Improving Accuracy on Difficult LR Questions?

[daniel]

Difficult LR questions are, well, difficult.

Particularly with Necessary Assumption questions, I'm consistently able to do well on the easier ones (such as those that appear in the first 15-16 questions), but I am often thrown off by attractive answer choices on the difficult questions, particular questions that seem to appear in question numbers 17-21.

It occurred to me that I should probably be recognizing the question as a difficult question, but I'm not sure whether I should approach the question differently than I would approach an easier question?

In some of the explanations for the more difficult necessary assumption questions, it looks like there are some recommendations to apply the assumption negation technique to each answer choice. Is this the way I should be approaching questions when I recognize that they are difficult?

Should I be drilling with a focus on the more difficult questions? How can I get a list of those difficult questions?

[maryadkins]

First of all, what's good is that you seem to have identified your issue: difficult necessary assumption questions. Now what to do about them.

Yes: drill difficult necessary assumption questions. The best way to find them is to look in the latter halves of LR sections and pick them out.

Yes: try negating any answer choice you're not sure about. Be less liberal about eliminating based on appearance alone.

Other tips: try shaving time elsewhere so you can spend more time on these. Read through answer choices carefully rather than just skimming. Make sure you understand the core before looking at answer choices at all.

The key to mastering a strategy that works for you is to stop and evaluate how your approach is working. After trying the above, determine if you're missing fewer questions. If not, look for other patterns in what you tend to miss and we'll take it from there...