Self-study
Looking for advice for anyone who has actually done the above??? Especially those who struggle with LR.
Planning for September Test. I study every day, usually at least 2-3 hours on weekdays, try to get up to 4-5 hours on weekend days. LR is my enemy... I consistently get about -6 when I do a timed section. That hasn't moved in a month. Almost all my wrong answers are in the last 5-6 questions. When I BR, I usually get between -2 to -3.
RC comes pretty naturally to me, but still will get about -4 to -6 per section (BR around -0 to -1). Science is my worst topic, but I think it's pretty possible for me to only get -1 to -3 on RC with more repetition, so I'm less worried. I split about 80/20 LR to RC when studying.
Feels like no matter what I do I can't move the LR score. Any tips???
*Not trying to be an LSAT wizard, but I can only go to NYC metro area schools, because I have kids and can't move for school. Most schools I need a 168+ with the GPA I have to even get into the lower tiered ones.
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16 comments
As someone who also went from 1ow 160s to 170/171 (at least on PTs), I think it's possible but I would make sure you're really emphasizing the quality rather than quantity of hours you're studying. Really digging deep into why you're attracted to the wrong answer choices and really engaging with the questions analytically will help you get there. It took me longer than 2.5 months but that's only because I kept putting assumptions into the answer choices and tried making them right. Took me some time to get out of doing that but once I did, I started scoring 168-170!
@ZKhan thank you! I do think this is my trap, like one of the other commenters said about default relying on intuition as a trap. This definitely helps reinforcing its quality over quantity.
100% possible! Lots of my students have done this.
Hey! I literally started with a diagnostic of 154 in May and no previous exposure to the LSAT. i've been consistent at achieving 168-174 in all my PTs, so in 2.5 months it is 100% possible. i've been studying 4-8 hours every day, so it's just being consistent and putting in enough time and real review of wrong answers not quick skim, but really closing that knowledge gap.
@Andreyd0925 Thank you!! This helps to hear!
@Andreyd0925 how do you recommend doing a review of the wrong answers? I find that once I see the explanation the answer seems so obvious but I am finding a hard time getting the answers from my intuition!
@AshmiBoora825 Hey! This might be a long response, it's helping me as well as hopefully you to put things into perspectives.
The answers can not come from intuition that's the most detrimental thing in my opinion, but I do see what you mean by when you see the answer you think it's obvious I had the same problem. The LSAT is standardized and very repetitive, so each answer choice has a specific reason why it is incorrect even if it could be correct without the real answer there.
If you haven't worked through the 7sage curriculum definitely do it, was very useful to me. As far as an answer being obvious, for me I had to convince myself to stop trusting my intuition and when I'm reading the stimulus in LR I think of different flaws made (most LR stimulus are flawed even when it is not a flaw question.) Finding those flaws before I even get the chance to look at any answer helps me eliminate attractive answers that appeal to intuition.
I'm unsure what you're scoring at right now, but I think if you're below 175s (myself included) 80% of the time you get an answer wrong it is a logical issue that must be addressed and why what you thought the case was is not the case. Correct answers are obvious to me as well, but why did I pick the other one? I think for most it's because of what I was talking about, we don't see that relationship of flaws made while reading and once it has been identified for us it clicks, but we must practice seeing those flaws ourselves.
Also something that helps me is thinking of the stimuli as I read it and visualize what is happening or apply it to situations familiar to me.
Hey there! Not easy, but totally possible!
The gap between your PT and your BR is very telling. You're getting the score you want in BR, so it's just a matter of closing that gap!
If you don't already, focus your studying on the question types that you're missing from those last 5-6 questions. Quality is much more important than quantity. The first step is understanding why you chose the answer you did, and why that wasn't the move. What are you specifically going to do differently on a similar question? Something like "read better," is too vague; try to make it concrete!
Once you have that, try doing drills of no more than 5-6 questions, all one question type each. Untimed at first, until you're consistently hitting 100%. Develop a "toolbox" for what your game plan is when you hit a particularly difficult question of a certain type. If it's NA, do you ID the conclusion & premises, then find the gap? Do you re-read the stimulus?
Generally, those last 5-6 are especially hard due to their dense stimuli. Get comfortable with breaking those down, and putting the argument in your own words.
If you go through the ACs one time and don't see what you're looking for, go back to the stimulus. Try and pre-phrase as much as possible. The LSAT is really good at making wrong answers sound right; we minimize the risk of this by trying to know as much as possible about what the right answer might contain.
I hope that helps, and happy studying!
@PhoebeHopp Thank you! This is very helpful! That's actually fairly close to my current routine (using my worst tagged questions for untimed drills) , so helps so much knowing I'm on the right track.
hi! I am also studying for the LSAT for September. My biggest tip would be to consider buying the loophole on amazon! It has 12 chapters with drills and really makes you think differently. There are many drills in there to help you. I finished it and it has helped so much for LR. I went from 12/25 to a 20/25.
@RubiOrellana Hey! I'm finding two different loophole books: a blue one by ellen cassidy and a black one by jordan diola. Do you know which one you used?
@Aubrey.Raile hey there, it's my understanding typically people use the one by Ellen Cassidy (the green one), but I can't guarantee I'm correct. If you find out that the Cassidy one is the book you wish to use, she's currently in the final stages of creating her LR focused online course. I'm not sure if it is open for everyone yet, but as someone who purchased the book, I have been getting emails about her course opening in beta, so it may be something for you to look into more!
@RubiOrellana Thank you! I'll check this out!
@Aubrey.Raile yes like GreyHugli said it is the green one by ellen! Her explanations are super great and definitely help with how to approach questions
@RubiOrellana @GreyHugli thank you guys!
@RubiOrellana sidenote for anyone consodering buying her book, don’t waste your time on those translation drills. It was a complete waste of time for me when I could’ve just been reading the stimuli directly.