I just wanted to post here that the skipping strategy is so important in order to minimize overall damage. I just took a timed individual RC section, and I didn't save any time at the end to go back to the questions I had circled. I circled 6 questions, and out of the 6 I got 3 wrong. If I had saved up just even 5 minutes, I would have been able to go back and change my answers from the incorrect one to the correct one which would have left me with a -2 for the section instead of a -5. This is why it's really important to try to finish the section with 5 minutes to spare to make sure to go over the ones you circled!

I'm sure a lot of people on 7sage know what you're going through (including me), and really there's no need to be upset about it! Don't let the score of a single timed individual LR section bring your hopes down. You've just begun to dip your feet into the deep waters for the first time after having practiced several techniques and forms in the kiddy pool, and now you're expecting yourself to swim like Michael Phelps! Let's take a deep breath and slow down here. First of all, as much as you don't want to hear this, a wise sage on 7sage once told me: "Theoretically speaking, if you have a good grasp of the fundamentals, then there should be no problem with the application of your knowledge on actual questions". I know it sounds idealistic and I'm not trying to contradict you in any way, but I think it comes down to the issue of knowledge vs. mastery. (See Jonathan Wang's discussion about this! highly recommended!) Just because we know the fundamentals doesn't mean that we have mastered them. Read Jonathan's discussion and this will make much more sense.

I would advise you, first of all, to not give up and be upset. You should be proud of yourself for having come this far already. Also, I personally think it's a good idea that you're doing timed individual sections before going into simulated 5 section PTs. You want to make sure that any gaping flaws in your knowledge of the fundamentals is fixed before going into the PT phase. In fact, I'm also done with my second round of going through the CC, and now I'm doing timed individual sections. Guess what? I also suck immensely. But I'm not upset because if gaining the LSAT was easy, everyone would get a 170+. But, everyone doesn't get a 170+, therefore it's not easy to gain the LSAT. Okay wow I digress, sorry about that.

I think you mentioned that you have trouble understanding the passage/stimulus the first time around. I had an issue with this too, and I think a concept called "active reading" is what you should look into. You can PM me for more information about this, but there are also other sages who can elaborate on this (@). I also think you should see where you're spending too much time when going through the questions. This is referring specifically to test-taking strategies, and many sages have given advice saying that it's good to do 10 in 10, 15 in 15, 20 in 20. Yeah this is all good, but just to rid of you some confusion, what you're trying to do is grabbing 10 questions (not necessarily the first 10 questions) in 10 minutes, 15 questions in 15 minutes, and so on and so forth. Anyhow, I believe you when you say that you have a good grasp of the fundamentals, but I think you should work your way to mastering them now. I'm also registered for the June test, so best of luck to us both!

What @ mentioned above is called the "synthesis" portion of RC. Most people are good or at least improve when it comes to the "recall" portion, which is basically trying to memorize the details as they read, but one skill that is indispensable for getting -1 or -2 on the RC section is being able to contextualize the information that you read and connect the dots as you read (active reading!). If you recognize that you lack this particular skill, then doing what @ suggested above is desperately needed until it no longer becomes an issue. The "recall" skill is the first barrier that we need to overcome using the 7sage memory method, but the "synthesis" skill is something we need to develop over a long period of time using whatever method that works, and it only comes with practice and thorough BR in my personal opinion. I started out with -18 for RC on my diagnostic 3 months ago, and I attempted a timed RC section (never seen before) just yesterday and got -1. Improvement on RC is definitely possible!

Congratulations! That's awesome :)

I'll try to provide my two cents on this. For BRing RC passages, I personally like to stand up from my chair and start going through the passage as if I'm explaining to a bunch of students studying for the LSAT how to analyze the passage. So, as I read each sentence aloud, I would try to pinpoint which details are important to remember, such as attitude/tone of the author, any notable distinctions or similarities, main point of the paragraphs, main point of the passage, and really, going through this process of having to articulate my analysis, which all happens in my mind during the actual test, is more difficult than it sounds and it reinforces good habits in my opinion. Also, I often find myself discovering things that were important but completely missed when I first analyzed the passage under time pressure. I would also go through each question and try to anticipate the answers for the questions, if possible, and I would try to pinpoint the reasons why the wrong answer choices are wrong, and why the correct answer choice is correct. I would also try to articulate why the test writers wrote the wrong answer choices in such a way to trip us up and how the test writers are trying to lure us in into choosing the wrong answer. So, I think the main takeaway from RC blind review is recognizing that something went wrong or something was lacking in terms of my analysis of the passage, and so trying to figure out how I can try to minimize this flaw when I attempt the next RC passage or section. I hope this helps!

