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What would you do here? (Help)
I started the core curriculum in June and finished it just about a week and a half ago. I took a PT for the first time since my diagnostic which was several months ago and only scored 4 points higher, which is baffling to me. I did almost all of the problem sets on the LR CC (would skip some if I felt like I truly got it), and genuinely couldn't believe I was at roughly the same score in the mid 140s still several months later.
I started to run out of time near the end and skipped through fool-proofing all of the logic games in the CC. I was only able to fool proof the first two sets of sequencing games problems, the first two sets of in/out games problems and only one of the grouping games. I was able to grasp the general concepts in the beginning of both of Sequencing + In/Out in the syllabus, but when the curriculum starts diving into Sequencing games w/ a twist and in/out games with sub-categories, I am lost.
I guess now I don't know what to do. I absorbed what I believed to be a significant amount of information for LR, but got almost an identical score to my diagnostics. RC is my best section. I am hoping to test in November which is approx 6 weeks away but have no idea how to pull off the remainder of my studying.
One immediate thought that comes to mind is to drill the questions I get incorrectly the most utilizing the question analysis type tool until my accuracy is 100%. Another I have in mind is to take several practice tests a week and BR each one? I didn't focus much on RC because I felt it was already very intuitive for me. I'm not sure if it's even worth drilling compared to the other sections right now. I have some books like the LR loophole and the LSAT trainer that I didn't use much and considered reviewing to supplement my LR..? How many PT's should I even be taking weekly from now until then? Is it worth reading other books or just reviewing 7sage?
I apologize if this sounds desperate I'm just very anxious knowing my score isn't what at all I thought it'd be by now and the stress has jumped several levels. I don't even need a 180, I just want to at least get to the higher 150's as my goal score. If someone could recommend a gameplan here I would appreciate any and all insight as I'm being pulled in different directions on what to do.
Thank you all.
Comments
Start fool proofing games, do the ones from Pt 1-10 and see where you are at after you do those. Take your time to understand and make sure you master all of them, that should help you get a good score in LG.
Alright so once I can fool proof the games from PT 1-10, does that imply I'd potentially be able to handle any of the LG's from any newer test with success? Should I avoid taking full PT's until I complete the fool proofing portion?
Any advice for what I need to be doing with LR?
This happened to me after i finished the Core Curriculum. My advice is to start drilling LG and LR. Go over each one you got wrong/didnt feel strong about your answer. Keep a wrong answer journal for LR and write out an explanation for why the correct AC is right and why the others are wrong. This will help tremendously!
Don't worry!!! Finishing the CC is one thing, getting used to taking PTs is another. The same thing happened to me and I freaked out, but after doing games 1-10, realizing my strengths/weaknesses in actual PTs, I re-drilled those concepts/question types. After doing that, scores started going up.
I'm going to take your advice with this.
Thank you both for reassuring me and helping me feel better about this. Gonna follow-up and do this!
Don't worry at all about not scoring that much higher than your diagnostic, it's your first prep test since finishing the CC. It's not indicative of your potential. I strongly recommend doing way more logic games because while it seems like you have a bit of a grasp on the basics, there are more complex ones that you still need to learn. Drill those. Do all of the logic games from PT 1-35 (or as much as you can) and spend time re-doing them over and over again. I've been studying since April, thought I had a decent enough grasp on logic games and didn't spend enough time on them, and now they're my worst section! The good thing is that this is the easiest and fastest thing to improve on and it's actually possible to get -1 or -0 on logic games sections!
Yeah, this is my first entire PT since the diagnostics I took about mid-June. How much time do you think I should spend straight up drilling logic games until Nov? Should I focus entirely on that section until the Nov test since it's the easiest/fastest to improve and take my chances with LR/RC? I'm thinking that if I can master LG to something like -1 or -0, I'll be able to get my own goal score I need, provided I can maintain what I scored on LR/RC... when should I throw in actual full PT's during this? Thank you for your insight by the way!!
No problem! I would do logic games every day you study, since it's like a muscle and you need to just keep practicing to get better (or so I've heard, LOL). What is your LR score like? You mentioned it stayed the same as your diagnostic. Given the fact that RC is your best section (which is rare, tbh) I'd focus more on LR. The first 10 or so questions of any LR section are typically the easiest so you want to be able to answer those low-hanging fruit questions. Also keep in mind some LR concepts are essential to being able to do LG (conditional statements for example). But be sure to do a few RC passages here and there just so you don't fall out of touch with it. I also want to throw in that of the two, LR is known as being easier to improve on than RC.
It's generally recommended to do about 2-3 prep tests a week (3 is a lot), but you know your schedule/abilities best so it's up to you. I definitely want to stress the importance of blind reviewing though, especially with LR/LG, because you can learn a lot about yourself.
