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Been studying for a month but no improvement
When I took my diagnostic about 5 weeks ago, it was a 140. I took my fourth practice test and despite having gotten 2-3 points increases, I'm back to 140. Clearly, devastated. I feel like I know so much more about the test (and specifically LR) and I hate that my score isn't reflecting that. I am steadily improving in RC without studying, but the opposite for LR. Can anyone offer words of encouragement about their experiences? The earlier I'm taking the LSAT is in November, so I do have a lot of time left. Am I expecting big improvement too soon? I'm hoping to break 150 by the end of July, but I did think I would be there by now. Also, I study around 3 hours everyday, but sometimes I skip days.
Comments
Are you going through the CC?
Progression is not always linear, and taking days off is important. I don't know about what the 7sage curriculum dictates as I am just a free member, but I studied for three months before taking another practice test after taking my diagnostic. I had made a ten point jump.
In the beginning, while you're working on the basics, I suggest focusing on only doing sections, rather than the whole test, but most importantly, as you're learning, you should be going through each question type, focusing only on that question type, and drill until you are getting each type correct the majority of the time.
In the beginning, you're just trying to get your mind around what the test is, how to approach it, getting used to the wording, and knowing what it is that the test wants from you.
It was another 3 months after my second PT that I really began mastering the LR section and getting very few incorrect answers (sixth months studying in total). I've been studying for 8 months, and am only now getting to the point where I'm really confident with logic games. I'm now scoring in the 99th percentile.
Another user wrote something that stuck to with me-- improving on the LSAT is often a matter of not feeling defeated, no matter what progress you feel like you're making, or not making. You'll feel like you're not getting it, and that you can't get it, and that everyone else has something that you don't. Just keep grinding, and don't let those thoughts occupy any space in your head.
The point is, 1 month of studying is not a lot of time. Don't focus on your score right now. Don't worry about timing. Build the skills you need at a slower pace, work on knowing the rules, and have patience.
Good luck!
The what? (huh. maybe I do have a lot left to learn...)
Thanks a lot. I will try to keep all of this mind.
Do not feel discouraged I too am having difficulty with studying. I have a personal tutor once a week and find that to be so much helpful on breaking down each section.I am at the beginners stage and looking to take the test in November as well. Be patient and follow the course through 7sage. CC stands for Core Curriculum that 7sage has set up for you! You got this!!!!
The best piece of advice I can give to you in this situation is to be patient with yourself. Something that I'm learning as well. There will be days where you think you're improving and others where you don't (honestly these are the worst days but they don't define you at all). Keep going and if you're finding yourself getting the same mark, don't get upset with yourself but instead ask, "what can I do in this situation?" - I find that this really helps me. Try to look at the areas you're struggling with and go from there.
tldr: Keep going, you got this - be patient with yourself!
Progress comes in waves. Took me a long time to break 160 consistently, then seemed like decades to get to 167, and was stuck there for a while. Then all of a sudden consistent 170s
Consider holding off on PTs for a bit. Take some timed sections and focus on improving known weaknesses. The last thing you need is to be stressed out over what you get on PTs.
Some of the best advice I ever got was to never take another PT unless you have improved in some way since your last PT. I would strongly recommend taking a week or so to focus on improvement rather than PT score numbers.
Your situation is not at all uncommon so don't feel too discouraged! One thing I did when I felt like I wasn't improving was figuring out a new way to study again — more efficiently and more effectively. For me this meant going back to the basics and the core curriculum a bit slower. Use this opportunity to review and relearn core concepts and skills. It is so important to put your ego aside and to not be afraid to cover concepts you've already tackled. Maybe there are areas where you might have missed some key concepts or other opportunities for improvement. I suggest going back to the 4 PTs you have done and really identify not only which section you're struggling with, but also which question subtypes, and most importantly, why you're getting them wrong. You can then dedicate more study time to that specific weakness area. Remember, you are more than just a number!
Blind Review and make sure you are really doing a thorough blind review. When I started studying I took a test every week and spent 2-3 days going over that test in a blind review. I took the tests after 60, and used the ones up to that to drill.
Drill specific question types in LR and make sure you understand why you are missing them and how the question type works.
Drill logic games. Do a game, time yourself, watch the 7 sage video, do the game again if you missed any, watch the 7 sage video, try to beat the time, if you missed any watch the video and run the game again. This may take an hour per game at first. I practiced every game before taking my final LSAT and scored perfectly on games.
Like others said, you will definitely have ups and downs. Don't get bummed out when you slip back a little. Analyze your results on 7sage and find out why (after you blind review.) You should be getting the easy and medium difficulty questions correct and missing mostly hard ones. You may see that you're doing better in some areas and missed things that you weren't prepared for yet.
Like others said, this is not an uncommon issue! I would recognizing that at this moment, your skillset isn't entirely reflective of your potential skillset. Its are so important to understand the exam, but if you don't know everything yet it's okay to not be doing as well as you want. It's likely that you will really start to test your skills in earnest when you feel comfortable with the majority of the curriculum– for now, that isn't the case. I experienced the same thing, and it took me reviewing the entirety of another course (which, ironically, though it was more expensive it was not as good as 7sage) as well as completing a few more reviews from 7sage to see an improvement. It was infuriating! I was consistently scoring in the high 140s-low 150s until one day my score shot up dramatically. I attribute that to really spending time learning the whole curriculum, as I found that the concepts are inextricably tied to one another. PTs are the best way to receive a holistic score, but the most important part for me was to look at the sections that I was struggling with and put in the work to understand where I was failing fundamentally. In doing so, I found a ripple effect– when I failed to understand the fundamental aspects of one lesson, it reflected in other lessons that used some of the same skillsets. Though I am nowhere near my "end goal," it was definitely helpful to start somewhere! Good luck and don't forget to take breaks– you can't learn under so much pressure!
