Self-study
This is more of a "can I jump from low 150s to like a 160+" question and whether it's possible to achieve by the August exam. I am ready to give it my all. Would appreciate it if anyone can speak from their experiences and let me know how plausible this dream of mine is!
(I took it in April officially, studied consistently for 3 and a half months. Had to take an involuntary break between April and basically now, urgently need to get back on the grind for August)
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3 comments
In my opinion, people who are scoring below the high 150s likely have some key gaps that could lead to major breakthroughs and, with it, score jumps.
Translating accuracy: You're potentially not doing the best job at taking what the stim is saying which prepares you to tackle what the question is going to present you. When you leave the stim, you should have an idea of what's the flaw in argument, what the premises would be adding up to, where the point of disagreements and agreements are, or what could resolve the paradox
You don't need to always have a "prephrase" but your reading should automatically have you oriented to think about these things
Translating speed: This goes hand-in-hand with the prior point and is obviously also important. Accurately understanding what the stim says is great but you need to be able to do that in a timely manner. Get more and more comfortable with translation drills and over time this will come naturally if you commit to it
Self-assessment: Do you know your own weaknesses? Where are you consistently falling in the same pitfalls? What are things you can do to prime yourself going into a type of question?
7Sage analytics are a good start for this, letting you focus on specific question or passage types. However, you should also be working on being able to do this both without needing the analytics to tell you which things you can improve on but also so you can deeper understand what is leading you to getting the wrong answer instead of the right one. This is where Wrong Answer Journals are clutch so you can spot not just what question times are tripping you up but also so you can reflect on how you're making a mistake consistently
Anything is possible, friend!
An eight-point improvement within two months is far from too ambitious. In my experience, it's a very realistic outcome when someone has a solid plan and is able to dedicate consistent time and effort to the process.
The biggest improvements tend to come from building a clear top-down framework that governs every question. The goal is to approach each problem through a repeatable process rather than relying on instinct or making ad hoc decisions from question to question. That structure raises the floor of your performance, keeps the analysis organized, and makes consistency under timed conditions much easier to achieve.
Once that foundation is in place, you can focus on the question-level skills: identifying what the question is actually asking, locating the relevant portion of the argument, determining what type of answer is required, and applying the appropriate answer process. When those skills become structured and repeatable, score fluctuations tend to decrease significantly.
That, in turn, creates more bandwidth to develop deeper fluency with the specifics that separate good scores from great ones.
So yes, I think two months is plenty of time to make an eight-point jump. The key isn't just working hard—it's making sure the work is organized, structured, and building toward a repeatable system of execution.
I hope that helps!
Scott