<p>So I've taken three practice tests and I'm consistently getting about 80-85% of the questions right on average (low to mid 160s), and I was wondering what approach to take to studying.</p>
<p>My main problem is with the Logical Reasoning sections. I read the questions and inherently understand what its asking and what the right answer is (using my own brand of "reasoning"), but the problem is, there are always those few questions that throw me off and I don't have an explanation as to why I'm wrong. After reading the Powerscore LR Bible, I understand what I'm doing wrong a little bit better, but when doing the questions following their rules I find that I get confused and miss more questions than if I just use my own reasoning.</p>
<p>What should I do? Should I shut down my inherent reasoning skills and mechanically follow the PowerScore rules, or should I do something else? And I've already tried to narrow down which "types" of LR questions I get wrong, but they vary- so no help there.</p>
<p>The reason why I'm leery of relying on my own method is because if I get a section that is abnormally difficult, I won't have the solid foundation of reasoning that the PowerScore bibles provide.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>I find this interesting and relevant. Bump.</p>
<p>How familiar are you with the LR Bible and its rules? When I first started studying for the LSAT, I also scored mid 160’s using my own reasoning. After reading the Bibles, it improved a bit to around a 170. I found that if I kept practicing with the rules from the PS books, that it eventually became second nature. There’s no reason why your inherent reasoning skills can’t work in conjunction with the ones taught by PS. It might be tough at first but practice is key. You’ve only taken 3 practice tests. </p>
<p>When I first started using PS, some of their rules didn’t really work well for me and I ignored them too but I had a similar problem, where I couldn’t really explain why an answer was wrong. Over time, I found that the PS methods could explain it every single time. However, that doesn’t mean I just blindly followed the rules. Using the methods doesn’t necessarily mean it’s mechanical and thoughtless.</p>
<p>I ended up rereading the PS Bibles 3x and then using their methods on ~40 practice tests. By the end, it was second nature to use their strategies to answer the questions. I had a 175 PT average on my last 10 practice tests, giving myself 30 min a section, and I scored slightly higher on the real thing. </p>
<p>Anyway, that is just my personal experience with the PS Bibles, sorry I can’t be more helpful. Of course PS strategies may not work for everyone but I don’t think 3 practice tests is sufficient enough to really jump to any conclusion.</p>