Which next test day should I aim for?

Artorius

Hi Everyone,

I still didn't do well on my Feb 2018 LSAT, but I am not giving up, so I decided to wreck the foundation and start all over again.

I have taken the LSAT three times already, and here are the stats:
September 2017: 142
December 2017: 150
February 2018: 146

Sectional scores, lets said they are all under 15.

I admit, due to work, family matters, and all other...excuses, I am not fully engaged in my study, which created these devastating results. As Adam Hawks once said in my other post, "Because law school is still a meat grinder and will chew you up and spit you out a different person, please understand what the LSAT represents and how it will apply to you in your studies." Now I understand what he means.

Back to the subject, I am working full time Monday to Friday, and I have family obligations, so the maximum study time for me is 20 hours per week. My target score is between160 to 165.

Therefore, should I still aim for the June 2018 LSAT? Or I should aim for a later test day like September 2018?

Thank you!

10000019

Provide your sectional scores and target score.

AllezAllez21

I would say September at the earliest.

Seeking Perfection

Neither!

You should strive to be PTing as well as you possibly can be before you take again. If that's June or September that's fine. If it's not, that's fine too. But, you have to keep studying.

I think a 160 would be a good intermediate goal for a PT average if you need something more specific than your best. Once you get there, reevaluate whether you can improve more.

The first thing to do if you are not perfect in logic games is to foolproof games 1-35 until you are -0 or -1 almost every time. Aim to go back over the core curriculum and do this foolproofing completely by June.

Then you need to start taking PTs with blind review and use 7sage analytics to diagnose your problem spots within LR. Drill one of these at a time until they are strengths.

Finally, you'll have to confront RC which is the hardest to improve on. But, by then you will have improved more than you think you can and that will help give you confidence.

Artorius

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

The first thing to do if you are not perfect in logic games is to foolproof games 1-35 until you are -0 or -1 almost every time. Aim to go back over the core curriculum and do this foolproofing completely by June.

Should the revisit of core curriculum and foolproofing conduct simultaneously?

Does Monday to Friday foolproofing, Saturday and Sunday watching CC videos sounds like a good plan?

Seeking Perfection

@Artorius said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

The first thing to do if you are not perfect in logic games is to foolproof games 1-35 until you are -0 or -1 almost every time. Aim to go back over the core curriculum and do this foolproofing completely by June.

Should the revisit of core curriculum and foolproofing conduct simultaneously?

Does Monday to Friday foolproofing, Saturday and Sunday watching CC videos sounds like a good plan?

I think that sounds good. When I studied for my retake, I did the core curriculum first and then the foolproofing, but it might be better to have something to sort of break the foolproofing up.

Leah M B

Just to get a little background, do you mind telling us when you started with 7sage and what your study has been like so far? Have you finished the cc? Have you done any foolproofing? About how many full PTs have you done? What was your PT average going into these tests, especially the February one?

Answering some of those could help us help you brainstorm on any changes to your approach going forward. Totally get the limited time, I worked full time while studying too. But I think if you have a set approach on how to tackle specific weaknesses, you can make your study time efficient.

Artorius

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

I think that sounds good. When I studied for my retake, I did the core curriculum first and then the foolproofing, but it might be better to have something to sort of break the foolproofing up.

In this case maybe I just break them up as every other day.

Artorius

@"Leah M B" said:
Just to get a little background, do you mind telling us when you started with 7sage and what your study has been like so far? Have you finished the cc? Have you done any foolproofing? About how many full PTs have you done? What was your PT average going into these tests, especially the February one?

Answering some of those could help us help you brainstorm on any changes to your approach going forward. Totally get the limited time, I worked full time while studying too. But I think if you have a set approach on how to tackle specific weaknesses, you can make your study time efficient.

Hi Leah,

1. I started 7Sage in Mid 2017 before my September 2017 LSAT. Looking back I would say my study was "inconsistent" and "not enough dedication."

2. I skipped around in the CC so I did not finish it yet.

3. I have done some foolproofing but I just focused on solving hard and hardest games. Now I understand that it is wrong as I stalled and unable to make inferences in real tests for some easier games.

4. I have done about 10 full PTs. Before I go into the Feb 2018 LSAT my average was 150s for timed, and 160 for BR.

I think the priority for me is get into a correct/healthy study habit.

That Guy

Hi there, Artorious! Just wanted to let you know that I am right here with you! Your situation is almost identical to my own, three test scores, full time job/ family and all. This test has been a humbling reminder that no success comes easily, but it has shown me that I am willing to do whatever it takes to get the score necessary to get into my top school choices. I would love to hear how things improve for you.

As for me I will definitely begin to revisit and foolproof logic games, as I feel improvement there alone could get me to a score of 160 or greater.

Best of luck!

Leah M B

@Artorius said:

@"Leah M B" said:
Just to get a little background, do you mind telling us when you started with 7sage and what your study has been like so far? Have you finished the cc? Have you done any foolproofing? About how many full PTs have you done? What was your PT average going into these tests, especially the February one?

Answering some of those could help us help you brainstorm on any changes to your approach going forward. Totally get the limited time, I worked full time while studying too. But I think if you have a set approach on how to tackle specific weaknesses, you can make your study time efficient.

Hi Leah,

1. I started 7Sage in Mid 2017 before my September 2017 LSAT. Looking back I would say my study was "inconsistent" and "not enough dedication."

2. I skipped around in the CC so I did not finish it yet.

3. I have done some foolproofing but I just focused on solving hard and hardest games. Now I understand that it is wrong as I stalled and unable to make inferences in real tests for some easier games.

4. I have done about 10 full PTs. Before I go into the Feb 2018 LSAT my average was 150s for timed, and 160 for BR.

I think the priority for me is get into a correct/healthy study habit.

Great, that helps! I think, I would recommend first going through the whole core curriculum in order. Maybe fast forward or skip some videos that you know you already watched. But it does flow very well in the order they are listed. The earlier videos will help teach you fundamentals that you'll use later on, etc. It provides a lot of good problem sets to work through as you go, too. Then I would focus on the foolproofing.

I personally bounced around a bit and didn't foolproof all of the games, and did it in pieces in between studying for other sections. Not sure that I would necessarily recommend that approach; my usual score on LG is around -3, not the -1/-0 that the pros are getting. But I improved pretty quickly in LG and wanted to focus more of my time on other areas.

This is a fantastic webinar that you should watch once you have gone through the whole CC: https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies

That will give you a ton of tips on how to progress through studying and different exercises to try.

Once you get pretty confident with the basics and like you know the CC well, I recommend both doing drills by question type, and practicing whole timed sections. Also adding in PTs once per week, to check on your progress.

My study schedule looked something like this:

Monday: timed LR section, BR, 2 or 3 LGs
Tuesday: timed RC section, BR, timed LR section, BR
Wednesday: timed LR section, BR, 2-3 LGs
Thursday: off, no studying!
Friday: timed RC section, BR, 2-3 LGs
Saturday: full PT
Sunday: BR PT

But again, that's for after finishing the cc and doing a significant amount of foolproofing.

I think your most likely timeframe is shooting for the September test, but really it will just depend on if you are ready. You want to be PTing a few points above your target score. So, you should take the test when you are regularly scoring around 163+ on your PTs.