LSAT Study Frustration - Help with LR

[monheger]

Hi there,
I'm signed up to take the LSAT in July and have been studying now for about 2 months. On my initial diagnostic test I scored a 156 and am trying to get up to a 167 or so. After two months of studying I've significantly improved on LG and RC but have gotten worse at LR. On my diagnostic test, I did the best on the LR sections, so this is particularly frustrating.

Some info about my situation - I work full time, so my ability to study during the week is somewhat limited - mostly evenings and studying flash cards / concepts while on the bus or train. And I've been doing longer study rounds on the weekends.

I'm trying to figure out why I am not improving on the LR section and how best to focus my study habits for this last month. After doing timed practice rounds and reviewing my answers I notice that there are always at least 1-2 answers that I should have gotten right but miss either due to rushing and choosing an answer before reading all the choices or just making a really dumb mistake and when I read the question again, the right answer is so obvious. I think another issue that I sometimes have is that I overthink the answer based on what I've learned from studying this section. So perhaps that means I am either not familiar enough with the material to make it second hand or misapplying the information? Any suggestions or tips you have would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Monica

[James Finch]

Hi Monica,

Good to hear that you've improved in the other 2 sections! You can definitely improve your LR skills as well! From what you've written in your post, it sounds like you are rushing through either the stimulus or the answer choices or both. Don't slow down to a crawl, but make sure that you know what is being argued in the stimulus, especially the strength of the claim, as well as the how strong the argument is overall, and identify the premises and conclusion (if present) as well as any causal, conditional or formal logic. Give each and answer choice a fair read. When necessary, diagram the logic present. Try to do all this on the first read, rather than accepting that you will have to re-read every stimulus and answer choice and possibly second-guess yourself. I can give you these few general tips now, but to really improve in LR requires knowing exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

From here, identify what is tripping you up and what you are excellent on. Is timing an issue? Are there certain parts of the sections, like the mid-teens, where you tend to stumble? Do you have trouble with focus/concentration for the entire section? Are there specific question types/types of reasoning that are more difficult? Assumption questions, especially Defender types, are often the hardest for students, for example.

Hope this helps!

[monheger]

Hi James,
Thanks for those tips. I definitely do think that second guessing myself is a problem. Timing is also tough. I find that I can usually get them right if I take a second and think about it, but if I feel pressed for time then I often miss them. I've been working on my pre-phrasing, which has helped a ton. The questions I miss now seem to be the types where new information is introduced -- often overlooked possibilities that had not occurred to me and at first glance don't seem to be related. I've noticed these in Assumption and Weaken questions.
Monica

[Adam Tyson]

Don't let that ticking clock dictate your actions, Monica! Move at your most accurate pace, and no faster. If you find that you are really stuck on a question, it may be a good idea to guess and move on, marking that one to come back to later if time allows, but don't rush through a question just because you want to get to more questions before time runs out. As I like to say, that's like saying "I don't have time to get right answers, because I'm too busy getting wrong ones!"

When I find myself starting to rush or feel panicky about time, I do a few things, some of which may sound a little crazy. First, I stop what I'm doing, set my pencil down, close my eyes and take a deep breath. What!? Who has time for that, and why would you waste time doing that!? You have time to do it, because it only takes a moment. Why do it? To calm my nerves, steady my shaking hand, and get blood flowing to my oxygen-starved brain to help it better function. My death grip on my pencil is cutting off blood flow, and I often find that stress includes holding my breath a little. A small moment of meditation and breathing does wonders for my concentration.

Next, I check to see how much time I have and how many questions I have left. If the two don't match up very well - let's say I have 5 minutes left and 7 questions still to go - then instead of hurrying I tell myself "well that's plenty of time to get the next question right!" And then I read it, prephrase, sort losers and contenders, and pick an answer. No pressure, tons of time! Then I do it again on the next question: "6:15 left - that's plenty of time to get the next question right!", and so on. When I finally get to a point where I say to myself "I don't think that's enough time to finish another question", then I pick my letter of the day and bubble in the answers for all the ones I haven't gotten to yet. Oh, and when that's done, I take a look at one more question, a short one if I have one available, and see if maybe there is an obvious and fast solution. If so, great, and if not, so be it, I did my best and I feel really good about the ones I had time to answer, because I took my time, took control of my experience, and did everything I was supposed to do.

Don't let the ticking clock be your boss, but take charge of yourself. Read, prephrase, sort, select, move on with confidence and calmness. Pretty soon that new info that's been tripping you up will be no problem at all, because you will have prepared for it in your prephrasing.

Good luck, keep at it!