It is common in LSAT circles to hear the advice “thoroughly review all mistakes.” But what does this actually mean? How much time should you spend going over each question you get wrong? And when do you know that you’re ready to move on to a new question? 

The right way to review a question ultimately depends on what led you to get the question wrong. A good chunk of mistakes come from simple misreading. I will call these mistakes reading errors. The LSAT is largely a test of careful reading, and misreading one word or phrase can completely change the meaning of a passage. Examples of this type of mistake include misreading a word, confusing viewpoints in RC, skipping a line, ignoring the word “except” in a question, or forgetting about a quantifier. Reviewing these types of mistakes should not take much time. Once you identify what and how you misread, you can resolve the question using your updated understanding. 

The second major mistake comes from a flaw in your process. I’ll call these process errors. This can come from rushing through the passage or answer choices, focusing too much on speed and not properly digesting what you read, moving on to the answer choices without fully comprehending the passage, and more. On these types of questions, you likely knew that you did not have a complete understanding of something in the passage or answer choices. But, likely because of time constraints, you simply chose an answer without complete confidence and moved on. There are two important things to learn from these types of mistakes. The first is on the question itself. Redo the question without worrying about time. Most likely, you failed to understand some key concept in the passage itself rather than in the answer choices. Take the time necessary to understand the passage, put complex jargon into simple terms, make a prediction, and then critically attack each answer choice. The second important takeaway is about your process as a whole. If you approach the test with the right methodology, namely prioritizing accuracy over speed, then these mistakes should never happen. Make sure you are honest with yourself if this was your mistake and try to catch yourself the next time it happens. Rather than picking an answer choice with 50% confidence and moving on, slow down and spend the extra time to properly understand the passage. 

The third and final type of mistake involves a genuine misunderstanding of something in the passage. I’ll call these comprehension errors. Here, you read each sentence in the passage and answer choices correctly, but something went amiss in your understanding. One manifestation of this is the failure to make a critical inference. An example would be if you read the argument: “every dog is alive, and everything alive can adapt over time,” but failed to make the inference that “every dog can therefore adapt over time.” Another example of this type of error is when you simply cannot understand what a sentence means. You may read the sentence ten times, but it simply does not click in your head. On these questions, slow down, break down the complicated syntax into more easily digestible language, and think through all possible issues with the argument presented. These types of errors take the longest to review and may require the assistance of a video explanation or a tutor. DO NOT move on from these errors without fully understanding what went wrong. These questions are invaluable learning tools for you to improve your conceptual understanding and reading comprehension abilities. If you fail to figure out what went wrong on these questions, you will find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again on future tests.