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Taking the August LSAT in 9 days, and the September one. Do I need to complete an Arg. Writing sample before both, or only once?
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bastodurand134
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- Apr 2025
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bastodurand134
Monday, Jul 28
@ said:
Try taking a week off, no bs, no lsat, just vibes. Also stop drinking if you haven't done that
You think that would help? Im a very every day long gym and ling study guy. Everyday this summer Ive lifted and then studied, i have been feeling very burnt out recently, making more ‘stupid’ mistakes in the lower difficulty questions, and losing the edge I was getting on the hard questions
I have taken 10 PTs, over the last 2 months, and eliminating outlier of 156, EVERY SINGLE PT has been between a 159 and 162. I felt bad at the beginning, and then thought I was getting better, and now have felt poor on these last couple of PTs again, this is worse than jumping around. Spending 3 hours a day to score in the range of 4 points is ridiculous. I have the august LSAT coming up in 2 weeks. I've been studying 3 hours everyday, I've tried changing up strategies for LR, going faster at the beginning, slower at the end, but this is still just giving me the same curve of wrong ACs.
bastodurand134
Saturday, Jun 28
@ said:
General advice without knowing more information:
Do you get almost every single question wrong on the passage just when it's in a timed section? Untimed? Stand alone passage? You mention timing to be an issue, so it'd be helpful to know if you still have trouble with it if you eliminate that aspect.
Psychologically you have to treat the 5-star passage the same as a 1-star passage: apply the same skills, don't stress just because you know or think that it is more difficult.
I'm not sure. I've never really operated under an untimed drill before, any non hard capped drill i still try to treat it like it is; definetly something I can try.
It is most definetly a physcological thing too, I find that I either understand a passage really well or I dont understand it at all, then I get to the hard questions on the hard passage, and let those ACs shape what I discerned of what I read, and then probably am operating under a very false interpretation of the passage. What I recently realized was that my timing was way off because I was writing too much, and on my most recent preptest I saw that I was making good time, and thought I was ahead on time, which I wasn't i was right on time, and started dragging my feet, getting me to the point where Im finishing reading a 5 star passage quickly with 4 mins to answer 7 questions, which definetly tied into a poor preformance.
im more 'concerned' about how people get over the mental hurdle of reading what the passage says, and knowing that I have no idea what I just read and going into the questions to not get every question wrong
Basically, im in the range now of trying to get my LR average from -6/-5 to the -4 range, and my RC is also holding me back, Im consistently get -6 to -8 range every RC section almost singlehandedly because I get rocked my 1 passage. Ive been trying to fix my timing issues on RC and its been helpful, but on my last PT i didnt leave enough time to really get at a passage, and it was in this 5 star passage I saw a common trend with my other PTs. I consistently get maybe 1 or 2 questions wrong on the easier passages, and on the 4 and 5 star ones ill get almost every single question wrong, what did you guys do who had a similar problem?
As my title suggests, I'm wondering what the odds are of either one of these occuring, if I had to guess, id say 3 lr section is a little more common than 2 lr but thats just speculation. Im equally good (actually bad) at both sections, but LR is way more fun for me, something about the RCs are just very annoying, not harder but Id rather do 3 LRs, so I find i try to take the 3 LR section PTs rather than 2 LR ones. Added a poll too because no one ever uses them and I think theyre cool
bastodurand134
Friday, Jul 25
UPDATE:
I just tried this 15 in 15 strategy for the first time in a timed LR drill, although it felt like I had more flagged questions than I usually do in the first 15, I ended up going with the strategy that if I saw an AC I liked I wouldn't second guess myself too strongly, and to just flag it if it was a question I'd normally go back to look at. Ended up getting the first 22 correct, definetly beneficial giving me slightly more time on the late teens and early 20s, allowing me to tie my best ever LR section of a -3 (which I think was more of a fluke on an EXP section than a testament to my skills a month ago).
This is just the first of many times I will test this 15 in 15 strategy in timed sections before August and Sept LSATs. Emphasizing good drilling near target time, and then relying on my strong foundation to get me through the first 15.
bastodurand134
Friday, Jul 25
@ said:
Hi! I do the first 10 in 10 because with the more recent tests I have seen 4-5 star difficulty questions be mixed into questions 11-15, so I no longer found it worth the risk to do the first 15 in 15. I definitely still try to move through 11-15 quickly (not rushed, but yk what I mean); I would just argue that I am much more strict on the first 10 in 10 than I am on finishing questions 11-15 within that time frame. I also only drill curvebreakers for my smaller drills, so this has helped me move a bit faster towards the end of the section, which opens the door for more ample review of previous questions before submission.
What do you mean by curvebreakers?
Like the title suggests, I want to try to give myself more time with the harder questions.
I was thinking of moving my 10 Lr in 10 minutes to 15 in 15, leaving 20 minutes for 16-25.
