Logical Reasoning Answer Choices

[FIDELIO]

I am struggling with my timing on LR though I have gotten MUCH better these last 3 months.

For the first 10 questions in a LR section I typically get 100% or miss only 1 or so.

The 10 to 15 question mark is the most difficult for me and then it becomes easier (I miss one or two probs here).

Right now I'm only getting through 18 questions or so and I'm having to guess D for all the last 5 or 7.

Out of those 18 questions that I have time to answer, I generally only miss only 2 or 3.

One of my main problems is that I read like a scientist (my major) and occasionally have to reread to find the conclusion and premises. Essentially I get most of the questions right because I compare all answer choices to the argument core and if there's no relation they are gone.

I study 6 to 7 hours per day (I quit my job and take 1 afternoon and the following day off per week) and I really don't see myself getting over the occasional time consuming re-reading. Call if what you want (obsessive, perfectionist, dyslexia, ect.) , but it is what it is...

I am wondering if I should speed up my time by cutting back on reading through all the answer choices, especially if I find a REALLY REALLY good one?

I feel like there's easy points to be had at the end of the test that I'm missing out on.

FIDELIO

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Fidelio,

I think one way to save time might be to focus on pre-phrasing when possible; if you can identify what you're looking for in an answer before even looking at the answer choices, getting through them all should be a breeze. Unfortunately, in the LSAT world it is always possible that there is a BETTER answer or that you're missing something, even when one answer seems very tempting, so generally I'd encourage reading through all your options, at least briefly. Certainly, though, it doesn't hurt anything to take a couple of practice tests with the strategy you suggested, and see how it impacts your score!

Overall, the best way to save time will generally be quickly identifying the question type and applying the approach for that question type early on, which can cut down on some of the re-reading time. A lot of that just comes from practice, which it sounds like you are doing plenty of!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi Fidelio,

Let me add to Emily's excellent suggestion above: prephrasing is indeed key. So is active reading. If you find yourself reading the stimulus more than once, to me this suggests you aren't reading "actively," that is, you aren't focusing on what actually matters: identify the conclusion, find the supporting evidence for it, and think about how the evidence relates to the conclusion. Structure matters a lot, but you shouldn't have to revisit the argument to deconstruct it: both processes (reading as well as comprehension) should happen simultaneously! A good way to gauge if you're reading actively is to measure your reaction to the argument: did you like it? hate it? find it partially persuasive? Or did you have no idea where the author was going with it?

You see, I'm a very slow reader... probably a lot slower than you are. But I almost never read an argument twice, which is why I am able to complete my LR section with 5 mins to spare. I read slowly, but once. Once I've thoroughly understood the argument and made a reasonable prephrase to the question, it's easy sailing. Of course, my prephrase does not always reflect the correct answer choice verbatim, but at least it helps establish a range of possibly correct answers. That's all prephrasing is: a "net" or a "filter" that you can use to separate the contenders from your losers.

So, my one word of advice would be to slow down! You may find that, paradoxically, it helps you speed up.

Good luck!