Down to 2

[Cking14]

On many answer choices, I get down to 2. Almost every time I end up picking the wrong one! How can I keep from doing this? Is there something specific I should be looking for when I get down to 2? It brings my score down about 12 points or so, just because I picked the wrong one of the 2. It's so frustrating!! Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Chris

[David Boyle]

On many answer choices, I get down to 2. Almost every time I end up picking the wrong one! How can I keep from doing this? Is there something specific I should be looking for when I get down to 2? It brings my score down about 12 points or so, just because I picked the wrong one of the 2. It's so frustrating!! Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Chris

Hello,

Yes, LSAC often has two "contenders" (sometimes three), two answers which both look kind of good on first view. This is so students will be frustrated and get the wrong answer a lot of the time.
As for choosing between two contenders, there is no magic solution. A lot of PowerScore's courses and material are about how to pick the better of the two answers, so feel free to review all the theory. Practice tests are also valuable.
Keep persisting and don't panic. Everyone else is in the same boat as you. Try to read the stimulus very carefully, and find the answer which most closely answers the logic and language in the stimulus. Good luck!

David

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey Chris,

Let me add my 2c to this topic.

Basically, there are two lessons to be learned from this: first, you probably aren't prephrasing your answers, which is precisely why you find cleverly designed wrong answer choices to be attractive. Second, you probably aren't using the strategies you learned for tackling specific question types (e.g. Fact Test, Assumption Negation Technique, Justify Formula, etc.). These are bullet-proof methods for distinguishing the contenders from the losers. Over time, our hope is that you wouldn't even have to "think" about which method to apply: the strategies you learn should become part of your instinctive response to the question at hand.

Hope you find the blog useful!

Thanks,

[Jon Denning]

And I'll throw my hat in the ring too, albeit briefly

I talk all the time about the idea of seeking to eliminate answers rather than select one, and that's particularly crucial on the harder questions (those later in an LR section). The reason why is that the test makers are masterful at disguising right answers in a way that makes their "right-ness" less obvious and difficult to spot. But if you approach the choices from the perspective of finding four wrong answers—essentially comparing the options in terms of which is worse, instead of which is better—then you can worry less about the single option that's correct but hidden, and more about the issues that plague the four incorrect choices and allow them to be dismissed.

I work through LR with a kind of focused malice towards to answers, literally hating each choice and trying to find a reason to justify that hate, and only letting options linger as contenders when answers have changed my mind and persuaded me to tolerate them. What happens as a result is that I tend to work through the harder questions by process of elimination, instead of optimistically trying to make answers work. The odds that (A) (or any other) is correct are tiny, just 20%, so why expect it to work out? Treat it as wrong until it forces you to reconsider.

The same holds true as you narrow it down to two: stop trying to decide which is "better," and instead determine which is worse. If you had to get rid of one, which would it be? That subtle shift in how you compare choices can make a world of difference, and I think you'll find it dramatically improves your accuracy in the situation you've described!

I hope that helps!

Jon