7.7% (LOL) That's lower than the acceptance rate for most T14 schools.

Just for clarification @, are you saying that it's possible for a GPA of 3.94 (UVA's 75 percentile GPA) to compensate for a LSAT score of 168 (UVA's median LSAT score)? Also, are there other schools that value high GPA as well other than UVA and Penn? I was just simply curious!

Hey @ ! Yes so under timed pressure, I got -6 on each LR section. For my BR, I got -5 on one section and -1 on the other section. I really want to close that gap between my actual score and BR score by the June test. What have you been doing to close that gap beside recording yourself?

I've already sent you a message, but I would be interested!

I second @! Make sure to BR before you check the answers. This could take up to even 6 hours by the way. Also, always BR with a clean copy.

I was ready to register any minute! :( Hope I get picked!

@ Oh at some point JY is going to pop out of nowhere and paste a separate link on this discussion forum where you can go and register. But exactly "when" he will do that is unbeknownst to anyone haha. So what I meant by "refreshing" is that you need to constantly refresh this discussion forum page to see if JY posts the link or not. If you miss it, then other people will sign up and take up the 4 spots really quickly. Hope this helps!

@ Basically JY opens up the registration at a random time and whoever sees that the registration is open and signs up for it first gets one of the four spots. So, it's really all up to chance and basically refreshing the page constantly.

I agree with @. The test is constructed in such a way to prevent test-takers from reverse-engineering by reading the questions first. If you do this, you'll get sucked into a lot of the trap answer choices that the test writers have purposefully planted. So, always always read the passage first.

I really want to get in this one!

This is going to be a fight to the death.

I'm going to take a stab here and say that my instincts tell me that the sentence is translated into EJ -> ROW. If you think hard about the actual meaning of the sentence, it's basically saying that redistribution of wealth is required to create conditions of economic justice. If someone else wants to weigh in on this, please do! Hope this helps :)

"So maybe the biggest part of what I mean is when, why, and how often we are taking PTs. Think of each PT as a fully contained study cycle. The cycle should go something like:

PT

BR

Analyze Performance

Develop Study Plan

Study

Most folks take a PT, and then if they're really doing well they'll do a solid BR. From there, the vast majority of people will move on to the next PT. But in that PT, there's still a lot of information that is being left behind. It's not enough to correct your mistakes, you now need to identify what the underlying and ongoing problems are that are leading to those mistakes. I've never worked with someone and found that their mistakes are random. There are always very specific things that, if addressed, will correct multiple errors across their body of performance. After each PT, it is vital to analyze our mistakes as a whole and look for the threads running through them. Once we've done that, we need to develop a plan to address them. And then we need to address them. Only take a new PT when you feel confident that you can eliminate old mistakes and improve your score."

This is also from another post that Sage Josh wrote. His advice is gold!

It was great tackling the questions with you yesterday @! Can't wait for next Monday :smile:

Interested!

Long time no talk Buffalo! @ (Thanks for the info btw)

Thanks @! Correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like under time pressure, doing well on the LR section really depends on our intuition because like you said, we don't have the luxury of time to break down every single aspect of the stimulus. So basically, we do the breaking down of the stimulus during BR which helps our understanding and presumably improves our intuition so that the next time we encounter a similar problem, our intuition can just handle it in a breeze. Am I correct?

Hey @! Thanks for responding. So, looking back on my LR sections, it seems like I'm being overconfident. I made a note to myself that the next time I attempt a timed individual LR section, I would 1. actively read and spend the bulk of my time with the stimulus and get clarity on argument structure and the argument flaw 2. anticipate the answer before going into the answer choice 3. read each answer choice with a critical mindset. I feel like a lot of the errors I made were because I wasn't consciously doing these 3 things. Maybe I'll see a difference in my score next time hopefully, but I think it was a good assessment. Also, I don't see a general pattern in which questions I get wrong the most. I think it's because I've only done 4 sections, it's still difficult to tell. But, maybe I'll go over NA, Point at Issue, Flaw, Parallel Reasoning, Parallel Flaw, and Method of Reasoning before doing the next timed section. Progress is slow, but I hope my score improves eventually!

Would appreciate any input @ and @!

...from the other side.