Stressed

TheDeterminedC

I postponed the September exam and I am planning on taking the December test. I'm averaging 157 on timed and 170 in BR. Each day I am working my ass off doing timed LR sections with very diligent BRing. For LG, I'm at PT 28---slowly grinding out fool proofing.

After BR, when I see the right answers, it kills me because I see how perfect the right answer choices are. On the answers I get wrong on BR, most of the time I am down to two answer choices. I feel like I have a solid grasp at overall LG and LR understanding. As for RC,I have set it aside for right now as I am not horrible at it.

Despite what I think my understanding is, my scores say otherwise. My question is in regard to how realistic a 173 would be by December? My best and most recent PT was 49: 157 timed, 172 BR.

I am stressing because I want this score more then anything, but it does not seem like I am getting anywhere.

It would be a bit much to type out my entire method of studying, but I do BR very seriously and I BR every single question over again on a clean sheet.

Any advice would be very kind, thank you!

TheMikey

the fact that you're in the 170's for BR is a great thing. it means you know the material, and have your fundamentals down.

for some, it just takes a bit longer than usual to get to where they want to be. and to get into the 170's isn't easy. if you work hard and just keep grinding, you can make it there though, it's definitely possible. I've been studying for a year and a half and just now am starting to get timed 170+ scores.

I know what you mean by being stuck between 2 answer choices a lot. I was in this stage for a very VERY long time. the way I broke out of it was to just keep blind reviewing and doing drills. I drilled harder LR question sets only and just took as much time as I needed to figure it out, because once you become better at hard questions, the easier ones just become free points.

just keep at it, and things will eventually click, I promise!

TheDeterminedC

That just puts a smile all my face knowing you are achieving at a high level, congrats!

I will keep at my BRing. Would you recommend I start doing harder drills right now? That sounds like an awesome approach to questions. The only saving grace for me right now is that I am getting way better times on the super easy questions.

Also, how did you go about closing your BR/timed score gap? Did you only work on this after your average BR score was above your goal?

Thanks again @TheMikey !!!!

Paul Caint

3 months + a great attitude -> anything is possible

TheDeterminedC

@"Paul Caint" I love the mindset

TheMikey

@TheDeterminedC said:
That just puts a smile all my face knowing you are achieving at a high level, congrats!

I will keep at my BRing. Would you recommend I start doing harder drills right now? That sounds like an awesome approach to questions. The only saving grace for me right now is that I am getting way better times on the super easy questions.

Also, how did you go about closing your BR/timed score gap? Did you only work on this after your average BR score was above your goal?

Thanks again @TheMikey !!!!

Hey, thanks! And no problem!

It's great that you're getting the easier questions fast, that is key to banking time for the harder questions. I would say it largely depends on how you feel about your fundamentals. If you feel like you have your fundamentals down, then yeah go for it with the harder question only drills. Personally, I used to be like you, scoring low on timed PT's but BRing in the 170's. This is what I did, I did harder LR question drills only, barely worked on LG though since it is my strongest, and practiced RC. So go ahead and try it. It may seem tough at first, working strictly with hard questions, but typically they require a bit more of brain power so it gets you used to that to being more attentive to little words and stuff. So once you get used to it and are getting them right, things should become a bit better, at least it did for me. So I'd say go for it!

I can't really tell you how I closed the gap between my timed scores and BR scores. It may not be what you want to hear, but continuing to BR is really an awesome tool that many take for granted. you seem to not take it for granted, which is awesome, and you should continue to do it. Also, once you do your BRing, if there is a question type that you still got wrong even after BRing, make note of it and drill that question type. Depending on your frequency with the question type, if it's easy and hard questions you get wrong for a Q type, then drill easier questions too. but if it's strictly hard questions you get wrong, only do the hard questions for that Q type. So basically, just keep at it and you will slowly see improvement because you learn lots of things when BRing.

a small side note though, when I had my "AHH HA!" moment with LR (even though untimed I knew my shit), that is when I started consistently going -0 to -2 on each LR section timed with about 5 min average to spare at the end. my ahh ha moment consisted of me realizing that I was reading stimulus' too fast, and it may sound weird, but slowing down slightly helped me become faster and more accurate. also knowing the many tricks to each question type really helps you become faster as well, but I saw many of these little tricks with practice from drilling hard questions and seeing patterns. for example, if there is a main conclusion question and I spot something like " LSAC believes that the LSAT is a great measure of law school performance. but they are mistaken. an additional 2 sentences of premises". typically, as soon as I see the "but they are mistaken", I scan the rest of the stimulus in like 2 seconds (tbh, sometimes I don't even scan the rest depending on confidence) and go to the answer choices to check for something that paraphrases "but they are mistaken, it's not a great measure of LS performance" and I choose the AC that best fits this and move on. takes 20 seconds to do that question and I saved myself a bunch of time. is it risky? sure, but when you drill a bunch and recognize all of the stupid little patterns that LSAC is restricted to, you become confident in your techniques of identifying the patterns. it's the same patterns over and over again that you will see.

best of luck !

Alex

Keep on grinding and that 173 is very possible. My best advice is to return to the CC frequently. I've watched many of the lessons 2-3x and taken extensive notes. A big turning point for me was realizing that there are no such thing as stupid mistakes on this test. Every time you get an answer choice wrong it is by design. So spend as much time studying every question you get wrong. Study the wrong answer choices and think about what would have made them right.

