Logical Reasoning Concerns

[ashricht27]

Hello,
I just took two more practice tests, and my scores were consistent. However, when reviewing the questions I answered incorrectly, these questions types differed throughout the logical reasoning section and I am having trouble determining exactly where I am the weakest and what I should work on the most given that there is only a week left. Any suggestions or advice on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much for your time!

Best,
Ashley

[Nicholas Bruno]

Hi Ashley,

I totally understand that concern! I had similar concerns at times when I was preparing for the LSAT.

Its hard for me to give you a concrete answer since I haven't been working with you individually on tests all the way through. The main thing I can say is this: ask yourself *why* did I get this question wrong? A lot of times, you will be able to catch that you are missing something consistent (i.e. missing the word "most" or some quantity term) that affects your performance across the test. But sometimes its just a little thing here and another different little thing here. But just go back and look at each question and try to figure out why you got that wrong and how you can avoid that error on the real exam.

I hope that helps! I am sorry I can't give you a more concrete answer. Good luck on the exam!

Nick

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey Ashley,

Let me add my 2c to Nicholas' excellent post above.

Accuracy is indeed key, and so it is critical to evaluate exactly why you're getting some of these questions wrong. This question is harder than it sounds. There isn't always a consistent correlation between question types and accuracy: as you notice yourself, you are "all over the map" when it comes to what types of questions you're getting wrong. Only the luckiest students can point to, say, Flaw questions and say, "Alright, I'm getting all of these wrong, and the rest of my section is virtually flawless, so I have my work cut out for me." Unfortunately, many (most?) mistakes are not - or at least not only - the result of conceptual misunderstanding of the question type. Rather, they stem from a variety of other factors, such as rushing or misreading the facts and/or the conclusion of the argument, inconsistent prephrasing or no prephrasing at all, pacing issues - forcing you to guess on a large number of questions, etc.

If I were you, I'd take a long hard look at my most recent practice tests and figure out not only what types of questions I'm missing, but also what types of arguments they contain. Maybe you have trouble manipulating causal arguments, or lack the requisite technique to diagram conditional relationships. Maybe you misunderstand arguments employing numerical evidence. If you're running out of time on some of these sections, review not only the questions you got wrong, but also the ones that cost you valuable minutes - even if you got them right. Clearly, your approach was not optimally efficient if a particular Parallel question took 3 minutes to solve.

Ultimately, breaking through a plateau is a difficult task - something you may or may not be able to achieve in a week. If you don't, you need to reconsider whether it's wise to take the test in September, or wait until December. Of course, this is a personal decision that will depend, at least in part, on how far off target you are, how comfortable you are with a (slightly) lower score, and whether or not you can dedicate the time and energy to continue prepping until December.

Check out a few of the most recent posts we've written relevant to some of the issues you raise:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/get-a-g ... -lsat-prep
http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/did-you ... t-practice

If you have specific questions about the PT's you've taken and reviewed, don't hesitate to post them on the forum.

Good luck!