Progress or Lack there of..

Cynthia-2

Hello everyone,

I m at my breaking point with this and thinking about not continuing. I am not a quitter but I am just tapped out. I am seeing steady and good progress with LR and LG but RC is kicking my ass. I am missing between 12 and 18, and I am not sure wth I can do to fix this. This is coming from someone who is an avid reader and has always excelled in writing/reading. I don't know what else to do, I am angry with myself because it's just freaking reading, I am honestly both mad and frustrated, can anyone PLEASE point me in the right direction?

canihazJD

I'd consider an RC specific tutor before giving up. It often just takes a few tweaks in mindset/approach. I've found that its not uncommon for an extensive background in reading, literature, etc. to actually function as a handicap in RC. Anyone on our tutor list should be able to help, but before you resort to paying someone, see if you can find another 7sager willing to work on RC with you.

https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/comment/68763

determinedpugrat

Cynthia, DO NOT GIVE UP! I had a similar point a few months ago, and 7 sagers had to talk me off the ledge. You can do this. You can master the LSAT. I was stuck for 4 months in the 150's before breaking into 165+ range.

If you are feeling tapped out, maybe rethink how to set yourself up for long term success. I was studying 20 + hours a week at the beginning of the year on top of working a full time job, and I was exhausted. My brain couldn't retain anything. Studying harder doesn't always equate to studying smarter. Take a step back, readjust your expectations and come up with a game plan for being able to continue to chip away at this test. The LSAT tests your long term determination. Play the long game! After 4 months, I scaled it back and started doing 15 hours a week, which felt more manageable. I now am at 10 hours a week, and I go out and make sure I schedule time to have fun, too. All of the things you do outside of studying affect how well you can study.

On the RC bit, I was in a similar boat. I started out with double digit misses, after having been an English major in undergrad. I felt so ashamed and embarrassed, but the type of reading you have to do for the LSAT is not the type of reading you do for responding to emails or close reading a poem for an English course. It's its own skill, and has to be learned and practiced just like everything else. If you treat it the same way as other types of reading, you'll end up angry, hurt, and practicing the wrong skills.

To improve RC, I actually focused on LR. The hardest part of RC is not actually reading the passage, but actually answering the questions. The answers are worded to trick you and to lead you to make unwarranted inferences. Starting with LR will help you hone your close reading and make you learn to leave your biases and inferences at the door. The LR passages are much smaller and much easier to read, too. I found focusing on MSS, MBT, SA, and Descriptive Flaw/Weakening questions helped me learn the skills I needed for RC. Master those and RC will follow.

You can also drill RC passages. I didn't really do too much of the RC CC, but watch how JR summarizes each passage, and try to mimic that on your own. Drill one passage a day, and I promise you within 2 weeks you will start to feel things clicking. If you are missing up to -18 start drilling with the time off for now, and as you get closer to -10 start putting the time on and really spend a lot of time on blind review.

Hope this helps! Believe in yourself!!

Cynthia-2

@mpereira962D said:
Cynthia, DO NOT GIVE UP! I had a similar point a few months ago, and 7 sagers had to talk me off the ledge. You can do this. You can master the LSAT. I was stuck for 4 months in the 150's before breaking into 165+ range.

If you are feeling tapped out, maybe rethink how to set yourself up for long term success. I was studying 20 + hours a week at the beginning of the year on top of working a full time job, and I was exhausted. My brain couldn't retain anything. Studying harder doesn't always equate to studying smarter. Take a step back, readjust your expectations and come up with a game plan for being able to continue to chip away at this test. The LSAT tests your long term determination. Play the long game! After 4 months, I scaled it back and started doing 15 hours a week, which felt more manageable. I now am at 10 hours a week, and I go out and make sure I schedule time to have fun, too. All of the things you do outside of studying affect how well you can study.

On the RC bit, I was in a similar boat. I started out with double digit misses, after having been an English major in undergrad. I felt so ashamed and embarrassed, but the type of reading you have to do for the LSAT is not the type of reading you do for responding to emails or close reading a poem for an English course. It's its own skill, and has to be learned and practiced just like everything else. If you treat it the same way as other types of reading, you'll end up angry, hurt, and practicing the wrong skills.

To improve RC, I actually focused on LR. The hardest part of RC is not actually reading the passage, but actually answering the questions. The answers are worded to trick you and to lead you to make unwarranted inferences. Starting with LR will help you hone your close reading and make you learn to leave your biases and inferences at the door. The LR passages are much smaller and much easier to read, too. I found focusing on MSS, MBT, SA, and Descriptive Flaw/Weakening questions helped me learn the skills I needed for RC. Master those and RC will follow.

You can also drill RC passages. I didn't really do too much of the RC CC, but watch how JR summarizes each passage, and try to mimic that on your own. Drill one passage a day, and I promise you within 2 weeks you will start to feel things clicking. If you are missing up to -18 start drilling with the time off for now, and as you get closer to -10 start putting the time on and really spend a lot of time on blind review.

Hope this helps! Believe in yourself!!

Hey. I honestly have not studied the RC section thinking tht I could just read and answer, clearly that's not the correct approach. My aim is to score a 166 minimum, right now I am between 156 nd 158, what's keeping me from the score I want is RC. I will implement the untimed section per day as you suggested and will watch the videos after. Thank you for the encouragement!

Cynthia-2

@canihazJD said:
I'd consider an RC specific tutor before giving up. It often just takes a few tweaks in mindset/approach. I've found that its not uncommon for an extensive background in reading, literature, etc. to actually function as a handicap in RC. Anyone on our tutor list should be able to help, but before you resort to paying someone, see if you can find another 7sager willing to work on RC with you.

https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/comment/68763

Thank you, I hadn't thought of that, frankly I just thought I could do it alone, clearly that's not the case. I will consider this since I am so behind on this section.