how to break through harder LR questions

[shirando21]

I still have about 5 questions in each logic reasoning section that I feel hard for me to do it correctly, especially under timed situation.

The arguments are usually hard to read, or I am not familiar with the topics. After reading the arguments for two times, I usually still have no feeling.

What is the most effective way of training to break the curve through from there?

[rinagoldfield]

Hey Shirando21,

What a great and important question.

Hard LR questions can be broken down into questions that have confusing stimuli, and questions that have cryptic answer choices.

If you find yourself befuddled by stimuli, practice paring down arguments to their bare logic. Remove specific subject matter to be see relationships more clearly. For example, the statement that "not all tenured faculty are full professors" can be translated into "some x are not y." Doing this can help ease the challenge of tricky or unfamiliar subject matter.

On assumption family questions, an underlining system can also help you maintain focus on the argument core. For example, try underlining the conclusion of an argument with a straight line, and the premise with a zigzaggy line. Finding a fast note-taking system can help keep distracting extraneous information at a distance.

The challenge of many LR questions lies in the answer choices; I’m sure everyone has encountered at least one LR question where none of the answer choices felt quite right. For these questions, honing your capacity to eliminate wrong answer choices is key. Learn the patterns of wrong answer choices by forcing yourself to articulate WHY wrong answer choices are wrong, even on easy questions. Doing this strengthens your ability to recognize hard wrong answer choices, and will enable you to attack really challenging LR questions using a process of elimination.