LSAT test 2 months away-still struggling with logical reasoning

evonne-alkhatib

Hi everyone,

I have already written the LSAT once, scoring a 151 in December 2016. I realized on my first go, I did not master logical reasoning as for when it came to test date (even after I completed the 7sage curriculum) I got completely tripped up and tanked by LR sections. From May to now I have been testing individual LR sections UNTIMED from 1-30 ( I am on PT number 16 now, I have had to take some breaks from studying due to graduation and other personal affairs), and continue to practice my LG sections (1-30) (timed, which is my strongest section). I refuse to begin timing myself until I have the fundamentals of LR mastered, which means I am consistently going 90-100% on these questions in untimed practice. Where before I was going - 10, to even -8, now I have shorted the gap to -5 to even -3 untimed. But still, this varies. What I have noticed though, that I consistently get curve breaking and tough Necessary assumption and flaw question that have a long and convoluted stimulus wrong. How can I ensure that these types don't trip me up? I have reviewed the grammar and fundamental lessons, I have gone over these sections, and I have even used the LR powerscore bible.

My test is September 16th, and I want to begin timing myself with full length tests from the newer lsats 60-80 as soon as possible in order to adjust to the newer lsat format.

What can I do to greatly increase my LR in that time ( I am blind reviewing)? Should I postpone to December?

Also with reading comprehension that is a hit and miss, sometimes I can score great or bad, depends on the toughness of the passages (ones that tend to science and economic based are absolutely brutal for me). But with working and volunteering (I have to keep my volunteering for it absolutely necessary with my canadian law school applications). I have made the decision that reading comp will be the section I devote the least amount of prep for, due to the fact logical reasoning is 2 sections and makes up for 50% of the test.

Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thankyou for reading this long message

Sincerely, a struggling LSAT student

evonne-alkhatib

I also have used 40-56 timed and reviewed quite densely when I prepared for my first go on the LSAT and that is the reasoning why I am skipping them on this second round of studying

OlamHafuch

Postpone till December. Is there any pressing reason not to?

evonne-alkhatib

@uhinberg said:
Postpone till December. Is there any pressing reason not to?

No there is not, All Canadian law schools accept the LSAT December date. I guess I am just growing extremely frustrated with my progress and just want that 160 score I am dreaming of, I also heard it is bad to study for such a long time on the LSAT!

Alex

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:
Hi everyone,

I have already written the LSAT once, scoring a 151 in December 2016. I realized on my first go, I did not master logical reasoning as for when it came to test date (even after I completed the 7sage curriculum) I got completely tripped up and tanked by LR sections. From May to now I have been testing individual LR sections UNTIMED from 1-30 ( I am on PT number 16 now, I have had to take some breaks from studying due to graduation and other personal affairs), and continue to practice my LG sections (1-30) (timed, which is my strongest section). I refuse to begin timing myself until I have the fundamentals of LR mastered, which means I am consistently going 90-100% on these questions in untimed practice. Where before I was going - 10, to even -8, now I have shorted the gap to -5 to even -3 untimed. But still, this varies. What I have noticed though, that I consistently get curve breaking and tough Necessary assumption and flaw question that have a long and convoluted stimulus wrong. How can I ensure that these types don't trip me up? I have reviewed the grammar and fundamental lessons, I have gone over these sections, and I have even used the LR powerscore bible.

My test is September 16th, and I want to begin timing myself with full length tests from the newer lsats 60-80 as soon as possible in order to adjust to the newer lsat format.

What can I do to greatly increase my LR in that time ( I am blind reviewing)? Should I postpone to December?

Also with reading comprehension that is a hit and miss, sometimes I can score great or bad, depends on the toughness of the passages (ones that tend to science and economic based are absolutely brutal for me). But with working and volunteering (I have to keep my volunteering for it absolutely necessary with my canadian law school applications). I have made the decision that reading comp will be the section I devote the least amount of prep for, due to the fact logical reasoning is 2 sections and makes up for 50% of the test.

Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thankyou for reading this long message

Sincerely, a struggling LSAT student

If you haven't begun timing yourself and are still having these types of issues get some of your money back and postpone.

Also, Try using The LSAT Trainer or Manhattan LR is the CC isn't doing it for you. It worked great for me, but sometimes a new perspective helps.

You won't have enough time to properly address these problems listed above and do 20 tests with proper BR. I also think not timing yourself at this point is going to begin to hurt you. It's just my opinion, but ultimately this is a test we need to get good at taking timed. It's like saying you're going to use the bumpers in bowling until you're consistently bowling a 300. Well, that's not really going to help when you take the bumpers off much. I think untimed learning has it's place, but if you're only missing 3-5 per section, you can take timed sections. BR is where you want to work on your untimed worked.

Try figuring out what is giving you a hard time about flaw and NA questions? They're not hard once you understand necessity vs sufficiency and you can always use the negate test whereby you can negate an answer for a NA question, and if the argument fall apart, that is the correct answer. Ideally do this once you've eliminated all but 1-2. As far as flaws, those can be tricky. Memorizing and understand the list JY provided in the CC helped a lot. As did the LSAT Trainer. You'll start to see there's only so many flaws they can throw at you and it's just a matter of making sure you're focusing in on the main one and not being trapped by an second flaw that isn't the main flaw.

Try to articulate to yourself, or write down, what exactly is giving you trouble with these problem. Once I or one of the others know more, it will be easier to give specific advice.

I think devoting less time to RC is a horrible mistake. It makes up a big part of the test with 28 questions. Might as well skip LG and work on RC with that calculus. If you're giving up before even trying to get it down, please postpone. The LSAT is important, even for Canadian schools, and you owe it to yourself to devote the time you need to do your best.

evonne-alkhatib

@"Alex Divine" said:

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:
Hi everyone,

I have already written the LSAT once, scoring a 151 in December 2016. I realized on my first go, I did not master logical reasoning as for when it came to test date (even after I completed the 7sage curriculum) I got completely tripped up and tanked by LR sections. From May to now I have been testing individual LR sections UNTIMED from 1-30 ( I am on PT number 16 now, I have had to take some breaks from studying due to graduation and other personal affairs), and continue to practice my LG sections (1-30) (timed, which is my strongest section). I refuse to begin timing myself until I have the fundamentals of LR mastered, which means I am consistently going 90-100% on these questions in untimed practice. Where before I was going - 10, to even -8, now I have shorted the gap to -5 to even -3 untimed. But still, this varies. What I have noticed though, that I consistently get curve breaking and tough Necessary assumption and flaw question that have a long and convoluted stimulus wrong. How can I ensure that these types don't trip me up? I have reviewed the grammar and fundamental lessons, I have gone over these sections, and I have even used the LR powerscore bible.

My test is September 16th, and I want to begin timing myself with full length tests from the newer lsats 60-80 as soon as possible in order to adjust to the newer lsat format.

What can I do to greatly increase my LR in that time ( I am blind reviewing)? Should I postpone to December?

Also with reading comprehension that is a hit and miss, sometimes I can score great or bad, depends on the toughness of the passages (ones that tend to science and economic based are absolutely brutal for me). But with working and volunteering (I have to keep my volunteering for it absolutely necessary with my canadian law school applications). I have made the decision that reading comp will be the section I devote the least amount of prep for, due to the fact logical reasoning is 2 sections and makes up for 50% of the test.

Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thankyou for reading this long message

Sincerely, a struggling LSAT student

If you haven't begun timing yourself and are still having these types of issues get some of your money back and postpone.

Also, Try using The LSAT Trainer or Manhattan LR is the CC isn't doing it for you. It worked great for me, but sometimes a new perspective helps.

