Words of Strategy to break from the low 160s to early 170s?

agc438

Hey 7 Sage Community!

The course has been very helpful and I started from a 143, on my first diagnostic to the early 160s (180-163) range. I'm starting to hit a slump where I don't really know how to progress as of a week ago. Does anyone have any overarching strategies they've used to break through their slump periods? I'm hoping to get out of this slump, even if it's by one point. Testing Date: August 2021.

Thanks!

Be_of_good_cheer

Can you ID your top 3 weaknesses? If you have then I would want to start focusing on those 3 aspects for the next month.

Ilnyy123

Hi! You improved by a lot, so good job! For me personally, breaking 170 meant I had to get LG down to -0 ~ -3. LG was my weakest section to begin with (I think I got only 10 LG questions right on my diagnostic), but I drilled LG by doing games for about two hours a day every day for a little less than a month until suddenly everything clicked one day. If LG is what's holding you back, I'd say focus on getting LG down, because that really is the easiest section to improve on! Hope this helped.

eh189

Since you said you don't know what to do next, I'll share some things I did when I hit a slump in the high 160s (I broke into 177 after doing this and scored 173 June 2021 (first take). My diagnostic was 145):

If you struggle with RC, I recommend printing out passages you struggled with and reading it over and over. Read it for structure, scrutinize sentences that confused you (why was it confusing?), identify parts questions asked about (compare with other passages and see if there are any patterns), and become familiar with reading faster with comprehension. I read until I felt like I wanted to puke by just looking at that passage.

If you struggle with LG, obviously drill the way the 7sage curriculum recommends, but if you've already done that, you need to analyze why you are getting questions wrong. If you sufficiently drilled the way 7sage recommends (i.e. being able to do games under 5 minutes-ish), you are most likely making mistakes. If you are making mistakes, you should develop a double checking method that doesn't slow you down. For example, I decided to double check by eliminating AC using the master game board and then actually applying the AC I was left with to a scenario. (only do this if you have like 10 minutes to spare--otherwise come up with a different method)

If you struggle with LR... this one is trickier because methods vary so much depending on what you are struggling with. For me, it helped doing CLIR thing the Loophole (LSAT book) recommends and doing TONS of LR questions. I spent a lot of time doing corrections and specifically identifying why I chose the wrong answer and understanding why that line of reasoning is wrong. For corrections, I physically wrote down abbreviated stimulus + correct answer choice + AC I incorrectly picked. Then I highlighted, underlined, and analyzed each part I wrote down. By doing that, I was usually able to identify what I did wrong and what I should do to not make that mistake ever again. I read my corrections notebook almost everyday before going to sleep and transferred my mistakes/methods for improvement to an excel spreadsheet at the end of the week. With that, I made flashcards for each question type and read it right before taking another exam. If I ever made similiar mistakes, I immediately went back to the similar question I got wrong before and came up with new methods for improvement.

It really sucks when you hit a slump because its so draining mentally. Greatest advice I can give is when you hit a slump, STOP taking bunch of tests and make sure you are taking enough time analyzing methods for improvement and reviewing corrections. I had a lot of anxiety when I hit a slump, but I think I was able to overcome it by coming up with creative strategies and just studying more. I also spent a lot of time with God, reminding myself that He sees my hard work, that He loves me no matter what score I get, and that He made me perfectly capable for whatever I was made to do. Make sure you are taking care of yourself--slumps are real tough emotionally and mentally. I am wishing you all the best!

cpeaks13

@eh189 I have been going -10 lately on RC and its definitely getting me down. I keep thinking that if i print out passages and read them untimed and really dissect each one as you mentioned it would help. I think i read somewhere though for RC you shouldn't be doing them untimed. I do feel like this could be beneficial however. Do you have any opinions on doing RC passages untimed?
Thanks for the tips!

eh189

@cpeaks13 I assume people are saying that you shouldn't do RC untimed because it's not a good representation of your actual score and because it's a waste of practice tests. But, if you don't overdo it and if you are cognizant of the fact that it's not your actual score, I think it can be a helpful diagnostic tool. I did RC untimed couple times to diagnose myself (to find out whether the issue was time or understanding the passage/ac), but I didn't do it often. If you score a lot higher untimed, you know you need to work on speed--which rereading passages will help. If you score the same untimed, that probably means you need to spend more time studying how to read and how to select the right answer choice. Note how neither result leads to another untimed RC.

Rereading passages on the other hand, won't really hurt you because you already took the test and you don't get a score that gives you false representation. Just make sure that even though rereading is also "untimed", you are training yourself to comprehend, identify parts that matter, and break down structure as fast as you can. I actually timed myself for every reread, until I could do all the things I listed above under ~90 seconds. On the actual exam, I spent about 3 minutes reading the passage.

Also something that helped me a lot: I thought of RC as similar to LG (reading the passage = diagramming master game board). In LG, if your setup is messed up, you are basically screwed for the rest of the game: while you think you saved time diagramming you actually end up wasting so much more time diagramming each question. Similar in RC, if you don't comprehend/set up the passage well, you end up rereading the passage over and over. Why do we drill setting up familiar LG game boards so much, but not drill setting up familiar reading passages as much?

