How to Focus on Weaknesses

[cmorris32]

Hi PowerScore!

I just took a practice test and I am evaluating my weaknesses, and trying to make a list of what to focus on. However, I have made a list of the items I need to practice, but I'm not sure where to go from there. Are there any resources I should be using to fix these issues? Should I re-do homework questions? Should I focus on the concepts underlying these points? I'm just not sure where to go from here, now that I have a list of things I need to work on.

These are my 3 points that I want to work on:
- Justify + Sufficient/Necessary
- Strengthen + Causal Reasoning
- Must Be True + Fill in the Blank

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi cmorris,

It's great that you are able to isolate weaknesses in question types and concepts. That's a great first step! The best way to really review these concepts is to keep practicing, but make sure you are using the Blind Review method.

The key here is to both do questions timed and untimed. First, you do a section/test with strict timing. As soon as you finish the section/test, you mark down any questions you had any question about at all. Also note any questions that were unfinished.

Next, you review every single question. In your case, I would make sure to spend extra time on those areas that are weaker for you. In review, diagram every conditional, in answer choices and in the stimulus. Double check your causal reasoning. Use the Fact Test for Must Be True questions. When you review the questions, mark if you would keep your answer the same, or if you would change it, and why.

Now check your answers. Compare your timed answers to your untimed answers, and note where you improved. Track what made you miss a question in the timed environment. For conditionals, note where drawing conditionals mattered. Which types of conditionals do you need to draw out every time? Chains? Contrapositives? What really helps YOU get the questions correct?

The biggest factor in improvement is learning from and understanding your own mistakes.

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[cmorris32]

Hi Rachael!

Thank you for that great advice! I reviewed my most recent practice test today and this was the strategy I used:

Logic Games (90% original accuracy):
- Redo all games, making as many inferences as possible during the set up
- For the questions that I got wrong originally, proving why the other answer choices were incorrect

Logical Reasoning (80% original accuracy):
- Redo all questions
- Diagramming all conditional reasoning, causal reasoning, and highlighting premise/conclusion indicators
- Writing out why common incorrect answers are wrong

Reading Comprehension (60% original accuracy):
- Redo all passages, looking at what specific/concept/global reference questions I got wrong for each passage
- Go back to diagrams from passages and look at what I didn't need to write down, and what I was missing

Do you think this is sufficient for reviewing the practice tests? Is there anything else I should be doing?

Thank you!
Caroline

[Frank Peter]

Hi Cmorris,

Sounds like you're on the right track. Reviewing your practice tests is really the best way to ensure you're learning from your mistakes and not falling for the same LSAT traps over and over again. I'll add a few pointers, but it sounds like you have a pretty good system going.

Logic Games
- Make sure you're confident with your setups. You don't want to be reinventing the wheel with each logic game you approach. If you got through a game but didn't feel your setup was as efficient as it could have been, review what you could have done to make your setup more useful.

Logical Reasoning
- Watch out for lucky guesses - if you got a question right but can't explain why it was the right answer, spend some time reviewing it. Since you say you're redoing all of the questions it sounds like you're probably doing this anyway, but just beware of the false sense of confidence you might get when you happen to get a question right but aren't quite sure why the correct answer choice was so.
-LR is all about mastering and applying some basic concepts. Conditional reasoning and causal reasoning are two of those core LR concepts you want to make sure you've mastered. I would suggest continually referring back to the lessons where these concepts are introduced and make sure you're very comfortable with them. Causal reasoning I find to be somewhat formulaic once you've mastered the basic ideas, but conditional reasoning can be trickier than it seems. Looking for typical sufficient and necessary indicators is a good place to start, but make sure you also understand what's happening on an intuitive level. What I mean by that is would you be able to diagram a conditional reasoning relationship even if the stimulus doesn't use the typical S/N indicators that you would expect to see? Sometimes more challenging LR questions may rely on conditional reasoning that doesn't announce itself as obviously as it does in easier questions.

Reading Comp
-Sounds like you have a good approach. I think paying attention to what you didn't need to diagram or write down may prove to be especially useful, since speed and efficiency can be particularly important in RC. Paying attention to common text based question indicators is a good way to know if a particular aspect of a passage may be important.