My first 170! AMA

garrettmarnold

I have been studying with 7Sage for the last 4 months and improved my diagnostic from 148 to a 170 yesterday (pt83). Please feel free to reach out for questions about study schedule or my process. Happy to help!

fraaz101

How did you practice to improving your time?

mikeross-1

WOOO! congrats yes what was your study schedule? what do you think helped you improve the most?

missjurisdoc

deleted

katiemoreno111

Congratulations! What was your process during logic games? I find my timing is way too long

nickymir01

This is awesome! I'm hoping to do the same (starting off at a 148 too). Do you know how many hours a day/week you've been studying to get there?

LegallyHighlighted

How did you practice? did you drill a lot?

garrettmarnold

@"mikeross-1" said:
WOOO! congrats yes what was your study schedule? what do you think helped you improve the most?

Thank you! It’s been a lot of work leading up to this and still more points on the table.

Once I completed the CC, I’ve been working around 3 hours a day / 6 days a week. Starting out, my schedule looked like Mon-Thurs: sections, Fri: PT, Sat: review

During this process, I prioritized accuracy over finishing on time (e.g. only completing 15/23). With the ones attempted, I made sure to get them right and slowly worked up the attempted questions.

I also recommend prioritizing review in this process. BR will guide you if your process is correct if you guessed, or if there is a gap between your skills and what is required. Committing to getting my BR to 180 on the last few tests has been instrumental to my recent score jump!

After this stage, I have been working on pacing and timing. I predict the remainder of my score progression will occur as I begin to tackle easier questions with little time/energy spent, and reserving more energy for the more difficult ones. Through this process, I have been taking 2 tests a week, composed of 2RC, LR, and LG without a break to build my endurance on test day.

Overall, I believe that consistently taking and reviewing my tests as I moved through the CC was instrumental to building my knowledge of the test.

Good luck with your studies!

garrettmarnold

@LegallyHighlighted said:
How did you practice? did you drill a lot?

Unconventionally, I have barely drilled. Early in my prep, a mentor instilled in me that drilling is often unrepresentative of the types/difficulty of actual sections.

My experience has been consistent with this advice. I found that drills help to address structural understanding of the test (e.g. learning the form of Necessary Assumption questions). Unfortunately, I have observed that drills were inconsequential to my section score after a baseline understanding of the test.

Following this advice, I prioritized sections over drills throughout my prep. Moreover, the largest gains I have made have been a result of committing to accuracy in the sections completed. While my experiences may be unique, I would recommend that others try to use full sections to practice implementing what they have learned.

garrettmarnold

@nickymir01 said:
This is awesome! I'm hoping to do the same (starting off at a 148 too). Do you know how many hours a day/week you've been studying to get there?

Thanks! I believe my consistency has been one of the biggest reasons for my score increase. My prep has been broken into 3 stages - understanding the skills needed, implementing my strategies, and refining my pacing/time.

Overall, I have worked around 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, composed of sections, BR, or full-length tests.

I would also note - certain points of my prep were composed of longer hour sessions, however, often led to burnout or plateaus. I would recommend finding a consistant routine that allows you to learn, practice, and stay fresh. The LSAT is much closer to a marathon than a sprint!

legallybree

Congratulations !!

garrettmarnold

@fraaz101 said:
How did you practice to improving your time?

Timing continues to be one of my biggest issues. That being said, I have found that focusing my efforts on improving speed has come at a direct loss of my accuracy, and performance as a whole.

The beginning of my prep was composed of untimed sections to get myself familiar with the test. As I began to become more comfortable, my time naturally improved.

As my score began to scale, my testing philosophy continued to be consistent with this. For example, I would much rather complete 3 RC passages with 100% accuracy and guess on the hardest passage than miss -2/3 on each passage.

One of my mini-goals was to consistently score 100% on my BR. Seeing that I, theoretically, could complete all the questions on the test, I realized I was often better off skipping and cutting my losses on some questions.

I am now learning the impact of reserving mental energy for easier questions and developing strategies to successfully tackle the most difficult ones.

Finally, a note on endurance. I have also found, in addition to timing, I have struggled with endurance and pacing for the full exam. A strategy a mentor and I created consists of a "frankenstein" test - LR, RC, LG, RC (replacing experimental with another RC for endurance) without breaks. This process has recently helped me create a better understanding of my energy limits and assisted me with pacing throughout the exam. I take 1 or 2 of these endurance tests to prepare myself for a standard testing environment.

Great question, and good luck with your studies!