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Related Discussions
High 160's Brick Wall
DontPay4LawSchool
Member
To start, I have been studying approximately 4 months. I started with a 154 diagnostic last August but only studied the month of December 2020 and since the end of May 2021. So, relatively a short period of time.
I hit a 167 for the first time back in early June. Since, I have managed to hit 167 in 3/4 past PTs. I have typically been taking PTs once every weekend. My best section scores (from taking individual sections & PTs) are RC (-2), LG (-0), and LR (-1).
Now that stats are out of the way, I have no clue how to get out of the high 160s! I still have a lot of variance in particular sections simply depending on their difficulty but I imagine that, ideally, you would want to minimize this variation regardless of section difficulty. My approach to studying is typically to review incorrect answer choices immediately following completing questions without looking at the answers -- as opposed to going over every question. I feel that going over every question may waste too much precious time given that I will be taking the August administration. Also, I review any questions where I went significantly over the target time.
Has anyone that has been in a similar position found a way to address this issue of being stuck for more than a month in the same range?
Comments
I'm in the low 160s so I can be totally not qualified to answer your question lol, but yeah, I kind of hit a wall too before. My recommendation for LG is to get the simple sequence and basic ordering games to -0 because the later games will definitely take a toll on your score if you're unlucky and for LR, to go back to the syllabus and review. I just realized that I'm a lot weaker in SA/MSS questions than most answer types so going back is helping. For RC, honestly, changing the zoom on my screen has helped because now, I can read a little bit faster.
Hope this helps and keep going!
It’s really hard to provide specific advice without knowing what trips you up. Assuming you have good strategy during the test (avoiding time sinks, adjusting your confidence level to sometimes select the correct answer rather than process of elimination, and you are finishing each section without being rushed) , my advice is to check out the 7Sage statistics to see if there are any particular types of LG types that trip you up and drill those. Then do that for LR and RC. For me, I purchased another book (Manhattan prep) for RC because I didn’t think J.Y’s method worked for me at all and that helped me. Then, if you have the time, perhaps take a break. For some reason, after a break it boosted my score too
Hi, thank you for responding! This is definitely helpful information.
Well, I actually have been having trouble completing RC and LG on time. While I can typically go -1 or -0 on the easier LG sections, the harder ones will kill my timing. RC, especially in the more recent PTs, has also taken a toll on my timing. I typically will have to guess on 3-4 questions on RC for those sections. Though, my accuracy rate is still pretty good, I miss all of the ones I guess on usually. Thanks for replying!
Deeper written review with a focus on performance factors as opposed to content. Focus on active reading/translation of everything you read on the test. Also finish foolproofing LG.
Commenting here because I'm firmly stuck in the mid 160's, and have taken a few tests piece-meal (IE four sections over the course of a day, rather than all at once), and have hit a few 168's. I've been between 161 and 168 for about 8 weeks and would love to be able to score a 168+ on test day.
@dontpay4lawschool it sounds like you haven't been studying a very long time, and I think it's actually more beneficial to review all questions at this stage for you than to just review your misses. The thinking here is that if you spend time understanding the form of an argument, when it's slightly different you'll be prepared for that question in addition to the one you just mastered. I've seen quite a bit of fluctuation on my scores (from 161-168) in the past few weeks, and I think it's because I don't actually fully know the material yet. Spending time reviewing the ones you got right will make sure you get those questions right going forward.
My splits have been:
LG: -2 to -0
LR (for each section): -2 to -5
and RC: -5
I've been putting my time into trying to focus on LR because I see that if I could hit -2 on both sections, I'd improve my score by a whopping 6 points, which puts me squarely at a 168. The advice I've gotten is to really try to fool proof out LG sections 1-35 and just drill drill drill. I think if you can go -0 on LG it would be worth it (two points seems like it could push you into 170 range).
Hope that helps.
Currently in high 160s plateau as well.
But one quick piece of advice: I understand not wanting to BR all questions. If you feel that you can't, I'd suggest that during a timed section you flag questions that you aren't 100% sure of and then blind review those after finishing the section and BEFORE seeing what you got wrong.
That way you're still getting the benefits of partial BR'ing on the questions that tripped you up, and you can see the questions on which you were overly confident.
I find a couple of things to be pretty typical of people who are hitting a wall in LR. The first is that they do not systematically digest arguments by forcing them into their own words. Some call this active reading, but whatever you call it, to be great (and consistent) particularly in NA/SA/Strengthen/Weaken, you have to be able to frame conclusion and evidence in a way that gives you total control over the argument. Next, they are still working some question types by "feel", meaning that they don't have a systematic understanding of what makes answers right across all the question types. Figuring this out requires that annoying, time-consuming work of reviewing your correct answers as well as your incorrect ones. If you can force yourself to explain a right answer in the way you'd have to in order to teach it to someone else, you'll be at a much higher level of understanding than if you cannot. All of that suggests a good study group with folks at your level might help a lot.
Hi, thank you for your response! Quick question: what are some examples of performance factors that I could look at?
Hey! Glad you commented, this helps put some context to others' issues. Maybe this is redundant since you said to review all questions, but do you also review LR questions 1-10 given that they are almost always very easy? I am just unsure what I could benefit from reviewing these -- though, I could see it keeping me fresh on the basics.
Thank you for commenting! I agree with this approach. I am a little concerned, though, because my misses in LR -- usually -- are always unanticipated. They are overconfidence errors. This might be due to me overcompensating since I struggled the greatest with low confidence when initially studying. Any advice for how to control confidence?
Hey, thanks for commenting! I currently meet someone who scores much higher than me (mid 170s) and have been looking for others to join but I am struggling. I am worried about posting something on the forum because people are always very eager to join and I would rather have a close-knit, reliable group. Any tips on where I could find someone?
I think if you want to keep things close, I'd check with a tutor and see if they have some students they know in your situation who might want to link up. Don't worry, there are plenty of tutors out there who are happy to interact without trying to sell you their services. That way you'd be in a smaller group. I'd help you myself, but I don't have anyone quite scoring where you are in my current flock.
@triumpheducation828 Any tutors that you would be able to suggest reaching out to?
@DontPay4LawSchool I do usually review questions 1-10, but as you mentioned, they usually are pretty easy, but I do it for consistency's sake since it really doesn't take me more than 10 minutes to get through them on BR.. I know BR is untimed, but sometimes I try to replay these again in BR with the time on and see if I can do them quicker than the pace at which I was doing them with the time on.
It also looks like you're looking for a study buddy. If you're interested, LMK! Seems like it might be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.
Timing/pace, aggressive skipping, quick answer choice elimination, reactive inline translation, tuning the confidence threshold you require to move on from a question, question type strategies, sensitivity to language strength, prescriptive/descriptive mismatches and existential/universal quantifiers, comfort with comparative answer choice selection, tuning/attention to your warmup... to name a few.
Its a performance test... think of it more like a brain sport than an academic test.