@ said:
First of all, congrats on your 176!! That's stupendous! I wouldn't mention a canceled score before your first official. I would focus on the fact that you weren't ready, had just taken your final exams, and that you had less than ideal testing conditions as the reasons for your low score in June, mentioning each but very matter-of-factly. Any one of those would be enough to throw you off your game, let alone all three!
Thank you! I'm glad it's finally over. I'm trying to get these essays done as soon as possible so I can send in apps before Christmas. I mostly talked about how the exam was right after finals week but I'll mention the environmental factors as well. Thanks for the help!
@ said:
how did you able to do well on the LG?
The LG I had was pretty standard. I was able to solve for a bunch of sub game boards. Also quickly realized which game was the hardest and saved it for last. Don't really have a method for doing LG like I do for RC/LR, just a lot of practice.
My LSAT score jumped 19 points. From a 157 in June to a 176 in November. There were a few factors to why I scored so low in June compared to Nov (Exam day after finals week, loud college town, my room was 90 degrees, etc.) but more than anything I just wasn't ready. would explaining that i was exhausted from finals week be a good enough reason to explain the score jump? Also should I mention my cancelled score from April in my addendum?
Thanks for any help!
I don't know if spreading out your studies throughout a 2 year period would be the best way to go about it. Speaking from personal experience, I was able to improve the most through a very intensive 4 month period (studying 8-12 hrs a day). In that time I jumped from a 157 to a 176, as opposed to the 6 months prior (which was more spread out and I only improved a handful of points). I took time off of work and treated studying as my job during that 4 month stretch. I would suggest, focus on your GPA and do as many classes as you can, so that you have a small class load your junior/senior year and you can dedicate almost all of your time to the LSAT. You can study a bit until then, of course, just don't prioritize it over your GPA.
RC is the toughest to improve on. 7Sage really helped me out there, specifically the short passage summaries so I would suggest going through the 7sage RC curriculum before reading LSAT trainer. Not only because it helped me improve the most, but also because it's a way shorter curriculum compared to LSAT trainer.
Also, don't worry about scoring a 130 your first time. the LSAT is a very foreign exam with very foreign subject matter. But like any other subject, it's learnable and anyone can do it given enough dedication. It is a difficult exam but not so difficult that you would need to spend 2 years on it.
@ said:
congratulations @ !!! If you have some time to post, would love to hear & would really appreciate your RC strategy, I've been struggling with that recently
Yeah np I'm procrastinating my essays rn anyway. RC was my worst section. Went from getting almost half wrong to -0/-2 by the nov LSAT. At first, I wasn't able to get to the last passage, and the issue was I wasn't spending enough time with the passage itself and would always have to go back to it to find answers. What helped me the most was doing those low res 2-3 word summaries at the end of each paragraph. But don't just think about it, actually write it down on paper. Also when you're reading pay attention to structure and tone by asking yourself "what is this guy trying to tell me and why". All the passages follow a few specific templates and you'll be able to catch on to those templates the more you answer the "what is this guy trying to tell me and why" question.
The inference questions in RC are easier than the ones in LR so leaning towards weaker wording can help you out a lot, it won't always be right but a lot of the time it is.
Also remember that MP questions don't have to talk about the whole passage, they just have to correctly convey the author's intention for writing the passage.