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8 Likes
What's your recent victory, small or large?
testfromaway
Alum Member
I finally broke 170 today after quite a few tests stuck in the high 160s. I'm still aiming to score higher, but it feels really good to pass a notable benchmark.
What has gone well for you as of late? Anything click, or any personal records for scores on PTs, or any culinary successes in your procrasti-baking?
Comments
Great work! What do you think helped improve your accuracy?
I'm done with the LSAT now, but I'm working on typing speed for law school exams. I just got so I can touch type as fast as I could type while looking before.So I won't face any more pressure to quit, take off my blank keyboard cover, and start looking again.
You just reminded me of a similar problem I'll have to fix prior to entering law school. While learning how to type in elementary school, I developed a really bad habit of using my two index fingers 95% of the time. I was faster than most of the other kids despite using my two index fingers, so my dumb self thought there was no issue. Anyone have a good recommendation for an online typing course so I can re-learn the fundamentals?
I have been using typingclub.com which is free and had lessons and worked fine and showed what fingers to use. I also bought a keyboard cover for my laptop and used nail polish to cover up the keys on it so I can't cheat and peak.
Thank you for the recommendation!
I didn’t cry when I totally bombed an RC section lol and just took it as a sign that I need to actually finish the RC curriculum so I can maintain my 170. Maintaining a positive attitude throughout all this is new for me
After being stuck at ~167, I finally scored a 172. I scored my first - 0 today. If I can do this next month I'll be so happy!
I also just broke 170 recently! In my last five tests, I've scored three 170s, a 172, and a 167 (I take six section practice tests, so all of those scores have been within the past week or so). I'm hoping to see my average come up to about a 173-174 by the June/July tests, but breaking into that 170 range is just so rewarding.
That actually sounds like a pretty good way to train for the real thing. Do you just grab random sections from random tests and add them to the PT?
I still want the PTs that I use for the 2 extra sections to be ones that I haven't touched yet, so I do them in order. So, as an example, I'll pull the first two sections of PT 36 and use it with PT 56. Then I'll use the last two sections of PT 36 for PT 57 and so on. This has been extremely useful in developing endurance and getting more tests done (three tests in two sittings) for analytics data. Feel free to ask if you have questions about the process.
Congrats on all of the 170s!!
My recent victory is finishing the CC and scoring a 169 on my first real timed PT since my diagnostic. Hoping to join you guys in the 170s soon
In part, luck. Hovering around 169 for so long, it felt like if I wasn't sloppy on just ONE question, I'd finally hit 170. But also, I'm nearly through CC and have been applying the work from that. I totally bombed this LG section, so now I've got to refocus on that so I can push my score up more reliably.
Smart planning!
Heck yeah. It's hard to be patient with yourself through difficult sections and mistakes. You'll get there!
I got a concussion right after Thanksgiving... basically as soon as I finished LR. I restarted it 2.5 weeks ago, and tomorrow will be my last day relearning it! (I'll be making flash cards and drilling a little through the end of the month.) The real victory for me is that I'm a crazy perfectionist, and I didn't give up when my ego kept telling me that I'm not good at this stuff anymore, so I should just quit. Also, it's cool that I can admit to myself that I'm not getting something instead of just moving through it and pretending I didn't just get 2/5 right on a question set haha.
To summarize:
- Didn't cry.
- Didn't die.
- Was 10% patient with myself.
My last couple PT's have been -1 and -0 on BR for LG. It's a tiny victory to most, but huge to me. LG kicked my ass. Still does quite a bit under time. But being able to BR it says I know it, I just can't get it out of my head fast enough. Yet.
This last BR was 169, which is a new high.
My lsac GPA was finally calculated, and it was even better than I expected.
Little victories.
Congrats on the breaking 170!
My small victory has been getting my RC under -2 for the past two PTs (49 and 80). RC used to be my best section but it became my worst later in my prep and I was having wild fluctuations that were killing my score. So finally figuring out and successfully implementing a strategy that worked for me has been huge.
It could just be that the RC sections are easier than other PTs I've done, but I'm going to just take the small victory regardless.
@"Habeas Porpoise" , what method did you finally use to get your better RC scores?
I did a few things (lots of trial and error, lol):
Stopped writing while reading the passage.
I read a lot, but the only time I used to write while reading was in language/literature classes in high-school where we would annotate passages and ask, "why did the author write this word", "what does this sentence mean." It was very focus-on-the-trees-instead-of-the-forest-y. And that's fine in a literature class, but I realized marking my paper led me to focusing too much on the trees and not as much on the forest. Not marking helps me pull out a little more and see the big picture.
So I now basically pause after every paragraph and do a low-res summary in my head. While I do this I maybe circle a couple key words in the paragraph. I might mark a word that hints at the author's tone, or make a one-word note/arrow about structure on the side. Again, only at the end of each paragraph. And as I've usually done, at the end of the passage I consider the main point and author's tone before moving into the questions.
Stopped worrying about understanding everything.
This ties into the first point. I'm usually the kind of person who really likes to understand what I'm reading. I normally reread if I need to several times, but this just doesn't help on the test. You don't need to be 100% sure of the details to get the big picture. Sometimes a later part of the passage makes an earlier part more clear. Otherwise, I worry about a detail only if a questions specifically asks me about it.
Created a question exit strategy and this helped me skip more comfortably.
Basically, a set strategy that forces you to quit working on the question. For me, when I answer a question I read the stimulus and cross of any ACs I can immediately from my knowledge. I quickly glance back at the passage to see if I can try and eliminate any more ACs. If even after this I'm debating between ACs, then I employ my exit strategy. That is, I mark the question and move on to the next question for the passage. At the end of the passage, I come back to the skipped question, reread the stem and the ACs once to see if it's more clear now. If not, I fill in one of the ACs on my answer sheet, leave it un-circled on my test paper, and move on to the next passage. This saves time and at the end I usually have a couple minutes to come back to questions I was debating on. In general though, I don't have to come back to questions often, maybe three questions/test max.
