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Hello! Ive been studying for only 2-3 weeks now, and I am curious to know how long it took y'all to see at least a 10 point improvement.
My original diagnostic when I first started 7sage was a 149, but I'm trying to make at least a 165. I haven't seen any improvement yet, and its kind of making me worry.
Thank y'all!
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Mate i been studying for months and i think i got worse, idk for others its instant and for most its gradual. at least that's what i hear
I started studying in spring 2020 and took the February 2021 LSAT. I scored almost the same as my diagnostic.
Then I continued studying for another 3.5 months, and scored a 170+
Takeaway: LSAT progress is not linear. You might be on the same score for months and then hit a sudden breakthrough
The LSAT is ultimately like an IQ test. People who are gifted in the cognitive areas they test will be able to score decently on their initial diagnostic and improve easily and fast-- for these people 3 months is plenty of time to prepare. People who are more average in these areas will need to grind for improvement--but it can definitely happen.
I am luckily gifted in RC and LR--but nonetheless I started with -6 and -4 on them respectively. I am not gifted at all in AR, and I started with a -12. Quickly, I was able to eliminate my wrong scores on RC and LR. Within 3 weeks I'd say, I could pretty safely get 2 or less wrong on each RC and LR section which brought the score to 160-163 or so. Then the slow grind to improve AR began. I can usually go about -4-7 on AR now, which has taken me over the 10 point improvement on my 155 diagnostic (probably a score from 165-169 depending how lucky I get on the curve and the section). Still though, that's not a ton of improvement for the work I've done.
We just have to work with the cognitive skills we are given. Improvement beyond your default ability will be slow and you have to be strategic about how you cultivate it--you're not just going to gain a lot of working memory overnight for AR. I think that, given enough time, anyone could probably score quite highly. Unfortunately, most of us are on a schedule hahaha
Have you gotten any private tutoring? 7sage's strategies are not always the best
You should see your biggest improvement between your first cold diagnostic and the first PT you take after you've completed some LSAT preparation regime (7sage CC, etc.). That usually is six to eight weeks. Score moves of between 10 and 20 points are fairly common at that stage. Growth from there takes more time because the means of getting there are driven largely by where you're specifically struggling.
The cold diagnostic is (obviously) the best gauge of your native LSAT ability. As a rule of thumb, I'd expect anyone who cold tests in the 150s to move more quickly up the score ladder in general than someone who scores in the 140s. Please note, however, that where you start does NOT determine where you end up. Plenty of people arrive in the high 160s/lower 170s after starting in the 140s.
But, of course, there's a caveat here. If you missed a ton of AR questions on your cold diagnostic expect your score to move faster than someone who missed a ton of LR/RC questions. That phenomenon has everything to do with games being totally foreign to most test takers and severe struggles in RC/LR having to do with reading/critical thinking skills as much as any specific test strategies.
I went from 149 diagnostic to 160 on my first PT after the 7Sage CC (took 8 months of part-time paced studying).
I started with a diagnostic of 150 in February 2020. I made a 160 on the June LSAT, though my best PT was a 162 in April.
The biggest thing I've noticed with studying for the LSAT is that progress isn't linear and it takes longer to show consistently in your results than you'd like. After I hit that 162, I felt like I couldn't find that free flowing confidence that I had. On my following PTs, I only hit 160+ one other time out of 6 despite knowing that I had better knowledge of the test as a whole. I even felt like I regressed in one area only to one day look at my analytics and realize that I never improved performance-wise in the first place.
It's going to be really up and down. And it's not going to happen overnight. But just because you don't immediately notice improvement doesn't mean you haven't improved. As long as you're working diligently and making the right adjustments when you need to make them, you have nothing to worry about and you will eventually hit your goal score.
I got 147 on my diagnostics, then in 2 weeks I saw a +12 improvement. Starting 4th week, my score kept dropping until it reached 153 by week 6. I started to rectify the flaws in how i study and worked towards the areas where my score dropped. Gradually since then, I've had +1/+2 growth every week, until i took the last LSAT after studying for total 12 weeks, and scored 160.
How long have you studied? How many PTs have you done so far? The difficulty of a 10pt improvement varies depending on your current score, but from a 149 to 159 is definitely doable. Do the blind review, focus on the questions you get wrong and try to figure out why you got them wrong, and put your energy on one section at a time. (LG is typically the easiest section to see improvement so maybe start with this one).
Also the analytics tool on 7sage is very helpful, especially the Question Type Analysis.
I started with a 146, and it took me roughly a month of studying for 5-7hrs per day to hit 156. I'm also aiming for 165+. Best of luck with studying!
Hi! I started with a 149 in June 1st, and the scores are trudging up by weeks! In the span of 1 and a half months I managed to bring it up by 13 pts (162). Progress is definitely not linear since I was stuck at 149 for 3 tests in a row. Hoping to make my next big jump to the high 160s. Don’t be discouraged if the points sit still for a while, try to drill the ones you’re not good at (for me it’s all 3 sections 😆)
You got this!
What tools are you using to study other than 7sage. What I have been doing is using the LSAT Trainer to complement 7sage and its worked pretty well for me. It has made a huge difference for me.
I scored a 157 on my diagnostic at the beginning of December 2020. Then by January 25 2021, I scored 168 for the first time. By the time I took the February LSAT, I was averaging at 171 but got a 167 on the real thing. So my real score was exactly a 10 point increase. I'm retaking in two weeks though and hoping to hit 170+ this time.
How have you been studying?
If you have been taking timed tests day by day since your cold-diagnostic without rigorously reviewing them: stop, you're doing it the wrong way.
Please go through JY's core curriculum, familiarize yourself with the idea of Blind Review (JY explains it in a video), and then do the following:
Allow yourself to do timed PTs only when you hit an accuracy of 90%+ untimed.
Once you start timed PTs:
Everyone has a different timeline and 2-3 weeks is definitely a short period of time. Some people's LSAT progress is also nonlinear, so keep in mind that an increase in one week might mean stagnation in other weeks for some people. Personally, it took me two months of consistent study (2 hrs or more a day) to see a solid 10 point increase.
You'll eventually get there. All you need is a little bit of patience.