What accuracy do you get if you take untimed questions? And I don't mean untimed on the drilling feature, but still trying to go fast. If you genuinely take as long as you think you need, and think about questions until you are either confident you know the answer, or see no way to narrow it down further with any amount of time. I'm curious because you said you usually can't come up with a prediction. That stands out as the thing that needs to be addressed to improve further. If you go untimed and literally take as long as you want in between reading the stim and question, and the answer choices, are you then able to come up with a prediction? If you are not sure it might be worth practicing taking questions super slowly and literally not being willing to look at the answers until you have at least a general prediction. It doesn't need to be the exact answer, just an description of what a correct answer could look like(this does not apply to some questions, like parallel LR questions, and lots of RC questions). It seems like this is the thing that needs to happen to unlock your improvement. If you have no idea what a correct answer would look like before looking at the answers, then it will be really hard to identify which answer is right just because you have seen it. I would encourage you to do untimed drills and be strict with yourself on coming up with a prediction on all questions where it is possible. Even if it takes 10 minutes per question. And I would even considering adding a wrong prediction journal, where if your prediction was completely off, you write down how you could have made the correct prediction. Even if you get slower now, this is the fundamental LSAT skill that needs to be practiced and I believe it will bear fruit in the long run.
How many questions do you usually complete in timed sections? And what is your accuracy for the easier questions that you complete, compared to your accuracy for the 4 and 5 star questions. It is worth noting that if you have 2 questions, a 1 star question, and a 5 star question. You are better off spending your time to get the 1 star question right 90% of the time, and blindly guessing on the 5 star question, as that is1.1/2 expected right answers, equivalent to almost exactly a 150. If you had instead narrowed both questions down to a 50/50, you'd obviously be expected to get 1/2 right. Which is the equivalent of about a 147. So if you are completing all or nearly all the questions, it is possible you can increase your score by making sure you get the easier questions right, and just guessing the last few which are basically always 4 or 5 star difficulty.
Hey man hang in there. Im also in the same boat as you. I started at a 136 in Jan 2025. I thought I was cooked lol. Did everything studied like my life depended on it, got a tutor, got other study materials and finally got to a 164 on my PTs. But when I took the Jan 2026 exam I actually choked and left with a 146 hahaha. It can be very discouraging but there are so many different skills needed for this exam that it can feel impossible to improve. The secret is though is that its not impossible it just takes time and a lot of effort. You can totally learn it with some sweat equity. In my experience The LSAT is a lifestyle. My official 146 was do to me not adhering to that principle in the end. You got to make sure you get good sleep every night, eat good meals, and most importantly have down time to rest your brain. In the two weeks leading to the exam I was scrambling to get as much information in as possible rather then taking it easy and maintaining strong testing behaviors under stress and this factor alone led to more stress then I was acquainted with. It led to me eventually choking on the LSAT by almost a full 20 points. Remember that it is a marathon and not a race.
This is an exam about Skills, Organization, and Behavior. If you are set on all three then their is no score cap except 180. You need the skills to understand the material. You need the organization to quickly and efficiently review the material in a way that helps you learn the patterns in LR and RC. You need the right behaviors to ensure that the skills are done correctly under the conditions that are given to you. Finally you cannot allow yourself to get demotivated. Do your best forget the rest.
I would suggest stretching your exam date to June to give you a better cushion to study and work really hard at this. But either way with a good attitude and a little bit of elbow grease you'll get there no doubt.
Heres some tips that might help you break out the 140s:
I know this one is going to be annoying but review the fundamentals. If you are in the 140s I promise you it will help break out of it. BUT don't go through it quickly. Go through it slow let it soak in. Choose only 1 set of materials for it at first. For example don't do 7sage and loophole at the same time. You need to go fully through the fundamentals of one first then you can do the others. The reason is that they are all different strategies. I have LSAT friends who are still stuck in plateaus because of this. Be very careful about that.
do your best to review every mistake of your logic and patterns even on the correct answers. In my WAJ I will randomly throw in questions I got right solely to review the patterns. Try your best not to be overconfident in review. Seriously I wasted time not reviewing things I got right.
Make your WAJ organized - Since the Jan 2026 exam my score has increased alot under exact testing conditions solely because I reorganized my WAJ and review it at the start and the end of every session everyday. I can see the patterns and I take notes on my behaviors. This really has helped me make the necessary modifications to get score increases once again.
