First PT post-CC

ATLsat_2019

I did my first PT after finishing the core curriculum yesterday. I was pleased to score a 169 (-12) which is much improved from my original diagnostic- 157.

It's really encouraging to see that going through the CC has really paid off (especially after a shitty week of RC). I'm aiming to break 170 in June, so I feel like this is within reach now.

What's a little less encouraging is that my BR was... also a 169 (but -11). I'm primarily concerned with the 5 LR/RC questions I didn't even circle or think I struggled with but ended up getting wrong. Does anyone have any advice for closing this gap? I've been through JY's BR lessons but I just wanted to see if anyone has personal experience/tips for overcoming this. At least 3 of these questions were due to misreading the passage or part of the question, so after JY's explanations I understood the correct answer. I just want to get to the point where I can eliminate errors like this.

keets993

First of all, congrats on the stellar post-CC score! Second, it sounds like overconfidence mistakes. I like to break my errors into one of three choices: did I not understand the stimulus (this includes the content & structure); did I not understand the q-stem; or did I not understand the answer choices.

I think it's really important to dig deep and be honest about why you felt so confident about those questions that you didn't even circle them for BR. Chances are, you're not the only one, the LSAT writers were just successful in tricking you. With RC it might be a replacement of a word or some outside knowledge that tripped you up. I read somewhere before that with RC the answers are in the passage and it's true. But again, it comes down to whether it was the stimulus, the question stem, or the answer choice. Once you figure that out, I think you can be mindful of not making those mistakes again.

Here's a more specific example:
You're looking for "which one of the following answer choices the author would most likely agree with." The stimulus is discussing a subset of dogs and what behaviours they display. The trap answer choice states "most dogs display that behaviour." They are subtly trapping you because it was discussed in the passage that most of the subset of dogs display that behaviour but they switched it with "most dogs." This would be a case of a specific example where you misunderstood what the answer choice was stating and since this switch between subset and superset will repeat, you'll be more aware or mindful for that pattern repeating.

The long story short is, understand exactly why you felt confident because the test is really repetitive so the chances are you'll come across something similar again.

ATLsat_2019

@keets993 Thanks! I really like your idea of categorizing the questions you got wrong... I feel like that'll help make it much clearer why I'm missing them and why I don't think twice about them during the test. I definitely feel silly for having such confidence on questions I missed but I guess that's exactly what the test writers are going for.

I definitely find that like you said, sometimes outside knowledge trips me up on RC. I'm also realizing that I have a tendency to skim rather than actually read when reading passages or stimuli and I frequently miss a word or two that are critically important to what the author actually means.

Anyway, thanks for the input- definitely going to try your error-analysis method

btate87

I had a similar experience on some early post-CC sections. I immediately started BRing the entire section. I don't think I'm ever going to be 100% rid of overconfidence mistakes, and doing the whole section just eliminates the risk of not BRing a missed question entirely.

ATLsat_2019

@btate87 not a bad idea at all.. maybe then I'll start catching them during my first go around

samantha.ashley92

Omg I'm so happy to see that you improved so much! My diagnostic was a 155, and my target goal is 166, which means that I want to cut my number of wrong answers in half. (My stretch goal is 169.) Any tips? And how long have you been studying? Also, I struggle with the misreading a lot, so I have no suggestions for you on that. Yesterday, I got a question wrong because I read "illogical" as "logical".

AudaciousRed

Are you by chance doing your BR quickly? And are you using the same paper that has all your drawings and circled answers? That can throw off your choices the second time around, and have you going with your original answers a lot. Try to look at the questions fresh the second time around.
If you can't, then really scrutinize the one you did pick. See if you can explain exactly why you chose it. Write it down in lawgic and see if it's still legit. If you still pick it and get it wrong, then at least you know what you were thinking when you chose it. My little notes during BR have been very helpful to see where I went wrong. It can take a long while doing it this way, but it helps!
Now that you're done with CC, I highly recommend listening to the webinars. I wish I had found some of them 4 months ago!

ATLsat_2019

@"samantha.ashley92" Thanks! It's definitely been a long process. I initially started studying about a year ago, and went through a lot of non-7sage materials for several months. I improved a lot on LG doing that but still suckkked at LR/RC. Then I didn't actually study that much for about a month because of a heavy outside workload. In December (I think) I signed up for 7sage and worked my way through the CC over several months. So in total it's been about a year, but some of it was on and off. I definitely recommend going slowly through the CC, watching things twice if you don't understand and doing enough problem sets per question type to really make sure you understand the material.

ATLsat_2019

@AudaciousRed That's a great idea. I was using the same copy I did the PT on, so I guess in that sense it wasn't really "blind" at all. I'm definitely going to try my next BR with a clean copy; I'll be curious to see what happens. I wouldn't say I'm doing BR quickly at all, but I think the clean copy is a good idea.

And yeah! I've just been getting into the webinars and finding them insanely helpful!

samantha.ashley92

@AudaciousRed @ATLsat_2019 any specific webinars you'd recommend?

AudaciousRed

Nicole's RC webinar is becoming a game changer for me. While JY's low res method is great, her method of underlining, circling, boxing and using triangles/arrows is huge. Now when I have to go back and find things in the text, it takes me almost no time at all. I wish I had started with those techniques and not picked them up 3 weeks before my testing date! LoL. There's a recent thread discussing this, and someone linked the video.
Also, both she and others have discussed skipping strategies in their webinars. JY also discusses this, but skipping is super, super useful, and hearing multiple approaches on it is helpful.

Ohnoeshalpme

I haven't studied any RC so far but in for LG i'd recommend more intense blind review. You can even go back through an entire fresh test and take it without any time constraints to ensure that you don't fall into a seemingly easy trap question. I would also recommend getting into one of the blind review sessions that are hosted by members of this community.

Habeas Porpoise

Congrats on a fantastic test score!

If you haven't already I highly recommend watching this webinar:
https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/

Specifically, confidence drilling and test writer reviews might prove helpful. Confidence drilling can help you possibly check your speed and better identify what types of questions are tripping you up specifically due to overconfidence. Analyzing why the test writers included the wrong ACs in the first place can help you better identify traps in the future.

And you definitely don't want to skim, especially in RC. I know there's the pressure to get to answering questions but it's better to spend time up-front and have a good structural understanding of what's going on before delving into the questions. Doesn't mean you have to write annotate if you don't want to, but you want to read deliberately, whether it's the RC passage or LR stimuli.

All that said, you've only taken one PT and it's hard to get good statistical data from that. I would take a couple more and see if there's a trend in your missed questions types and such before worrying too much. My first BR score was in the 160s and all my subsequent BR scores were 170+ (and all I did was BR between my first and second exam). It can just be getting used to the process a little more.

ATLsat_2019

@"Habeas Porpoise" Yes! The post-CC webinar has been insanely helpful. Haven't had a chance to do test writer reviews yet but I'm going to give that a crack today. I think that'll really help with the questions I'm overconfident on.

I did just take a second PT and I'm starting to get some good ideas of where I need to go from here. My BR went up to a 171 which still isn't quite where I want it but it's progress! Realizing I'm really weak in PSA questions.

And yeah, the skimming is just a super bad habit I picked up in all of the previous years of my education when I could actually get away with it, haha.