Improving from 165 benchmark to 175+ in 2 months?

jrich99

Hi everyone,

I just signed up for the 3 month package a couple days ago, and I worked through the curriculum up until the point where it recommended taking a diagnostic. Having already taken June 2007 a few months ago, I took Pretest 35 instead. I scored a 165 with the following breakdown:

LR 22/26
RC 24/26
LG 13/23
LR 23/26

Clearly, I have a lot of work to do on logic games, but I also feel there's room for improvement on my logical reasoning score. Up until this point, I've taken a few tests over the past several months, but haven't committed to studying at all, so 7sage is my first exposure to structured curriculum. Realistically, if I follow the curriculum as prescribed by the study schedule generator, do I have time to get into the mid/high 170s before the September LSAT, or am I setting myself up for failure? I can delay until December if necessary, but it's important to me to crack into the 175ish range on test day.

If you started at a similar score and successfully made the improvement into the mid 170s, I'd love to hear your feedback and tips!

nicole.brooklyn

This was basically me 3 months ago, except LR is my weakness and yours seems to be LG.

Diagnostic 165, after ~3 months had a PT average of 175 with some scores in the 175+ range... but when I took the actual test in June I scored a 168. It had a tough curve, and I think there are still a couple LR question types I could improve on, but honestly... I'm not sure what happened. I felt ready but missed most of my questions right at the beginning of the test perhaps due to test anxiety. I obviously still have time to retake it, and the decision to retake seemed easy to me... so it's not the end of the world!

Something I wish I had done before: recording myself taking an exam and watching it back.

Also, join a BR group once you start PTing! After my first BR call, I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm an idiot. This is what I should have been doing all along!" Having to explain your thinking to others can do wonders, IMO. The BR calls are what took my PT scores from low 170s to high 170s.

Standard advice on this board seems to be that your last 5 PTs should average to 4-5 points higher than your goal score... Which for you would mean an average of 179-180. I'm not sure that's doable in 3 months. But you should go for it anyways and reassess closer to the test date change deadline. You can do it!

Seeking Perfection

Hi,
I am no certain that I have fully made the jump to being a consistant 175+ scorer, but it feels like I have.

My first diagnostic was about a 165. Three weeks of study later (broken up by surgery to remove my wisdom teeth) I scored a 172 on the undisclosed February test this year. For those weeks I studied mostly by taking prep tests and logic games sections of prep tests. I also went through the Powerscore logic games bible twice, but 7 sage is better so you probably shouldn't.

I didn't study the LSAT further until I got out of college for the summer. About a month and a half ago I bought the 7 sage curriculum and printed 4 copies each of the logic games from prep tests 1-35(which 7 sage had accidentally released to those with the starter program, although I thought they had generously included them).

I quickly went through the 7 Sage core curriculum which helped me make a few less of my already sparse logical reasoning mistakes. The formal diagramming JY teaches is a nice fallback for logical reasoning questions that you are struggling with, but for most of the questions it is too slow and you have to rely on intuition. Thankfully for us we naturally seem to have good intuition for most of the questions.

I would ignore the purely reading comprehension videos from the curriculum. They were pretty useless to me. I used to miss about 1 reading comprehension question on average and still am.

The 7 Sage curriculum didn't immediately result in me doing better on logic games sections, but I felt comfortable completing them in unlimited time after using it. I just couldn't quite finish the last game on timed tests.

I began using the Pacifico adaptation of the Fool Proofing method and am about halfway through. My prep test scores remained stable for a while since I still struggled to finish logic games sections. However, they just spiked. My last three prep tests I finished the logic games section(while still having to rush on the last game). I got a 176, 179 on the two tests that I took back to back last weekend to make sure endurance wasn't a factor. Earlier today I got a 180. Those scores were on prep tests 39, 40, and 41 respectively.

I'm still fool proofing in the hopes of making sure I can replicate that success on different logic games sections which I happen to find harder, but am very satisfied. If you temporarilly plateau just keep studying and fool proofing. For some reason, it seems like progress comes in leaps followed by plateaus. A break may also help. I hardly studied last week since I used the 4th as an excuse to go to Chicago and see University of Chicago and Northwestern. (Northwestern's campus is the most jaw droppingly beautiful campus I have ever seen. Sadly I have no work experience.)

I would definitely take the September test and not just because I want the company of a fellow 7sager. Since most schools really only seriously consider your highest score (maybe even HYS as far as I can tell from law school numbers), I would definitely recommend taking the September test for the following reasons.

I feel a lot more comfortable retaking with a 172 in my pocket and you could always retake in December with similar comfort if you don't break 175 in September.

I believe that you should apply this cycle if you are a high LSAT scorer. Harvard is begining a pilot program to take the GRE this cycle. That program may grow and other Top 14 schools are studying the matter. If the GRE replaces the LSAT or moves into a position alongside it, high scoring test takers will (in my opinion) be disadvantaged since the GRE cannot differentiate anong top scorers as well. GPA will be priortized. Mine is not sterling and even if yours is, high GPAs are common compared to high LSATs so they cannot possibly elevate you as much. The dreaded softs (work experience and other achievements) will replace the LSAT along with factors like the prestige of undergraduate universities. The nebulous nature of these softs will mean that even if you do have exceptional softs it will be difficult to be confident that they will assure admission to the very top schools or scholarships at the schools immediately below those very top schools.

To paraphrase a comment I read earlier, the golden age of the LSAT is in its final hours (cycle or couple cycles), take advantage while you still can.

I certainly intend to.

Alex

I mean, it sure is possible. It won't be easy, but your diagnostic seems exceptionally high so I have a lot of faith if anyone can do it, it's you. Another silver lining here is you're missing a disproportional amount on games which are generally said to be the easiest and quickest section to improve on. I recommend using 7Sage fool proof method or The LG Bible to get good at games and do every single game you can get your hands on. That's really all that is standing in the way of your 170. As for hitting the 175 mark, that's a bit more difficult and I'd enlist a 7Sage tutor to give you specialized advice. Also, delaying until December seems to be the best option here.