Studying for a retake

roshnee8

Hi there!I took February and June exam but got only 150 in both the exams.I have been studying since February and the June exam went well but it did not reflect in my score.I have completed Powerscore and LSAT trainer for LR,RC and Blueprint for LG.
I missed seven questions in LG this June.I am planning to retake in December. How should I study to increase my score to 170+?

Sprinkles

7sage is notorious for dramatic LG improvement. You should enroll in a course and begin prepping with PTs and the Blind Review method. How many PTs have you used if any?

Ron Swanson

In my opinion, and I know others share this view, getting -0 on LG is a huge part (but not required) for scoring 170+.

The LG explanations on 7sage are flat out the best around. While I'm pretty sure that all of the LG explanations are available on YouTube, access to them on this site, and the ability to speed up/jump to certain questions is awesome.

Idk what you scored on your most recent LSAT, but since you're taking in December, I'd concentrate on fundamentals/drilling through the summer then begin PTs in late August. However to give you more indepth advice id have to know your section breakdown, scores, etc

Cant Get Right

Scoring a 170+ is an enormous task. I'm curious about where you say that the June test went well but the score didn't reflect it. The score, and only the score, reflects how well the test went; and if you're aiming for 170+ every error is a disaster. You can't have the mentality that you both did well and that you fell short of your target score by 20 points. If you're serious about reaching the towering heights of the 170's, the hard truth is that June didn't go well at all- it was a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.

And I recognize that mentality because I did the exact same thing as you. June went well but you just made some careless errors. You know the material but you just had some misreads. You understand the logic but you just made some foolish errors under pressure that you know better than to make. You're good at games, there was just a particularly brutal one that just so happened to focus on the one thing you're a little weak on. You scored a 150, but a 165 is really a more accurate figure- you just had a bad day and made some mistakes you wouldn't normally make. Sound familiar? Yeah it does. And it's all bullshit and you have to embrace that to reach 170. Again, I did the same thing. I aimed for 170+ and just had no idea what it took to get there. I wasted my first two takes long before I was ready, and only then did I figure out just how woefully inadequate my entire approach to this test was. So I say this from experience and with respect and understanding: realize that you are not good enough for 170+. That's not to say that you can't become good enough. But as it stands now, you aren't. If you were, you would have scored it in June. And I don't mean that to be discouraging at all. On the contrary, this is very encouraging news for you, even if it doesn't feel like it. If you were good enough to score a 170 and then scored a 150, that's when we'd all need to be concerned. If that had happened then this whole thing is random and meaningless, and there would be no way anyone could do anything. Luckily, that isn't the case; and that means you have a path forward. And this is the best thing that you could possibly have.

Once you can tell yourself this (and sincerely accept it), then you can begin improving. It's not easy. For me it was by far the most painful part of my 1.5 year (and counting) LSAT journey. Our Egos are incredibly sensitive and their mechanisms for avoiding this kind of thinking are much more sophisticated than our conscious efforts to subvert them. But for me, until I went through this, I was incapable of improving. Only then could I allow myself to identify my weaknesses because only then could I concede that I was weak. Once I was able to see how miserably ill prepared I was, something amazing happened. My whole attitude changed. My whole life changed. I began working with the discipline of a Shaolin monk. Slowly, I began to actually achieve the level of ability which my ego had previously fooled me into telling myself I already had. I began forging myself into what I wanted to be. I began transforming, in reality, into the image of myself which my Ego had constructed. And you will too.

Far less important, I recommend 7Sage. The curriculum is far superior to Powerscore at least, which is what I used before finding 7Sage. There's a free trial so you can always cancel if it doesn't work for you. Check out the LG videos on youtube if you want to get a sense of the teaching style. After watching a game's video you won't be able to remember how you could possibly have struggled with it: it really is that effective. Learning the methods behind how JY approaches LG will improve your score more than any single other thing. Whatever you use though, study smart. Prioritize quality over quantity. When you PT, PT under strict conditions. When you BR, BR meticulously and don't give up on a problem until you've reached complete understanding. The thing about the LSAT is anyone can master it. It's the only test in the world that doesn't require any outside knowledge. Literally everything you need to answer every single question on the LSAT is given to you. You just have to know how to read it.

You have a lot of hard work ahead of you, but if you put in the work, don't settle for less, and refuse to make excuses; you will reach the 170+ level. So hang in there. And good luck.

Sprinkles

@"Cant Get Right" when are you going to write a book already?

Cant Get Right

@montahar As soon as publishers start throwing money at me, I'll write them whatever they want!

roshnee8

@Ron Swanson :I did PTs from 55-70,used to get -4 in games,-4to -6 in LR and -8 in RC.I took a month's leave in May and was getting around 162-168 in my PTs in May.

blah170blah

If you were PT'ing around 162-168 but got a 150 in June, I think you have a couple explanations:
1) Your fundamentals are shaky
2) You have bad habits when it comes to BR'ing and PT'ing in non-testing conditions and the actual test

As in most cases, I bet it's some combination of both. I'd take this time to get spend your time drilling LR questions and RC passages. I know people say you shouldn't take things untimed but I actually disagree because I've found it's the only way to consistently apply good habits to questions. The goal is to practice untimed, develop habits, and get faster at those habits so you can accomplish what you need to on the real test.

I'm retaking the test as well after a year long hiatus and I've spent the past month just undoing bad habits as I also experience a significant drop from PT average (171) to actual score (162). I've found that this method has worked for me, though some might disagree.

roshnee8

I'm working full time.Approximately how many months I should give for studying full time for the exam considering the fact that I want to avoid burnout?