Get a friend to proctor your PTs. Seriously I've learned so much about my approach since the Jan 2026 exam doing this.
Finally you need to be as objective as possible in the review of your own performance. For example when I got my official score back I didn't dispute the statistics and say its wrong or faulty. I took it as I just need to more work on the stress side of the exam and that's ok. Law schools aren't going anywhere anytime soon don't blow through all your attempts or try to brute force it. You only need to win once. just ask yourself in review these questions:
what were the points of failure? What did I do right? What patterns are present? What can I do to get to the next level?
@Christ_Lindholm When you talk about review and having an organized WAJ--what's your strategy for reviewing questions you get wrong/are unsure of? What information do you write down? Additionally, how do you even notice your own patterns? While I'm taking the questions, I'm so focused that sometimes I can't even remember what my thought process was at the time.
Lately I've been so discouraged that each new wrong answer is just massively depressing; just thinking of seeing what I did wrong depresses me. I know this is the wrong way to think about it, because each wrong answer is the opportunity to learn and improve, but frankly at this point each wrong answer just feels like disappointing, sad homework that says 'you suck'.
@Ekathrynkrause totally get it. I was stuck in the 140s for 7 months. I understand your feelings. Before I answer your question I want to say this and its gonna sound very crazy. Have fun with the LSAT. Your going to read that and be like this dude is crazy. But trust me once you learn to have fun with it you may find the score increases come sooner.
Right now you are a pseudo scientist. All you need to do is to put some hypothesis to the test. You can develop theories and approaches that work best for yourself and you get to test them. if you are scoring at a score lower then you want you have to switch up the formula. I eventually learned that I could not brute force my way through this. But every question and I mean literally every question on this thing can be solved by creating a process (Step 1, then step 2, then step 3, then step 4). In my WAJ I made a step by step process for every single question type that works for me. They idea here is that it cannot have too many parts and it cannot also lack direction. heres an example piece of a weaken question approach for you below
Step 1 Read the stimulus and identify the logic gap. Identify all argument parts and Translate if necessary
Step 2 Identify a potential weakness within the argument by checking for dangling variables and asking a "what if"
Step 3 Carefully read through all of the Answer choices.
Step 4 Choose your answer.
Do you see how easy this is? Not super mechanical but it is quick and has a clear goal in mind. You will be incredibly slow in the beginning but as you drill these quick processes into your habits you'll get lighting quick.
This serves another purpose in my WAJ. Because identity statements are not allowed "I feel stupid because I missed this", "i don't have the ability to find this", ETC none have a place in our study. What happens is you become more robotic and this is where the Behaviors come into play. When I do my WAJ journal based on the process approach I can quickly see how I reacted under the stress. Say I am doing a long drill and the time is getting to me on a question. When I go back through and review I can see very quickly where the hiccup was. Step 1 was missed because of stress related to timing issues or Step 4 wasnt enacted right because focus was lost due to looking at the timer (You'd be surprised lol). You can see what corners were cut and you can see what was unintendedly missed. From there you have to modify your testing behavior. But while your testing you need to stay 100% engaged. Each question type in my WAJ has its own tab. All you need to do is put the date above the ones you add and then make a note in the log with the date so you know what your looking for in the next days review.
Do the small things in yours to preserve your drive and momentum.
Here is an example of my WAJ questions. It can vary but I generally stick to this or variations of this and what I've described in my last post.
EXAMPLE:
Date
SCREENSHOT OF QUESTION
Why did you get this question wrong?
Without identity statements describe what step was missed and what happened
write down your logic then Include the behavior. were you feeling anxious due to time? did you skip steps in your process? did you cut any corners? How was you environment? Were you angry because the group chat is blowing up your phone while your trying to study and you cant lock in? Even goofy stuff like that.
What's the pattern in this example?
Describe the exact pattern you see in the stimulus. if it is conditional logic map out all the chains present. Include identifying all the indicator words and articulate what group they belong to. List hypothesis, cause and effect relationships, and everything you see within the premises and conclusion. You will see them again.
How do you do it the correct way?
Now heres the fun part you have to do it a third time. 7 sage lets us do blind review. But I found I needed guided review as well. you can use all the resources in the review of the question but you must in detail write it all out. Pay very close attention to JY and the other experts in explanations . Try to mimic them and what they are saying. But make sure you truly understand the material before moving on. If you missed a step in your process you are going to do the process again but with every step.
