RC advice question

[shaynfernandez]

I scanned this branch of the forum for a topic that would relate to my question regarding information in the RC book. However, i was unable to find a topic with relevance, so I apologize if this may be an incorrect spot to propose this question.

I have just finished chapter 5 "drill it" section that goes over question types. I found that I only struggle on pure inference questions but I was perfect on synthesis and ID. At the end if the chapter the book provided this advice to someone who struggles purely with inference questions,
"if you are strong at identification and synthesis but not inference, perhaps you need to reset your gauge in terms of understanding the type of deduction processes the LSAT expects of you."

I am not really sure what advice this is giving me, it seems pretty vague and I am not really sure what "reset your gauge in terms of understanding" entails.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[giladedelman]

Hmmm, you know, it's not just you. I'm not understanding that advice, either!

A few thoughts here: Ask yourself where you're going wrong. Specifically, when you get Inference questions wrong, is it because you're getting fooled by incorrect answers, or because you're not finding support for the correct answer? If it's the former, which i suspect it is, you should be really focusing on the ways in which the LSAT crafts incorrect answers. (The next chapter in the strategy guide will be helpful for this!) If it's the latter, then you need to figure out why you're not seeing the inferences: are you getting hung up on the fact that it's not explicitly in the text; are you just not reading/note-taking efficiently enough, so you don't remember where it was supported?

In general, I think the best way to improve on all RC questions is to focus on spotting wrong answers and explaining clearly why they're wrong. If you do that, I think you'll start to bring your Inference question performance up to the level of ID and Synthesis.

Hope that helps!