My new strategy would be:
1-15 in 15 mins (1 min per)
16-22 in 13 mins (1:50 per)
23-25 + Review in 7 mins (1:30 per question, accounting for the PFs/PRs, and 2:30 mins for review, which could be alloted to 1-15 or 16022 if they're especially challenging)
Today I scored a 161/162 for the 5th time in 10 PTs, most of my others have been about the same range, 159/160. Today's 161 was the best I've done on a PT across all 4 sections, -6 (RC), -4 (LR), -6 (LR), -6 (LR). To get a 165+, you need to get 14 or less incorrect; Today was -18 (-6 x 3), but was the best cumulative 4 section score I've gotten. I have found myself improving drastically in drilling, following close to target time results, I'll do drills of my weakest type, 4 and 5 star NA/SA/Weakening, and get very, very few wrong. But when it comes time to test, I feel like I find it very hard to get the 5 star Q's right, in drilling I have no problem with them (comparatively). Still, maybe due to the mental fatigue of an entire section, I find myself getting almost every question (~90-95% accuracy 1-4 stars) right up until the 5 stars, and then have my sections fall apart (specifically in LR) from 17-25. What should I do to remedy this? I drill 15 LRs and aim for ~18-20 minutes target time, and 2 passage RCs ~17-19 minutes target time.
What did others do to break out of this pre-165 bump. I take the august in 2 weeks, my hope is that I can put it all together before then and get a 165, if not, my more reasonable test for this achievement is september.
I know of some LSAT demon strategies, that I've read recently, where some people say go for 100% accuracy, guess on the last, this is surely interesting. But I've been trying to do, and do successfully, 10 questions in 10 minutes, and then 15 in 25. I think I'm going to change my strategy to 15 questions in 15 minutes, and then leave 20 for the last 10, as I feel myself needlessly dragging my feet through 11-15.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Today the sign up for the august lsat opens, but the remote option which i am taking does not open till july 24/25th, i signed up for strongly preferred remote, will I get an email when the remote scheduling opens? Or will i get an email every time a new day opens remote and in person? Or do i not get an email at all and have to do something else? I dont want to miss it
bastodurand134
Saturday, Jun 21
@ said:
Do you understand them when you review?
Yes, I’d like to say with all but a few of the LSATs most ridiculous questions, review shines a clarifying light on all my mistakes, and in drilling I get a significantly higher proportion of these hard questions right. I’ve been thinking on it the past couple of hours and I think I’m doing myself 2 disservices during timed sections; firstly, I am very good with the 1-3 star questions and get 90% of them right, and Ive realized i linger too long making sure my intuition is correct leaving myself slightly time constrained in the backhalf. Secondly, I never skip questions, except for long PFR ones, and I am now starting to understand the benefit of skipping some of these ridiculous NA, SA, and Weaken ones specifically; its better to get 2 questions right in 5 minutes, than to get 4 wrong in 5 minutes…
I'm not sure why this is happening, because in drilling I get a significantly higher percentage of 5 star questions right, but over my only 4 PTs, I must be averaging somewhere like 20% of 5 star questions correct. Everything else is okay for my goal of 165, 1-3 star questions are almost flawless, 4 star questions are about where I need to be, but the 5 star questions are what is seriously inhibiting me from breaking past this low 160 rut. Im scheduled to take the LSAT in about 40 days. What should I do to overcome this 165 rut? I need a 165
My general goal is to get my LR average down to -4 or 5 per section (and i've just achieved this for the first time on my most recent PT), but that was met with by far my worst RC score of -11. I usually drill anywhere from 30-40 LR a day, at about 80-85% accuracy as I continue to improve, I do it faster, and spend less time going over wrong ACs, and I feel as though Im at the point now where my LR is about good to begin to focus on my RC for the last 3.5 weeks before August Lsat, and 7 before September LSAT. I almost never do RC drills, and don't really know how to go about it. Usually when I drill I drill 1 or 2 passages, and I end up doing pretty well, or really bad, usually not in between. I think the main thing thats been bothering me during PTs is I feel as though Im too slow, what would you recommend? Doing 4 passage drills aiming for 35 no matter what?
I'm trying to work now to get my RC score down to the -5 range, and I'm drilling a lot on the passage types im bad at, and most of the hard or hardest passages I'll get 2 or 3 wrong, and on the easier ones, 1 or 2 maybe, if I get a good selection of passages its likely I;ll be in that -6 range. EXCEPT for spotlight passages; something about spotlight passages just doesn't click for me, there's a majority 1 star or 2 star passages where I'll get straight up 4 out of 6 or 7 ACs wrong, and I don't understand why, does anyone have any tips? I'm confident my LR will be at -4/5 for August/Sept LSAT, but if I can't get my RC out of the -7/8 zone I won't be able to get a 165
As the title implies, I don't really train RC that much, I've been focusing on LR in order to get my average down to ~ -5, and hopefully -4, before August test, but I rally haven't drilled RC much, maybe 1 passage for every 40 LR questions. RC is much harder to improve on for some, and I was so tunnel visioned on trying to improve my LR, that I think my RC average of ~6.5 has only consistently gotten worse, with my worst preformance being over these past 2 days, when drilling a couple of spotlight 1 star passages I've gotten 4 or 5 wrong on each. Maybe Im just really bad at spotlight, as it is my worst passage, but I keep being shocked by the results of the passage, seeing ive gotten almost all wrong on a 1 star. Any tips?