Then you come back the next day and just look through it all again. if it feels intuitive great if not make a note in your log and keep revisiting until the skills needed to get it right are intuitive
I understand the core curriculum of logical reasoning and after reading the stimulus and try to comprehend it I usually use POE to try and get to the correct answer choice. I identify the conclusion if there is one. I then tell myself I need something to make the conclusion more or less likely or look for an assumption in the answers if there is one and use POE most of the time. Where am I going wrong?
@adriantriplett I wonder if you can break free from your POE habits. I read and reread Ellen Cassidy's The Loophole and make my own similar loopholes while reading and after reading the stimulus. These Loopholes set me on the right track to a prephrase and that has helped me A LOT to being able identify assumptions, flaws, and errors in the stimulus. Maybe you've heard this a million times but engaging with the stimulus in my head has really helped a lot. For example, I might be like "no author, that makes no sense. Your argument is stupid" or "What? But hows that even possible? What if .... something happened and that means your conclusion that gives us two options isnt possible anymore??". Having these reactions and engagements with the stimulus helps me break down what I'm reading. Also, one more thing if its a super wordy stimulus with like technical topics, I imagine a fictional character telling me this stuff. It just helps me get over that like initial confusion part where I read it and I'm like "huhhh??? What did that mean and I dont get it". I do it also because sometimes after reading a stimulus and I feel like I don't get it, I just panic and completely (I mean COMPLETELY) guess or just ignore my strategies. Then I go into BR and realise actually, the question wasn't a big deal at all.
I'm not sure if you have a WAJ, but as other LSAT-ers have commented, WAJ really does help. Writing down my thoughts on why I chose and AC and what I should do next time has helped me notice my own intuitions and own decisions I make in the timed situation. Like the panic thing, I didn't know until I started noticing the patterns in WAJ. I can't give too much advice since I haven't taken a PT in a while, but I wish you the best of luck and to hang in there. You might benefit from having a tutor who can analyze your step-to-step process. “Every problem has a solution; it may sometimes just need another perspective”!
@DaisukeKaga As far as “blind-reviewing” and using a “WAJ” what would you say is the most efficient and correct way to use them? As I’ve tried but didn’t see any progress.
I was in the same position where I couldn't break into the 160s. I thought I had studied for such a long time and understood everything, but my score was not improving. I thought I knew everything there is to know about the test. After the Nov test, I did a breakdown of my wrong ans type and was brutally honest to myself. I sucked at conditional reasoning, and I was drilling those question types, doing my review, but I never went back and tried to learn it from scratch. Like you, I was also testing out different platforms, and they all had different methods, especially for conditionals, where some of them tell you not to diagram and some of them make you diagram. This was just too much conflicting info, so I decided to stick only with 7sage, and I redid the foundation lessons. I took it really slow and made sure I was understanding every single concept I learned. Even though I felt like I already knew certain things, I still took the time to go through the lessons and figured out that I didn't really know everything. I was also not taking breaks and was constantly thinking about the test so much that I burnt out, and when I would drill, I wouldn't really be focused, so I was studying just for the sake of studying.
I think if you are scoring between 141-145, you would really benefit from redoing the self-study lessons. No matter what your goal score is, I would suggest being in the mindset of getting as many right as possible rather than, for example, getting 15 or 18 correct each section to get to a specific score, imo this causes your brain to skip learning everything in detail. English is also not my first language, so I struggled with grammar, but it got easier when I slowed down instead of panicking. I started at a 141, and my score has gone up so much. The test is quite learnable, I would suggest not quitting if you really want this! I'm happy to chat more and share my experiences with you if that helps! Good luck!
@BishestaTuladhar What methods do you find most effective in your study process? I do put in a considerable amount of time but just need to pinpoint where exactly I’m going wrong.
I don't do BR cause I feel like it wastes my time. I only reattempt the ones I get wrong to see if it is a timing issue. Most of the times it is not timing.
I keep a WAJ and have specific notes about the wrong assumptions I made and what I can do better next time. Sometimes I'll make a silly mistake but I still note it down to see if its a pattern. In the WAJ, its helpful to not just say things like "I rushed" or "I confused A with B" but to look for what you usually miss when you get rushed. Or what mistakes do you tend to make when you are running out of time and how can you be better in those situations? I also use chatgpt to see if there is any mistake pattern I can avoid by copy pasting my WAJ
I come up with a mental check list for questions that I find difficult. For NA questions, I would think, have i highlighted the evidence and the conclusion? Do i understand what assumption the author is making? Am I picking an answer choice that is too broad? too strong?
