Expect Answers To Be Wrong

Accuracy matters. But obsessing over every single answer choice doesn’t help your LSAT score.

You don’t need to fully understand every wrong answer. You don’t need to conclusively disprove every wrong answer. And you definitely don’t need to spend two minutes trying to understand an answer you think is wrong.

Wrong answers are supposed to be wrong. Treat them that way.

Put the Burden of Proof on the Answer

Every LSAT question has five answer choices. Four of them are wrong.

Think of it this way: before you read the first word of answer choice A, it’s much more likely to be wrong than right. 

Use those odds to your advantage. Once you see that an answer is wrong, move on.

The answer choice must convince you that it deserves your vote. The burden of proof is on the answer. 

Bad Answers Don’t Deserve Long Autopsies

Striving for perfect accuracy is great, but direct that energy toward finding the right answer, not perfectly eliminating every wrong answer. 

Some students may suspect an answer is wrong, but instead of eliminating it, they keep digging. They reread it. They parse every word. They try to articulate precisely why it fails.

That work might be useful during review. It usually isn't necessary while you're solving the question.

Bad answer choices don’t deserve long autopsies. If an answer gives you a clear reason to eliminate it, then keep moving. Save the investigation for review or when you get stuck.

Run a Shorter Race

Going faster on the LSAT doesn’t mean reading faster.

Nathan and Ben move through questions quickly because they master the passage and they read less. 

First, they make sure they understand the passage and predict the answer. 

Then, once they see an answer choice is wrong, they stop reading and move to the next one.

They aren't rushing. They're running a shorter race.

Read the passage slowly. Stop and think as you read it. When you’re ready, go to the answer choices and aggressively eliminate the wrong ones. 

You’ve earned the right to breeze through the answers because you understand the passage. That’s how you make the LSAT easy.

Read Every Answer, Expect Most to Be Wrong

Suppose you read answer choice A and it matches your prediction perfectly.

Great. But you’re not done.

Read B, C, D, and E. But approach them differently. Assume A is right and expect the remaining answers to be wrong. 

Read every answer choice. Make sure you haven’t misunderstood the passage or the answer you’ve picked. Don’t give every answer choice the benefit of the doubt.

Read Again When You Need To

Sometimes you'll quickly eliminate all the answers.

There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, high scorers often tell us that becoming comfortable eliminating all the answer choices on the first pass helped them break into the 170s.

Go back through the answers. This time, read more carefully.

But don't give every answer the same level of scrutiny on your first pass. Most of the time, you'll find the right answer without having to go deep on more than one or two of them.

Start skeptical. Dig deeper only when necessary.

Obsess Over Accuracy, Not Wrong Answers

You should aim for extremely high accuracy (95-100%). You should slow down. You should refuse to guess just because the clock is running.

But none of that requires conclusively disproving every wrong answer.

Expect answers to be wrong. Eliminate them when they give you a reason to. Read every word of the answer you're actually going to choose.

You don't need to read faster. You need to spend less time on answers that were wrong all along.

 

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