No improvement on RC

dncdrc_04

Hey guys, I have been studying for the LSAT for a bit over three months now, and I haven’t seen any improvement in LR in a very long time. On the last four timed LR sections I have taken, I consistently get -10. I went over the cc a second time and still haven’t improved my LR score at all. I think maybe it’s because I go through the questions too fast and don’t spend enough time thinking about the logical structure of each question; I always finish an LR section with about 3 minutes to spare. I get really stressed when I spend too much time on a question. I am scheduled to write the November LSAT and I am hoping to improve to -5/-6. Any pointers would help, thank you!

MIT_2017

Since there is a discrepancy between your title (RC) and your comment (LR), to be clear, you are referring to LR section right?

dncdrc_04

@MIT_2017 my apologies! Yes I am referring to the LR sections. Thank you!

lexxx745

-10 each or -10 in total?

dncdrc_04

@lexxx745 -10 each its shameful. I tried to pace myself yesterday and go slower and ended up with -7. That count includes the last two questions which I didn’t have time to look at.

danielbrowning208

@dncdrc_04 You need a section timing strategy. Knowing how to answer a question is only half the battle. You have to move quickly through easy questions and trust your process on the more difficult ones. On top of that, drilling LR sections was helpful for me, but this drilling should be coupled with a timing strategy. Message me if you have more questions.

lexxx745

@dncdrc_04 said:
@lexxx745 -10 each its shameful. I tried to pace myself yesterday and go slower and ended up with -7. That count includes the last two questions which I didn’t have time to look at.

what about when you do it untimed? Whats your BR average for untimed LR sections

MIT_2017

@dncdrc_04 said:
@lexxx745 -10 each its shameful. I tried to pace myself yesterday and go slower and ended up with -7. That count includes the last two questions which I didn’t have time to look at.

It's bad, sure. Not shameful.

Would you go to a gun range and try out speed shooting before you're even able to hit a single, stationary target with reasonable consistency? Probably not. A decent speed shooter is skilled enough such that he would (almost) never miss a single stationary target.

Why don't you go much, much slower, and do a few sections completely untimed (even if it takes you an hour)? See if, under those circumstances, you can get down to -5 or better per section. Until you get your "accuracy" up, there's no sense in worrying about speed. Hopefully the shooting analogy makes more sense now.

The point is you need to get more comfortable with quickly and effectively applying the fundamentals, both with respect to logic as well as the exam itself. And one problem with your current strategy is that, after completing a section, you don't really have much to go off of in terms of improving your fundamentals. In fact, your mental advice to yourself may simply take the loose form of "Wow, I suck and need to get a LOT better." How useless is that?

What we really want to know is how you would have done on those last two questions if you had time to look at them; whether or not you simply misread or had a substantive misunderstanding on that question where you quickly and confidently circled the [wrong] answer and moved on; what aspect of that question caused you to burn so much time, when the answer, upon reflection, seems glaringly obvious? Etc.

So do a few sections' worth of questions without worrying about time, and reviewing a question immediately after completing it (as opposed to at the end of the section). Take note of what you did particularly well, and/or what you did particularly poorly (yes, actually write it down). This is useful in that it forces you to treat each question seriously, allows you to review yourself when your memory of the question is as fresh as can be, and ultimately you will end up with a list of your strengths/weaknesses that, moving forward, you can review before doing any set of LR questions (ever catch a mistake while reviewing and think "dang it, I keep making that mistake" ? This should help with that).

After doing that and consistently achieving higher accuracy (let's say consistently -5 or better), then on to speed shooting; i.e., doing timed sections (though there is no shame in giving yourself 40 or 45 minutes a section to start, gradually reducing that to true 35 minute sections).

Though this strategy seems very tedious, you may be surprised at how quickly it allows you to improve. It has worked quite well for me and others.

dncdrc_04

@MIT_2017 Thank you very much! I’ve recently started doing this for LG and i find this strategy super useful. I will start doing it for LR as well and see how it goes!

ThrivingMagpie

I second MIT_2017’s advice. Do a few untimed sections, get a sense of the type of questions that are “within your league”. Once your secure these questions, you should be able to get down to <= -5 per section. Now that you have so little prep time left, just ignore hard questions and focus on questions you could have got right and cookie cutter questions. Meditate on your mistakes until you’re certain that you won’t get them wrong next time. Redo previously done sections to see if you have really “absorbed” what each section has to teach you. Really try to understand your thinking processes, reinforce ones that help you and modify ones that fail you.

dncdrc_04

@SaltyOrange Thank you! Nowadays, I focus on getting the questions right instead of getting through the section as quickly as possible. That helps a lot.