Re-reading is killing me.

[Turismo1]

Today I went through a couple LR sections and timed myself individually on each question. If I burned lots of time on a question, I wrote down why. I figured out the majority of my LSAT timing issues in logical reasoning are because of re-reading. It could be the stimulus, question stem, or answer choices; most of the time it's a combination of them. It seems I reread the stimulus on 50%+ of the questions; it sucks. Re-reading is eating up my time and it's super-frustrating because I don't know what to do in order to understand and completely grasp what I'm reading the first time I read it. I'm looking for any kind of tip/method that I can practice so I don't have to re-read often.

[bbirdwell]

Hi Turismo1,

You're certainly not alone. Re-reading is the #1 time-related problem of all LSAT takers. Period.

I'm looking for any kind of tip/method that I can practice so I don't have to re-read often.

We actually publish an entire book about methods to help you not re-read: our Logical Reasoning Strategy guide.

There's no quick-fix. You see, the entire LSAT is a test of reading for what's important. You first have to ask "What's important?" And then learn how to identify it, over and over again.

In most LR problems, the conclusion is very important. So first, you must learn to find conclusions. Next, you must learn to isolate the most important fact that supports that conclusion. Later, you can add conditional logic and logic chains to the mix (A-->B-->C or whatever).

Practice reading an LR argument, covering it up, and stating the conclusion to yourself. Once you can do this, try covering it up and stating the conclusion and the pertinent evidence, etc... Step by step. Soon, you'll see that 90% of LSAT arguments simply repeat a handful of patterns again and again. Once you are hip to the patterns, things get easier and easier.

These patterns also exist in the choices. So, once you are clear on your task (as given by the question), and you are clear about the structure of the argument (conclusion/premise), you are less attracted to irrelevant answer choices, and the correct answers will begin to resonate more and more....

So that's it. Always start at the beginning. "What's important and how can I recognize it?" and go from there...