For RC, the major breakthrough was when I started highlighting opinions, through my WAJ i found out that I constantly picked ACs that mentioned something in the passage but was jumbled up with irrelevant info. The highlight tool also helps me retain info and be focused on what I'm reading instead of just mindlessly going through the passage, definitely make use of it if you are a visual learner
I understand you. I am in the same boat as you are, so my advice might not be the best one out there. However, somebody made me realize not long ago that there was one stupid thing holding me back, and it was believing that I knew and that I understood everything, and I fear that you might be in the same place that I used to be.
Even though I haven't broken the 160s, something that has helped me improve was recognizing that I do not know the content. I don't understand the stimulus when I read it, or the question stem, or the assumptions being made, or the actual flaw; I don't know the strategies, and if I know them, I apply them poorly or even use them when they're not required; I don't know the logic behind the argument, I can't see the logical gaps or the logical jumps, I mistranslate some sentences, I can't locate the premise or the conclusion, and if I do I fail to establish an appropriate connection, sometimes I'm just oblivious to everything. And to be fair, not knowing those things is okay. What's not okay is not knowing those things but telling yourself that you do. That's probably what's hampering your progress. At least it did to me.
That mentality prevented me from seeking other sources, from honing my abilities, even from blind reviewing correctly. I wouldn't tell you to go back to the core curriculum (although maybe you should, this is something I myself have been procrastinating), but I would recommend you to get rid of those thoughts. Once you know that you didn't understand something, and you're honest with yourself, you will feel more motivated to try really hard to understand it.
That's another tip, whenever you answer something incorrectly, don't just fix it during blind review. That's easy, since you already got rid of the most attractive trap answer. Instead, focus on understanding why the wrong answer is wrong and why the right answer is right. Most experts don't tell you this because it sounds fancy: it really makes the difference. And don't let that question go until you make the connection yourself. Don't even see the explanation before you've made the connection yourself. And after you've answered it (whether correctly or incorrectly) then go watch the explanation. Also try to explain to yourself how you got to this or that answer. What steps did you take? Where did you go wrong? What exactly did you need to do in order to make it right? It is hard work. Sometimes I'm just as frustrated. But you will persevere.
Just some general tips that may help. With LR, I often have to review and re-review concepts. Developing that intuitive understanding takes time, so definitely try to compile notes in one place and go back to the drawing board. Flashcards have helped me in this respect. I also strongly recommend The Loophole in LSAT Logical Reasoning as a resource for LR. 7sage was great, but also using this book really is helping me solidify my understanding of LR on a more intuitive level. So much of the LSAT is engaging not only with the questions in the correct way, but the stimulus. The stimulus is SO incredibly important. Keep using your strategy of predicting answers from the stimulus.
For RC, I have really tried to hone in on the "low res" strategy. I've been doing untimed drills (around two passages consecutively) where I really try to engage with the passage. From there, I pause the passage and populate a table from memory where I predict the style, main point, summarize the passage in full (by paragraph), try to identify the author's opinion, and the possible opposing viewpoint. I then unpause and do questions (without referring to the table). I've been seeing more improvement in this regard, especially with how I'm actively reading and retaining info now. I just really had to change how I engage with the passage.
Actively reading and being skeptical for LR and curious for RC has been a game changer for me in this process. If you don't correctly engage with the stimulus, you will struggle with the questions. Same goes for RC. So really hone in on the process of translating the stimuli and passages from memory. With time, it should naturally become intuitive. It seems to me you're focusing a lot on question strategies, which is definitely important. But strategies are ineffective if you don't understand what passages/stimuli say and what reasoning they are using.
As someone who has been studying as long as you have, my biggest mistake in studying was signing up for a test I wasn't prepared for. Last year I signed up for the June and August test, and it set me back at least 4 months and I burned through tens of drills trying to be ready before June. If you cannot say to yourself (based on your recent PT scores) that I am ready for this exam, I highly recommend not signing up. For some people, it motivates them and helps their studies when they have a date to work toward, but I found that both times I signed up prematurely I was studying stressed, having self-confidence issues, focusing on “test-taking strategies," etc. All of which set me back immensely. Don't worry about how long it takes. Once you get your goal score, the time it took will be irrelevant. Keep pushing !
