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HELP! LR Score Decrease after CC?

PineapplePizzaSucksPineapplePizzaSucks Member
edited November 2018 in General 534 karma

Hello,

LR has always been the section that came the most naturally to me. After reaching a certain baseline of studying/understanding the test, I’ve consistently scored a -4/-5 on most LR sections. The issue is, I found that during the real exam + the digital field exam I was getting -7/-8 on at least one LR section from test day nerves + not having an actual strategy for many question types and second-guessing my “gut” on test day. The 7Sage analytics pointed out that my errors generally come from Flaw, Sufficient & Pseudo Sufficient Assumption, and MSS questions. I focused on those videos/problem sets in the core curriculum for about two weeks, and saw the minute differences between the right answers and the trap answers I would pick. I did fairly well on the drills and felt like I had a better strategy of how to approach the question + how to decide between two answer choices that seemed right on first glance rather than solely relying on my gut answer choice.

But, upon returning to timed section practice, I found that I was second-guessing myself on virtually all of the LR section (not just the question types I was studying). I would go back and forth about whether I was missing some tiny detail that was important or over-analyzing that same detail. It seems, based on my incorrect answer analysis, that was doing the latter (over-analyzing) especially if I gave myself more time and blind-reviewed (my LR BR changes have been almost always wrong lately). It’s frustrating though because analyzing all the details is exactly what I trained my mind to do in order to do well during the question-specific drills. I saw my score go from -4/-5 to -8/-9 and I’m not sure what to do. I’m taking the November exam and have been studying for a very very long time (on and off for over a year... I will not be taking this exam again haha) so I’m not sure if I should just go back to my original “gut” feelings and accept my -4/-5 range (with likely more wrong on test day) or if there’s some way I can absorb this improvement by the 17th. It makes logical sense that doing well on the drills should have helped overall, but it didn’t.
Anyone have suggestions or experience something similar?

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Comments

  • BamboosproutBamboosprout Alum Member
    1694 karma

    You can definitely improve before the test still, but it's hard to give any suggestions to you since your situation is so nebulous.
    Can you think back to the test experience and remember why you chose the wrong answers? If not, try doing some timed sections and record yourself doing it. You have to figure out why. We can't start to fix the problem, if you don't know even know what the problem is yet, right. And from what I'm reading, you don't sound like you know what the problem really is yet.
    I suspect this drop probably has something to do with acclimating to the more in-depth analysis that 7sage teaches. Many intuitive thinkers, who have their own internal process of approaching logic will have problems adjusting and adapting to this more methodical style, and will drop in score at first. If you ultimately want to improve, however, you can only try to get even more familiar with that systematic logic, and watch more videos of JY, and take more notes.
    2 weeks will be tight. I suspect you will have to study full time everyday to even attempt to adopt this style, and even then maybe you won't succeed. Ultimately, it depends on how you feel and what score are you trying to hit. Are you capable of hitting your target score with your gut feeling? If not, then your only choice is to adapt and change, right?

  • kathryn.anne.cullenkathryn.anne.cullen Alum Member
    19 karma

    The same exact thing happened to me... i started usually scoring 172's on practice tests in August after 1-2 months of study then kept studying a multitude of other books and methods and my scores started becoming very unpredictable. I would get a 168, then a 171 and all I wanted was my old score prior to digging deeper into the techniques. But recently, two weeks ago, I started taking the techniques a little less seriously and just doing questions over and over (not specific to type) in a casual setting, untimed in order to get my intuition back. Two weeks ago I got my first 175, then a 173, and last weekend I got a 175 once more. I don't think these 175's would have been possible to get without going deep into the techniques (not just relying on intuition) because now I have an intuitive sense for the questions that I can rely on, but also can use the formulas when I get stuck. Just letting you know that there is hope, I was freaking out too after seeing my scores start off high then two more months of studying (sacrificing every social event etc to study) made them keep decreasing instead of increasing but it got better!

  • PineapplePizzaSucksPineapplePizzaSucks Member
    534 karma

    @"kathryn.anne.cullen" said:
    The same exact thing happened to me... i started usually scoring 172's on practice tests in August after 1-2 months of study then kept studying a multitude of other books and methods and my scores started becoming very unpredictable. I would get a 168, then a 171 and all I wanted was my old score prior to digging deeper into the techniques. But recently, two weeks ago, I started taking the techniques a little less seriously and just doing questions over and over (not specific to type) in a casual setting, untimed in order to get my intuition back. Two weeks ago I got my first 175, then a 173, and last weekend I got a 175 once more. I don't think these 175's would have been possible to get without going deep into the techniques (not just relying on intuition) because now I have an intuitive sense for the questions that I can rely on, but also can use the formulas when I get stuck. Just letting you know that there is hope, I was freaking out too after seeing my scores start off high then two more months of studying (sacrificing every social event etc to study) made them keep decreasing instead of increasing but it got better!

    Love this idea! That's what I'll try. Timed sections with the method of using my intuition and relying on the formula for questions where I'm stuck. Thank you!!

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