Not improving on LR Forum

[paigekhuffman]

I've been studying for about two months now, and I've made it through the LR Bible and have taken about 7 practice test sections (so 14 total). I still consistently miss 5-6 questions on each sections, specifically Assumptions, Point at Issue, and Parallel Reasoning. Any advice on how to improve on those question types or more effectively practice LR?

[doglawin]

Hi!

So I'm having the same problem as you on LR. UNfortunaly, assumptions are seemingly some of the most difficult questions on LR. Have you tried Powerscores Neccesary Condition negation approach?

It only works on assumption questions. To my understanding, With assumption questions the correct answer is the necessary condition to the conclusion. So

Conclusion(valid) --> Answer(true)

The approach says to negate the answer (the necessary condition) the answer choice that attacks or weakens the argument will be the correct answer choice. It's a different, maybe weird approach, but I've found it's helped me.

Hope that this approach is useful to you!

[doglawin]

Hi!

So I'm having the same problem as you on LR. UNfortunaly, assumptions are seemingly some of the most difficult questions on LR. Have you tried Powerscores Neccesary Condition negation approach?

It only works on assumption questions. To my understanding, With assumption questions the correct answer is the necessary condition to the conclusion. So

Conclusion(valid) --> Answer(true)

The approach says to negate the answer (the necessary condition) the answer choice that attacks or weakens the argument will be the correct answer choice. It's a different, maybe weird approach, but I've found it's helped me.

Hope that this approach is useful to you!

[lucretius_]

I agree with the above poster that assumptions questions are best tackled by negating the answers to see if the conclusion still holds. This helped me get over the hump on assumption questions without wasting too much time.

Parallel reasoning questions are all about finding the conclusions. Once you find the conclusion, you are often able to eliminate two or three answers immediately. Then it becomes about following the method of reasoning in the premises that match with the correct answer choice. These questions took a lot of time, especially early on. I spent too much time trying to encode the language into formal logical statements, so this didn't work for me. Some people swear by this method, so see if that works for you and use it if you have time.

Speaking of, how much time do you have left at the end of each LR section?

[paigekhuffman]

I haven't properly timed myself yet, however I run a timer as I work through a section. Right now it takes me about 36-38 minutes to complete a section fully, but I wonder if I should save parallel reasoning questions for last because they take up so much time.

I agree with the above poster that assumptions questions are best tackled by negating the answers to see if the conclusion still holds. This helped me get over the hump on assumption questions without wasting too much time.

Parallel reasoning questions are all about finding the conclusions. Once you find the conclusion, you are often able to eliminate two or three answers immediately. Then it becomes about following the method of reasoning in the premises that match with the correct answer choice. These questions took a lot of time, especially early on. I spent too much time trying to encode the language into formal logical statements, so this didn't work for me. Some people swear by this method, so see if that works for you and use it if you have time.

Speaking of, how much time do you have left at the end of each LR section?

[lucretius_]

I haven't properly timed myself yet

Yikes! You need to start timing yourself properly like...yesterday! PTs are precious materials and you shouldn't be doing full PTs untimed. Maybe, just maybe do some of the much older PTs untimed to see what the sections are like, but after a few, you need to start timing.

Timing is so much of the game on this test. Download the 7sage timing app and start using it. Spend as much time as you want (read: a lot) reviewing to improve. Untimed tests are not indicative of your abilities.

Edit: Many tests will leave difficult parallel reasoning questions until like 23-26. This is often used to destroy your confidence and waste your time. Do not feel guilty skipping over these questions and coming back when there is time. Questions earlier than this, specifically those around Qs 10 - 15, should not take as much time or be as complicated, so I would recommend not skipping those until you are spinning your wheels for 2 minutes and need to move on.