Answering LR based on intuition Forum

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sodomojo

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Answering LR based on intuition

Post by sodomojo » Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:42 am

Should I be concerned that I seem to answer the majority of LR questions based on intuition, as opposed to any sort of deliberate process? That is, I'll only occasionally have a prephrase in mind or use the negation test. I also never write out conditional logic as the diagramming really distracts me from actually understanding the stimulus.

I end up letting the questions guide me a lot of time. I've been averaging -3 per section for the most part, but have ranged from -1 all the way up to -7. NA is my only glaring weakness, with occasional problems on flaws/MSS. Is relying on intuition making me prone to inconsistency? And if so, is it even worth fixing with a month to go - or am I just better off continuing to drill sections and hoping familiarity will ultimately lead to fully consistent results?

Slippin' Jimmy

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by Slippin' Jimmy » Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:21 am

I did this successfully on about half of LR questions. As long as you are getting all of the "intuition" questions right you're fine, but if not you need to take a more methodical approach to understand why the correct answer is correct and why the 4 incorrect answers are incorrect.

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LesPaul1995

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by LesPaul1995 » Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:11 pm

sodomojo wrote:Should I be concerned that I seem to answer the majority of LR questions based on intuition, as opposed to any sort of deliberate process? That is, I'll only occasionally have a prephrase in mind or use the negation test. I also never write out conditional logic as the diagramming really distracts me from actually understanding the stimulus.

I end up letting the questions guide me a lot of time. I've been averaging -3 per section for the most part, but have ranged from -1 all the way up to -7. NA is my only glaring weakness, with occasional problems on flaws/MSS. Is relying on intuition making me prone to inconsistency? And if so, is it even worth fixing with a month to go - or am I just better off continuing to drill sections and hoping familiarity will ultimately lead to fully consistent results?
If your being truthful with yourself there is likely not a problem, but on flaw questions a prephrase will likely help you improve on getting questions correct. Doing well is all about an intuitive feel, thats the purpose of forming good habits anyway.

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sodomojo

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by sodomojo » Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:29 pm

LesPaul1995 wrote:If your being truthful with yourself there is likely not a problem, but on flaw questions a prephrase will likely help you improve on getting questions correct. Doing well is all about an intuitive feel, thats the purpose of forming good habits anyway.
Hmm what do you mean by if I'm being truthful with myself? As in am I being strict with simulating testing conditions?

I've done 16 timed LR sections over the past week and had 3 outliers, with the rest around -1 to -4. I guess the reason I'm uneasy about perhaps relying on intuition is because it feels as though I'm getting lucky a little too often? I finish some of these sections barely in time and not feeling all that great about it, then I end up getting only a -3 or something.

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LesPaul1995

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by LesPaul1995 » Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:41 pm

sodomojo wrote:
LesPaul1995 wrote:If your being truthful with yourself there is likely not a problem, but on flaw questions a prephrase will likely help you improve on getting questions correct. Doing well is all about an intuitive feel, thats the purpose of forming good habits anyway.
Hmm what do you mean by if I'm being truthful with myself? As in am I being strict with simulating testing conditions?

I've done 16 timed LR sections over the past week and had 3 outliers, with the rest around -1 to -4. I guess the reason I'm uneasy about perhaps relying on intuition is because it feels as though I'm getting lucky a little too often? I finish some of these sections barely in time and not feeling all that great about it, then I end up getting only a -3 or something.
truthful, as in having a reliable method. If it feels second nature (habit), it's supposed too. Ask yourself if you feel you are getting lucky or are you getting correct answers because of your habits. Likely, if it's a question of you getting lucky you should just brush up on concepts and the process required for each stem and common accompanying incorrect/correct answer choices, and over time develop a greater intuition that won't feel so lucky. Nothing major.

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creed

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by creed » Sun Aug 06, 2017 7:09 pm

It makes sense to answer most questions based on intuition. Trying to memorize a ton of different strategies is a waste if you don't need them.

But I'd recommend trying strategies on questions you can't nail down. And I don't think it's a coincidence that NA is your weakness. Negation technique works very well for most people here, harder assumption questions don't lend themselves to intuition.

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Platopus

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by Platopus » Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:55 pm

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Last edited by Platopus on Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by Slippin' Jimmy » Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:30 am

sodomojo wrote:
LesPaul1995 wrote:If your being truthful with yourself there is likely not a problem, but on flaw questions a prephrase will likely help you improve on getting questions correct. Doing well is all about an intuitive feel, thats the purpose of forming good habits anyway.
Hmm what do you mean by if I'm being truthful with myself? As in am I being strict with simulating testing conditions?

I've done 16 timed LR sections over the past week and had 3 outliers, with the rest around -1 to -4. I guess the reason I'm uneasy about perhaps relying on intuition is because it feels as though I'm getting lucky a little too often? I finish some of these sections barely in time and not feeling all that great about it, then I end up getting only a -3 or something.
That's a lot of sections for one week, are you taking the time to properly review each one?

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sodomojo

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Re: Answering LR based on intuition

Post by sodomojo » Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:31 pm

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:That's a lot of sections for one week, are you taking the time to properly review each one?
I've only been reviewing questions that I was unsure on or got incorrect, using the MH forums. It's not pure BR though, as I'll check my answers then go back and run through unsure/incorrect in one go (saves time and I try not to let my knowledge of a question's correct/wrongness affect my BR answer). Would you suggest something different?

I had some issues with LR last week so I decided to focus on it this week. And of course now my LG score slips, so I'll probably stick to a section of LR per day moving forward while making sure I get LG down to -0/-1.

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