Breaking 170: It's the little things part 1

idemadlove

Hi guys,

I wanted to share my experience with finally scoring in the 170s. I have been studying for this exam for almost two years. I started in the 150s and was stuck in the low 160s for awhile. Like many, I thought that represented my average ability and while I was enthusiastic about re-taking the LSAT, I didn't have any crazy expectations for my score to go up. However, within the past month, I began scoring in the 170s. While it's primarily exposure to the exam that has improved my score, here are a few little tips that have helped me out! Hope they're of some benefit to you

1. Create a master list for logic games symbols. We have all encountered logic games rules that have swiftly reduced our confidence to zero. When you review the game with J.Y, TAKE DOWN the way he writes the rule. I cannot tell you how helpful his symbols for tricky rules have been. For example, writing a "cross" to indicate that items cannot repeat in the same column or row was life saving. Besides the primary symbols for logic games, there are many lesser known ones. Make a list of them and subsequently be prepared for almost anything.

2. Put your head down and learn the valid argument forms. Oh ma god guys. When I started these lessons, my brain kept short circuiting. Anyone else? Well, they will take your LR score to the next level. When I got to parallel reasoning/flaw/SA questions, I'd just skip because I was like lol that's going to take some time. But after learning the valid argument forms, you breeze through those questions because you'll not only know what's valid, you'll know what's invalid and therefore be able to filter out all the useless-junk sentences that wordy SA questions throw at you. I used to get soo bogged down in the 5-7 sentences included in a SA prompt. But so many times 2/5 sentences don't even matter but how will you realize this without learning the valid argument forms?!

3. Don't go paragraph by paragraph with RC to form the reasoning structure. Guys, this may not work for everybody, but I used to slap "CONTEXT" or "BACKGROUND" or "SUPPORT" onto every paragraph after I finished reading it. I did this because I was so anxious about keeping track of what I was reading in my mind and I was jumping to formulate the reasoning structure as soon as possible. This kickstarts your good reading habits. But ultimately, I think the passages make a lot more sense when you start to put the pieces together as you read. Instead of stopping after each paragraph and going, "Shit, shit what is this in relation to the whole?" Ask yourself, "What is the author doing right now?" Are they explaining the origins of something? Are they going into greater depth about the situation? Are they discounting one theory for another? Are they summarizing what you just read? This approach made reading more fluid and forming the reasoning structure more natural.

4. Cherry pick essential words form the LR stimulus. We all know how wordy the stimulus can get. The kicker is that a lot of those words don't even matter. Once you identify the conclusion and the support, you got to filter the junk out. There are a lot of adjectives and phrases that have no bearing on the argument. Here is the process in action. I have bolded the essential words.

My friends say I will one day have an accident
because I drive my sports car ****recklessly. But I
have done some research, and apparently
minivans and larger sedans have very low
accident rates compared to sports cars. So trading
my sports car in for a minivan would lower my
risk of having an accident.

Lmao, I'm not sure if this passage demonstrates this tactic super well, but you guys get the gist. Just try it and you'll begin to pick up on what's important and what's not. Well, I'm at work right now and my supervisor just came out of her office so I'll have to cut it there for now. But I hope to get some more tips out soon. Stay strong everyone! YOU GOT THIS.

ssop_tkd

Thank you!!!