I have a 176. How should I study from here?

Comments

• 3 Likes

  emli1000 Alum Member Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 3462 karma

  Keep on drilling! For RC read read read LOL
• blah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 3545 karma

  Hi @rossholley! First, congrats on the high score! I think you can knock a few points from your RC by reviewing RC more and taking practice tests. Remember that RC is just a longer LR stimulus so a lot of the skills you've clearly perfected (or close to perfect) are transferrable. I would keep a tab on what kinds of RC questions you're missing and seeing what kind of patterns arise.
  
  My understanding from top scorers (those who score between 177and 180) say that scoring 180 comes down to luck. This isn't to say that it isn't possible but, once you're in the 177s, it kind of falls on how well you jive with the test. There could be one or two questions that you have to take more time on or you might not understand. That being said, I think honing your practice methods is key to getting close to that near perfect score on test day.
• 2 Likes

  deleted account Free Trial Member

  February 2015 393 karma

  Haha, thx emli1000. I can find no flaws in your reasoning
• 1 Like

  deleted account Free Trial Member

  February 2015 393 karma

  Thanks blahblah. So far I'm trying to spend my time reading a lot of the topics from the analysis tools here. I apparently suck at biology and medicine topics, so my new "pleasure" reading is The Origin of Species. Lol. Also put a lot of time into The Economist recently. That is some freaking DENSE reading.
  
  
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 3438 karma

  Its dense... but it helps.
• [Deleted User] Free Trial

  February 2015 edited February 2015 578 karma

  Congratulations on the score. I would keep drilling until I hit 180, and review alot. But are you sure law school is where you want to be? It seems like a decision made out of the blue. Studying for law school is very different and requires a lot of time and dedication.
• 2 Likes

  ddakjiking Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 2116 karma

  Read the thread title and thought scores were out. Gave me a mini panic attack.
• 2 Likes

  blah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 3545 karma

  @ddakjiking I thought the exact same thing
• jdawg113 Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2015 2654 karma

  @rossholley first of all that's awesome, keep it up!
  
  IMO at that score level, you really just want to keep hammering away at the PT's with solid review. You clearly have things down so review shouldn't be too much/take all that long but you reallllllly want to fully familiarize yourself with the test. I would recommend getting the Cambridge difficult packet which is a packet of the most difficult questions from each PT(under 30something) at that level I think thats the best drilling to do, no need to really time(constraint) it as you should be moving at a decent speed anyways. And of course the best way to better RC is to do passage after passage and find the optimal reading speed/markings and that which will allow you go get through the quickest while retaining the most and allowing you to get through the questions quickly
• 2 Likes

  Allison M Alum Member Inactive Sage

  February 2015 810 karma

  As has been said elsewhere, getting a 180 is as much a matter of luck as anything else. I don't think that there's a way to guarantee that it'll happen for you. That said, a few suggestions:
  
  - Consider switching up the environment that you're writing your tests in. I found that writing PTs with a study group in a quiet but not silent library really helped me on test day. This might help you avoid the 2 to 3 point drop that most people experience on the actual test.
  - Start collecting all of the questions that you get wrong and write out detailed explanations of the correct and incorrect answers. Go over these on a regular basis to understand your vulnerabilities.
  - Keep drilling until test day. You don't want your skills to get rusty.
  - Get your hands on more modern tests. I found that my scores were a couple points higher on the early tests than the more recent ones. I know that you've burned through the 60s, but even tests in the 40s and 50s will be more representative of today's test than 1-39.
  
  I also think that Jonathan's response to a question I asked in this thread is relevant: http://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/1142/consistency-in-the-170s/p1
• deleted account Free Trial Member

  February 2015 393 karma

  I'm OP. Sorry, just changed my username after I realized I had stupidly made it my real name
  
  Thanks everybody for the responses! These are definitely all helpful and I will try to put them all into practice.
  
  @ royaimani: Yeah, I know that it's abrupt. But I finally made the decision when I was complaining to someone about how much I hated my job over the weekend while doing my typical weekend hobby: reading Supreme Court briefs. They said to me, "then WTF are you not going to law school???" And things went from there. LOL
  
  @jdawg113: I didn't know about that packet! Thanks! That'll be great for me. The questions that I get wrong on LR are always the ones that JY has labeled as 5-star difficult. Re RC strategy, yes. Just read more. You'd think as a librarian I would be better at that section, but alas.
  
  @"Allison M" :
  
  Good idea re switching up environment. I am planning on doing the more modern tests, definitely. Right now I have 1-61 printed, and have finished 1-8. I'm working them in order and then once I get to the end will retake 62-71 and take 72-74.
  
• [Deleted User] Free Trial

  February 2015 578 karma

  @josephellengar well then you will do great in law school and enjoy it. A law degree is very important to have regardless of where you end up in the future.