Experience plateauing in the high 150's??

lukegmjohnson

Hello,

Has anyone experienced a plateauing effect when PTing in the high 150s? I need some study advice and how best to move forward since I am working a 9 - 5 and need to allocate my time wisely until the June LSAT. Currently here is my situation:

• Studying for around 3 months (2 heavily) from a diagnostic of 145
• Consistently PTing in the upper 150s (156 to 158 in past three weeks) with a max of 160 last month, but steadily declining since then... ???
• Steadily improving BR scores (161-165 range) but having trouble performing come test day
• When I devote my limited time to one section (this week I focused on LG for example) I gain 2 or 3 points in that section, but I am losing ground in others (went from -5 to - 9 in LR).
• I am finding that time management and LG sections are my weak spots

Basically, I am wondering how to move forward given my sporadic scores. I am wondering if I should devote the majority of my time to improving the LG section (its currently my weakest at -8 consistently)? But, I fear that devoting all of my studying to LG will cause my LR and RC sections to decline as a direct result as well and me netting the same scores.

I am just asking what has worked for others in the past and is it realistic to score into the 170s by June devoting 10-15 hrs a week?

btate87

Hey there! I think it's definitely a plus that you single out LG as your weakest spot as you can fool proof it. Have you gone through that process? Saving 8 points is a huge improvement. From my experience, you can definitely lose ground on the other sections when you focus on one, but it only takes a section or two to get back on track. What I currently do for study outside of PT's and BR, is focus on two sections per day on non-PT days. If I were to do my LG fool proofing over again and try to keep everything up to snuff, I would try to pair my daily LG drilling either with an LR or RC section from earlier tests. Maybe with your schedule LG in the morning and something else after work?

As for if June is doable, that entirely depends on your target score. If you can get LG down to -0/-1, your score could jump more than five points. Then just trust yourself to get back to your -5 range or better on LR, and see where your scores would be landing. Don't just look at how you did, but what points you might feasibly save in other sections to see how close you might be to the score you're aiming for. For instance, I had below average performance on LG recently. After scoring the test, I looked at the conversion chart to see what sort of score I would have gotten had my LG score stayed consistent. It keeps you focused, and is often a nice encouragement after a PT if you're in the right headspace.

Cant Get Right

That's actually not a huge gap between your timed scores and BR scores. You're very nearly maxing out the returns on potential, so I'd make the focus on studying the fundamentals which are costing you points in BR. Get that boosted into the high-mid 160's, then bridge the gap from there with better time management strategy.

June is going to be a tough timeline to break 170, but regardless of that, your best study strategy remains the same. Go ahead and aim for June, but be realistic when the time comes. If you're not averaging at where you want to score, you'll either need to push your test or be okay with a score within your average range.

keets993

To be honest, I don't know how probable it is to score into the 170s by June. Your BR is your hypothetical maximum potential since the score determines which questions you get wrong even though you are untimed. Of course there are other factors in play like do you employing skipping strategies to maximize your time, are you missing questions due to over confidence errors, how thorough your BR is, etc. That being said, if LG is your weakest section, it's the most learnable section so you can definetly increase your score by full-proofing if you haven't already. Also, you can focus on LG and do untimed or timed LR/RC sections once a week to make sure you aren't slipping or forgetting other sections.

paulmv.benthem

I probably would not be a good judge of whether you could reasonably hope to be scoring in the 170s by June. I do know, though, that it can be tricky to break that 160 threshold, so don't give up!

Nonetheless, with regard to LGs, I recently stopped doing LR and RC for about 3 weeks while I focused on FPing the logic games from PTs 1-35. Part of this process included making sure that I was able to confidently map out the games using conditional diagramming. Before doing this, I was averaging about -4 to -5 on timed LR sections, but after returning from focusing on LG, I've been going -1 to -3 on LR. I credit a significant amount of this to practicing my diagramming. Moreover, I'm now doing -2 to -3 on LG on my bad days.

At the onset, I was also worried that taking such a significant break from LR and RC would damage my overall performance, but it has been just the opposite.

Good luck with your studying!

lukegmjohnson

Thanks for the responses guys...I was truly feeling a bit defeated given my stagnant scores over the past 3 weeks. I really appreciate the positive vibes and encouragement.

@btate87 I have not Fool Proofed LG which makes me think I can salvage a few points on LG by doing this. Any specific FP strategies given my current (limited-time) situation? - I've been tentative to FP b/c I dont think I would be able to do EVERY LG game? Maybe just drill 3-4 game types on a per week basis?

@Cant Get Right I am thinking I can definitely analyze some q types to focus on solidifying fundamentals - but my issues also seem to be doing them consistently when timed. Given the limited time-frame and my work schedule, I think I have to maximize my output which means focusing on LG and time management are my best bet... I am definitely a realist so breaking into 170 would be an ideal goal, but would honestly be really happy if I were able to get high 160s consistently.