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13 comments
I have a couple questions:
What accuracy do you get if you take untimed questions? And I don't mean untimed on the drilling feature, but still trying to go fast. If you genuinely take as long as you think you need, and think about questions until you are either confident you know the answer, or see no way to narrow it down further with any amount of time. I'm curious because you said you usually can't come up with a prediction. That stands out as the thing that needs to be addressed to improve further. If you go untimed and literally take as long as you want in between reading the stim and question, and the answer choices, are you then able to come up with a prediction? If you are not sure it might be worth practicing taking questions super slowly and literally not being willing to look at the answers until you have at least a general prediction. It doesn't need to be the exact answer, just an description of what a correct answer could look like(this does not apply to some questions, like parallel LR questions, and lots of RC questions). It seems like this is the thing that needs to happen to unlock your improvement. If you have no idea what a correct answer would look like before looking at the answers, then it will be really hard to identify which answer is right just because you have seen it. I would encourage you to do untimed drills and be strict with yourself on coming up with a prediction on all questions where it is possible. Even if it takes 10 minutes per question. And I would even considering adding a wrong prediction journal, where if your prediction was completely off, you write down how you could have made the correct prediction. Even if you get slower now, this is the fundamental LSAT skill that needs to be practiced and I believe it will bear fruit in the long run.
How many questions do you usually complete in timed sections? And what is your accuracy for the easier questions that you complete, compared to your accuracy for the 4 and 5 star questions. It is worth noting that if you have 2 questions, a 1 star question, and a 5 star question. You are better off spending your time to get the 1 star question right 90% of the time, and blindly guessing on the 5 star question, as that is1.1/2 expected right answers, equivalent to almost exactly a 150. If you had instead narrowed both questions down to a 50/50, you'd obviously be expected to get 1/2 right. Which is the equivalent of about a 147. So if you are completing all or nearly all the questions, it is possible you can increase your score by making sure you get the easier questions right, and just guessing the last few which are basically always 4 or 5 star difficulty.
Hey man hang in there. Im also in the same boat as you. I started at a 136 in Jan 2025. I thought I was cooked lol. Did everything studied like my life depended on it, got a tutor, got other study materials and finally got to a 164 on my PTs. But when I took the Jan 2026 exam I actually choked and left with a 146 hahaha. It can be very discouraging but there are so many different skills needed for this exam that it can feel impossible to improve. The secret is though is that its not impossible it just takes time and a lot of effort. You can totally learn it with some sweat equity. In my experience The LSAT is a lifestyle. My official 146 was do to me not adhering to that principle in the end. You got to make sure you get good sleep every night, eat good meals, and most importantly have down time to rest your brain. In the two weeks leading to the exam I was scrambling to get as much information in as possible rather then taking it easy and maintaining strong testing behaviors under stress and this factor alone led to more stress then I was acquainted with. It led to me eventually choking on the LSAT by almost a full 20 points. Remember that it is a marathon and not a race.
This is an exam about Skills, Organization, and Behavior. If you are set on all three then their is no score cap except 180. You need the skills to understand the material. You need the organization to quickly and efficiently review the material in a way that helps you learn the patterns in LR and RC. You need the right behaviors to ensure that the skills are done correctly under the conditions that are given to you. Finally you cannot allow yourself to get demotivated. Do your best forget the rest.
I would suggest stretching your exam date to June to give you a better cushion to study and work really hard at this. But either way with a good attitude and a little bit of elbow grease you'll get there no doubt.
Heres some tips that might help you break out the 140s:
I know this one is going to be annoying but review the fundamentals. If you are in the 140s I promise you it will help break out of it. BUT don't go through it quickly. Go through it slow let it soak in. Choose only 1 set of materials for it at first. For example don't do 7sage and loophole at the same time. You need to go fully through the fundamentals of one first then you can do the others. The reason is that they are all different strategies. I have LSAT friends who are still stuck in plateaus because of this. Be very careful about that.
do your best to review every mistake of your logic and patterns even on the correct answers. In my WAJ I will randomly throw in questions I got right solely to review the patterns. Try your best not to be overconfident in review. Seriously I wasted time not reviewing things I got right.
Make your WAJ organized - Since the Jan 2026 exam my score has increased alot under exact testing conditions solely because I reorganized my WAJ and review it at the start and the end of every session everyday. I can see the patterns and I take notes on my behaviors. This really has helped me make the necessary modifications to get score increases once again.
