How to go from -10 to -3 on Logical Reasoning
Missing ten per LR section means you understand the test but leak points in patterns. Find the patterns, fix them one at a time, and -3 is realistic in six to eight weeks. That timeline is an estimate. Your mileage depends on your hours.
Step 1: Diagnose by question type
Take two timed LR sections. For every miss, write down the question type: flaw, assumption, strengthen, weaken, inference, and so on. Then count. Almost everyone at -10 has two or three types causing most of the damage. Those types are your whole plan. Everything else is maintenance.
The free diagnostic does this scoring for you if you would rather not tally by hand.
Step 2: Rebuild your two worst types untimed
Pick the worst type. Do twenty questions of just that type, untimed, with full review. Then the second-worst type. Do not mix types yet. Do not time yourself yet. At -10, the problem is almost never speed. It is recognition: you are not seeing what the question wants.
For each type, learn the one skill it tests. Flaw questions test whether you can name the gap between evidence and conclusion. Assumption questions test whether you can find the missing link. Most types reduce to one move. Learn the move.
Step 3: Fix how you review
Most -10 scorers review wrong. They read the explanation, nod, and move on. That changes nothing. For every miss, write one sentence: why the right answer is right and why your pick was wrong. If you cannot write the sentence, you did not learn the question. Keep a running list and reread it weekly. The same traps repeat.
Step 4: Add timing only when accuracy holds
When you can hit -4 or better untimed on a full section, start timing. Expect the score to dip for a week or two. That is normal. The dip closes if the untimed accuracy was real. If untimed accuracy was never there, timing just measures your guessing speed. Go back to step 2.
Step 5: Blind review your practice tests
After each timed section, before checking answers, go back to every question you flagged as shaky and re-answer it untimed. Then check. The gap between your timed score and your blind-review score tells you what is knowledge (fixable by study) versus execution (fixable by pacing and nerves). At -10, the gap is usually big. Close it.
What not to do
- Do not learn a new strategy every week. One approach per type, drilled until it is boring.
- Do not take a practice test every day. Two per week with full review beats seven with none.
- Do not study your best types for comfort. Study time goes to the worst types first.
Find your worst types
The free diagnostic scores every LR question type and ranks your weakest. That ranking is step one above.