Breaking into the 170s from the high 160s

FutureLawyer77

Hi everyone! I have been studying for over a year and am preparing to take my second LSAT next month. I'm so proud of myself because I have improved about 14 points through self-study. I am now in the high 160s and have been here for about 3 months. I know I can improve but I've really struggled to make that final jump into the 170s. I'd love to hear advice from folks who have accomplished this. Thank you so much in advance for the help!!

LSATcantwin

That last jump is the hardest to make. You're going from multiple questions being the difference between different scores to one question making the difference in scores.

Trust yourself, and really hammer down on the questions you are missing, look for patterns - maybe even record the types you're missing/the kinds of logic you're missing. It really becomes a game of nitpicking every mistake to jump from the high 160's into the 170's.

FutureLawyer77

Thanks so much! @LSATcantwin

Cant Get Right

Yeah, you have to treat every error like a catastrophe. Dig deep into it and get to the core of what went wrong. You've also got to really emphasize timing errors. Analyzing your performance based on right/wrong answers is no longer good enough. Getting a question right in 3:00 is often just as big an error as missing it 0:30--in many situations it will even be worse. That is really critical at your score range.

castagnolazach

Get down to the nitty gritty. In order to make the jump, I started to focus on drilling individual question types in LR and mastering them. For example, I used to get about 75% of Necessary Assumption questions right. After drilling for a week straight in between PTs (5 - 10 questions at a time), I was getting 100%, which immediately raised my average LR score by 2 points (I was getting -4 to -6, then dropped down to -0 to -3), and has been consistent since. I'm currently doing the same work with those pesky Argument Part Qs. Recently, to practice RC I've been doing one passage at a time, rather than doing whole sections. I was in a rut, but managed to jump 4 points after focusing on not rushing the easy passages. Being forgiving of yourself is also big, and the stress of this stage, when you're on the cusp, is hard to manage, which is why I think taking it easy, taking it slow, and doing your real studying in smaller chunks rather than pounding out whole sections in between PTs is super helpful. The stress relief will help you get into a groove on LR, manage the panic on RC, and get ahead of the clock on LG. Having an extra 3 minutes at the end to double check everything is at times the difference between a 169 and a 171. Best of luck to you.

FutureLawyer77

Thank you so much @castagnolazach! Definitely- the stress is a lot at this point, I'm glad someone understands. I'll try some drills the next few weeks.

Burt Reynolds

@castagnolazach said:
Being forgiving of yourself is also big, and the stress of this stage, when you're on the cusp, is hard to manage, which is why I think taking it easy, taking it slow, and doing your real studying in smaller chunks rather than pounding out whole sections in between PTs is super helpful.

Just wanted to give a shoutout - this is great advice. I feel like learning becomes much more difficult as the stakes get higher (i.e. trying to break into the 170s). I naturally want to focus on the fact that I got a question wrong instead of focusing on why I got the question wrong. It's so easy to forget that this test is a beast.