Struggling with LR! Score dropping....

nyc2dc2ca

Prior to my intensive two week study, I was scoring on average -5 on LR & RC and -6 on LG.

After two weeks of intensive study (question banks, review of my weaknesses etc.), I am missing -3 to -5 on LG and on RC.

That is the good news.

BUT

Bad news. I started missing -7 and once -8 on LR.

My overall score has dropped as a result.

WHAT IS GOING ON???

BinghamtonDave

A couple of questions that might help in diagnosing what is happening here: your initial average of -5 on LR, how many total test was that average drawn from?

Second, are these scores from preptests next to each other in order? Meaning, have you stayed in a linear path towards the most recent: 55,56,57,58 or have you jumped around?

I ask these because a -5 to a -7 across the 2 sections is only a single extra miss per section.

jknauf

Give this post a read

https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/3228/mavis-beacon-teaches-lsat

Sami

@nyc2dc2ca said:

Bad news. I started missing -7 and once -8 on LR.

Hey : )
So one advice that really helped me with LSAT is to not focus on the score, but to really be excited by the questions you do end up missing. It seems so counterintuitive and trust me I have also been there where I don't understand a score drop. So there could be a couple of reasons this is happening:

1) Missing -7 to -8 on LR is not that far from missing -5 on LR. It falls within the range of what's possible to miss when your average is missing -5.

2) It could be because you just did an Intensive. Doing an Intensive can sometime distract or make you forget stuff like pacing and other things that might have been helping you get that higher end of your potential score. Don't worry, it will kick in soon and you will be fine : )

3) I think these particular PT's that you have taken recently could just be testing you on a couple of new and different LSAT argument types than those PT's you took previously. So its not that your understanding dropped, just that you have to learn new things because LSAT is evolving too!

So instead of focusing on the score drop which just adds to the emotional stress really take a look at the questions you are missing and ask yourself "why"? And be excited to figure out the answer Was it because you didn't understand the logic? You didn't pay attention to the scope of noun/verb/predicate? Or because you were in a rush? There could be any number of answers but what that answer is should determine your next move on what you should focus on : )

• I hope this helped : )

Alex

Have you practiced implementing a skipping strategy. I know I sound like a broken record, but for me I was stuck missing -6 or so until I learned to skip and that broke me into the -4/-3 range almost overnight. Sometimes you just need to be strategic!

Otherwise, as others above me have said, really dissect and understand why you didn't get the question right. Take 20 minutes. Reverse engineer what you were thinking? Why did you think (A) was right when it was wrong? Wording? A misunderstanding of the logic? Often we just get flustered and make bad choices under the gun -- that is why blind review is such an invaluable tool and method for improvement.

Also, don't be afraid to review the lessons for the question types you are getting wrong. I realized, for instance, that I was taking wayyyy too long on MBT questions for some reason. So I did about 50 and reviewed them and re-watched all the lessons on them. Helped me so much!

As always, good luck!

nyc2dc2ca

Thanks for all your guidance @BinghamtonDave , @jknauf , @"Alex Divine" and @Sami .

My first three prep tests were 37, 38, 39 since the explanations came free with the course.

I was missing 5 to 6 on the LR sections.

Once I felt confident about my score range, I decided to buy the Ultimate and start with more recent practice tests. I jumped ahead to 52, 53, 54.

On the latter three, I missed 7 to 8 on the LR sections. Simultaneously, I did better on RC and LG but only by 1-2 questions.

I think this might be due to the increased difficulty or different structure of LR questions on later practice tests.

Also, @"Alex Divine" I am going to try and see if skipping helps in this regard since I usually run out of time with 2 remaining questions and guess on both regardless of the prep test number.

@sami makes perfect sense. I struggle with this since I am always interested in my score and need to resist the urge to see if I am improving. Better to focus on on what will help me improve in the first place - why I got certain questions wrong.

Sami

@nyc2dc2ca said:
Thanks for all your guidance @BinghamtonDave , @jknauf , @"Alex Divine" and @Sami .

My first three prep tests were 37, 38, 39 since the explanations came free with the course.

I was missing 5 to 6 on the LR sections.

Once I felt confident about my score range, I decided to buy the Ultimate and start with more recent practice tests. I jumped ahead to 52, 53, 54.

Hey so you are right on target, jumping around will definitely expose you to different nuances of LSAT and can definitely cause a score drop. So yeah, see if you can go chronologically while taking PT's : )

nyc2dc2ca

I tried another strategy with PT 55 that a friend suggested. I took the LR sections without a time constraint but I did use a stop watch to track time.

It took me 42 minutes but I finished with a -1 (a mistake that I shouldn't have made).

Looks like I just need to really hone in my skills on the question types and the format of recent tests.

Timing will be next issue but it is encouraging to see that I am capable of getting these questions right!

Sami

@nyc2dc2ca said:
I tried another strategy with PT 55 that a friend suggested. I took the LR sections without a time constraint but I did use a stop watch to track time.

It took me 42 minutes but I finished with a -1 (a mistake that I shouldn't have made).

Looks like I just need to really hone in my skills on the question types and the format of recent tests.

Timing will be next issue but it is encouraging to see that I am capable of getting these questions right!

That's really great! As your familiarity and knowledge with these questions increases your time should start coming down as well. So really start working on timing strategies because 10 minutes is a fair amount of time to cut down. But now that you know you are capable of getting them right at least you know what you have to work on exactly! : )

Good luck! and keep us updated