Question stem exam techniques

[elbism]

Happy Easter everyone!

LSAT-ers never sleep (corny I know). Anyway, in reading the powerscore LR book, I noticed that it was advised not to read the q stem before the stimulus for several reasons, most of which I understand and agree with.

However, you know those 'careless readers' that you speak so profusely and explicitly of throughout the book? You know, the LSAT suicidals? Yeah. I'm her. I've trained myself to read the stimulus with great care and attention, (the answer choices too) however i've noticed that 90% of the time that I've gotten the question wrong, it's because I didn't read the question stem carefully.

So this is my idea, I was thinking that on the exam day I may first rush through all the question stems one by one and mark them in big initials eg MBT, JTP, etc.

To me, this makes sense and will ensure no q stem related hiccups but i'm sure for some reason this is going to be an awful idea and perhaps time consuming, so can you let me know if in your professional opinion(s) this would be a good idea. Also keeping in mind that the rule that applies to the 'general' population may at times need to be altered for careless readers who rush through their work.

PS 'just read the question stem carefully' is not the response i'm looking for, lol.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Elbism,

Thanks for the question and Happy Easter! I've said elsewhere on this forum that you have to take the approach that works best for you, so if a strategy happens to work for you and can raise your score, then by all means I suggest you use it

That said, it's clear that in this case you know what the problem is—reading the question stem closely—but that knowing that issue isn't resolving the problem. So, there's no harm in taking a different approach for a while and seeing if that makes you more comfortable. I would alter your approach slightly, though: instead of initially classifying all the question stems, do them in sets of 5. Meaning, classify 5 questions stems, and then solve those 5 problems, then move on to the next set of 5. This breaks up the classifying and the solving into manageable groups, reduces time pressure at the start of the section, and even might save some time if you don't compete all of the questions.

Would I recommend this approach for all students? No. Reading the stimulus first is definitely the best approach for the majority of students, but in this case that isn't working perfectly for you, so try this and see if it works. Based on what you've said about your outlook, I bet it will help you.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes!

[elbism]

Hi Elbism,

Thanks for the question and Happy Easter! I've said elsewhere on this forum that you have to take the approach that works best for you, so if a strategy happens to work for you and can raise your score, then by all means I suggest you use it

That said, it's clear that in this case you know what the problem is—reading the question stem closely—but that knowing that issue isn't resolving the problem. So, there's no harm in taking a different approach for a while and seeing if that makes you more comfortable. I would alter your approach slightly, though: instead of initially classifying all the question stems, do them in sets of 5. Meaning, classify 5 questions stems, and then solve those 5 problems, then move on to the next set of 5. This breaks up the classifying and the solving into manageable groups, reduces time pressure at the start of the section, and even might save some time if you don't compete all of the questions.

Would I recommend this approach for all students? No. Reading the stimulus first is definitely the best approach for the majority of students, but in this case that isn't working perfectly for you, so try this and see if it works. Based on what you've said about your outlook, I bet it will help you.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes!

Thanks a million! that's really helpful, i'll def give that a try

[Dave Killoran]

Great, I'm so glad I could help! And please do post back with your results and how this approach works for you. Once you adopt a new technique, it's always good to revisit it (especially early on), and once we have more data perhaps there are further tweaks we can make that will allow this to work as well as possible for you

[elbism]

Great, I'm so glad I could help! And please do post back with your results and how this approach works for you. Once you adopt a new technique, it's always good to revisit it (especially early on), and once we have more data perhaps there are further tweaks we can make that will allow this to work as well as possible for you

I definitely will