Frustration

LSATcantwin

I might just be venting right now, but I can not for the life of me get LR down to 0 - 2 range. My brain just doesn't want to grasp it! The questions always seem to stump me in just the right way during timed sections and then when I see them again with time make 100% of sense. I sit down and right out why every answer is wrong and why one is right. I go back to the CC on how to approach different types, I do LR many, many many, times per week.

GAH.

Okay sorry, but for real its getting under my skin.

NotMyName

let it out, man.

where are you at in LR currently? and where are your other sections?

LSATcantwin

@jkatz1488 said:
let it out, man.

where are you at in LR currently? and where are your other sections?

Right now LR can go anywhere from -2 to -7

Reading comp goes -2 to -8

LG is almost always -1.

Somehow it always balances out to a 167. If I do well on LR I will almost always bomb RC or vise versa. I want a 170+ but right now I feel like I'm running my head into an unbreakable brick wall.

NotMyName

lol oh man. you are like personifying the plateau struggle. i don't think i have much to offer except that you may consider a Sage tutor to partner with.

Cant Get Right

This sounds like timing and confidence to me. After my first time through an LR section, I'm frequently at -4/-5. The difference is, I've got 10 minutes left at that point. When I go back, I usually correct pretty much everything. If you're getting it in BR, you know what you need to know to answer it. If you haven't recorded your takes, try that. Review with a spreadsheet and track your times for each question. Use that to formulate a more aggressive pacing strategy. You're likely committing lots of under confidence errors and letting yourself get bogged down. If that's the case, you'll make significant improvements just by correcting those.

LSATcantwin

@"Cant Get Right" said:
This sounds like timing and confidence to me. After my first time through an LR section, I'm frequently at -4/-5. The difference is, I've got 10 minutes left at that point. When I go back, I usually correct pretty much everything. If you're getting it in BR, you know what you need to know to answer it. If you haven't recorded your takes, try that. Review with a spreadsheet and track your times for each question. Use that to formulate a more aggressive pacing strategy. You're likely committing lots of under confidence errors and letting yourself get bogged down. If that's the case, you'll make significant improvements just by correcting those.

This sounds possible. How in the world do you finish with 10min to spare though? When I finish I have maybe 2-3 min left. If I could be where I'm at now, with10min left that would help so much

Cant Get Right

Yeah, it seems crazy at first. I was right where you were, finishing (most of the time) with maybe only a minute or two to spare. The first element of speed is knowing your shit. Your BR performance suggests you've got that. The higher level timing factor is confidence. When you think you have the right answer, trust yourself and move on immediately. The first time I reviewed my footage, it was easy to see just how bad my time management was. On quite a few questions, I would circle the right answer and then spend another 60 seconds on the question before moving on. It was infuriating to watch. I was maybe 90% confident I had the right answer, and then I'd spend 60 seconds to move from 90% to 100%. The section is an economy and time is the currency. Is 60 seconds worth an extra 10% in confidence? No way. Definitely film yourself to see where and how you're losing time. Then try a confidence drill. A confidence drill is a timed section taken with reckless confidence. Take it as though there is no way you could ever make a mistake. If you're even 75% confident you have the right answer, circle it and move on immediately. If you're struggling even at all, skip it like it's nothing. It's a fun drill, kinda like a roller coaster is fun because it's a little scary. Go bananas. See what happens. Then try to use whatever extra time you have with maximum effectiveness. I like to return to my 50/50 questions first because I can usually knock them out quickly with really high confidence. Then I'll go back to the ones I skipped all together and hammer them out. With whatever time's left, I'll go back to the ones I answered with high confidence but maybe didn't read all the answers on and just confirm them until time runs out.

This will also serve as a really useful stress test. If you're weak on any fundamental, the confidence drill will let you know it! Make sure you do a close analysis, because it can catch a lot of subtleties in the language and logic. Learning to recognize these subtleties on a first read is a really powerful ability.

