advice, strategies, or techniques that helped them make better decisions when stuck between two close options? I’d really appreciate insights into improving my accuracy in these scenarios.

Thanks in advance!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi dwelldrain,

First, you are not alone. This is a very common scenario that many students find themselves in.

Fortunately, we have an entire podcast episode that covers this topic. It is episode 66 of The PowerScore LSAT Podcast and can be found here:

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/lsat-p ... t-answers/

In addition to checking that episode out, I'd also encourage you to read the specific explanations on this forum for those questions that you listed if you haven't already done so.

Another point worth mentioning that good prephrasing (trying to formulate an answer before looking at the answer choices) can help reduce this situation as you hopefully will be less likely to be tempted by the wrong (but still attractive answer) if you already have worked out what you're looking for in the correct answer.

One last point that I always try to remind students who mention having this problem is that many students only focus on the questions that they missed when they were down to two answers and forget to notice the times when they actually got the correct answer in those situations, which can sometimes lead students to feel like they miss these questions far more than they actually do.