You won't have enough time to properly address these problems listed above and do 20 tests with proper BR. I also think not timing yourself at this point is going to begin to hurt you. It's just my opinion, but ultimately this is a test we need to get good at taking timed. It's like saying you're going to use the bumpers in bowling until you're consistently bowling a 300. Well, that's not really going to help when you take the bumpers off much. I think untimed learning has it's place, but if you're only missing 3-5 per section, you can take timed sections. BR is where you want to work on your untimed worked.

Try figuring out what is giving you a hard time about flaw and NA questions? They're not hard once you understand necessity vs sufficiency and you can always use the negate test whereby you can negate an answer for a NA question, and if the argument fall apart, that is the correct answer. Ideally do this once you've eliminated all but 1-2. As far as flaws, those can be tricky. Memorizing and understand the list JY provided in the CC helped a lot. As did the LSAT Trainer. You'll start to see there's only so many flaws they can throw at you and it's just a matter of making sure you're focusing in on the main one and not being trapped by an second flaw that isn't the main flaw.

Try to articulate to yourself, or write down, what exactly is giving you trouble with these problem. Once I or one of the others know more, it will be easier to give specific advice.

I think devoting less time to RC is a horrible mistake. It makes up a big part of the test with 28 questions. Might as well skip LG and work on RC with that calculus. If you're giving up before even trying to get it down, please postpone. The LSAT is important, even for Canadian schools, and you owe it to yourself to devote the time you need to do your best.

Thank you very much. I will definintely incorporate your advice into my study plan. Reading comprehension study starts tomorrow!!!

OlamHafuch

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:

@uhinberg said:
Postpone till December. Is there any pressing reason not to?

I also heard it is bad to study for such a long time on the LSAT!

Whoever you heard that from is dead wrong. Many, many of the top scorers in the 7Sage community spent an inordinate amount of time studying for the LSAT.

Alex

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:

@"Alex Divine" said:

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:
Hi everyone,

I have already written the LSAT once, scoring a 151 in December 2016. I realized on my first go, I did not master logical reasoning as for when it came to test date (even after I completed the 7sage curriculum) I got completely tripped up and tanked by LR sections. From May to now I have been testing individual LR sections UNTIMED from 1-30 ( I am on PT number 16 now, I have had to take some breaks from studying due to graduation and other personal affairs), and continue to practice my LG sections (1-30) (timed, which is my strongest section). I refuse to begin timing myself until I have the fundamentals of LR mastered, which means I am consistently going 90-100% on these questions in untimed practice. Where before I was going - 10, to even -8, now I have shorted the gap to -5 to even -3 untimed. But still, this varies. What I have noticed though, that I consistently get curve breaking and tough Necessary assumption and flaw question that have a long and convoluted stimulus wrong. How can I ensure that these types don't trip me up? I have reviewed the grammar and fundamental lessons, I have gone over these sections, and I have even used the LR powerscore bible.

My test is September 16th, and I want to begin timing myself with full length tests from the newer lsats 60-80 as soon as possible in order to adjust to the newer lsat format.

What can I do to greatly increase my LR in that time ( I am blind reviewing)? Should I postpone to December?

Also with reading comprehension that is a hit and miss, sometimes I can score great or bad, depends on the toughness of the passages (ones that tend to science and economic based are absolutely brutal for me). But with working and volunteering (I have to keep my volunteering for it absolutely necessary with my canadian law school applications). I have made the decision that reading comp will be the section I devote the least amount of prep for, due to the fact logical reasoning is 2 sections and makes up for 50% of the test.

Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thankyou for reading this long message

Sincerely, a struggling LSAT student

If you haven't begun timing yourself and are still having these types of issues get some of your money back and postpone.

Also, Try using The LSAT Trainer or Manhattan LR is the CC isn't doing it for you. It worked great for me, but sometimes a new perspective helps.

