Quickly bubbling in answers to the questions you don't have time to thoughtfully answer is a skill unto itself. If you forgot to do this on the real thing because you hadn't been doing it in practice, that would be a serious bummer.
For this reason, I do it in practice. But I don't let lucky guesses fool me into thinking I know things that I don't. For instance, yesterday, I got a personal best of -3 in LG, but I'm aware that I really only earned a -5. (Two of my guesses were correct.)
Psychologically, it feels nice to get a -3, but I'm still about to drill games until test day because I know it was kind of a fluke! I guess I'm just trying to say: guess because it's a good habit, but be honest with yourself about the score you earn.
Same happened to me. Waste of time and material.
@ Thanks! Bad news for me, thought :-(
I usually get -1 or -0 in LR, happy to go through a section with you! Feel free to message me
I switched to flex simulation the other day because, from what I've heard, we'll probably be taking a flex. Seems like more representative practice for the real thing. I can't imagine extra LR training would hurt, but if you're like me, your flex score is quite different from your normal score. I feel like practicing with a flex gives me a better idea of how I'll do on the real thing.
Of course, you can't talk to yourself during an in-person exam with others in the room. But I am wondering if the flex rules might be more lenient with this, since there won't be anyone to disturb. Anyone have insight as to whether talking during the flex is prohibited?
I struggled with timing in all the sections at first and still do with RC and LG, though I have improved substantially. Something which helped a lot was looking back at how much time I spent per question -- I am SO thankful that 7sage keeps track of this. I noticed that, for the most part, my timing was not bad, but I would sometimes get tripped up on one question and spend 4+ minutes on it. Of course, after you spend 4 minutes on a question, you feel really rushed for the rest of the section and your accuracy decreases significantly. So, the trick for me was recognizing when I was spending more than, say, 2 minutes on a question and just giving it my best guess before moving on. This general strategy has helped a lot, as I no longer hemorrhage time. Additionally, after reading a question, I take a moment to consider what I would expect an answer to look like. This allows me to look for one thing in particular among the answers, greatly speeding up my process.
Specifically for the different sections:
In LR, I try to keep it to about a minute per question for the first 15-20 questions. Most questions actually take longer, but some are instantaneous (like, I'll answer them in 10 seconds or so), and that keeps me on track. If you can keep to 1 minute per question for that first big chunk, then you have about 2 mins per question for the final 5-10 questions. Some of those questions can be answered quickly, but others take 3 or so minutes. Again, the trick for me is to not get hung up on one questions for 4+ minutes. With this strategy, I usually get between -0 and -2.
In RC, I started to go faster when I began reading more slowly. I spend about 4 mins per passage (longer than most, and probably a bit too long) and really make sure I understand the whole thing before moving on to the questions. Although it makes me anxious to spend so long reading, I find that the questions go much faster with a solid understanding of the passage. But I'm not great with this section, as I still miss an average of 5 or so questions due to feeling rushed. So I'm not sure my advice here is the best.
LG has really been a grind. It used to take me like 15-20 mins to do a single game -- even a simple one. I keep reading that LG will "click" after enough practice, so I'm just trying to put in the time. Lately, I can complete a whole section with -0 or -1 in 40ish mins, which is a huge improvement from where I began. I think LG is just something you have to practice. I usually print LG sets and take them with a stopwatch rather than only allowing myself 35 mins. I pay attention to how I spend my time: Do I re-draw the game board excessively? Do I spend too much time reading parts of the stimulus that really aren't that important? Do I check my work excessively? After seeing a correct answer, how much time do I spend making sure the wrong ones are wrong? This has helped me trim the fat off my process. And I feel the games starting to "click," which I assume is just a consequence of practicing all the time.
Hope this helps!
Do you understand why you're getting certain questions wrong? Like, in a technical sense, when you look back at the questions you missed, is it clear why your selected answer is incorrect and why another answer is correct? Making sure you understand that kind of thing will go a long way toward helping you correct your mistakes.
Also, I've heard that the 70s and 80s have some of the hardest LR sections, so that probably has something to do with it.
Maybe identifying some of the question stems that throw you off will help?
It sounds like you're really good with the fundamentals of LR, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just keep practicing :-)
@ said:
just took the flex on Monday, and you can't use the arrow key! I was also used to doing this, but you have to actually click on the next button to move between questions.
Thank you! This is so helpful.
As far as I can tell, you should just push your test date back to October or November -- maybe even early next year.
The advice I have run into pretty often is: your score is much more important than date you take the test. Like you, I plan to start law school in fall of 2021. I decided that I would rather spend 3 months studying for the October LSAT than1.5 studying for the August one, even though August would allow me to submit applications as early as possible. My reason for making this decision is that I have heard time and time again that admissions committees don't really care when you apply so long as it is before December. Even then, a 165 in January is still much better than a 160 in November.
1 month isn't very much time to improve a score by 10 points, so you might as well give yourself some more time to get the result you want -- particularly since giving yourself more time won't hurt your chances of admission.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
I will be taking the October flex test on my laptop. I'm in the habit of using my L/R arrow keys to jump to the next question in 7Sage, but I am curious if I'll be able to do that on the real thing. (Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I can't find anything about it on the LSAC site.)
I'm not sure this actually helps me, but I often read the answer choices in random order -- especially if I am looking for 1 specific answer. It seems like the first one I glance at is frequently the one I'm looking for.
The advice I have seen often is: if you would likely score higher on a retake, then you should retake. For instance, if most of your recent PTs are 175+, then you would have a pretty strong case for retaking.
If LR is your strongest section, it might be a good idea to retake once the flex tests stop. In that case, the weighting of the normal LSAT would suit your skills more so than the flex does.
Of course, the downside of a retake is that you may score lower -- which wouldn't be a great look.
Regardless, congratulations on the 171, and good luck with any future retakes!
I've also had a lot of variation. Scored a 160 right before a 167 -- pretty weird.
Maybe you can glean some insight from the questions you get wrong in your lower-scoring tests. For instance, I scored a 160 because a logic game tripped me up much worse than usual and screwed up my timing for the rest of the section.
I'm just assuming that more and more practice will lead to improved consistency. I'm not sure what else would.
I'm taking the test in October as well -- good luck to us!