Mock Test Observations & Advice Needed!

Trusttheprocess

Hey fellow 7sagers,
First of all – I just want to start by stating this maybe a long post LOL. So if you are able to read it and help me out, you’re the best. = )
So last year I started studying for the LSAT but gave up literally because I saw no improvement in my work/scores. But I didn’t lose hope that I couldn’t do the LSAT – so I decided to restart my studying this summer but using 7sage this time.

I finished most of my ultimate core curriculum (all of the RC curriculum, 90% of my LR curriculum – only thing I did not complete was advanced logic). However, when it came to LG section – I did not focus on it very much until recently (like this week) because last year when I was studying for the LSAT, I thought by far my LG section was the best.

Nevertheless, I saw a lot of improvements in my studying & knowledge foundation thanks to the brilliance of JY’s teaching. So I decided to do my first mock LSAT (June 2007) last week with the goal of reaching 152 and BR of at least 160. I am not sure if these scores were to high to have hope for LOL – but after I checked my mark my score was 146 and a BR of 156.
Some observations of my test were as follows:

LG Section 1 – I attempted all 4 games but was not able to finish the last game. The second game I read a rule totally wrong which really impacted my score. Also, the third game took me the longest to do.

LR Section 2 & 3 – I was able to attempt 17 and 20 questions respectively in those sections. To be honest – I have never attempted that many LR questions before in a timed test– so I was really happy with my improvement.

RC Section 4 – I was only able to do 2 passages, and the second passage that I did read I made some silly mistakes when I looked over the test.

Furthermore, one of the things that impacted my test score I think was doing LSAT questions on paper for the first time. Usually when doing the CC – I would type up my answers or analyze an RC passage on a word doc. Thus, when I actually did the test – my note taking skills in RC and LR did impact me.

As my username says Trust the Process LOL & from watching a lot of the webinars – I understand studying for the LSAT has different stages that many students go through. I like to call these stages: crawling, walking and running. The crawling stage – is where in which you complete the CC, build your foundation and start working on your pacing skills (which I think I am in right now and probably takes the longest amount of time). The walking stage – is doing timed sections on a more frequent basis, solidifying your knowledge foundations and really improving on your question pace. The last stage – running stage: now you are only focusing on PT’s and BRs.

The questions that I wanted to ask you all were:
- Did any of you have a similar starting path?
- How did you get through the “crawling” stage?
- How did you not let your score impact your studying and confidence level?

Moving forward - I am going to be focusing a lot more of doing work on paper, start creating a test strategy, RC annotation plan and also start doing my CC problem sets. I know this should at least help improve my knowledge and speed on my upcoming PT’s.

My goal is to get into the 170’s and I know it will take a lot of effort. Anyways wish me luck everyone and thanks for your advice in advance!

jpetersyvr

When are you planning on writing the exam? 146 - 170 is a huge leap, and while I wouldn't say it's impossible it will require a herculean effort.

To answer your question, I had a similar trajectory, in that I would plateau somewhat frequently, a big hurdle was breaking the 160 mark, and now breaking the 170 mark consistently. My last BR score was a 180, with a 169 actual score.

Certainly, understanding the fundamentals is, well, fundamental. So to break apart a test and not finish is certainly acceptable in early stages of your study, as long as you're getting 100% of the questions you do get a chance to get to correct. Even on my last test, a 169, I did not finish LG (the first time in a long time). You don't need to finish the exam to get a 170. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, an expression I heard on the Thinking LSAT podcast which has been helpful to listen to during my commute.

But again, my biggest concern for you is the timeline you're working with. Can you achieve a 170? Absolutely. Could you do it by September? Unlikely, if that's your goal.

samantha.ashley92

So I know I'm not going to be able to answer all of your questions here, but I would 10/10 recommend a few things:

Nicole Hopkins' Reading Comp video. I can't get the link to post right, but YouTube "It's Hammer Time LSAT".

Webinar on strengthening and weakening questions (also addresses flaws a little)

Reread the rules of a LG game after writing them all down. Seriously, it's worth the 10 seconds. I've seen this suggestion many times, and I've made the same mistake as you!

Drill LR question types for any questions that you got wrong multiple times in your PTs.

As for confidence: I also want to point out that your diagnostic score likely came from the June, 2007 test (I believe PT 35). If you're PTing with tests in the 50s, 60s, etc, they are so different from the tests in the 30s. The way I look at it is that if my diagnostic was PT 60, I would've done way worse than I actually did on my diagnostic. So I can't say that you didn't improve last year when you didn't have an exact comparison, if that makes sense. I got -3 on each LR section in PT 30 and -6 on each in PT 60. So I literally got double the wrong number of answers wrong. Also, I did waayyyy worse on PT 65, which I later found out was one of the hardest tests. (You can check the curve on exams to figure this out.)

eRetaker

June 2007 is actually considered PT 50.5 and it seems like OP has not started fool-proofing yet. I would recommend spending a few months fool-proofing LGs from preptest 1-40 and then drill LRs by question type. Accuracy comes before speed, not the other way around, so don't focus too much on getting questions done within a certain frame but rather doing them correctly first. The LSAT is a very learnable test so just keep drilling for a few months and reinvent your Reading Comp method as well. After you are more comfortable with your fundamentals, you can start using up those fresh PTs.

Trusttheprocess

Thanks for the responses everyone - really appreciate it.

My big takeaway thus far from your advices is that fundamentals first, then to do timed sections and move on from there.

Special thanks to @"samantha.ashley92" ! Watched most of the webinars besides the flaw one - I will watch that in the upcoming days.

Initially I was thinking of doing the September test but I am going to push it back for now for sure.

samantha.ashley92

You're welcome! It sounds like you're on the right track!