Thank you. any other specific tips for doing BR? also I can't figure out how to put those answers and the original timed answers (both sets) into 7Sage, so that it gives me two scores.
Yea. I’m was doing HORRIBLY at week 5 I’m noticing improvements but again I have been studying off and on since January 2020. In terms of what I wish I could have focused on for quick boost in short time, for LR focus on what your looking for in the answers related to the stem. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s gonna be hard. Examples:
MBT/inference: look for answers that are 100% true with the given facts. Key is if it could be true (or even has a possibility of being false in a scenario), that’s not strong enough.
MSS: this is where I like to say you can take a leap using the info from the stimulus. In a sense the the answer is most likely true. It’s not as strict as MBT/inference
Weaken/Strengthen: look for answer choices that if are true, would help the argument or vice versa (key here is to know what the premises and conclusion are because you need to make sure it stays consistent with the passage/arguments points And conclusion.
Role in the argument: know what the line they identified is doing the passage: it’s usually background info, premie, conclusion but they don’t word answer choices that way so example would be for premise answer, it’s offered as support for the claim... so that’s a way of saying it’s a premise
Main point questions: look for a restatement of the conclusion
Necessary assumptions and sufficient assumptions: if it’s necessary play the game if not true or not true does it destroy the argument game. Works most of the time, if it’s a sufficient assumption question look for a missing premise that completed the argument. Personally I think these are hard as hell.
Flaw questions: these are hard but usually there is a list of common flaws in arguments in the syllabus. Memorize them and know which flaw the argument is doing. Examples of flaw are correlation error, necessary sufficient error, representative sample error etc
So as you see here, if you know what the question stem is asking, you know what to look for, so you have a better chance of what the answer will most likely be. Usually knowing what to look for helps you eliminate majority of the answer choices.
LG are a different animal. Get your translations down and know how rules restrict the game. The restrictions help you make inferences to make the game much easier. You also need to know game setups, like it is a sequencing game (Single layer Or double layer), or is this a grouping game, and what’s the best way I can set up the game where it makes it the easiest to see what’s going on.
These are a helpful tips. Build on these concepts may help. Good luck! This test is hard!
When someone's scores are in this range, generally lots of untimed work is recommended. Watching a clock tick when there's so much to learn still is only going to bring anxiety, and that's not what a person needs right now. Also, give yourself a break. This is a score range that many people have improved from.
Hi! I began studying in September and scored a 142 consistently for 2 months straight, I felt like I really understood the exam and how to approach each question type so I was confused about why I wasn't seeing progress. I kept telling myself to trust the process and that it would come eventually (which I definitely believe in under regular circumstances) but in my case 2 months and no improvement, was an obvious sign to take a step back.
Ultimately I realized I wasn't actually APPLYING the approaches to the exam, you can study hard but if you don't study smart this exam will eat you alive. I highly recommend going through each question type in the course curriculum. I think 3-4 hours a day is enough; I was studying 7 hours a day and it was complete burn out. I am now scoring 154-155 and blind reviewing at 156/157. If you are not already blind reviewing, start doing it now. My biggest piece of advice is that there is much more value in your review, than exposing yourself to as many LR questions as possible (which is what I was trying to do). What I mean by that is if I did poorly on a section I would take another, and another... and another. I stopped trying to cheat the system and focused on building skills, this included blind reviewing every section and going through each LR problem I didn't understand until I could prove and disprove every answer choice. (I literally spend 45 minutes reviewing a logical reasoning question until I fully understood it - do not let anyone tell you this is a waste of time because it's not).
I also recommend taking note of your comprehension level, I noticed that the reason I would get a lot of questions wrong was because I didn't actually understand the stimulus; if you don't understand the stimulus it's game over. To solve this I went through a couple LR sections (didn't answer the questions) but just translated the stimulus' in my own words and physically wrote it down - I found this really helped!
Feel free to message me if you have any questions as I was in your boat and felt complete defeated! Would love to help you out in any way that I can. Best of luck!
I am not sure how you are studying but after taking a diagnostic test you shouldn’t go straight into taking PT on a weekly basis, it is a waste of time and resources as well as a frustrating experience. At that PT range you still need to build a foundation and going through the 7Sage CC is an excellent way to do so. While you are going through the CC I wouldn’t recommend taking any PT. There will be problem sets that you can do timed but your real focus at this point should be to build your foundation. The score improvement will come this way if you do the work.
Sorry for the late reply. I haven't done it in a couple of years, but you put your answers in first. Then you go back and can select answers again in blue for your blind review score. I think you used to hover over it longer. I'm sure 7sage has directions on how to do it.
For BR, just challenge yourself to come up with the answer. It is ok to change it from what you originally thought. Spend as much time as you need. You're mainly concerned with BR on the LR sections. The reading isn't that improvable, and the logic games you'll be practicing differently. Still run the games, but keep running those after watching the videos and timing yourself.
Also, time your practice tests. Use the app or whatever proctor you find. Do it in different environments to get a feel of distractions on test day. Be strict with the time, don't go over bc you won't be able to on test day.
My score has been stuck at the same level since the beginning of June. I'm re-evaluating my study habits and prioritizing drilling logic games, since that is the easiest section to score perfectly on. I also just got a tutor. But if you have not finished the core curriculum I would take your scores/diagnostic with a grain of salt right now. My diagnostic was pretty bad as I had never even seen a logic game before in my life.
Make sure you're vigorously reviewing every question you were unsure of in the PTs you took.
This is the most important thing.