THANK YOU! 150 --> 171

Benjamin Louis

A big fat sincere Thank You to everybody who makes discussion posts and comments on JY's lessons. I swear I've read hundreds of them that made me laugh or helped me understand questions. You guys are the unsung heroes. You helped me get through hundreds and hundreds of hours of question review. Keep it up and don't forget, "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage". Just wanted to say thanks

J.Y. Ping

Congratulations!

fancysummer

Hey congratulations! Can I ask you how long you studied and what your study methods were like?

Benjamin Louis

@fancysummer said:
Hey congratulations! Can I ask you how long you studied and what your study methods were like?

Thanks! I studied for a little less than a year (although getting into the high 160s took much less time). I studied rigorously for roughly 7 months and the other 4 months or so I studied after work. It definitely takes sustained commitment and drive because you will hit some plateaus but as long as you don't slack off, a 10-25 point increase is definitely possible for you too! Don't be discouraged.

Step 1. Define your own motivation.

Having a clearly defined motivation will really help you to keep pushing yourself to improve and work harder when you hit plateaus. That was essential to my success, and I think it's often overlooked.

Step 2: Identify your problem areas (BE SPECIFIC)

• While it's good to know if you struggle with a particular section of the test more than others, that will only get you so far. You really need to be critical of a few things when you're reviewing missed questions. The questions you ask yourself will change according to sections, but I'll list what I think is most important.

(1) What type of evidence is being used to justify the conclusion? (Causal, conditional, analogous, correlational, appeal to authority/source, using the past, generalizing from a sample, etc.)

This is really valuable to recognize because sometimes it's not actually the question type that you struggle with but rather the argument structure. For example, I realized conditional arguments that required taking contrapositives took me too long to diagram during the actual test, so I just practiced conditional reasoning until it was second nature.

(2) Ask, where did I get lost?

IMO, there are realistically only a few reasons you get a question wrong.
- Misread stimulus
- Misread AC
- Misidentified conclusion or premise
- Misread LG rule and/or Question Stem (this was the only reason I got questions wrong on LG so be careful with MBT/CBTs and the like)
- Mistranslated a conditional
- Skimmed past evidence (RC)
- Failed to ID author's perspective (RC)
- For RC (When moving to ACs, assessing the following might help you use POE when lost)
Assess the following qualities of each AC: Scope, Relevance, Strength, Author's opinion or lack thereof.

Identifying where in the question/passage/game you got lost is beneficial because you can hyperfocus on those areas the next time around and train yourself accordingly.

So, you've identified problem areas and you're motivated. Great! That's half the battle.

Step 3: Translation Drills!

• Translation drills are a study method I learned from Ellen Cassidy's Loophole (highly recommend if you struggle with LR). These drills will definitely improve both your LR and RC scores.

• The goal of the drill is to boil each stimulus down to its essence (premises and conclusion). Eliminate all the fodder. Once you do these drills consistently for a couple of weeks, you'll realize how much mental space you waste on utterly useless information. The fodder is intended to distract so by removing it the argument appears much simpler. (Look up the method/buy Loophole I think it's worth it)

Step 4: Drill by Question Type and Difficulty

I drilled by question type first and then when I was hitting 168/169 it was basically just drilling 5-star questions until I started to understand the traps and language that was confusing me or leading me astray.

Step 5: BLIND REVIEW (it stinks but you gotta do it and treat it seriously)

• Spend more time reviewing than taking tests. All the real progress comes from analyzing wrong answers. Also, quick thing, don't ever beat yourself up about wrong answers. They are SO USEFUL. Honestly, the PT I got a 180 on was easily the most useless test I've ever taken. I love errors!

Step 6: Repetition (Take a lot of tests)

• Not everyone agrees with this take so do what you will this recommendation. I really think taking a lot of tests is extremely useful. Since arguments/games/RC passages are formulaic and patterned, repetition will help you identify these patterns quickly and subconsciously. As you take more tests flaws, assumptions, traps ACs and so on become so much more obvious. Eventually you'll get to the point where four answers are so terrible the correct AC is obvious by POE, or on the worst of curvebreakers you'll run a 50 50 guess.

Step 7: Testing environment and time matters. On test day make sure your environment is as comfortable as possible and your head is in the right place.

My 3 scores were 169 - 164 - 171 (in that order). The day I got a 164 I had a root canal earlier in the day and took the test at 9pm bc all the other time slots were filled. DO NOT DO THAT ... LOL. Figure out at what time your brain is firing at all cylinders and sign up early for that time slot. It absolutely matters! Concentration is critical factor for success. It doesn't matter how smart you are or how much you studied if you lose your concentration. A momentary lapse in concentration almost guarantees a wrong answer.

A few final tips:

Recommended Readings: Ellen Cassidy's Loophole, Nathan Fox's Logical Reasoning Encyclopedia.

Watch all the Logic Games explanations. JY gives killer breakdowns of each game. I'm confident everyone has the capacity to go -0 as long as they watch the videos and foolproof the games. As you foolproof games, think about the common inferences that are associated with particular game types. You'll know to look for them when you ID the game type.

Drill hard miscellaneous games bc if you get one on the test (likely) you want to have a plan of attack. The first two tests I took I let the novelty of the last game paralyze me even though the methods to attack the game were the same as any other.

If you're struggling with RC, try reading the questions first. This gives you the advantage of being able to hyperfocus on parts of the passage that the local questions reference. Lastly, for RC questions, always find evidence in the passage. When I say that I mean literally point to the place in the passage that substantiates your AC. Oftentimes even global questions asking about author's POV or purpose of passage have a direct referent in the passage.

Final tip, whenever you take the LSAT be a MEAN and CURIOUS CRITIC!

By viewing arguments through the lens of critic, flaws and assumptions pop out more obviously than if you view the argument sympathetically. Additionally, curiosity is necessary for sustained concentration which is in turn necessary for a high score. So be curious, there's some really interesting stuff in the passages if you're openminded. I've done all the tests, so I know!

** Disclaimer. These are opinions!!! They are the methods and tools I used to hit 171 and while each of them helped me, everyone has different learning styles so not every piece of advice has to be useful to you. Pick and choose what suits you're preferred learning strategy. If you want a 170+ YOU CANNOT SKIP BLIND REVIEW. I really do believe that is essential. So, if you don't use anything I mentioned please at least blind review for your own sake.

Lastly, don't give up and be confident!