I hope that was somewhat helpful!

Determined_-1

@eh189 hii! thanks for this. do u mind elaborating on how the CLIR and translation helped you?

catbelly

@cpeaks13 said:
@eh189 I have been going -10 lately on RC and its definitely getting me down. I keep thinking that if i print out passages and read them untimed and really dissect each one as you mentioned it would help. I think i read somewhere though for RC you shouldn't be doing them untimed. I do feel like this could be beneficial however. Do you have any opinions on doing RC passages untimed?
Thanks for the tips!

I have heard this too, but I disagree! I practiced untimed sections with super old tests (1-35). Since they're pretty outdated, I could usually tell, "Oh they probably wouldn't ask me this in the new ones," but I could still practice the fundamental logical reasoning skills for all sections under untimed conditions. I really think untimed practice allows you to understand the fundamentals of this test. Obviously, this doesn't let you practice compare and contrast passages for RC, but if you do enough untimed practice, you will realize that those aren't much different from normal RC passages.

eh189

@wadduppeeeeeps Sure--translation drills helped me assess how much of the stimulus I actually processed. After completing an entire section, I compared my translation v. stimulus and wrote over in red parts that I missed (for example, I noticed that I kept missing modifiers like"some" "most" or "likely", so on my next translation drills I focused on remembering those). I especially looked out for instances where I missed parts of the stimulus that are crucial to getting the right answer.

CLIR drill was helpful because it made me read the stimulus more intentionally. I didn't do the actual CLIR drills that much. I only did it once in a while to sharpen my focus. Overtime, I think I developed my own, simplified, automatic version of CLIR. I tried to be very vague with my loophole because I noticed that my loopholes sometimes keep me from noticing the right answer.

I think translation drills helped me more throughout. CLIR drills looking back weren't that helpful by itself. Sorry for the confusion!

agc438

@eh189 said:
Since you said you don't know what to do next, I'll share some things I did when I hit a slump in the high 160s (I broke into 177 after doing this and scored 173 June 2021 (first take). My diagnostic was 145):

If you struggle with RC, I recommend printing out passages you struggled with and reading it over and over. Read it for structure, scrutinize sentences that confused you (why was it confusing?), identify parts questions asked about (compare with other passages and see if there are any patterns), and become familiar with reading faster with comprehension. I read until I felt like I wanted to puke by just looking at that passage.

If you struggle with LG, obviously drill the way the 7sage curriculum recommends, but if you've already done that, you need to analyze why you are getting questions wrong. If you sufficiently drilled the way 7sage recommends (i.e. being able to do games under 5 minutes-ish), you are most likely making mistakes. If you are making mistakes, you should develop a double checking method that doesn't slow you down. For example, I decided to double check by eliminating AC using the master game board and then actually applying the AC I was left with to a scenario. (only do this if you have like 10 minutes to spare--otherwise come up with a different method)

If you struggle with LR... this one is trickier because methods vary so much depending on what you are struggling with. For me, it helped doing CLIR thing the Loophole (LSAT book) recommends and doing TONS of LR questions. I spent a lot of time doing corrections and specifically identifying why I chose the wrong answer and understanding why that line of reasoning is wrong. For corrections, I physically wrote down abbreviated stimulus + correct answer choice + AC I incorrectly picked. Then I highlighted, underlined, and analyzed each part I wrote down. By doing that, I was usually able to identify what I did wrong and what I should do to not make that mistake ever again. I read my corrections notebook almost everyday before going to sleep and transferred my mistakes/methods for improvement to an excel spreadsheet at the end of the week. With that, I made flashcards for each question type and read it right before taking another exam. If I ever made similiar mistakes, I immediately went back to the similar question I got wrong before and came up with new methods for improvement.

It really sucks when you hit a slump because its so draining mentally. Greatest advice I can give is when you hit a slump, STOP taking bunch of tests and make sure you are taking enough time analyzing methods for improvement and reviewing corrections. I had a lot of anxiety when I hit a slump, but I think I was able to overcome it by coming up with creative strategies and just studying more. I also spent a lot of time with God, reminding myself that He sees my hard work, that He loves me no matter what score I get, and that He made me perfectly capable for whatever I was made to do. Make sure you are taking care of yourself--slumps are real tough emotionally and mentally. I am wishing you all the best!

Omg tysm for the advice! My main problem atm is getting the easy single sequences down to -0 timed and my biggest problem questions are usually the ones that ask for a list of which variable can go in x spot and to tell them all of them, or the ones that replace rules. My biggest issues are having to rush them so I can have more time for the other games.

LR, I'm going back to the syllabus and I'm realizing that I'm alot more shakey on MBT/SA/MSS questions.

RC, I honestly just need to read and practice more.

Again, it's wild that you managed to get this far and I legitamately appreciate the time you put in for this advice.