Does the Official Proctored LSAC Test look EXACTLY like the LawHub Practice Test Format? I just tried 1 question and found the layout so different I couldn't focus LOL
Will there be an actual human, at least at the beginning, of my LSAT? I had an issue with the Argumentative Writing where I couldn't get my external camera to focus on my ID, but wasn't able to switch to my internal camera (which has better focus for reading IDs) because if I tried to switch the recording stopped. I wasn't worried about it though, because the writing sample is very low stakes, and they just asked me to email them a picture of the same ID I was trying to scan. But I do not want to make the same mistake on the real test day and have my score get canceled or something. Maybe I'll try holding a picture on my phone of my ID to help the camera, as some people have said that helped them get a picture; but just wondering if there's someone I will be able to converse or that will actually be watching me during the test.
I am aiming for a 165 on August/September LSAT, I've been sitting in the low 160s, but have made massive gains in LR. For example, I just had my best LR section today, scoring a -2 on a tough (3 star difficulty) PT section. To couple that, I've been trying to get my LR down to the -3/4 range to give myself more wiggle room on RC. For some reason RC has just not improved, if any maybe become worse. I just did a 15 question drill, on 2 tough art/spotlight passages (my 2 worst by far) and got 8/15 wrong. (Lol) What am I doing wrong with RC??? I feel like a lot of the time I read the tough passages I kind of just have no idea what the fuck is going on, get to the questions and try to fill in the gaps with my wrong ACs, and kinda exacerbate my passage ignorance.
bastodurand134
Thursday, Jul 03
@ said:
don't think of your study time as "wasting time". It's an investment! part of doing well on the test can depend on the mindset that you have when studying. As a pessimist, I will say that I have seen some improvement from just going into pts and drills with a positive mindset. You are at least in a decent scoring range and your score would suggest that you do have a grasp the foundational concepts of the LSAT. I think at this point for you, you need to really scrutinize your mistakes. Are you getting certain question types wrong consistently? are you losing the most points towards the end of a section? How often are you changing correct answers to wrong answers? These are some of the things to consider to really weed out your weaknesses. It's easy to get lost in the score sauce, so it's critical that you trust the process and make note of the small wins you make each time you study. Hope this helps a little!
It's definetly mindset dependent at some point, but that doesn't affect me too much. For the types of questions I get wrong, its usually the classic, the hard SA/NA/Weaken, and APs that i've gotten much better at. But the strength of questions I get wrong went from my first couple of tests being 1 star: ~95% accuracy, 2 star: ~90% accuracy, 3 star: ~90% accuracy, 4 star: ~65% accuracy, 5 star: ~25% accuracy; and i realized oh man my 5 star accuracy is really bad. So i changed how I went about the test, I try to go through the first 10 questions in 10 minutes, and I do this pretty well, to give me 25 minutes to do the harder 15, but this hasn't really helped me cumulatively, its helped my accuracy on 5 star Q's go from ~25% to 50%, but i've seen a decline in my 2 star and 3 star answers. I feel like theres some sweet spot between giving myself extra time for the 5 stars, without undercutting my 2 and 3 star questions that Im just not finding. And my RCs are just sitting ~ -6/-7, I'll get 2 passages 1 question wrong, and 2 with 6 or 7, or just 1 RC where I get rocked and miss 5/6.
What I don't understand is that it's not a nervousness thing either, I practice with the questions I'm bad at, and hard versions of them, and get ~9 out of 10 right consistently with good timing, and on RC Ill drill 2 hard passages, answer the questions faster than pace, and either go flawless or make 1 or 2 mistakes. Its just been rough for me to see that qualitatively I believe im improving, and im only 50% of the way through drilling from first PT to first test day, and 33% of the way from first PT to second test, and that theres a lot of time left, but to doing very well and not being seeing any improvement whatsoever is rough
Over the past month and a hlaf, ive done ~2 hours of drilling every day, WAJ for drills, Preptests once a week, and over 6 preptests Ive basically gotten a 158-162 on every single one of them. Starting to get very discouraged at the fact that Im just wasting 2-3 hours of my day every single day to not improve.
bastodurand134
Wednesday, Jul 02
160 equates to just about 20 wrong questions (out of the 75 non-experimental questions), lets say you get -7, -7, -6, and -6 across the 4 sections, with one of the -6s being the experimental, this would equate to getting about 25 out of 100 questions wrong, so about 75% accuracy. On a 10 Q drill this will be somewhere in the range of 7 or 8 correct, and on a 15 Q drill about 12 correct.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback, I appreciate it. I an definetly going to spend the next 9 days before my exam de-loading in general, doing less in the gym and less studywise, focusing more on getting every question right in drilling not caring about time, and thoroughly reviewing the mistakes I make. Ill probably take 1 LR and RC section 4 days before the exam just to make sure my timings good, and just really focus on doing less but doing it as correctly as I can.