Any advice for when your stuck in a score range?

vbdhillo

Hey guys I have been stuck inbetween 156-158 for the past 2-3 weeks and need some advice about how to proceed with my studying and ultimately achieve my goal of a 160. I began the 7sage curriculum at the beginning of June and scored a 140 on the diagnostic. After the first month I made significant gains getting into the low 150s and then into the range I'm currently stuck in. I find that I struggle the most with LR particularly (SA/NA/descriptive weakening/flaw type) questions and for most of my wrong answer choices i always narrow it down to two answers (one of which is usually correct) but happen to choose the wrong one. In addition, with blind review I have reached160, however during the PT's I make some silly errors simply because I feel pressured due to the timer. So what Im wondering is if it would be more beneficial going over past exams and drilling questions i got wrong and fully understand what led me to the wrong answer and how to identify the correct answer or continue taking PT's? Because from now until Sept 16, 2017 when i write the exam all i have left are practice exams but i feel like I'm wasting my time because I scored almost the same on literally every PT in the past two and a half weeks and because I'm on PT52 of 72 for the package I've bought and my schedule created by 7sage requires i take at least 4 a week, which gives me no time to review. In other words, will it cost me on the actual exam if I don't take all these PTs?

Sort of irrelevant but I did book a one week trip next week to take my mind off things and relax, and i was wondering what sort of studying/review/PTs i should do there and how much time i should still allocate for LSAT prep. Finally, for the 5th section on the exam (essay) should i be practicing this and actually doing some from PTs, or since it doesn't account for my grade not worry about it.

I know I asked a lot of questions but I'd appreciate some advice/feedback.

Thanks!

LSATcantwin

The first most important tip I can give you is DONT STOP. Seriously, plateaus break when you least expect it, and you'll look back wondering when and how it even broke. Keep going, a 160 is completely possible.

Secondly I would really focus on the question types that are killing you.

For NA negate EVERY AC on the question. Get in the habit of seeing how a negated answer impacts the argument.

For flaw, make extremely sure you understand what the conclusion is - and what they did to arrive there. This is what the AC will say. Practice finding the conclusion and describing what you think they did before you even get to an AC.

For SA find the gap. The conclusion is somehow going to contain something the argument doesn't. How did they get that conclusion? Well if you find an AC that connects the conclusion to the premise with that missing link it's likely the correct AC. (Note sometimes you have to link 2 presmises, but the method is the same) look at this fairly mathematically 1 = 3 well only if 1+2.

Lastly - do not stress about the test on a break. Truely a break can do wonders to help refresh you and help you come back with a solid clear understanding. Take some time and if you feel to guilty do a light load of a couple of LR questions and maybe a LG.

Alex

@vbdhillo said:
Hey guys I have been stuck inbetween 156-158 for the past 2-3 weeks and need some advice about how to proceed with my studying and ultimately achieve my goal of a 160. I began the 7sage curriculum at the beginning of June and scored a 140 on the diagnostic. After the first month I made significant gains getting into the low 150s and then into the range I'm currently stuck in. I find that I struggle the most with LR particularly (SA/NA/descriptive weakening/flaw type) questions and for most of my wrong answer choices i always narrow it down to two answers (one of which is usually correct) but happen to choose the wrong one. In addition, with blind review I have reached160, however during the PT's I make some silly errors simply because I feel pressured due to the timer. So what Im wondering is if it would be more beneficial going over past exams and drilling questions i got wrong and fully understand what led me to the wrong answer and how to identify the correct answer or continue taking PT's? Because from now until Sept 16, 2017 when i write the exam all i have left are practice exams but i feel like I'm wasting my time because I scored almost the same on literally every PT in the past two and a half weeks and because I'm on PT52 of 72 for the package I've bought and my schedule created by 7sage requires i take at least 4 a week, which gives me no time to review. In other words, will it cost me on the actual exam if I don't take all these PTs?

Sort of irrelevant but I did book a one week trip next week to take my mind off things and relax, and i was wondering what sort of studying/review/PTs i should do there and how much time i should still allocate for LSAT prep. Finally, for the 5th section on the exam (essay) should i be practicing this and actually doing some from PTs, or since it doesn't account for my grade not worry about it.

I know I asked a lot of questions but I'd appreciate some advice/feedback.

Thanks!

Hey @vbdhillo,

First, great work coming this far in only a couple of months! Seriously that is some awesome progress and you have lots more progress coming!

The schedule just serves as a guideline, so no need to try to cram in 4PTs per week. Take them and then spend the necessary amount of time reviewing them and then addressing any weaknesses through review of CC lessons and drilling. There's really never a point in taking PT after PT until you've done all you can to make sure you're improving outside of PTs. Lack of having time to fit in substantial review is probably part of the reason you've plateaued.

There's literally no right or wrong amount of tests to do to reach a certain score. Some people hit 160 on their diagnostic tests and other need to take 40 tests before they hit it. Most probably fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. One thing I would recommend is that you at the very least expose yourself to the last ten or fifteen exams. From 65-80.

All this to say: If you don't feel ready to take next month, spend more time taking PTs before you sit for the exam. Ideally, you want to be consistently scoring 160 or above on the most recent tests before you sit for the exam.

For the question types you've listed that you have trouble with, I recommend simply returning to the lesson on them, reviewing them, and then drilling the problem sets after each lesson. Do a mix of both timed and untimed for these. Getting better at LR will do a lot to bump your score up where you need it to be since there are 2 LR sections.

As far as practicing the essay part, I would say you don't really need to do much prep for that. Maybe look at a few of them and write an outline or practice writing the entire essay. If you're generally good with these kinds of things then I wouldn't spend too much time here.

Good luck

ZaTabler

@LSATcantwin

Could you give a little more info on this?

"For NA negate EVERY AC on the question. Get in the habit of seeing how a negated answer impacts the argument."

LSATcantwin

@"Connie Lingus" said:
@LSATcantwin

Could you give a little more info on this?

"For NA negate EVERY AC on the question. Get in the habit of seeing how a negated answer impacts the argument."

So when you do a NA question as a drill, I found it good practice to try and negate every single AC. Even if I knew it was wrong. And then apply the AC back to the conclusion of the argument to see how it DIDNT weaken it. I would even write the negations out for practice. It helped me see that with this kind of question, a lot of the trap AC only look like they apply to an argument. Once negated it had little to no effect on the conclusion. The argument still held water after the wrong AC was negated. Of course the right AC compleatly destroyed the argument when negated. The conclusion no longer followed.