Get a friend to proctor your PTs. Seriously I've learned so much about my approach since the Jan 2026 exam doing this.
Finally you need to be as objective as possible in the review of your own performance. For example when I got my official score back I didn't dispute the statistics and say its wrong or faulty. I took it as I just need to more work on the stress side of the exam and that's ok. Law schools aren't going anywhere anytime soon don't blow through all your attempts or try to brute force it. You only need to win once. just ask yourself in review these questions:
what were the points of failure? What did I do right? What patterns are present? What can I do to get to the next level?
@Christ_Lindholm When you talk about review and having an organized WAJ--what's your strategy for reviewing questions you get wrong/are unsure of? What information do you write down? Additionally, how do you even notice your own patterns? While I'm taking the questions, I'm so focused that sometimes I can't even remember what my thought process was at the time.
Lately I've been so discouraged that each new wrong answer is just massively depressing; just thinking of seeing what I did wrong depresses me. I know this is the wrong way to think about it, because each wrong answer is the opportunity to learn and improve, but frankly at this point each wrong answer just feels like disappointing, sad homework that says 'you suck'.
@Ekathrynkrause totally get it. I was stuck in the 140s for 7 months. I understand your feelings. Before I answer your question I want to say this and its gonna sound very crazy. Have fun with the LSAT. Your going to read that and be like this dude is crazy. But trust me once you learn to have fun with it you may find the score increases come sooner.
Right now you are a pseudo scientist. All you need to do is to put some hypothesis to the test. You can develop theories and approaches that work best for yourself and you get to test them. if you are scoring at a score lower then you want you have to switch up the formula. I eventually learned that I could not brute force my way through this. But every question and I mean literally every question on this thing can be solved by creating a process (Step 1, then step 2, then step 3, then step 4). In my WAJ I made a step by step process for every single question type that works for me. They idea here is that it cannot have too many parts and it cannot also lack direction. heres an example piece of a weaken question approach for you below
Step 1 Read the stimulus and identify the logic gap. Identify all argument parts and Translate if necessary
Step 2 Identify a potential weakness within the argument by checking for dangling variables and asking a "what if"
Step 3 Carefully read through all of the Answer choices.
Step 4 Choose your answer.
Do you see how easy this is? Not super mechanical but it is quick and has a clear goal in mind. You will be incredibly slow in the beginning but as you drill these quick processes into your habits you'll get lighting quick.
This serves another purpose in my WAJ. Because identity statements are not allowed "I feel stupid because I missed this", "i don't have the ability to find this", ETC none have a place in our study. What happens is you become more robotic and this is where the Behaviors come into play. When I do my WAJ journal based on the process approach I can quickly see how I reacted under the stress. Say I am doing a long drill and the time is getting to me on a question. When I go back through and review I can see very quickly where the hiccup was. Step 1 was missed because of stress related to timing issues or Step 4 wasnt enacted right because focus was lost due to looking at the timer (You'd be surprised lol). You can see what corners were cut and you can see what was unintendedly missed. From there you have to modify your testing behavior. But while your testing you need to stay 100% engaged. Each question type in my WAJ has its own tab. All you need to do is put the date above the ones you add and then make a note in the log with the date so you know what your looking for in the next days review.
Do the small things in yours to preserve your drive and momentum.
Here is an example of my WAJ questions. It can vary but I generally stick to this or variations of this and what I've described in my last post.
EXAMPLE:
Date
SCREENSHOT OF QUESTION
Why did you get this question wrong?
Without identity statements describe what step was missed and what happened
write down your logic then Include the behavior. were you feeling anxious due to time? did you skip steps in your process? did you cut any corners? How was you environment? Were you angry because the group chat is blowing up your phone while your trying to study and you cant lock in? Even goofy stuff like that.
What's the pattern in this example?
Describe the exact pattern you see in the stimulus. if it is conditional logic map out all the chains present. Include identifying all the indicator words and articulate what group they belong to. List hypothesis, cause and effect relationships, and everything you see within the premises and conclusion. You will see them again.
How do you do it the correct way?
Now heres the fun part you have to do it a third time. 7 sage lets us do blind review. But I found I needed guided review as well. you can use all the resources in the review of the question but you must in detail write it all out. Pay very close attention to JY and the other experts in explanations . Try to mimic them and what they are saying. But make sure you truly understand the material before moving on. If you missed a step in your process you are going to do the process again but with every step.
