Bumping up a high score

tylerdschreur10

Alright, so I've been grinding for the last 3 months to prep for the the June LSAT. Done upwards of 30 PTs with Blind Review and I seem to have plateaued at about a 168-172 score under timed conditions. Wondering if anybody has any tips for the next two weeks that might help me eke out a few more points. I would be ecstatic with a 170, I know what an achievement that is, but the difference in scholarship money between a 170 and a 173 is probably tens of thousands... I usually ace the Logic games unless I run out of time, LR is usually -2 or 3 per section, and RC is toughest for me, averaging -5/6.

Alex

I'm not where near where you're scoring, so my only advice is to keep that positive attitude!

For RC have you checked out Manhattan's LR book/The The Trainer re: RC ? I know it's probably too late for you to signup for a 7 Sage course. But I think a quick skim over those books may help a bit.

Also check out these links:

Good luck!

tylerdschreur10

I will check those out, thanks!

TheoryandPractice

@tylerdschreur10
Just a quick Q: are you sure that you want to take the June exam? I'm asking cuz I'm in a similar situation. My PT scores are pretty similar to you (i miss more LG but less LR and RC) but I decided to move the exam to September. If I am scoring 172 in the PTs,
I'd expect 169 for June b/c ppl usually experience a 3 pt decrease. Based on where you are missing points, I think that you haven't maxed out on your potential on LR and RC, if you are looking for scholarship money, that is. I'm also shooting for 173 +, (hopefully 175+) which means that I really should be PTing at 177 level.

tylerdschreur10

@TheoryandPractice First of all, apt username, haha. Secondly I'm definitely taking in June, my logic being that I can always retake in September if I feel I can bump my June score up. Also, maybe it's arrogance, but I'm a stone-cold, standardized test taking machine, so I don't really buy into the 3 point drop. I've been remarkably consistent even while testing with distractions and under less than ideal conditions; I've PTed hungover, on 3 hours sleep and while on a road trip But mainly, I see no downside to testing in June, I've done all my prep with that date in mind and I feel ready.

TheoryandPractice

@tylerdschreur10 hey! If you feel ready, by all means go for it good luck with your exam!! And let us know how it went.

I personally debated a lot on whether to take it in June, especially with the recent development on removing the 2-yr limit on takes. I'm pretty sure that I will just take in September,
because I still feel like I have a lot more to learn.

Alex

@tylerdschreur10 said:
I will check those out, thanks!

Don't mention it! Seeing the 180er run through a RC passage is literally invaluable.

tylerdschreur10

@TheoryandPractice Definitely man, I hope it didn't seem like I was pushing you to take in June! By all means wait until september, taking it before you're ready is a waste of time and money, and can crush your confidence. Hopefully I do great in June, can give you some tips and you crush it in September!

tylerdschreur10

@"Alex Divine" Watching the video right now, can't wait to try these methods on some RC passages and see how they work for me!

potatocowpower

I scored a 174 first time and retook for a 178.

With the change in testing limits perhaps an easy way to get that 172 is to be open to retaking. If you take enough LSATs with the same level of competency you should sooner or later score at the high of your range. Or perhaps you could spend the time before September trying to shift that range up. Either way, September is plenty early for applications, and there will be much less pressure with a good score under your belt.

You provided a range for your other sections but not for LG. If disaster LG sections result in -4, perhaps making sure you are comfortable with hard games, brute-forcing and the unusual games would be a good use of time. It limits the variation on your LG score and should also help you maintain calm during the LSAT since one knows pretty often when one messes up on the LG section and panic could spillover to other sections

With LR, 7sage analytics should show you what questions are still causing issues for you. If the questions seem to be of a certain type/types then perhaps a couple of days spent really understanding those types would be the most efficient way to spend your time. If the questions that you don't seem to be getting are all over the place, and of different difficulties, perhaps your issue is carelessness, which would call for a different strategy, perhaps slowing down. If you are already rushing to finish in 35minutes that would be tricky, since you might get a higher accuracy early on, but result in having to hurry to finish the later half of the section. In that case you might need to work on speed/competency for the question types that seem to slow you down the most, to allow for a bit more time for other questions and thus limit errors from rushing.

I think there isn't much time to carry out a complete overhaul of your RC strategy. I would think it would be better to try little tweaks rather than breaking out the brackets and new styles of annotation.

Do you spend alot of time reading the passage and find yourself rushing through the questions? Perhaps if you spent more time on the questions you might notice key words/phrases there.

Or do you spend what you feel is an adequate time on passage and questions and still get a bunch wrong? Maybe time would be best spent going over each wrong answer and wondering why you liked the incorrect answer and why you passed over the correct one. Perhaps there is some trend you will see that you should keep in mind for future RC.

Or do you read through the passage really quickly and have lots of time for the questions? With an inadequate understanding of the passage the first time round you might be tempted to pick less attractive answers and waste time having to locate where things are each time you answer a question.

tylerdschreur10

@potatocowpower
Some excellent advice, I fully agree with your point about testing multiple times. I would not be at all surprised if I took the lsat 3 times and got 2 170s and 1 174. Just the nature of the test, 4 or 5 more right answers is massive, and there is some fluctuation in difficulty, and question type frequency.
On logic games I fully intend to still hard this week on tough/unusual games and improve my ability to recognize and attack them efficiently.
For LR, I haven't really made use of 7sages analytics, so again, good advice, that might shed some light on areas for improvement.
RC is definitely my main concern, and the area where I could improve the most. I'm trying the notation strategy outlined by nichole in the video on this thread, hoping it may help. My problem isn't usual time, it's the indefinite nature of lsat RC. I've been attacking it looking for the right answer, which nichole and others have advised against. It's better to use logic, structure and notational aids to eliminate 4 wrong answers. Based on the idea that the correct answer may not feel 100 percent right, but if i cant prove it to be wrong, that's good enough.

imharris

@tylerdschreur10 i am in the exact same place as you: sitting june 12th, average pt is 171, would be very happy with 170 on test day, want to score a 173+ for scholarship purposes...

everything written thus far is spot on. nicole's rc webinar helped me get my rc score to -2.3 average. i seem to miss 8-10 total questions a test based on small reading errors... a misread word here or there. jy refers to these questions as the make or break questions. i don't know. i think your score can fluctuate based on the specifics of the test given...

at this point i'm trying to stay hydrated, sleep and eat well, do a few more practice tests and blind reviews, and hope that i catch a few breaks on test day. if need be, then i'll retake in september.

i'll give you a shout on grey day on this thread... hopefully you'll have a 176!