@keets993 any time/management suggestions are greatly appreciated - right now I dont employ many skipping strategies when I am doing LR sections but I think this would actually help me a lot and @paulmv.benthem I am glad to hear that focusing on one section doesnt necessarily mean that I am neglecting others... might just be burnt out on LR because this was my primary focus for the first weeks of study

keets993

@lukegmjohnson so there are plenty of skipping strategies for LR like 25 questions in 25 minutes or 20 questions in 20 minutes. Basically, it breaks down to being okay with skipping a question because each question is worth one point and you don't lose points for getting questions wrong so you want to maximize your time and your errors. Some general strategies are: if you've read the stimulus once or twice and you still don't understand what's going on or the argument structure you circle the question and move on. If you're stuck between 2 or 3 answer choices and something is not clicking, you circle the question and move on. Essentially, you want to lay eyes on every question in the section and still have enough time to go back on the questions you circled and bank some more questions. You shouldn't get too hung up on what number the question is (I sometimes feel weird skipping any question in the first 10) and just trust your gut and move on. You don't want to spend 2 minutes or 5 minutes on a question in the beginning or middle of the section, freak out, and then have that effect the rest of the section.

Also, blind reviewing will help you understand which questions you struggle with. If you have a question that you're spending half an hour or longer to figure out then you should be able to spot that type of question and know that you should skip it during timed sections. There's webinars dedicated to just skipping and what has worked for sages.

Finally, for full-proofing logic games here's the pacifico method which saves some time and paper https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/2737/logic-games-attack-strategy/p1

lukegmjohnson

@keets993 thanks again. Using these strategies will be helpful for me. I usually try to brute my way through LR in chronological order, and then I get slammed on the last few questions because I am rushing. I appreciate the continued help... and I will also definitely attempt to fool proof what I can before June to increase my LG section score.

olepueblo

Breaking into the 170s is not unrealistic but your timeline would stress me out. I’d make sure your test taking strategy (skipping questions) is on point. This helped me achieve consistency in my scoring and made me adaptable to each test. How rigorous is your br? Can you point to your weaknesses on each of the sections?

btate87

@lukegmjohnson I would do some searching on the forum. Some users have given some really fantastic FP strategies that have helped me immensely. I'll give you what I did, and what you might do to be efficient with your time.

I went through every PT 1-35 (except a few early ones that aren't published) and did each LG as a timed section. Early on I would set a "soft" timer so I knew when time was up, but could keep going and get used to working at my natural pace. The next day I would review every game with a stopwatch counting up. Then I would watch the 7sage video and check my accuracy and time. I had any mistakes, or wasn't under time, then I would do the game again the next day. I would go back to each game until it was perfect under time, and also made notes about the ones I struggled with at any point and check on those a week or so later. After doing all 35 tests (I started going -0 on games somewhere in the late 20's or early 30's I think), I put all of the games I'd done of any certain type together, and did all 35 tests again, but this time I did all Single Layer Sequencing, In/Out, Multi-Layer Sequencing, then Grouping one type at a time in that order (I thought there was benefit to being immersed in each type for a couple weeks and wanted to really get acquainted with the potential similarities in strategies between Multi-Layer and Grouping). As I went I compiled a list of what were the toughest games for me in each category, and still go back to those lists of games to keep my chops up. As I've continued working into the later PT's sequentially, I've continually updated all of my Games lists of PT, Type, and Difficult.

To save time, I would maybe just do PT's from 20-35, or even 35-50 if you absolutely must take the June test and no others. Personally I would delay my test date before I tried to short change my fool proofing time or try to do the later ones first and spoil potential full PT's. But if you really have just the one test date available, then I would move to later tests as the 60+ games seem to have some tricks that I wasn't entirely prepared for.

Unrelated to fool proofing games, I've also used some of the mid range PT's to practice doing 35 minute sections. That is probably the single biggest immediate increase I got in my score. Full PT on days I have time, every other day a 35 minute section and review right afterwards.

lukegmjohnson

@swamlepow yes, my BR is fairly rigorous. I know, for instance, that I am weakest on Flaw, NA and PSA questions. Right now I am going through the LSAT Trainer to learn to better recognize the Stimulus for these specific question types (and since I haven't been skipping questions) & to skip them on PT days... going back to them when I have time at the end of the section.

@btate87 Awesome, really helpful response. I think I will start FPs on full sections, mostly in mid-range PT's and reviewing until perfected. I've already been saving and categorizing each game - so I can go back to ones that have given me trouble... like you did in the past. Really looking to improve from a -9 or -10 in this section to a consistent -2 or -3 which would increase my score significantly.