Then you come back the next day and just look through it all again. if it feels intuitive great if not make a note in your log and keep revisiting until the skills needed to get it right are intuitive
I understand the core curriculum of logical reasoning and after reading the stimulus and try to comprehend it I usually use POE to try and get to the correct answer choice. I identify the conclusion if there is one. I then tell myself I need something to make the conclusion more or less likely or look for an assumption in the answers if there is one and use POE most of the time. Where am I going wrong?
@adriantriplett I wonder if you can break free from your POE habits. I read and reread Ellen Cassidy's The Loophole and make my own similar loopholes while reading and after reading the stimulus. These Loopholes set me on the right track to a prephrase and that has helped me A LOT to being able identify assumptions, flaws, and errors in the stimulus. Maybe you've heard this a million times but engaging with the stimulus in my head has really helped a lot. For example, I might be like "no author, that makes no sense. Your argument is stupid" or "What? But hows that even possible? What if .... something happened and that means your conclusion that gives us two options isnt possible anymore??". Having these reactions and engagements with the stimulus helps me break down what I'm reading. Also, one more thing if its a super wordy stimulus with like technical topics, I imagine a fictional character telling me this stuff. It just helps me get over that like initial confusion part where I read it and I'm like "huhhh??? What did that mean and I dont get it". I do it also because sometimes after reading a stimulus and I feel like I don't get it, I just panic and completely (I mean COMPLETELY) guess or just ignore my strategies. Then I go into BR and realise actually, the question wasn't a big deal at all.
I'm not sure if you have a WAJ, but as other LSAT-ers have commented, WAJ really does help. Writing down my thoughts on why I chose and AC and what I should do next time has helped me notice my own intuitions and own decisions I make in the timed situation. Like the panic thing, I didn't know until I started noticing the patterns in WAJ. I can't give too much advice since I haven't taken a PT in a while, but I wish you the best of luck and to hang in there. You might benefit from having a tutor who can analyze your step-to-step process. “Every problem has a solution; it may sometimes just need another perspective”!
@DaisukeKaga As far as “blind-reviewing” and using a “WAJ” what would you say is the most efficient and correct way to use them? As I’ve tried but didn’t see any progress.
I was in the same position where I couldn't break into the 160s. I thought I had studied for such a long time and understood everything, but my score was not improving. I thought I knew everything there is to know about the test. After the Nov test, I did a breakdown of my wrong ans type and was brutally honest to myself. I sucked at conditional reasoning, and I was drilling those question types, doing my review, but I never went back and tried to learn it from scratch. Like you, I was also testing out different platforms, and they all had different methods, especially for conditionals, where some of them tell you not to diagram and some of them make you diagram. This was just too much conflicting info, so I decided to stick only with 7sage, and I redid the foundation lessons. I took it really slow and made sure I was understanding every single concept I learned. Even though I felt like I already knew certain things, I still took the time to go through the lessons and figured out that I didn't really know everything. I was also not taking breaks and was constantly thinking about the test so much that I burnt out, and when I would drill, I wouldn't really be focused, so I was studying just for the sake of studying.
I think if you are scoring between 141-145, you would really benefit from redoing the self-study lessons. No matter what your goal score is, I would suggest being in the mindset of getting as many right as possible rather than, for example, getting 15 or 18 correct each section to get to a specific score, imo this causes your brain to skip learning everything in detail. English is also not my first language, so I struggled with grammar, but it got easier when I slowed down instead of panicking. I started at a 141, and my score has gone up so much. The test is quite learnable, I would suggest not quitting if you really want this! I'm happy to chat more and share my experiences with you if that helps! Good luck!
@BishestaTuladhar What methods do you find most effective in your study process? I do put in a considerable amount of time but just need to pinpoint where exactly I’m going wrong.
@adriantriplett
I don't do BR cause I feel like it wastes my time. I only reattempt the ones I get wrong to see if it is a timing issue. Most of the times it is not timing.
I keep a WAJ and have specific notes about the wrong assumptions I made and what I can do better next time. Sometimes I'll make a silly mistake but I still note it down to see if its a pattern. In the WAJ, its helpful to not just say things like "I rushed" or "I confused A with B" but to look for what you usually miss when you get rushed. Or what mistakes do you tend to make when you are running out of time and how can you be better in those situations? I also use chatgpt to see if there is any mistake pattern I can avoid by copy pasting my WAJ
I come up with a mental check list for questions that I find difficult. For NA questions, I would think, have i highlighted the evidence and the conclusion? Do i understand what assumption the author is making? Am I picking an answer choice that is too broad? too strong?
