For anyone who is trying to get to where I am, I'm happy to provide any insights. For anyone far beyond where I am, I'm reaching out for help.
I've been tackling the LSAT for a few months now and am somewhat stuck. I started the test doing very badly: -6 on LR, -5 on RC, and missing one game on LG. Now, I'm at -2 or -4 on LR, -3 on RC, and -1 on LG (usually due to stupid reading mistakes). My question is: how to move from a ~170 to a 180 score?
In my case, I know I haven't maxed out yet, since I can occasionally score a 180 during BR. But I always seem to miss a couple during first attempts no matter what. Right now, I'm not confident at all about scoring a 175+ on test day (which is my goal, given my unfortunately terrible college GPA).
I welcome anyone with any insights about how you raised your scores (even by a bit), and happy to provide insights from my end if anyone would like them. Thanks!
Comments
I think changing your mentality can help. When I was in the low-170s range, my mentality was something like "yeah, -1 or -2 in a section would be acceptable," but when I was in the 180 range, my mentality going into each section was "I'm definitely going to get -0 on this section." That is to say, you should be PTing with the full intent of getting every single question right. This will in turn determine how you PT, BR, drill, etc.
Thanks again for any insights!
Absolutely! Tell me more about your pain points: 1) where are you missing most of the questions? LR? BR? or LG? 2) Within that section, what's the most prominent problem? (e.g. for me, it was recognizing the flaw in LR for awhile). And 3) approximately, what levels are most of the questions that you miss (level 1-5 based on 7Sage)?
The 7Sage analytics is pretty useful to keep track of most missed questions.
Or rather, you just get lucky.
I typically tell folks that you can possibly prep up to the 175 range. Anything above that is luck.
Furthermore, literally no one needs to get a score that high.
Expectation management for the win!
Furthermore, I got into a T14 school with a half-tuition scholarship with a 2.74.
So like, chill
@quinnxzhang - Thanks! I'll keep practicing and see if there's an improvement. You're right about the shortcut, but actually, I improved my score so far because of some "mental realization." There was a big jump in LR when I was able to see flaws better.
@Serveded - Thanks for letting me know. I think you are exactly where I was a month ago. Have you bought Mike Kim's prep book? I highly recommend it (specifically the LR sections). It breaks down the flaw questions extremely well (in 3 different types, the piece is not puzzle, apple is not orange, and 1+1 is not 3). Once I understood these flaws, I was able to cut down my mistakes.
http://www.amazon.com/The-LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-driven/dp/0989081508
But you're missing up to 8 questions on LR combined, and that's not just bad luck. Furthermore, you say that you occasionally reach 180 in BR - If you really want that 175, you should be aiming for 180 BR's. I understand that there are things you'll miss even without time pressure, just from being human, (I read "extant" as "extinct" over and over again once. Extra time didn't help) but you can miss 2 questions and still get a 180.
You probably have a solid understanding of the fundamentals, so I wouldn't rush back to the curriculum, unless you miss a certain question type over and over. I would wager that you haven't yet mastered recognizing what makes an attractive trap answer wrong. Practice and BR help tremendously with this (I didn't do anything special other than really carefully reviewing the missed questions to slowly get my LR scores higher). The key is letting go of your ego and the tendency to think "I understand why A is right, but I still think B can be right too". It's not. Don't waste time thinking of why it could be. It's your job to work on that question until you could convince anyone that B is definitely, hopelessly wrong and why. Often it's just a word, but that word is not there by chance. Practice will help you recognize those subtle clues that make a wrong answer wrong, and that will in turn help you get more of the LR questions right.
You might not be able to get a 180, but with your LG and RC scores you should be able to get to a 175 (a little luck on test day wouldn't hurt)
@runiggyrun - this is exactly what I was looking for. I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that I still don't know why a trap answer is wrong when I first look at it (so missing the question on the first run).
A thousand thanks for the advice! There are some hope for me yet - I've only done less than 10 PTs (except for the 7Sage curriculum), so still a ways to go, but there's room to improve.
Obviously the LSAT isn't the only factor, but it's the most significant one and I think we're kidding ourselves if we're saying that there's no benefit to getting a 178 as opposed to a 173. They're very different scores, and likely worth very different amounts of scholly coin. Do you have to get a 180 to get into HYS/get a Hamilton scholarship from Columbia? Of course not. But ceteris paribus is it better (regardless of GPA) to get a 178 than a 173? Quantifiably yes.
Moreover, I would certainly not tell someone PTing in the 174-175 range that there's nothing more they can do, and that it comes down to luck at that point. Consistently scoring in that range suggests that the person has room for improvement on the subtle, curve-breaker questions.
One must consider both numbers. And LSN is really an awful reference—being less than 3% of the data pool.
I stand by my comments. OP has made no statements about focus on scholarships, nor should splitters count on much (if any) money from top schools, even with high LSATs.
Furthermore, the pressure it puts on one to "need" a 175+ is, well, good luck with that. I wouldn't wish it on anyone unless they had a 165+ diagnostic.
So far, for someone who is scoring at 174-175 to reach the 179-180 range, the key is to keep PT and BR, no?
I think most people progress linearly, i.e. from -10 to -6 to -4 to -1 on any given section. Every time you progress, it's because you "realized" something new.
For example, I went from -6 to -2/4 when I saw flaws better. In the past, I wouldn't see a flaw in arguments like "Because religious differences cause violence, thus tolerance is necessary for peace." Or, "My study suggests A -> B. I see /B, thus definitely /A" (you can weaken by questioning the study itself).