When I'm stuck between two answer choices I find that it is often the result of me not 100% understanding the argument in the stimulus. Always take your time and make sure you understand the argument before going to the answer choices.

Good luck!

TheDeterminedC

What can I say you two!! This thank you for the thoughtful replies.

@TheMikey I would have to say that I think I have the fundamentals down. There is always more learning to do, but I feel confident that I have a solid understanding of them. I will start on these harder question type drills ASAP. I like to work on paper, but the question bank on here is strictly on the web browser. Did you just work on them online?

Now that you let me know about this strategy, I really want to start pushing myself with some tough questions. I spent 10 minutes staring at a MSS question yesterday. I sat there telling myself I can do it. I thought back to through all the studying I have done for MSS and I saw THE ONLY very subtle gap there was and I ended up getting it right in BR. It felt so amazing. Only 31% got that question right and I was willing to bet my life on my answer choice. Little achievements like this don't blow over my head, so I think harder questions will not only be necessary, but they will also give a very rewarding challenge. Like you said, these curve breaker questions rely on specific words, ones i typically don't catch during timed. I'll give it a go and try it out.

What a coincidence that you gave an example of a MP question that I just did under timed conditions two days ago--I can relate to it exactly (I think it was PT48 S1 Q8). In that exact main point question you gave the framework for, under timed conditions, I looked at the other answer choices when I should have really trusted my intuition, just like you described.

I will adjunctly work on my confidence with certain questions types while trying to keep my accuracy up as well. Thank you again! Oh, and the advice you gave me last week about writing out the premise(s) and conclusion(s) on a paper have drastically helped my understanding of questions too.

@"Alex Divine" I will keep working! I haven't gone back to the CC in a very long time. I will take your advice and brush up on getting faster with inferring ACs. I have a study partner that I explain questions to him based off of analogies and fixing the answer choices to make them right, but I haven't been doing that process for the ones I don't understand myself. I will make that change!

By the way @"Alex Divine", your posts on skipping have indirectly helped me a tremendous amount. I am finally able to answer every question with this method. Thanks!

nevadacity37

You can definitely do it, albeit with some pretty diligent and honest analysis of where and how you are going wrong. I started at a 141.... now I am in the 168-170 range very consistently. If I can, anyone can, as I am not gifted with the LSAT like some are. Believe in yourself DeterminedC, you'll get there!

TheDeterminedC

@nevadacity37 I had a 141 in January as well. Thank you for the kind words. And, of course, congratulations on your high level of consistency! I'll be celebrating with you in a few months, just you wait.

TheMikey

@TheDeterminedC said:
What can I say you two!! This thank you for the thoughtful replies.

@TheMikey I would have to say that I think I have the fundamentals down. There is always more learning to do, but I feel confident that I have a solid understanding of them. I will start on these harder question type drills ASAP. I like to work on paper, but the question bank on here is strictly on the web browser. Did you just work on them online?

Now that you let me know about this strategy, I really want to start pushing myself with some tough questions. I spent 10 minutes staring at a MSS question yesterday. I sat there telling myself I can do it. I thought back to through all the studying I have done for MSS and I saw THE ONLY very subtle gap there was and I ended up getting it right in BR. It felt so amazing. Only 31% got that question right and I was willing to bet my life on my answer choice. Little achievements like this don't blow over my head, so I think harder questions will not only be necessary, but they will also give a very rewarding challenge. Like you said, these curve breaker questions rely on specific words, ones i typically don't catch during timed. I'll give it a go and try it out.

What a coincidence that you gave an example of a MP question that I just did under timed conditions two days ago--I can relate to it exactly (I think it was PT48 S1 Q8). In that exact main point question you gave the framework for, under timed conditions, I looked at the other answer choices when I should have really trusted my intuition, just like you described.

I will adjunctly work on my confidence with certain questions types while trying to keep my accuracy up as well. Thank you again! Oh, and the advice you gave me last week about writing out the premise(s) and conclusion(s) on a paper have drastically helped my understanding of questions too.

Hey!

So, I didn't work on the problem sets that 7sage gives except for some of them because I already had a physical copy of Cambridge LR volume 2 by question types. So there was no need for me to do the problem sets online, I just really wanted it for explanations.

MSS questions, especially the harder ones, can definitely be a pain in the ass. LSAC really takes advantage of the fact that the question stem says MOST in it, because some AC's that are right are just plain stupid. You just have to remember that for MSS questions, the answer could be literally 1 line picked out from the stimulus, a conclusion type of answer, or just an AC that can be stringed together with sentences in the stimulus that isn't necessarily a conclusion.

best of luck! if you have more questions feel free to ask me!

TheDeterminedC

@TheMikey Will do! Would you happen to have a link for the book? I am having mixed results searching online. If not, it's totally fine. Much appreciated.

TheMikey

@TheDeterminedC said:
@TheMikey Will do! Would you happen to have a link for the book? I am having mixed results searching online. If not, it's totally fine. Much appreciated.

Cambridge doesn't sell them anymore. You can just use the 7sage problems sets since you're U+. No need to spend that extra money on something you already have!

TheDeterminedC

@TheMikey Very true. Thanks again for everything. I woke up extra motivated today becuse of your replies! (:

Study hard.

TheMikey

@TheDeterminedC said:
@TheMikey Very true. Thanks again for everything. I woke up extra motivated today becuse of your replies! (:

Study hard.

I'm glad I helped you