LSATcantwin

@"Cant Get Right" said:
Yeah, it seems crazy at first. I was right where you were, finishing (most of the time) with maybe only a minute or two to spare. The first element of speed is knowing your shit. Your BR performance suggests you've got that. The higher level timing factor is confidence. When you think you have the right answer, trust yourself and move on immediately. The first time I reviewed my footage, it was easy to see just how bad my time management was. On quite a few questions, I would circle the right answer and then spend another 60 seconds on the question before moving on. It was infuriating to watch. I was maybe 90% confident I had the right answer, and then I'd spend 60 seconds to move from 90% to 100%. The section is an economy and time is the currency. Is 60 seconds worth an extra 10% in confidence? No way. Definitely film yourself to see where and how you're losing time. Then try a confidence drill. A confidence drill is a timed section taken with reckless confidence. Take it as though there is no way you could ever make a mistake. If you're even 75% confident you have the right answer, circle it and move on immediately. If you're struggling even at all, skip it like it's nothing. It's a fun drill, kinda like a roller coaster is fun because it's a little scary. Go bananas. See what happens. Then try to use whatever extra time you have with maximum effectiveness. I like to return to my 50/50 questions first because I can usually knock them out quickly with really high confidence. Then I'll go back to the ones I skipped all together and hammer them out. With whatever time's left, I'll go back to the ones I answered with high confidence but maybe didn't read all the answers on and just confirm them until time runs out.

This will also serve as a really useful stress test. If you're weak on any fundamental, the confidence drill will let you know it! Make sure you do a close analysis, because it can catch a lot of subtleties in the language and logic. Learning to recognize these subtleties on a first read is a really powerful ability.

So I tired this and did the 100% confidence thing. I ended the section with 5min to spare. I went back to review and ensured I MISSED AN EXTRA 2 QUESTIONS. lol

Harrison_Pav

Hmmmm, this timed confidence thing. I'm really intrigued, @LSATcantwin do you feel like it was useful? I also have the same thing happen to me with LR where I won't do as hot as I'd like and BR and get all right.

LSATcantwin

@"Harrison Pavlasek" said:
Hmmmm, this timed confidence thing. I'm really intrigued, @LSATcantwin do you feel like it was useful? I also have the same thing happen to me with LR where I won't do as hot as I'd like and BR and get all right.

Yes, I do think it is helpful. Weirdly enough it forced me to stop hanging out on one question forever. This meant I had to choose and move on, which gave me time at the end. My issue was when I went back with my new found extra time, I changed correct answers to wrong answers. I for whatever reason didnt trust myself.

That being said I think I also found a weakness, flaw questions are a bitch

Harrison_Pav

I would get a 181 on this test without flaw questions...

I think I'll have to give it try! It sounds like a good idea.

Alex

Perhaps a session or two with a tutor may help you best at this point.

Cant Get Right

@LSATcantwin said:

So I tired this and did the 100% confidence thing. I ended the section with 5min to spare. I went back to review and ensured I MISSED AN EXTRA 2 QUESTIONS. lol

Haha, yeah, that's the stress test function. It means you're not fully understanding exactly why your ACs are right or wrong. Dig deeper in blind review. Make sure you're not just getting to the right answers but also to the exact reasons of why the right answers are right and the wrong answers are wrong. Over time, you should start recognize the same things happening over and over.

When you change your answers on the second pass, how confident are you? I used to be really bad at getting it down to two, choosing the right answer choice without 100% understanding why it was right, and then changing it later to one that I kinda knew was wrong but that I just liked better. This is shockingly common, so just make sure that anytime you change an answer you really have a good reason to. Otherwise, it's almost always better to just stick with your original choice.

NotMyName

@"Cant Get Right"

choosing the right answer choice without 100% understanding why it was right, and then changing it later to one that I kinda knew was wrong but that I just liked better.

THIS!! RRRRRR! It's so true.

vanessa fisher

@LSATcantwin
if it makes you feel any better I'm totally jealous of your LG score
I have the opposite problem. RC and LR are my stronger sections, and LG is my handicap. I tend to always get the LGs right (with some exceptions) when I do them with BR, but under timed pressure I usually completely sink at least one whole game out of fear because I just have this weird seize up when I do games. I'm definitely more a reader than I am a math person, and I feel the LG is more like word math

Anyways, good luck to you! I'm writing in September too and feel a similar frustrating plateau. I plan to try the confidence drills

Cant Get Right

The struggle is real @jkatz1488 .

ajcrowel

You might find this helpful:

http://lsatters.com/forums/topic/advice-on-extreme-drilling-for-top-scorers/