Hope this helps!
I recently re-started studying for the LSAT after deciding to push back a year and re-apply. After several months completely off of studying, I was very rusty and kind of panicking about it.
However, I finally got my mojo back and am back to scoring in the same range as I was before the break! And on top of that, weirdly, I seem to have actually gotten significantly better at LR and RC in the process? hahaha. I'm so confused, but I feel like somehow the time away gave me better perspective. I'm suddenly consistently scoring higher than I ever have in RC. And, I'm scoring slightly better than before in LR and consistently finishing sections with several minutes to spare, which for the first time ever has allowed me to actually go back and re-check circled questions (part of the reason my score is higher!).
Unfortunately, LG has been rough and I'm still worse than before. But I really think with some focused review and drilling, I'll get back to where I was. And if I do that, my score should end up being higher than before.
It's really strange. I don't think I was burned out, but it's like the break gave my brain some time to process and do the questions faster naturally instead of having to really grind on them. It's like the knowledge finally became habit instead of active thinking, and that has vastly improved my efficiency. Now if that dang LG would just come back, I'd be in great shape! Hahaha.
After many months of not being able to figure out LG, I'm now consistently scoring -4 and hope to bring it down to at least -1. That said, LR and RC need tons of work.
After a few days of frustrating LG drilling sessions, I printed out like 50 pages worth of games to fool proof. I took a break from LG afterwards and have been drilling RC since. This morning, I got so frustrated with the RC drilling that I thought it might be more productive for me to take my mind off by fool proofing those games. I got perfect scores on three games and -1 on one of the games on the first try all under the recommended time limit and felt like I "owned" those games. I now have wasted 40 pages worth of printing paper/toner. I'm hoping for a similar, but highly unlikely, breakthrough for RC as I will most likely be drilling LR by the end of this week---probably out of frustration, again.
Signed my first apartment lease, which will be near by the law school. Also came back from visiting Korea and now planning 0L prep!
Has nothing to do with the LSAT, but I just passed the Patent Bar Exam yesterday so I can work as a patent agent until I apply in fall of 2019
I figure I've earned a few days of vacation before I get back to LSAT prep!
Also has nothing to do with the LSAT, but my oldest son just rocked a 32 on the ACT, which places him at the 97th percentile. Actually prouder of that than I will be of any LSAT score I might make.
Went -0 on a LG games section yesterday for the first time!!
@LSAT_Wrecker and @Eric25, Really glad about both test results! Great work!
@Tongan_Rambo, A perfect score on a section is a great thing, especially the first time it happens! Good work!
S/O to all the people looking at this thread and being intimidated by all the 170+ success. 97% of takers will never sniff 170 so don't worry about it too much. That said, you can, with a lot of hard work, master this test and achieve the score you need for your goals.
Personal win of the week: -1 on my last LR section
finally got my first perfect LR + -1 RC in the same test! this is huge considering my Feb 2018 test had -4 and -6, respectively.
also, i found a new favorite salad at sweetgreen.
Been struggling with keeping my mind stable and focused during a timed PT for over a year; I would score way below what I do for timed sections. Broke through my mental anxiety during my last PT and jumped 10 points!
I just returned to the Hannah LG for the first time in probably 9-10 months. I was completely dumbfounded by it back then. It made perfect sense right away yesterday.
Guys, I finally just broke 170 on a PT today, first time everrr! Woo! 171! June 11, here I come!
@"Leah M B", That is awesome! Great work!
Congrats I also noticed that you said you've been scoring better on RC recently are you studying any differently for that section or do you just believe the time away helped everything really sink in?
Nope, haven’t changed anything. I think, weirdly, some of it was just time away. Although on this test, I went back to doing not so hot on RC. But I owned LR which made up for it. Same thing for LR too, for some reason, after the long break and a period of warming back up, suddenly I’m scoring better on it than I did before: ::shrug::
I finally got -2 on timed LR section. Cant be more excited. I could have totally nailed the whole section.
Got my first -0 on a fresh LR section this week along with my highest PT score. Now to get a -0 on a modern RC
Got -1 on LR timed. Guys, this is magic. I also got my first 170 on timed PT tonight. It finally feels like it is possible
Not exactly where I am hoping to be yet. But started 7sage @ a diagnostic score of 134 & was horrified because I kept getting told you only improve about 10 points. I was questioning my abilities. I am now consistently scoring mid 150’s. And am still improving, as well as gaining confidence. Cannot wait till I see my first 160!
I was looking through this word doc I made as I was going through the curriculum of patterns I'd noticed for wrong and right AC's as well as other things. Noticed that I had written 'causation is a time sink and goes against my intuition' under strengthen questions and I was like "not anymoreee, suck it past me." It's really the small victories that get you going and keep pushing to get to the big ones.
After a several month break following a 166 on the February test, my first PT back I hit a personal best of 176. October here we come!
Recently hit a personal best of 167 with -5 on logic games.
-5 doesn’t sound great, but I’m used to getting -8 or -10 (started at -12/-14 when I began foolproofing)
So this is a huge improvement for the work in foolproofing is paying off!
Finally....FINALLY got a -0 on logic games. I've been chasing that zero for way too long. I started at a -14 or -12 (don't quite remember, but it was baaaaddd). I've been slowly but surely improving and have consistently been getting a -1 or -2. So happy going into tomorrow to finally get that -0 and a boost of confidence!