Parallel Qs and Tough Qs

[Dave Killoran]

We received the following questions:

Do you recommend I go back through the Bible to focus on question types that give me trouble? (mainly parallel reasoning I usually spend several minutes on those and sometimes still get them wrong).

To some extent, yes. You need to review and drill with the types that traditionally cause you issues, and the old adage that "practice makes perfect" certainly applies. Parallel wouldn't be at the top of my list though, for the following reasons:

1. There aren't too many of them, so you get more "bang for your buck" elsewhere.
2. Problems with Parallel often reflect issues with skills based on other types, such as Must and Method/Flaw. I'd make sure you were solid on those types first, and that alone should make you better at Parallel.

That said, we did a comprehensive Parallel episode on our podcast, at: https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/podcast/4/. That should honestly make about 80% of those questions a lot easier

Even some other questions I encounter that I get wrong sometimes I feel no matter how much time I had on them I wouldn’t have came to the right answer and no matter how much I practice them it is just very hard to get the right answer. Can extensive drilling each question type help with that or is does it get to a point of spending that much time studying just one or two types of questions is a waste because improvement might be minimal and chances to get it right aren’t going to increase greatly.

Drilling isn't going to fix this. What you are saying is that there are some questions that are simply too tough no matter how much time you have. You aren't alone in feeling that! Difficulty levels vary on this test and the scale is built such that you can sacrifice a few questions for the greater good. Spend your time on types/questions that you can get correct, and don't get caught up in trying to solve every single question.

Thanks!