RC: not getting better score with BR

Jane_lsat

Hi,

The title says it. To put into numbers, here are recent PTs I did.
PT75 RC: -6/-5(BR)
PT73 RC: -5/-3(BR)
PT76 RC: -7/-4(BR)
PT77 RC: -6/-6(BR)

I started preparing for LSAT about 10 weeks ago. My diagnostic with PT72 was RC: -4/-6(BR). I don't really see improvement.
I am going to write June 2019 test. Should I just forget about RC in the last 3 weeks of study?

Thanks.

TheDeterminedC

Specifically using the analytic tool, are there any trends for the answers you are getting wrong? What do your analytics point to as the highest priority? How can you read the passage differently to combat the trend?

Something that analytics doesn't show is how the wrong answers we pick on a passage, when looked at together, a lot of the time point to a specific false understanding or a misread of the passage. LSAC is incredibly smart and they know not only what sentences or ideas in the passage will be misinterpreted, but also what the false interpretation would most likely be. They will capitalize on this. As a current example, I'm on PT 78 and I found out that I got 2 answers wrong for the same incorrect understanding of a single sentence. It's not a coincidence that my false understanding of the sentence was an answer choice in both and that they were supported by this misinformed understanding. Neither is it a coincidence that the context of this sentence was questioned twice. And it's also not a coincidence that I picked these answers. There is a method to this madness and I genuinely fell for LSAC's trap. It's as frustrating as it is telling of what I need to work on. I figured out exactly why this happened in the first place and I worked out a way to prevent this from happening in the future.

Surly this is a slow process of fixing errors since we only have 4 passages as opposed to ~50 LR questions per test. But please, don't forget about RC in the last few weeks. There are countless opportunities to improve. There could be one perspective change while reading that fixes a grip of underlying issues.

Jane_lsat

@TheDeterminedC Thanks a lot! It's frustrating not seeing any improvement after many hours of study. I have only started with 7sage's Analytics tools yesterday, and it was quite revealing for LR section. With RC, though, the only trend I am seeing is that I get ~90% of RecMP and InfAuAtt questions right while get about half of the Org, AppAnal, Inf questions wrong. I am going to review individual questions to see if I can find why I am picking wrong answers.

Adam Hawks

@Jane_lsat said:

I started preparing for LSAT about 10 weeks ago.

That's pretty good for only two months of studying. Don't be Debbie Downer. Focus on the problems that give you issue and pay special attention to them during the BR process.

drbrown2

@Jane_lsat
Listen to the podcast episode with Accounts Playable. He basically "fool proofed" RC by upping the level of BR scrutiny he gave to each passage. Every single passage he had a template he followed during review. Paragraph summaries, Main Point, Purpose, Tone, Viewpoints, Structure (how each part of the passage related to the main point). When you drill these so much that it becomes second nature to identify during your read, you are arming yourself with the information to answer many more questions and a much shorter amount of time. I think it also helps combat complacency. Either way there are some difficult RC sections out there with tricky questions, but if you really try hard and focus on the information that the test writers are testing you on your BR scores should be able to improve.

Also, I have only recently seen more consistent RC scores. I had a -1 section on a PT followed by a -10 and a -4 early on in my prep. It leveled off eventually, but plateaued. I am finally improving and more consistently getting 2-3 wrong now that I am reviewing more thoroughly. My biggest problem has always been timing so my BR score in RC is always better than my timed score, but now that my review has improved I am moving through the timed sections much quicker and have time to finish. Don't give up on the section. Try to get a section in every couple of days with review and you should make some gains.

Jane_lsat

@drbrown2 Just finished listening the first half of the podcast, good stuff! My BR process was bare minimum compared to Account Playable's. I see what I need to do now. Thanks a lot!

drbrown2

@Jane_lsat said:
@drbrown2 Just finished listening the first half of the podcast, good stuff! My BR process was bare minimum compared to Account Playable's. I see what I need to do now. Thanks a lot!

Awesome! I feel like I was in a similar position in terms of minimal effort in certain sections of BR comparatively, and I take studying pretty seriously. It just goes to show how challenging it can be to earn real consistent gains.

Jane_lsat

@"Adam Hawks" Somehow I missed your comments early. I should have put the actual hours I spent on LSAT so far, which is ~270hr (that is ~25hr/week).