Self-paced
Hi everyone!
I am aiming to write the test for the first time this August and am hoping for above 165. However, I would be happy with anything remotely close to score as well (162-170). I am planning to write the September exam as well, just to give myself another few weeks after the August date to see if I can improve.
For reference, I have been studying about 10-15 hours a week fairly consistently since around mid February. Most of my studying up until this point has been going through the 7Sage curriculum, reading The Loophole by Ellen Cassidy, picking at the Kaplan LSAT prep book, and I have been working with a tutor to hone in my reading comp/logic skills for the past 3 weeks.
I feel like I have been fairly successful in bringing up my score. Two years ago I wrote a diagnostic and only scored a (devastating) 127. This past December, I decided to try again and managed to get a 143. Since February, I have put in around 170 hours of studying and have managed to bring my score up to mid to high 150s on practice tests and sections. On blind reviews I routinely get into the mid to high 160s, and sometimes the 170s.
With only 2 months left till August, the countdown is on and I am open to any tips you may have on how to effectively break into the 160s before August!!!!
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3 comments
Hey there!
First, congrats on the score growth you've already seen! That's no minor achievement.
When we see gaps between PT scores and BR scores like this, that's a sign that there's a lot of room for growth in your testing strategy. You clearly have a good understanding of the concepts, so let's put you in the best position to use them!
After you're done with your BR, go back and look at the questions that you missed the first time around, but got right on BR. Are there any trends there? If it's consistently happening with the same question types, that's a sign that you may not be as comfortable with that question type yet. Regardless, for all questions you get wrong, think about your process. Do you identify the main conclusion of a stimulus first? Do you pre-phrase? If you get stuck, do you have a plan for how to proceed?
Play around with your timing strategies. You can do this on drills, too. What's your criteria for flagging a question, guessing, and moving on? After you've answered a question, do you move on, or do you hang on second-guessing yourself?
One thing I've found extremely beneficial is to lower your standards for flagging. Your first pass over the ACs are to get rid of wrong options (and if you find the right answer, great! choose it and move on). Your second pass, if you need it, is to find the right one. After that, you've got to guess, flag it, and move on. If you're less than 90% sure something's the right answer, put it, flag it, and move on. If you commit to this strategy, you'll probably have around 10+ flags, but you'll also have about 10 minutes left, and only half of those flags turn out to be questions that you actually have to redo.
Your first run through of a section is to make sure you get to all the questions you feel confident about, so you can make sure you get those easy points rather than having to rush through them at the end. After that, you know exactly how much time you have left to chip away at the tougher ones.
Best of luck!
All best,
Phoebe
I'm in the same boat so I don't really have advice but good luck!!!! hoping for similar results in the fall as well :)
@misoegg Good luck to you as well!