How much more can I improve my score?

jmac800

I started with a very low initial LSAT score 4 years ago (131). I studied it on and off for a few years but never took it seriously, it was just a side interest until about this year february. During those 4 years despite doing very little work I manage to raise my score to a low 150. Then I had a pretty good job but I now am taking a formal course in person in addition to 7sage. When I started my in person course in June I got a diagnostic and scored a 158 (pt 61), which was the same as my June Lsat Sore. Yesterday I wrote preptest 62 and got a 161, today I wrote pt 63 and got a 154, I found the LG and reading comp way harder on 63. That being said about 2 weeks ago I wrote pt 40 and got a 168. But to be fair, I had literally seen LR/argument on it except maybe 4/5 in the whole section. And I also seen every game in it and done it before plus the reading comps, some of them I kind of remembered too. I didn't really remember much of pt 62 or 63. As in I actually had to go through the process and would debate the answers like a real test.

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I did score very highly in regular school graduating in the top 5% of my high school and my undergrad program which was a very competitive business program (think Ivy League). Most of my friends from high school and university are either bankers, doctors, lawyers, etc.

At this point I am wondering what I can do to improve my score more. I just found it very weird how it seems everyone else is so easily able to improve their score on the lsat going from 140s and 150s to high 160s, and I have to struggle studying much harder to get a far worse score.

Alot of the LR I get wrong comes from the fact that I don't understand the wording in the answer choice like when they are using double negations. Another set of it can come from when I don't understand the passage although, I am trying to fix that too by not going to the answer choice in practice until I understand the passage. When I do this untimed, I can pretty much get most of the questions, as in over 90% accuracy although some areas are less, just 75-80% maybe. And those wrong ones all have to do with tricky wording, or grammar tricks, or things that seem unclear as in could be argued either way, just depending on what the test writer wanted it to be.

I'm not sure if I should start trying to study logic or reading those weird non-fiction "Women's books" to try to understand the LSAT better. There is something strange that is throwing me off but it is hard for me to put the finger on it. I have a pretty good grasp of the methods to get the right answers.

c.janson35

"At this point I am wondering what I can do to improve my score more. I just found it very weird how it seems everyone else is so easily able to improve their score on the lsat going from 140s and 150s to high 160s, and I have to struggle studying much harder to get a far worse score."

The LSAT isn't easy. It's a struggle to improve and takes many hours of really hard work.

To be frank, you don't have as good of methods as you think if you're scoring in the mid 150s. You need to practice and do a lot of it. It also seems like you've taken a small amount of PTs which is where the real gains are made. It won't matter how many courses you take if you don't get a sufficient amount of PT practice. I think you need to build up a strong base of practice tests and then review your analytics to focus on specific problem areas. And make sure you're doing a great BR also! Continue practicing to predict the answer choices, articulate flaws, and summarize RC passages during your untimed BR.

Keep working hard. The LSAT isn't easy and it doesn't care what school you went to or what your major is. You can do this!


Good luck!

jyang72

Once you reach your goal, who cares you spend 2 years or 3 years or even 3 months? LSAT is very difficult and it takes lots of hard work. Dude, once you reach 170, you are in the same level with 170 scorers and law school will take you. Who cares if you are smart or not? You can do it!!!

jmac800

Good advice above, will take it. Now I have to read all those blind review pages to make sure I'm doing it right.

Pacifico

BR with a clean copy or it didn't happen...

nicole.hopkins

@c.janson35 said:
I just found it very weird how it seems everyone else is so easily able to improve their score on the lsat going from 140s and 150s to high 160s, and I have to struggle studying much harder to get a far worse score.

Why .... do you think this ... I went to a pretty OK undergrad and the LSAT is harder than anything I did in UG.

jmac800

@Pacifico, dang. I was hoping I could BR the ones I already wrote.
@nicole.hopkins Because those in my class often jumped in score pretty quickly ie. went from low 150s or 140s to 160s in 3 months or so. Its like it came to them so much easier and I had to work so hard for it. I swear I took a class with a 17 year old who wasn't that bright and he was scoring a 169 by the 4th test. And we started around the same score. Made me think there was something wrong with me. And he wasn't the only one who had this kind of jump. We were scoring the same for first 3 test or so and by test 4 roughly 2 months in everyone had these huge jumps, where I just barely tick up in score. Anyhow I got 161 today write on test 65. I am going to start fresh BR tomorrow and try to go over as many of the lessons as I can before October.

Pacifico

If you BR the tests you took instead of a clean copy then you will be fighting your ego to change the answers rather than taking the time to really delve into the reasoning/argument structure and parse everything out that is necessary. Believe me, you will see a noticeable rise in your BR if you use a clean copy. My BR scores never wavered more than 2-4 points above my timed scores until I started using a clean copy and since then almost all my BR scores have been in the 170s.

nicole.hopkins

@Pacifico said:
you will be fighting your ego to change the answers rather than taking the time to really delve into the reasoning/argument structure and parse everything out that is necessary.

So true—OR, the flipside (which is what led me to start doing the "blank blind review" as I did many months ago) is that you assume what you chose is wrong and so choose a wrong answer in BR. For me, the temptation to do this is almost overwhelming. So I don't even let myself see what I chose the first time. I often choose right the first time and want to give myself the chance to choose right once more. And then other times when I chose wrong the first time I am able to make a fresh (hopefully correct) choice).