You won't have enough time to properly address these problems listed above and do 20 tests with proper BR. I also think not timing yourself at this point is going to begin to hurt you. It's just my opinion, but ultimately this is a test we need to get good at taking timed. It's like saying you're going to use the bumpers in bowling until you're consistently bowling a 300. Well, that's not really going to help when you take the bumpers off much. I think untimed learning has it's place, but if you're only missing 3-5 per section, you can take timed sections. BR is where you want to work on your untimed worked.

Try figuring out what is giving you a hard time about flaw and NA questions? They're not hard once you understand necessity vs sufficiency and you can always use the negate test whereby you can negate an answer for a NA question, and if the argument fall apart, that is the correct answer. Ideally do this once you've eliminated all but 1-2. As far as flaws, those can be tricky. Memorizing and understand the list JY provided in the CC helped a lot. As did the LSAT Trainer. You'll start to see there's only so many flaws they can throw at you and it's just a matter of making sure you're focusing in on the main one and not being trapped by an second flaw that isn't the main flaw.

Try to articulate to yourself, or write down, what exactly is giving you trouble with these problem. Once I or one of the others know more, it will be easier to give specific advice.

I think devoting less time to RC is a horrible mistake. It makes up a big part of the test with 28 questions. Might as well skip LG and work on RC with that calculus. If you're giving up before even trying to get it down, please postpone. The LSAT is important, even for Canadian schools, and you owe it to yourself to devote the time you need to do your best.

Thank you very much. I will definintely incorporate your advice into my study plan. Reading comprehension study starts tomorrow!!!

It won't be fun, but it will be worth it. Another pro tip: Think of it as a competition with the LSAC who are trying to bore the living crap out of you. You have to win by actively reading and forcing yourself to be interested. Besides, think about how much you'll learn about a myriad of subjects by drilling RC! It will also make you a better reader and help with LR too.

doyouevenLSAT

I'm in Canada as well i postponed till February, even though it is a risk in not getting into 2018-2019. The way i see it though i'd rather hit my target score once (165 and up), and never have to study again. Also for Canada though if you can achieve a 165 and up on the LSAT you are already above the 75th percentile for most schools in Canada.

Alex

@MichaelTheArchAngel said:
I'm in Canada as well i postponed till February, even though it is a risk in not getting into 2018-2019. The way i see it though i'd rather hit my target score once (165 and up), and never have to study again. Also for Canada though if you can achieve a 165 and up on the LSAT you are already above the 75th percentile for most schools in Canada.

Yeah, I love the Canadian LSAT system so much more than the US one.

OlamHafuch

@"Alex Divine" Take a look at the tuition for Canadian law schools. You'll love the Canadian system even more.

doyouevenLSAT

@"Alex Divine" said:

@MichaelTheArchAngel said:
I'm in Canada as well i postponed till February, even though it is a risk in not getting into 2018-2019. The way i see it though i'd rather hit my target score once (165 and up), and never have to study again. Also for Canada though if you can achieve a 165 and up on the LSAT you are already above the 75th percentile for most schools in Canada.

Yeah, I love the Canadian LSAT system so much more than the US one.

Yea America is do or die i think its the population as well, but if i got a 170 it just gives me an amazing chance to get into U of T. And i think i read they have An American jd offering as well through their program to study at NYU
Law.

amedley88

@"evonne-alkhatib" said:
Hi everyone,

I have already written the LSAT once, scoring a 151 in December 2016. I realized on my first go, I did not master logical reasoning as for when it came to test date (even after I completed the 7sage curriculum) I got completely tripped up and tanked by LR sections. From May to now I have been testing individual LR sections UNTIMED from 1-30 ( I am on PT number 16 now, I have had to take some breaks from studying due to graduation and other personal affairs), and continue to practice my LG sections (1-30) (timed, which is my strongest section). I refuse to begin timing myself until I have the fundamentals of LR mastered, which means I am consistently going 90-100% on these questions in untimed practice. Where before I was going - 10, to even -8, now I have shorted the gap to -5 to even -3 untimed. But still, this varies. What I have noticed though, that I consistently get curve breaking and tough Necessary assumption and flaw question that have a long and convoluted stimulus wrong. How can I ensure that these types don't trip me up? I have reviewed the grammar and fundamental lessons, I have gone over these sections, and I have even used the LR powerscore bible.