For RC, the major breakthrough was when I started highlighting opinions, through my WAJ i found out that I constantly picked ACs that mentioned something in the passage but was jumbled up with irrelevant info. The highlight tool also helps me retain info and be focused on what I'm reading instead of just mindlessly going through the passage, definitely make use of it if you are a visual learner
I understand you. I am in the same boat as you are, so my advice might not be the best one out there. However, somebody made me realize not long ago that there was one stupid thing holding me back, and it was believing that I knew and that I understood everything, and I fear that you might be in the same place that I used to be.
Even though I haven't broken the 160s, something that has helped me improve was recognizing that I do not know the content. I don't understand the stimulus when I read it, or the question stem, or the assumptions being made, or the actual flaw; I don't know the strategies, and if I know them, I apply them poorly or even use them when they're not required; I don't know the logic behind the argument, I can't see the logical gaps or the logical jumps, I mistranslate some sentences, I can't locate the premise or the conclusion, and if I do I fail to establish an appropriate connection, sometimes I'm just oblivious to everything. And to be fair, not knowing those things is okay. What's not okay is not knowing those things but telling yourself that you do. That's probably what's hampering your progress. At least it did to me.
That mentality prevented me from seeking other sources, from honing my abilities, even from blind reviewing correctly. I wouldn't tell you to go back to the core curriculum (although maybe you should, this is something I myself have been procrastinating), but I would recommend you to get rid of those thoughts. Once you know that you didn't understand something, and you're honest with yourself, you will feel more motivated to try really hard to understand it.
That's another tip, whenever you answer something incorrectly, don't just fix it during blind review. That's easy, since you already got rid of the most attractive trap answer. Instead, focus on understanding why the wrong answer is wrong and why the right answer is right. Most experts don't tell you this because it sounds fancy: it really makes the difference. And don't let that question go until you make the connection yourself. Don't even see the explanation before you've made the connection yourself. And after you've answered it (whether correctly or incorrectly) then go watch the explanation. Also try to explain to yourself how you got to this or that answer. What steps did you take? Where did you go wrong? What exactly did you need to do in order to make it right? It is hard work. Sometimes I'm just as frustrated. But you will persevere.
Sorry to hear that.
Just some general tips that may help. With LR, I often have to review and re-review concepts. Developing that intuitive understanding takes time, so definitely try to compile notes in one place and go back to the drawing board. Flashcards have helped me in this respect. I also strongly recommend The Loophole in LSAT Logical Reasoning as a resource for LR. 7sage was great, but also using this book really is helping me solidify my understanding of LR on a more intuitive level. So much of the LSAT is engaging not only with the questions in the correct way, but the stimulus. The stimulus is SO incredibly important. Keep using your strategy of predicting answers from the stimulus.
For RC, I have really tried to hone in on the "low res" strategy. I've been doing untimed drills (around two passages consecutively) where I really try to engage with the passage. From there, I pause the passage and populate a table from memory where I predict the style, main point, summarize the passage in full (by paragraph), try to identify the author's opinion, and the possible opposing viewpoint. I then unpause and do questions (without referring to the table). I've been seeing more improvement in this regard, especially with how I'm actively reading and retaining info now. I just really had to change how I engage with the passage.
Actively reading and being skeptical for LR and curious for RC has been a game changer for me in this process. If you don't correctly engage with the stimulus, you will struggle with the questions. Same goes for RC. So really hone in on the process of translating the stimuli and passages from memory. With time, it should naturally become intuitive. It seems to me you're focusing a lot on question strategies, which is definitely important. But strategies are ineffective if you don't understand what passages/stimuli say and what reasoning they are using.
As someone who has been studying as long as you have, my biggest mistake in studying was signing up for a test I wasn't prepared for. Last year I signed up for the June and August test, and it set me back at least 4 months and I burned through tens of drills trying to be ready before June. If you cannot say to yourself (based on your recent PT scores) that I am ready for this exam, I highly recommend not signing up. For some people, it motivates them and helps their studies when they have a date to work toward, but I found that both times I signed up prematurely I was studying stressed, having self-confidence issues, focusing on “test-taking strategies," etc. All of which set me back immensely. Don't worry about how long it takes. Once you get your goal score, the time it took will be irrelevant. Keep pushing !