Comprehending questions on the LR Section

[mollyrosel]

Hi PowerScore,

I'm taking the September LSAT and am not at all close to where I need to be in order to achieve my target score of 165 (I got a 151 on my most recent practice exam). My main problem area is the logical reasoning section; in addition to being too slow, I'm struggling to comprehend stimuli. Because I'm so focused on identifying conditional/causal reasoning and the premise(s) and conclusion, I'll finish reading a problem only to discover I have absolutely no idea what I just read. I know that understanding and identifying these components is supposed to be a simultaneous process, but it's just not working for me. Is it just a matter of practice, or this there something I can try to make this a bit easier?

And on the topic of conditional and causal reasoning, I find that I'm diagramming on questions where this type of reasoning isn't actually central to identifying the correct answer (e.g., Main Point questions). How can I prevent this from happening (besides reading the question stem before the stimulus, which is inadvisable)?

*edited to add: What advice do you have for someone who is working full-time and attempting a 15 point increase? I feel as though I'm at a disadvantage since I'm only able to get in an hour of study at lunch and a few hours in after work. Not to mention that I'm trying to factor in a time to take 3-4 prep tests a week leading up to the exam!

Thank you a million times over for your help!
Molly

[AthenaDalton]

Hi Molly,

Thanks for your question!

It's normal for students to try and diagram every LR question after spending so much time mastering the diagramming techniques for conditional and causal reasoning! However, you do not need to actually diagram every question. You really don't have time to!

I would recommend that you first read the stimulus with an eye towards understanding what the author is saying (e.g., read the stimulus like you would read a newspaper or a textbook). If you spot any conditional language like "if," "then," etc., underline it so you can easily spot it later. You may also want to circle any key terms that you think will be the "sufficient" or "necessary" terms. Then read the question stem.

If you get through reading the full prompt and question stem and you have a good understanding of what the argument is getting at, or the question stem indicates that this is a "spot the flaw" question or another type that doesn't require diagramming, just jump into the answer choices! On the other hand, if you find that you're dealing with a question full of complex conditional reasoning, go back to the words you underlined / circled turn them into conditional diagrams.

Personally, I save diagramming for questions where a diagram will help me understand how the argument is structured. This usually happens where the author strings a number of terms together in a conditional chain relationship, or where the subject matter of the prompt is unfamiliar to me and I feel that reducing the terms to abstract diagrams will help.

Another time-saver is to just sketch out the basic conditional relationship and skip the extra steps of also diagramming contrapositives, chain relationships, etc. You can always go back and complete these steps later if you need to.

Dave Killoran, the author of the Logical Reasoning Bible, wrote a good blog post about this exact topic that can give you more guidance:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/333 ... To-Diagram

Once you get a sense of when to diagram and when to skip it, you should have much more time to tackle the LR section. As far as time management goes, try to limit the amount of time you spend on each question. Don't get so bogged down on a parallel flaw question that you spend 3 minutes on it and then don't have enough time to get through easy questions later in the set. While you practice, you should get into the habit of making an educated guess on a hard question, noting the question number, then going back to it at the end if you have time. The LR section mixes easy with hard questions. It's better to miss a hard question and still have time to get two easy questions right! They all count for the same amount of points.

As to your general question about how to spend your limited study time -- focus on your areas of weakness. It sounds like you're struggling with LR and spending a lot of time on LR, which is exactly what you should be doing. This makes up half the test, so any improvements you make in this section will pay big score dividends.

Beyond LR, students often find it easiest to make big improvements in their score on the games section. Improvement on the RC section is a slower process, so portion your time accordingly.

Good luck! You have a whole month to master this test! Stay positive and keep studying!

Athena Dalton