I've already begun to take your advice and that of others by foolproofing LG's from PT's 1 and 2 so far since my original post. I know it's not much, but it's honest work (haha). I get 100% correct on them now, but still haven't tried with a timer on yet. I feel the magic starting to happen, and I do feel that I am learning and not just sitting down and writing down the board from rote memory. In other words, I'm thinking methodically about the questions and inferences. So.. progress there so far.
Here's what my score breakdown is across different sections:
July 2007 Diagnostic it was:
-16 LG
-30 LR
-12 RC
My most recent preptest, which was #50,was as follows: (I did the "flex" version on 7Sage)
-14 LG
-14 LR (only one section this time)
-10 RC
I went from 141 to 144 total.
On test #50, I got the first 10/12 questions correct on the first section, which happened to be RC, and then only 8 out of the first 12 correct on the second section, which was LR. I bombed the LR questions from #15-22 in that same section. I did poorly on all logic game questions in the final section except for the last one, which I surprisingly got 4/5 questions correct on as a level 3 difficulty game.
I'm going to try doing 2-3 PT's a week and fully BR them in addition to continuing drilling LG's as i have been. I took a day off to get my mind right and I'm really honing in now with full time dedicated. Does that sound decent? Does LR need to be "drilled" like LG does to see big jumps?
My other question is this, I feel like I may freeze up on the Nov LSAT if I get to LG's and know that there isn't an explanation video or a way for me to check if my board setup is "correct" before diving in, and creating a fear I might just do the whole thing wrong. Does this kind of feeling go away after time? Or is there any advice to combat this?
Thanks again!!
I just cancelled my August score yesterday and it finally clicked in my head that patience is the absolute key. I tried my hardest to force it and that only resulted in obsession and extreme burnout that caused my scores to bomb. My best advice for you would be to slow it down, put more focus into deeply reviewing every section and seriously, don't ever skip reviewing, even if you pt 180 (this was my biggest problem). You've only been going since June, this path can be long and mentally draining so don't stress yourself out early. Also, I'd keep it at or under 2 practice tests a week then turn up the dial if you feel comfortable. Some amazing comments/advice in this thread.
@joeym702
DO NOT STRESS. It will not help you and will make it harder to improve. Sit down and drill logic games for an hour or two a day for the next week. Having that many points left to make up in LG leaves you in a great place. You can absolutely cut that -14 LG down to -5 or less. Just need practice.
Get in an LR BR group. Take the LR sections and blind review yourself then talk it out with group members. That is the best way to learn different strategies from people. I started at 165, am now at a 175 average, and still learned 2 new strategies from someone else last night. BRing with new people after a few weeks is not a bad idea either. The good news is that you still have plenty of room for improvement. Take advantage of it. What is your LSAT goal?
I've been taking into consideration everyones advice here and pretty much revised entirely how I was going about approaching the final several weeks left until Nov. I definitely have slowed down a LOT just to make sure I'm 100% accurate and entirely understand something before moving on. Thanks for the encouraging words Frenchy.. I definitely need them right now.
Thank you for the encouragement. Sometimes i just need someone to remind me to not overthink and stress my own self out.. I am working on drilling and foolproofing the logic games from the first 35 tests (just an arbitrary goal, but really as many as I can handle until the test day). So far I've got 12 games comfortably down (from PT's 1-3) and I'm working on grinding out at least 2 PT's worth of games a day, as my circumstances allow. Additionally, I redo the ones I've already gotten "comfortable" with just to make sure reinforce what i've got down. Seems to be working so far..
Any suggestion on where to find a LR BR group? Did you find one on here or should I just start my own? That sounds very helpful. I've been trying to do this whole test solo and this is my first time since I started that i've reached out to others in a community for help.
Right now my goal score is 160. I would be thrilled to hit that or as close to that as possible. In your opinion is that achievable by the Nov test by just continuing to practice LGs and BR'ing LR?
Thanks again for your insight! You have fantastic scores by the way.
@joeym702 I do not have the curve memorized, but check your raw score against the curve, you can Google LSAT score converter and find it. Plug you current raw score (the minus x from 100ish) in then add ten points, which I think is not unreasonable to say you can improve with just LG. That may get you to about 160 on its own. If not, no worries because your LR should improve as well. If you're in the 140's a tutor might be the best way to start. Find someone in the 160's or so who wants the great practice that tutoring provides. You can search for study partners or tutors on the site. I don't know when in November the test is, but I think you could absolutely see a 10+ point bump. A lot of people improve in bursts it seems like. They bang their head against the wall and then all of a sudden something clicks and they jump five points or so. That makes predicting what jump is possible difficult, but I think having that many points to make up in LG is a great thing because practice makes perfect there.
Okay that makes sense! Thank you again so much for your insight as well as everyone else! Feel like ive gotten really good advice in this thread.
Everyone has good advice. Ultimately, the fool proofing is when you'll start to see improvements and I can certainly say it helped me. Personally, I would focus more time on foolproofing the logic games, as it's realistic to see gains in that section within a few weeks. As for LR, it's not as quick or easy for most people to see improvements in those sections after only a few weeks.