Stuck at -5 on LR; how should I spend (waste?) my last month?

giulia.pines

Hi all,

So I've been studying since January, and have been getting in the mid-160s on PTs before I even began the 7sage CC. I really want to hit that 170 so I took several months of just reviewing the CC with a focus on LR, my weakest section. Well, I've now started doing whole sections based on my months of drilling/studying, and while I've gotten LG down to -1 and RC down to -2, I still seem stuck on LR. Whether untimed or timed, I always seem to get -5.

Now finally, my question: I'm taking the October LSAT, which means I have limited time left. What would you do in my situation? Keep grinding away at extra LR sections to try to improve my score, or decide it's a wash and go for practicing even more LG/RC to cement the good scores I already have? I know with the scores I'm getting on these sections I could probably reach my 170 goal, but there is always the (very great) possibility I will choke on test day and score lower on all three.

What would you do? Thanks in advance!
Giulia

canihazJD

Any trends?

giulia.pines

Do you mean which types of questions I'm getting right/wrong on the section? They were trending towards SA/PSA and Weaken questions earlier, but now it's honestly mostly dumb mistakes I don't catch!

Thanks

BlueRiceCake

Confidence+knowing a wide variety of LR flaws helps me. I've been consistently getting -0-3 on LR for 8 tests now.

How did you get your RC to get that low? Im stuck between -4-9 on RC

Constantine

@"giulia.pines" said:
Do you mean which types of questions I'm getting right/wrong on the section? They were trending towards SA/PSA and Weaken questions earlier, but now it's honestly mostly dumb mistakes I don't catch!

Thanks

SA and PSA are the easiest to learn. So I'd concentrate on them first.

TE CSC 2021

Sounds to me like you're really close to pulling it all together. I'd keep grinding in LR for sure trying to strike the ideal balance between care and speed. I don't think you meant that you're struggling with PSA/SA anymore, but if you are, those should be easily conquered for someone of your obvious strength.

giulia.pines

Honestly wish I could tell you! I think (shhh! don't tell) the Powerscore book/techniques really helped, but it's so personal to everyone.

@BlueRiceCake said:
Confidence+knowing a wide variety of LR flaws helps me. I've been consistently getting -0-3 on LR for 8 tests now.

How did you get your RC to get that low? Im stuck between -4-9 on RC

giulia.pines

@"TE CSC 2021" said:
Sounds to me like you're really close to pulling it all together. I'd keep grinding in LR for sure trying to strike the ideal balance between care and speed. I don't think you meant that you're struggling with PSA/SA anymore, but if you are, those should be easily conquered for someone of your obvious strength.

Thank you! Yeah I think I fundamentally understand what SA/PSAs ARE, I just get tripped up on them. I think a combination of drilling those and doing more LR sections may be the trick (in between doing practice tests of course).

laurennnn

Tell me how to LG tho. I'm at -1/2 on RC and -2/3 per section on LR, but f*cking LG just kill me-- can't get below -4.

claw2023-1

I saw one LSAT tutor who scored a 177/178 say he drilled practice problems only combining questions 15-25 of LR. Maybe that will help? Good luck!

giulia.pines

@laurennnn I was already pretty good at LG, but I have to say getting the PowerScore book, reviewing the basics, and doing a TON on paper really helped.

giulia.pines

@carolynlaw2022 That's a terrific idea - thank you!

ledkarly

@"giulia.pines" said:
@carolynlaw2022 That's a terrific idea - thank you!

Hi! Which Powerscore for RC did you use? I was only able to get the 2014 one (do you think this is still good?

giulia.pines

I have the 2020 one! I'm not sure how much it changes from year to year so unfortunately can't answer your question with any authority

mkdiocee

I'd have to second everyone saying the Powerscore bibles! They helped me quite a bit. Also, if you wanted the 2020 one, amazon has them all; I just got it as an ebook so I could start using them right away!

dlcniangar

I'm in a similar area but -6. Someone recommended adeptlr to me for drilling specific questions.

jacuzzzi

I'm having the same issue, also stuck around -4 on LR. I don't think my weaknesses fall along the lines of Question type, which is unfortunately how most test prep companies including 7sage categorize them. I wish there was a resource that organized the questions by argument type, which might better help to observe trends and weaknesses

RobinBird

I recommend signing up for the November LSAT and getting a tutor. They can help you figure what you need to do personally to break through this plateau. I was plateaued at 169 and now I'm PTing in the 170s after working with an excellent tutor.

clear227

You should work on the area that you think you can improve the most. An extra point in LR is the same as an extra point in RC or LG. If you really enjoy LG and think you will have an easier time getting to zero there compared to improving LR, that's what you should practice.

Like other posters have mentioned, a good way to improve LR is to drill your worst question types. I am consistently getting -1/-0 in LR. The method I use is to create a 25 question problem set based on my five worst question types from the analytics page. I do this timed set 2-4 times a week.

vam621

Following, I’m in the same boat. My LG is always at -0, RC is at worst -5 from my last bunch of PTs, but has dipped to -3 more often than not. But recently LR has been a total crapshoot with -3 in some sections or -7 on others.

giulia.pines

My most recent PT was -2 LG, -2 RC, and -3 LR so I think I'm just gonna keep plugging away at PTs to get more comfortable with the brain power it takes. Thanks everyone!