This is of course something that is so welcome and I am not trying to second-guess myself AT ALL (especially since I am taking the September exam lol). However, I just feel like this is a fluke since I feel like my PTs have never broken into the 170s before and I very consistently fall into -5 LRs, especially with conditional reasoning mistakes. Any advice on trying to replicate this come test day?
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This is amazing congrats! It's a bit irrelevant but did you have times when you were scoring in mid-160s? What do you think helped you get into the 170s? I am taking the October test and I really need to bridge the gap from my BR which I have been scoring 170+
Also, good luck in your September LSAT!
@j_w180 i have been stuck in the mid-160s for months. I think what helped me was:
Drilling my weakest questions in sets of 10 and taking a lot of time to go over my mistakes on the drills.
Finally making a wrong answer journal and realizing that I had a pattern on necessary assumption qs so I went back to review the basics there. Turns out there was a glaring concept gap! I’d really recommend doing this even though it’s a bit of a pain. The analytics tab on 7sage documents your recent sections and drills so you have all of your wrong answers in 1 place and I just made it on a Google sheet.
Meditating and thinking positive thoughts: hear me out on this one it’s not all woo-woo. I struggle with anxiety during the PT which affects my performance. Meditating before the test helped sharpen my focus and I’m going to try to meditate every day until I take it. I also took about 30 minutes before the PT to just think about things that I valued about myself completely separate and apart from the LSAT and times that I felt valued by other people. There is science behind it—lower cortisol levels prevent panic and brain fog and higher serotonin help you access the rational part of your brain. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227594603_The_Power_of_Positive_Recollections_Reducing_Test_Anxiety_and_Enhancing_College_Student_Efficacy_and_Performance
The TL;DR is that I finally confronted what I’ve been doing wrong (though believe me I’m sure there’s more which is why I’m still scared lol) and then really tried to amp up my focus and mindset. I hope this helps, and wishing you the very best of luck!!!
@Jaf299 Thank you so much for such a detailed response! Truly appreciate your time writing it! I also struggle a lot with test anxiety so thank you for mentioning it too!
conditional reasoning is honestly something that you could fix and resolve within a couple weeks of drilling and is well worth it. are you missing the odd 'must be true' conditional reasoning questions or the parallel flaw questions? i basically stalled my practicing for 2 weeks just to drill purely conditional reasoning problems and now they're my stronger question type.
@KennyPowers33 i drilled Conditional Reasoning (lotsa must be true type questions) and necessary assumption questions for weeks, improved by a lot, then slumped right back into my averages until today. Hence the worries! But thank you for the suggestion. I will continue to drill
out of curiosity, what is your average LR compared to your average RC? -1 is insanely impressive
@KennyPowers33 it’s actually not that different. LR is -5 and RC is -4 lol. I just improved recently and that is why I’m worried it won’t stick. I finally started writing down the low res summaries, and even though I don’t actually refer to them while I’m looking at the questions, I think it helps my brain retain each paragraph more effectively.
@Jaf299 i might go back to doing that tbh. i was at a consistent -1 and -2 on RC for like 5-6 tests but then dropped to -4-5 recently. i've also been taking tests after poor sleep and stuff but that probably only partially explains it. if u need help with LR tho let me know i have been consistently -2-1 across my last 10 tests
@KennyPowers33 Thank you! I think I am just gonna hit the books for the next 6 days though. I appreciate it!
@KennyPowers33 any tips for drilling conditional reasoning? I’m basically just doing 5 question sets here on 7sage but wondering if you have any additional insights as it feels doable just something you have to work at.
@emill1517 i would start by doing like 5-10 question drills on parallel flaw, must be true, sufficient assumption questions under conditional reasoning tags, so you get extra reps practicing drawing arrows and diagramming. do them untimed until you have very good accuracy. mainly focus on getting an intuitive sense of once you see a conditional sentence like 'no Y unless X' you can mentally picture that it means Y>>>X and /X>>>>/Y. overall well worth practicing because at least 5 questions across both LR sections depend on conditional reasoning in some way, even if its a simple sufficiency necessity confusion in a flaw question. the main way i realized i had improved was that i could instantly visualize what a conditional statement is saying quickly, which simply requires practice on the aforementioned question types. Good luck! tip: when i see a relationship like 'all Xs are Y', it helps me personally to think in 'if-then' form, so the sentence means, 'if X, then Y, if not Y, then not X'.
@KennyPowers33 thank you!