Typical struggling student in need of advice - retaking past PTs

axbSunDevaxbSunDev Member
in General 256 karma

What I love about 7sage is how you can just post a discussion in need of help and advice, so I deeply thank you 7sage community for all your thoughtfulness.

First, I plan on taking the LSAT in either August or November this year 2020. Some background - I have been studying since March of 2019 and what I mean by studying is picking at Khan Academy and Powerscore here and there. However, real studying is when I got onto 7sage in October of 2019.

I finished CC and now i'm in the practice test phase and I have taken 3 timed PTs (June 2007,PT 2 and PT 3 from the 90s) and scored a 143 on all (obviously not the gifted kind like many). The problem is i'm just stuck at 143 raw score. Blind review has been around 158-161. GPA is a 4.0 close to a 4.1 since I came from a +/- gpa school. Goal score is 160. I am not the fastest reader and I am pretty bad at puzzles, so Reading Comp and Logic Games have been killing me. I am a full-time worker, 5 days a week, 40 hours a week.

Can a student jump from 143-160 in 5 months? Knowledge and performance seems to be the splitting problem as a have a fine BR but my performance raw score is so bad and wont budge. I just cannot read RC fast enough and I can't help but get the wrong answer when Im stuck on the 2 last answers in process of elimination.

Does retaking past PTs under timed conditions help with performance?

Again, thank you 7sage!

Comments

  • The Great White SharkThe Great White Shark Member
    edited March 2020 1058 karma

    I think you can get there. Are you drilling logic games? If not, this is the best place for you to start because usually it is where you can make the quickest improvements. I wouldn't take any more full length PTs until you have fool proofed LGs. My diagnostic was in the low 150s but this alone is what brought me up to the 160s. I would also try reading RC passages untimed while practicing the good methods JY teaches. Break down complex sentences, use your imagination to visualize what is happening and connect the paragraphs to each other. If you do practice these skills over time you will get faster and you will also need to spend less time on the questions. The key is consistent practice!

    Also yes, retakes are useful. But take it from someone who burned through a lot of PTs early in my studies: PTs should be used to gauge how you are scoring once in a while. The real improvements come from drilling good strategies and intense BR.

  • axbSunDevaxbSunDev Member
    256 karma

    @Stellaluna said:
    I think you can get there. Are you drilling logic games? If not, this is the best place for you to start because usually it is where you can make the quickest improvements. I wouldn't take any more full length PTs until you have fool proofed LGs. My diagnostic was in the low 150s but this alone is what brought me up to the 160s. I would also try reading RC passages untimed while practicing the good methods JY teaches. Break down complex sentences, use your imagination to visualize what is happening and connect the paragraphs to each other. If you do practice these skills over time you will get faster and you will also need to spend less time on the questions. The key is consistent practice!

    Also yes, retakes are useful. But take it from someone who burned through a lot of PTs early in my studies: PTs should be used to gauge how you are scoring once in a while. The real improvements come from drilling good strategies and intense BR.

    Thank you so much!

  • ObjectionQuarantinedObjectionQuarantined Member
    edited March 2020 256 karma

    one thing that has been helping me with logic games is that legendary post by @Pacifico
    you can try it with the games at lunch if you have time. Simple. One LG a day and follow the formula. I have an excel sheet I made to help me rack mine. I can get that to you as well if you'd like

  • axbSunDevaxbSunDev Member
    256 karma

    @Clyde > @" Clyde " said:

    one thing that has been helping me with logic games is that legendary post by @Pacifico
    you can try it with the games at lunch if you have time. Simple. One LG a day and follow the formula. I have an excel sheet I made to help me rack mine. I can get that to you as well if you'd like

    Thanks @Clyde ! Do you mean the fool-proof formula? And do that once a day with one logic game a day?

  • ObjectionQuarantinedObjectionQuarantined Member
    edited March 2020 256 karma

    @axbSunDev said:
    @Clyde > @" Clyde " said:

    one thing that has been helping me with logic games is that legendary post by @Pacifico
    you can try it with the games at lunch if you have time. Simple. One LG a day and follow the formula. I have an excel sheet I made to help me rack mine. I can get that to you as well if you'd like

    Thanks @Clyde ! Do you mean the fool-proof formula? And do that once a day with one logic game a day?

    thats the one...some games I've had to do 10-11 times and some only once. Somedays I have done two games and some just one.It helps immensely.

    The gist of it goes something like this.
    1. take the game at regular timed speed.
    2. blind review it with as much time as you need and try to get it all correct.
    3. Mark your score and time of your first take after blind review
    4. Take the game a second time aiming for perfect. Blind review and then annotate your 2nd score.
    5. Take the same game a day later and repeat the BR process and annotate score.
    6. Take the game 7 days later and BR and mark timed score

    So you're taking each game about 4 times at a MINIMUM.
    Most times you'll be taking 2-3 games...it gets exhausting but its pretty fun

  • 99thPercentileOrDieTryin99thPercentileOrDieTryin Free Trial Member
    edited March 2020 652 karma

    First, I think everyone's goal score should be 180. You may never get there but you will get closer than you would by aiming lower. Let me illustrate why I think this mindset is so important:
    In the Army, we do a physical training (PT) test twice a year. Some Soldiers focus on their minimum qualifying scores (what they have to do do just to pass) and others focus on the maximum scores (what they have to achieve in order to get the highest possible score.) Can you guess which group fails the test most often? Can you guess which group never fails? I urge everyone out there to be unreasonably ambitious with this test.

    Now, @axbSunDev you are presented with a golden opportunity: a chance to improve your score! You say you've been scoring in the low 140s and can't seem to find a way to improve your reading. So let's start there: with how you read. On the LSAT, it is a mistake to try to absorb every bit of information from a stimulus or a passage. No, our goal on the LSAT is to actively translate the terribly written blob of logical spaghetti so we can easily summarize the important information. I often recommend the book "The Loophole in LSAT Logical Reasoning" by Ellen Cassidy because it presents a masterclass on exactly how to improve this vital skill - a skill that IMHO is equally useful for understanding Reading Comprehension passages.

    When it comes to Logic Games, you just need to do them a lot until you can beat them with consistency. I used to just print off 10 copies of each one I didn't ace and do them over and over until I could beat them under time pressure. Some days I would spend three hours on LG alone.

    Finally, I have some questions for you. What is your study schedule like? How many hours per day are you committing? What are your strategies for attacking your weaknesses? Perhaps you are already doing everything you can and my post is misguided. Please know that I mean no insult, I just know from personal experience what it took tor me. YMMV. I hope I can help!

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