Nailing down consistency in LR and RC. Should I buy LSAT Ultimate +?

Andrewmetz09

Hey everyone,

I recently completed the June LSAT and scored a 169. I know it's a good score, but it was under my target of 170, so I've decided to take it again in September before applying in October.

So far I've only studied on my own (that is, without a formal class), using LSAT PrepTest books and the logic games tutorials provided on this website. I've gotten pretty good at logic games, consistently scoring between 0-2. However, I'm less consistent at logical reasoning and reading comprehension. On average, I miss 3 per section, but it can vary between 0-6. I was regularly scoring 170-173 in the timed preptests I took leading up to the June LSAT, but I performed poorly on the reading comprehension section, which led to me scoring below my practice scores.

I'm now considering buying the LSAT Ultimate + course in order to guide my study over the next two months. I can spend 15 hours per week studying for the LSAT. So I'm wondering: is buying the LSAT Ultimate + worth it in terms of nailing down consistency in scoring in the low 170s in LR and RC? And if so, what what you recommend I focus on given the time available to me to study?

Andrewmetz09

Oh, by the way, thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my post, consider it, and/or answer! I really appreciate it!!

paulmv.benthem

I'm not sure what prep materials you've been using thus far, so it's kinda tricky to say whether Ultimate+ would aid you more than what you're currently doing.

One of the key advantages to Ultimate+ for LR is that it has the more difficult LR questions easily accessible for drilling, along with comprehensive explanations. So, if you find that you're struggling with specific question types, this might help you to focus on those questions more efficiently.

Am I reading your post correctly that you've only been using PT's to learn LR? Or, have you also used some sort of prep curriculum?

alyhobbs

Wow that is a great score for just using LSAT books! Have you done any of the LR and RC lessons on here? If you haven't then I see a concern for learning a new curriculum in such short time. With Ultimate + the LR Lessons are roughly 138hrs according to 7sage. Not including the time spent on areas you struggle with or for extra drilling. It does include plenty of Problem Sets which I am sure will help you and you will be able to focus on the harder ones. So by skipping the easier ones you can reduce a lot of time from the 138hrs. RC is about 42 hours. I overall think the biggest benefit for you would really be the explanations and the question bank so you can focus on the harder questions. The analytics is very nice as well so you can really pinpoint where your focus needs to be. So really it is a matter of how much material you would like access to.

Andrewmetz09

Paul: That is correct. I've just been doing preptests on my own to prepare for LR and RC. I have not used any prep curriculum.

Aly: Thank you! I have not done any of the LR or RC lessons on here. It sounds like it would be possible for me to do the RC lessons and then focus on drilling the harder questions set for LR and RC.

Thanks for responding, Paul and Aly!

samantha.ashley92

I'm glad you got it! It's totally worth the investment-- especially when every point around 170 is so valuable!

akistotle

I'm tagging @"Seeking Perfection" here because I believe he was in a similar position and I hope he can provide some advice on what to do!

Seeking Perfection

@akistotle said:
I'm tagging @"Seeking Perfection" here because I believe he was in a similar position and I hope he can provide some advice on what to do!

I was close to the opposite. I was weakest on logic games and made do withthe starter course though what I made the most use of was foolproofing games using the free games videos.

I did do a couple things for LR and RC which might help some. First, I kept copies of every question I ever missed in blind review or on a first take. After I understood these questions I would just cycle through them and make sure I remembered why each right answer was right and each wrong answer was wrong in my spare time.

I also tried my best to use the 7 sage method of trying to memorize the structure of a reading comp passage especially when I was short on time.

So I was able to go from a 172 to a 180 with the starter course, however I think if those are your weak sections the more explanations you would get with Ultimate + would be beneficial.

tuc28290

@"Seeking Perfection" wow. when you say you "kept copies" of every LR & RC you got wrong, can you explain that a little more? did you print out new sheets? did you write on them? did you keep the ones when you choose the incorrect answer & Review those too? do you write the reasoning down on the questions? did you keep them in a folder or what ??

i do a lot of writing on LR/RC questions during my BR (A LOT), and I've thought about possibly keeping them for review but wasn't sure if that was realistic / how helpful that would be. would be good to know a little bit more about how you did it and your take. thanks!

Return On Inference

Just gonna chime in and say that if you do go ultimate+ for 7Sage's RC curriculum you should also think about supplementing it with the LSAT Trainer. IMO, the two methods are very complementary and a combination of the two has worked well for me. You don't need a new copy of the trainer either -- you can find some old used copies that are pretty inexpensive if you look around. I used a 2014 copy of the trainer.

I went -0 in RC for June and average -1/-2 on RC generally.

Seeking Perfection

@tuc28290 said:
@"Seeking Perfection" wow. when you say you "kept copies" of every LR & RC you got wrong, can you explain that a little more? did you print out new sheets? did you write on them? did you keep the ones when you choose the incorrect answer & Review those too? do you write the reasoning down on the questions? did you keep them in a folder or what ??

i do a lot of writing on LR/RC questions during my BR (A LOT), and I've thought about possibly keeping them for review but wasn't sure if that was realistic / how helpful that would be. would be good to know a little bit more about how you did it and your take. thanks!

I just did it with LR and I just erased the writing took pictures of them on my cell phone and put them in an electronic folder. Some people cut them out or print out blank copies thpugh and I think that serves basically the same function. I just wanted something I could do which was a low stress easy way to review during commercial breaks, before I went to sleep, when I went for walks, ect. Flipping through the LR questions I had missed and remembering why the right answers were right and the wrong answers were wrong was that for me. I would just do one or two at a time. However, I started out pretty good at LR. I think I averaged about 2 or 3 wrong per section so I only had about 400 questions to go over from all the PTs. I probably went over the questions from the PTs I took first 10 or 12 times and the latest ones only 2 or 3 since I just went through all of them every time. It really wasn't that time consuming since I just slotted it into spare time. I think it wouldbe a lot harder with RC since you would have to do a whole passage worth at a time.

Ohnoeshalpme

I'd like to throw in some strategy advice for you: apply to schools where the 169 is at or above median on their first day that they accept applications in September. You can always retake and notify them of a score increase later. In case you don't score higher in September though, you'll have already submitted your application and don't have to regret losing a month of early admission. Also, most scholarships and wait lists will reevaluate a candidate who increases their score or scholarships will just apply automatically with a score increase. For those schools where 169 is below the median, hold off on your application until after you get your new score. Good Luck

Andrewmetz09

Thank you for all the comments and replies! They are very helpful.