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jstone236138

Joined: Apr 2025
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General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Friday, May 12 2017

Thanks! I'll see if my RC scores stay in that realm for the coming weeks, but it's a good sign and I'm ready and excited to enter the final month of studying. Best of luck back at you!

General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Friday, May 12 2017

Once again, I wanted to thank you for the advice! I took PTs 62 and 63 this week, and they were my two highest scores yet. RC in both was -2.

General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Wednesday, May 03 2017

Thanks for the advice! I think you're right -- it seems like the best option at this point (since I've already registered for the June test) is to practice hard this month, take the test in June and hope for the best, understanding that I can always retake in September if it doesn't go as well as I'd like.

General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Wednesday, May 03 2017

Even more helpful! I took your earlier advice today and tried a timed RC section (PT45) by reading a little more carefully and answering confidently rather than second guessing. Not only did I finish with 5 minutes to spare (I got to the last passage with 15 minutes left!), but I only missed one question, which is the best I've done on RC. That question was missed in part because I misread a word in the stem. So I'm feeling very good today about the chances of performing better on the RC! We'll see how the next practice test goes....

Thanks again for your help. I feel better prepared already!

General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Monday, May 01 2017

Those are also great recommendations. I'll give 3-4 minute passage-reads a go and see how that turns out. I typically feel like I have a handle on the aspects of the passage you describe, but I tend to get bogged down in different questions, worried about whether I missed something or not perfectly certain about some points addressed. I'd think slowing down a bit might very well be helpful.

Thanks again for your advice, and best of luck in September!

General · June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

jstone236138

Monday, May 01 2017

@ Thanks for the response! Those are helpful suggestions. I tend to read the passages relatively quickly (around 2-2.5 minutes), and then I answer the questions more slowly and often second guess myself and return to the passage. For the first two passages, I think I tend to take about 8.5-9.5 minutes each. I wonder whether maybe if I slow down slightly my reading, or change what I focus on, I may have better (faster) luck with the questions. I also wonder whether it'll take longer than a month to fix up these RC issues, and whether maybe it's a good idea to postpone until September. Or maybe keep myself open to taking both and hope for the best in June.

General

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Monday, May 01 2017

jstone236138

June or September? Is one month ever sufficient close in on BR? + RC tips?

Hello!

I wonder whether anyone here has been able to "close the gap" between their timed practice tests and their blind reviews in a short-ish period of time, especially when the errors are not in the LG section? If so, do you have any suggestions about studying habits for this next month? Normally I would just wait and take the test in September, give myself ample preparatory time. However, my schedule will be ramping up significantly in the coming months, and so June seems an ideal time to get this thing over with!

A bit about me: I am new to the site, and relatively new to the LSAT. I began studying about a month and a half ago. After familiarizing myself with the logic games, I took a couple practice tests near the end of March and scored in the mid-160s. Since then, I've improved; my last four tests have been 172, 173, 170 and 170 (from earlier to most recent).

This improvement is in large part due to 7Sage. Though I did not purchase the materials (I'm on a grad-student budget), I make extensive use of the analytics tool and read the forum often. I'm consistently amazed at this service and the generosity of its creators and users. And I'm really excited to be testing closer to my ideal range (173-180) for scholarships and admittance to my top choices for schools. BUT I am worried about my ability to break into that mid or high-170s realm in only another month of work. My blind reviewing is consistently in the high-170s (176-178), and the still-wrong answers are typically questions I don't circle and miss because of a reading error. My errors are almost all in LR and RC. RC varies wildly, from -2 in a section to -6. LR typically averages out to around -4 per test (i.e. -2 per LR section).

I've been doing 2 practice tests a week, a two or three-hour blind review the next day, and then a couple random sections from early tests on free days (timed and then reviewed untimed).

Finally: does anyone have tips for time management on the Reading Comprehension section? I am pretty sure that most of my errors come about because I panic about time and don't read the final two passages appropriately carefully.

Thanks for reading!