Logical Reasoning Tips and Tricks

[kohram251]

Hey y'all! Here's some LR strategies to try out while studying.

Stem first, stimulus second. It's so much better this way, I mean it. I strongly recommend orienting yourself to the task, then taking as little time as necessary to complete the question. If it's just a main point question, you want to find that out ASAP so you can run through it and move on. No need to dissect the stimulus if it won't help you. Example: PT 41, Section 1, Q5 about medical procedure X and disorder Y.

How to answer the questions:

When you do an "except" question, read each answer choice from A to E and ask yourself if it meets the task from the stem. So, "does A strengthen? yes, no, or slightly?" and so on down the line. Try to make a concrete decision each time so you're not juggling too many moving parts.

For all other questions, try to knock out the two or three worst/irrelevant ACs on the first pass through. Then use the task/question operation from above.

Flag as little as possible. Flagging, in my experience, sends you a signal that you HAVE to go back and redo that question. If you do this for 10+ questions, you won't have time to go back and review them all, and it could cause unnecessary stress at the end. Flag only if you truly believe you need to go back and redo the question. Good reasons to flag are (1) you are not understanding the stimulus or it looks like a foreign language or (2) you understood the question, but the operation too difficult in that moment or (3) it's a parallel with identical looking answer choices, always leave those for the end (example: PT 37, S2, Q26 tanzanite).

Please leave any questions or post requests in the comments below, or DM me!! Tons and tons of good luck to all of you as you continue on your study journeys, I believe in you.