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Still can't believe it... 171 on October 2020!!

ahnendc-1ahnendc-1 Member
in General 642 karma

Been waiting months to write this post.. The journey to this score was longer, more difficult and more much painful than I imagined when I picked up some Kaplan Prep book in mid-2019.

It's taken a couple of days to be able to physically process but I finally scored 171 on an official take!

Took a ~diagnostic (had been studying a little before) and scored a 166.. this was what I would later melodramatically refer to as the 'kiss of death' - it was a total fluke and in no way was this representative of my skills at that point in time...subsequent PTs would prove that I was actually closer to high the 150s to low 160s. In the next month I took around 10 PTs (with no BR and no drilling) and never once was able to hit at or above 166.

Months later, 'I saw the light' and signed up for 7Sage. After completing the CC and doing about a month of drilling LR/RC full sections from the early PTs and full proofing every LG from 1-35, my first PT was a 169. This was my first major victory, which inevitably was followed by what felt like a setback, a 159.

First official take was May and I got a... 166. At the time, my PTs were all over the place (169, 159, 171, 163, 165...) and 166 was actually my prep test average. At the time May was the only flex scheduled and it felt like this Covid thing would be over by now and we'd be back to full length tests so I never put too much stock into this one. I had taken a PT during the interregnum (after I wrote it but before I got my results) and had gotten a 172 (highest yet) which fueled me to push further still.

Going into August my PT average was just above 170. But something happened on LR of that section.. its been commented that the first questions in that LR section were unusually hard and that just got to me; i'm sure that it tanked that LR section and also probably the first part of my next section which was RC.. if it was a 5 section test then I'm confident than another LR would have been able to balance me out to a 168 but alas another 166. What was crushing was looking at an official take that was the same as my diagnostic; even though I knew by this time my diagnostic was inflated - I was frustrated and embarrassed that I "hadn't" made any progress (even though I know I had)...

Anyways, something happened after August and I just started to care so much less. By this point I had not had a PT below 168 since April... I felt assured that I would be able to get above a 166. But then, about a week before October I had two back-to-back PTs where I got a 167... these PT scores felt crushing, it felt like I was slipping at the very second I needed to be at my peak. In some ways this weirdly made me care less... 'caring less' weirdly ended up being the key to doing well on that exam.. anyways felt like I did okay on LR, RC and LG but my couple of low scores before the exam made me second guess... I was hoping for anything above a 168 and was registered for November as well hoping that I could at least increase my score and then to push forward and get out of my slump by the November exam.. but alas it wasn't necessary I got a 171!!!

And yet, I still feel like this post has not adequately captured the ups and downs that have comprised this journey. It wouldn't have been possible without 7Sage and J.Y.! Thank you to everyone who interacted me me on the forums (particularly on my posts where I was asking for help or, oftentimes, just complaining and looking for solace).

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