Advice for Jan LSAT

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• pegahnasroll Member

  December 2021 edited December 2021 117 karma

  I have also done a ton of practice exams
• 14 Likes

  kmullins2525 Member

  December 2021 82 karma

  First, I would suggest re-framing the 'feeling like a failure'. I struggle with this too, but the reality is that the LSAT is just a test, and a test cannot measure your worth or potential for success as a human being. Some people are better at the LSAT than others - that's OK! I think comparing yourself to others can lead to a negative thought spiral that will drain your mental energy, mental energy that would be better spent working on the test. If your goal is to be a lawyer - you can achieve that with a 160 score!

  As far as specific advice for LR - my #1 tip is to work on identifying the conclusion for every type of question. Even if the question isn't asking for the conclusion, knowing what the stimulus is trying to say will really help answer basically all types of questions. To do this, I practiced reading lots of question stimuli and writing down the conclusion. I did rounds of problem sets based on 'spot the conclusion' LR questions so I could check my work. Now I almost instinctually identify the conclusion on any LR stimulus, which then puts me in a better place to attack the question itself. This goes for RC too.
• 2 Likes

  jingzesun93 Member

  December 2021 15 karma

  Only about 1 person in 30 can score 170+. It's good to have it as a target, but failing to achieve so doesn't constitute any reason at all not to value your own efforts.

  Focus on yourself and your own problem. Only by removing your own obstacle, you can improve. Analyzing the questions what you did wrong would be pretty effective in realizing your weakness.

  Good luck on your journey.
• pegahnasroll Member

  December 2021 117 karma

  @kmullins2525 Thank you so much for the advice and you're totally right- my potential is not determined by an exam so I definitely need to step out of that mindset. Im going to do some drilling of LR sections and try to focus on identifying the conclusion of those arguments. I dont necessarily think about the conclusion or the structure too much when I do LR questions so that may be where my flaw is in LR.
  I appreciate the help and advice it means a lot to me.
• pegahnasroll Member

  December 2021 117 karma

  @jingzesun93 I definitely agree- and my goal isn't to get a 170 so I guess you're right in that I need to focus on my own goal instead of being concerned about how high everyone else is scoring. I've identified what questions im missing a majority of- so maybe its time I go back and review lessons on those exact types of questions. I appreciate it. Goodluck to you as well.
• 2 Likes

  Steven_B-1 Member

  December 2021 800 karma

  Don't beat yourself up, you're doing great! For LR, i'm down to around -5, worst case scenario -8 but i feel like i've improved tons just through BR and really taking my time to disect every single question in depth.

  I also think (my opinion so take with a grain of salt) that improving on LR necessarily shows on RC because if you go through each RC paragraph as an LR stimulus and think about the main point, what are the premises, conclusion (if any), author's attitude, etc., then it's much easier to answer the questions confidently.

  Good luck!
• 5 Likes

  lakersgirl24 Member

  December 2021 66 karma

  Good advice here. And good strategy that you came up with (focusing on LR).

  For RC, I would suggest that you invest your time upfront: slow down a little bit, read every word, and focus on understanding the passage. Now, this will mean you're spending at least an additional minute on reading before you jump into the questions. That's okay!

  Importantly, fake it until you make it - pretend that the passage is interesting, and that you're learning something new. I swear it helps. Mentality is everything!

  Make sure you're writing a low res summary for each paragraph and creating a map for the structure of the passage. Completely random example here: chocolate is healthy (theory) > chocolate is also unhealthy (problem) > dark chocolate in moderation (revised theory) > new way of marketing chocolate so kids make healthier choices (implications of solution).

  Regarding the questions, use the passage! Don't rely on memory unless it's a general question. Remember, you can use Ctrl + F to search for keywords.

  Depending on the score you're aiming for, another method is to skip either the last passage or the one with the least amount of questions - you make the call. Then you have 35 minutes/3 passages = a little over 11 minutes and 30 seconds per passage. Use this strategy with caution.
• 6 Likes

  gremck Member

  December 2021 102 karma

  Random bullet points:
  -Focus on the stimulus first, the answer choices are 80% wrong and traps. Work through the stimulus and notice the jumps that frequently happen between premises and conclusions.
  -The first 10 questions will be the easiest, be confident with what you put down in that range.
  -Don't, don't spend 2+ minutes on pretty much any LR question but especially the ones around question 18-16 because they're meant to be hard and slow you down. Skip! Go for a low hanging fruit question or something that you can quickly answer and save those harder ones for when you have more time at the end.
• pegahnasroll Member

  January 2022 117 karma

  @gremck Thats great advice, especially the tip on not spending more than 2+ on a question. I feel like I do that often and it ends up messing me up in the end. Thank you for the advice. Definitely gonna try to implement that advice when drilling.
• pegahnasroll Member

  January 2022 117 karma

  @lakersgirl24 I think the advice about skipping on paragraph is a good idea, not that I would 'skip' a whole paragraph but maybe spending less time on one/giving less focus to one would be useful. I often look at the clock and fear im running out of time to get through all of the passages/questions. Thank you
• pegahnasroll Member

  January 2022 117 karma

  @Steven_B Thank you! You're definitely right, I think I've noticed improvements in my RC score when I practice LR because the questions stems are sort of similar.
• Dzzy12328 Core Member

  January 2022 56 karma

  When you guys do LR and RC, do you use your scrap paper to convert the stimulus into logic and summarize each paragraph? Since the LSAT is online, I can't really write on the margins like JY does in his videos. I'm also scoring in the 160s, but I want to get into the higher 165+ range.
• 1 Like

  fjb627 Member

  January 2022 18 karma

  @Dzzy12328 I have the same question.

  Also OP, don't be discouraged. We are about the same but I'm a little worse. My raw is around 153 (163 BR). I struggle with everything, but LG has gotten better. I believe my LR will see significant improvement because I just had an amazing "ah ha" moment where I am seeing things in a more abstract way. JY talks about it in CC. I distinguish context from the argument. I focus in on modifiers and referential phrases. I will also boil the argument down to the bare bones: Ex on a Parallel Flaw: "If A then B. C is a B. So C is a A." Any variable may represent a mouthful of words. Doing this has helped me tremendously. I used to fight against "boiling it down" because it was so foreign to me but it gets easier and faster with repetition.

  I wish you all the best. I'll be satisfied if I raw a 162+. Less than two weeks to go!! We got this!
• keighttt Member

  January 2022 3 karma

  my mom keeps talking about how schools are doing away with test scores including the LSAT and at first it made me discouraged like why am I doing this?? but now it's so comforting bc maybe by the time we're applying next year schools will care way less anyway!!!
  and I think what's helped me the most on RC is making flashcards from the vocab words in the syllabus + adding any vocab words I found tricky during problem sets and practice tests
  good luck!
• 1 Like

  H.al1997 Member

  January 2022 318 karma

  @fjb627 any advice on how to BR closer to timed score? I am getting a 157-158 timed and BR at 160-163