I also went from -6 to -2/4 when I learn to recognize the type of LR questions right away (and thus know what I'm looking for in answers).
So what I'm getting at is: what other "insights" did top scorers figure out as you went from 174-175 to 179-180?
I think @runiggyrun was getting at something when he said "recognizing why trap answers are wrong."
Something that I did, which I'm nor sure if you're doing, is I would drill the hardest LR questions and hardest RC passages on top of my PTs. You can filter by difficulty in the question bank section here and do a certain number of them each day. Doing this might help you pick up on the sneaky LSAT tricks faster, but it's not a guarantee, and it may not be an option if you plan on taking every PT.
But if this was an LR question that asked what the authors of this argument most likely agree about, it would be that the pressure one with a lower diagnostic is wont to put on oneself to get to 175+ is dangerous. I had a 154 diagnostic and have spent time in the 177 range, but managing the strain and the stress along the way has been a massive challenge. Bottom line, do the right things and see where your best takes you.
When you PT, simulate testing conditions as meticulously as you can. From what time you take the test to what you do in the morning before, the closer you can mimic the real thing the better.
When you BR, you can't cut any corners. It's a tedious process and you've just got to do it right. You've got to fully understand every stimulus and question stem, and you've got to recognize why every right answer is right and why every wrong answer is wrong. Don't do it in your head, write out your entire BR. If you haven't been doing this already, you'd be shocked how frequently you think you understand and then go to write it out and have no idea what to write.
And as uncomfortable as it may be to admit, luck becomes a bigger factor the higher you score. There are intangibles and no level of preparedness can perfectly guard anyone from error. You've got to have such a high level of mastery to reach the mid - upper 170s that at that point I don't think there's really a higher level of readiness.
*weak = argument for which the conclusion is not guaranteed.
I think what helped me the most on the LSAT was my background in analytic philosophy -- the skills developed in both are nearly identical. Unfortunately, I don't think it's feasible to just casually study analytic philosophy to prepare for the LSAT.
Did you misread something? Well, you shouldn't have. Misinterpreted an answer choice? Shouldn't have. Misapplied a concept? Shouldn't have. Failed to understand the flaw? Shouldn't have. Not enough time to check for all of those things and still finish the section? Sounds like a skills deficit to me. Got tested on something you're weak on? Looks like you have something to work on. New logic game seems objectively unfair? Well, how come others were able to ace it then?
The bottom line is you're answering questions wrong when all of the information necessary to get the correct answer is laid out in front of you, and you have the benefit of a multiple choice setup that is suuuuuuper precise just in case you can't articulate it on your own (people would do a LOT worse on the LSAT if it were short answer). I don't understand what's "lucky" about the ability to avoid making mistakes in a perfect-information scenario.
To me, that's the attitude adjustment that @quinnxzhang is referring to. People think of 'unavoidable' mistakes and accept them, where in reality there's nothing unavoidable about them. Achieving perfection requires you to accept nothing but perfection. Is it hard to be that perfect? Yeah. Does the skill curve steepen substantially? Absolutely. Does the effort-to-improvement ratio get increasingly out of whack as you go along? You bet. Is the distinction between 99.9th and 99.7th percentile irrelevant to 99% of practical situations? Yup. Feel free to say any of those things. Just don't blame luck, unless you're willing to defend the notion that anyone who can get consistent 180s is just getting lucky every single time.
OP, I'm literally in the same boat as you; let's do this
http://www.top-law-schools.com/how-i-scored-a-180-article1.html
TLS has advice from other top scorers, many with initial diagnostic scores in the 140s-160s range. Trends in common I noticed: disciplined preparation, obsessive attention to detail, and intolerance of repeated mistakes. All good traits I would want in MY counsel.
But there's always room for improvement and if you're aiming to be above, say, the 75% at YLS, then you should be PTing with the intent of getting every question right, instead of being satisfied with a 174 or 175 or whatever. The curve for the tip-top score range is so unforgiving that you can't allow yourself that luxury. I went into my test day with a every intention of getting a 180 -- I didn't get a 180 in the end, but I truly believe that I scored what I did because I was practicing and going into the test seriously trying to get every question right. I suspect this is true for many (most?) of the tip-top scorers; it's certainly true among my friend group, at least.
I'm not saying this should be everyone's mentality, nor am I saying anyone needs a 180 (I don't think anyone actually does). And I fully acknowledge that the risk of burnout and stress are very real concerns. But if you're aiming for that top echelon, I feel like you do have to be sufficiently motivated and driven, to the extent that you should be aiming for 180s on your PTs.
Ultimately, in complete opposition to some of the other comments above, I think this is much harder to accept than chalking the top scores up to luck. When you chalk that up to luck, that absolves you of responsibility. But if you accept that it wasn't luck that you didn't reach your target score, then you have to accept that it was you, and that there's something you could have done.
Great comments. I absolutely agree. I think Jonathan nailed it with the "all the information is in front of you." If you get it wrong, it's really because you still got to sharpen your skills. Having that realization ultimately constitutes a "mentality change."
@hlsat180, I saw those! Very helpful.
I do think that there is something else to preparation besides practice, discipline, drive, and mentality. I'm still on my single digit PT (not PT #1-9, but my 8th or 9th PT), but even though I think I understood all my mistakes from the previous sections, I still make mistakes.
I'm hoping that, as I practice more and see more variations of the same problems, that the mistakes would go away. Anyways, we'll see what happens!
Thanks for the advice - definitely helped me a lot and hopefully for others as well.