My test is September 16th, and I want to begin timing myself with full length tests from the newer lsats 60-80 as soon as possible in order to adjust to the newer lsat format.

What can I do to greatly increase my LR in that time ( I am blind reviewing)? Should I postpone to December?

Also with reading comprehension that is a hit and miss, sometimes I can score great or bad, depends on the toughness of the passages (ones that tend to science and economic based are absolutely brutal for me). But with working and volunteering (I have to keep my volunteering for it absolutely necessary with my canadian law school applications). I have made the decision that reading comp will be the section I devote the least amount of prep for, due to the fact logical reasoning is 2 sections and makes up for 50% of the test.

Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thankyou for reading this long message

Sincerely, a struggling LSAT student

Man, our situations are so incredibly similar that I got chills reading this. I am in the same position / country as you, aiming for the same score and thinking of taking it in September, but will probably do one last bump to December if I am not averaging 160+ by Aug 10th. This along with my part-time university research job have taken up an entire year of my life in my late 20s and although I have gotten so frustrated at some points, I'm sure it will be worth it once it's all over.

One thing that really helped me was redoing the core curriculum and making sure I took careful notes and didn't move on to the next section until I knew everything perfectly. I went back to the CC after I began doing LR un-timed with lackluster results. Redoing the CC took a lot longer than I had anticipated (2 months) but I went back to LR and have been doing it timed. Right now I'm at about 17-18 timed and 21-22 un-timed... Still a long way to go but major progress from where I once was. A major change is now my blind reviews aren't long drawn-out painstaking events. I can simply get it done easily within a half an hour for each section and know where I went wrong. Often times it's honestly misreading something because I was rushing and that is why timed practice is important... Along with regular non-LSAT related reading, meditation, self care etc.

Definitely stop doing LR un-timed and just do timed sections and thorough blind review from now on and use the analytics and chart the types of questions you are getting wrong. Stay away from PTs 1-35 and use those to get practice questions from for question types you're struggling with. Only start timed practice with PTs 35-60 and once you are doing well move on to 60-80 before the test. That's at least what I'm doing.

LG is also my strongest section after I did the fool-proof method for a few months and I have only begun drilling reading comp, but I'm quickly getting better at it after having studied it carefully in the core curriculum and doing some drills. Following JY's method to improve reading comprehension definitely helped (time 3 minutes for reading, 1.5 minutes for summarizing purpose of each paragraph and 3.5 minutes for the questions). I found the more you study LR and learn about the types of right answers on the LSAT, the better you can get at reading comprehension.

Alex

@uhinberg said:
@"Alex Divine" Take a look at the tuition for Canadian law schools. You'll love the Canadian system even more.

I've seen.... It makes me hate my life just a little more, lol. Just kidding. I guess my only option is to use it as ammo for motivation to get a higher score and a good scholarship.

Alex

@MichaelTheArchAngel said:

@"Alex Divine" said:

@MichaelTheArchAngel said:
I'm in Canada as well i postponed till February, even though it is a risk in not getting into 2018-2019. The way i see it though i'd rather hit my target score once (165 and up), and never have to study again. Also for Canada though if you can achieve a 165 and up on the LSAT you are already above the 75th percentile for most schools in Canada.

Yeah, I love the Canadian LSAT system so much more than the US one.

Yea America is do or die i think its the population as well, but if i got a 170 it just gives me an amazing chance to get into U of T. And i think i read they have An American jd offering as well through their program to study at NYU
Law.

True that. I mean, U of T is amazing and they do have a US JS program at NYU if I'm not mistaken. So even better if that's what you may be interested in.