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I was in a very similar position to you; I got a score in high 160s on September 2018 LSAT and was out of practice tests. I re-took in November and got a 173 (I went -1 on RC). Here's what I did from September to November: I took 3 practice tests a week at 9AM (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). In the afternoon, I would blind review the LR and re-do the LG without time constraints. I never blind reviewed the Reading Comp. Reading comp and LG were my weakest sections. For that, every Tuesday and Thursday, I would just crank through practice sets: RC in the morning and LG in the afternoon. Set the filter on hard & hardest on the 7sage Question Bank and print out 20 tests worth. I then did each passage and corresponding questions individually. I'd set a stopwatch and go through it. Then, I'd review it and check the answers. The goal is -0 in under 8 minutes.

Anyway, that's what worked for me. I didn't do the VIEWSTAMP method or JY's method; I just tried to be really clearly in my mind about what the argument was & how it was structured before I went to the questions. My opinion is that RC just requires a lot of reps. Since it is the least fun, I think people spend the least amount of time on it. If it's what your weakest section is, just try to spend a lot of time doing it.

Thanks for laying this out! I think I might try doing what you did. This is super helpful because it's hard to know where to start for the retake in terms of structure for studying. Just to clarify: since you were pretty much out of PTs like I am, you were re-taking PTs MWF, and drilling practice sets from tests you had already done T Th?

For RC: 1) Did you take a few seconds after you read to go over the passage in your mind, or did you just jump straight into the questions? 2) Do you have any tips for tackling the very detail-oriented passages?

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I am in the same position as you here. My average PT on last 5 leading up to Jan test was right around 170 and I hit a 168. I have burned through most recent material as well and am really struggling to bump my PT up to 173-175range which is what I think I need to feel confident that I will actually hit 170+ on test day. I have heard some people say that reusing can be a great tool as long as it’s been awhile. If you are getting the same questions wrong twice you really have a great idea on what you need to focus on.

What section gives you most trouble? For me it is typically RC and I just have not been able to get better than -5ish pretty much since I started getting in the 160s range.

Thanks for the tip on reusing PTs! And same--- RC is really what trips me up, as well as the 26 question LR section.

Let me know how you're progressing! Good luck!

Thanks, same to you. Any tips from om improving RC? I would love to get to a point where I can actually dominate this section like logic games. Is that even possible ? The 7 sage method has never really clicked for me and I feel like on actual test day the nerves make this even harder because of the extended focus it requires. This is also the section that I just have improved the least in since I started studying for the lsat. Don’t have exact numbers but I would imagine I have only gotten 2-3 questions better on this.

I totally feel you. I had been doing the VIEWSTAMP method which definitely helped me get from like -12 to -5, but I also need to be getting much lower and I'm looking to just blast through the section. I was going to try JY's memory method since I have never tried it before -- do you mind explaining a bit why it didn't work for you?

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I am in the same position as you here. My average PT on last 5 leading up to Jan test was right around 170 and I hit a 168. I have burned through most recent material as well and am really struggling to bump my PT up to 173-175range which is what I think I need to feel confident that I will actually hit 170+ on test day. I have heard some people say that reusing can be a great tool as long as it’s been awhile. If you are getting the same questions wrong twice you really have a great idea on what you need to focus on.

What section gives you most trouble? For me it is typically RC and I just have not been able to get better than -5ish pretty much since I started getting in the 160s range.

Thanks for the tip on reusing PTs! And same--- RC is really what trips me up, as well as the 26 question LR section.

Let me know how you're progressing! Good luck!

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@ do you listen to the Thinking LSAT podcast? If not you should listen to episode 64 (it’s on Spotify) where they talk about inference questions in RC. Basically, they say that the way those “inference” q’s are worded in the question stem is misleading and ppl tend to think that we have to go deep into the author’s head and find a speculative answer choice while we should actually be treating these q’s as must be true q’s that will be supported by the passage, just like every other q. I miss a lot of these as well and I’m gonna try this tip to see if it helps!

No, I've never heard of this podcast -- I'll give it a listen! Thanks for the recommendation!

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Hey! You have an amazing score already and I would love to be getting below 5 as well. I feel like I get that only sometimes though. How were you able to get it consistently -4 or -5?

I was wondering if you're still missing those questions when you BR. If yes, then you simply don't understand it...but if not, then clearly you do get it, and it's just a timing issue. I suggest that you drill some more RC, BR each and every one to figure out what the issue is.

To be honest, even if it just -4 or -5, that is still amazing! You can try to minimize even more on LR and LG. Don't stress too much and I would love if you can share some tips!

Honestly, I found it very useful to confirm every answer in the passage. People stress retaining the passage info so that you don't have to look back, but I have found it very useful. Before, I didn't have enough speed to do it, but now that I'm going fast enough, confirming each answer really helps. I also just try to remember that 4 of the answer choices are 100% wrong. Infer questions are my main problem area.