Reading carefully and logical reasoning

[TargTru99^]

Greetings,

I am on lesson 3 of the Powerscore LSAT Live online course. I am getting so frustrated because I keep falling for these shell game answers when practicing the weaken questions. I know that the problem is that I do not read carefully, yet I'm trying to follow the contender loser method of not spending an additional 10 seconds to verify is a question is right or wrong. How do I better read carefully? It just seems that it is not an easy way to solve this annoying problem. Do I have to spend another 25 minutes to read the stimulus carefully enough to avoid shell game answers??? This is really making me lose my temper, to be honest.

[T.B.Justin]

Hey Targ,

Welcome to the LSAT world

I've felt that way before, and when I did I would need to take a break, breath, and/or do something else for example going to the gym. After gaining my composure I would come back to studying!

You are building resilience. Keep at it!

[Brook Miscoski]

Targ,

Given that you believe the problem is that you aren't reading carefully enough, I think it is acceptable for you to spend some extra time reading and applying the contenders and losers approach. What you gain in confidence and lose in frustration should help to speed you up over time.

Please also think about the difference between "careful" and "purposeful." When I read an LSAT stimulus and LSAT answer choices, I am not reading them "carefully" to make sure that I don't miss something, I am reading them "purposefully" to find the trick. When I read purposefully, I am in control, not in fear. See if that helps.

Aside from my other pursuits, I am a musician. Learn slow, play fast.

[Dave Killoran]

I'm trying to follow the contender loser method of not spending an additional 10 seconds to verify is a question is right or wrong. How do I better read carefully?

Hi Targ,

One additional thought, on the above quote from your initial message: it's ok to spend extra seconds to lock in an answer. If just 10 seconds will do that, it's worth it! And, the good news is that time spent now tends to lessen as you practice more and get more familiar with the test. So 10 seconds today become s 5seconds in a few weeks, and then it goes away entirely

Also, about reading careful/purposefully, the key is in the details. When test makers select their words, they don't do so accidentally. The care you are taking is to examine their word choice. So, if they use a word like probably (or one of many others), I make note of it because there's a reason they've done so

Thanks!