How to get out of LR plateau around -4 (taking August LSAT in 10 days rip)

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• Lsat_taker122 Member

  August 2022 72 karma

  Is there a pattern in what types of questions you are getting wrong? I think LR is a bit unqiue in that going back and reviewing strategy/lesson videos (from 7sage's curriculium) for specific question types can help a lot. For example, I struggled a lot with weakening questions because I was able to justify a bunch of the answer choices by coming up with my own assumptions, but the lesson videos bascially taught me not to do that anymore lol.
• ekhydroxide Core Member

  August 2022 53 karma

  @Lsat_taker122 it's normally just the questions with the hardest difficulty ratings:( though this sounds hellish, i've been considering making drills with only high difficulty questions and do them timed and the untimed -- i feel like this is probably my best bet at improving.
• 1 Like

  Braxton076-1-1 Core Member

  August 2022 50 karma

  Also taking the August LSAT, hitting my 170+ with a LR average around -1 or -2. I improved my scores by looking at the analytics page to find the question type that I struggled with most, in my case Weakening and Parallel Flawed Reasoning, then creating drills of level 4 and level 5 difficulty questions in that group.

  Starting out, you'll probably only get about 60% of the drill questions right, but I found that studying the reasoning JY uses to find the right answer on the most difficult questions makes solving the easier questions of that type much easier. The hardest questions are designed to be time sinks, so studying the reasoning you'll need to consistently get these questions right will also help save some time in case you need to go back and check a different question.

  Good luck on the 13th, hope you score higher than me!
• jmarmaduke96 Member Sage ⭐

  August 2022 edited August 2022 2891 karma

  Reposted below!
• 3 Likes

  james.marmaduke Yearly + Live Member Sage 7Sage Tutor

  August 2022 21 karma

  Hi there! Given that your missed questions in LR are not of a consistent type and the questions you miss are always questions that you flagged as being unsure about, it sounds like your issues in LR are mostly timing/strategic issues at this point. Those issues are often harder to identify and grapple with, but there is certainly work that you can do. If you can, let me know how many questions you typically flag in an LR section and how much time you have left over for round 2 in LR. I may be able to give you more targeted/helpful feedback then. For now, here are my top three suggestions:

  Unless you are always getting through all your flagged questions on round 2, I would start categorizing your flags to make sure you are coming back to the questions that are most likely to boost your score first. Many people just go through their flags in numerical or reverse-numerical order. I would organize your flags with three columns. Column 1 is for questions where you (A) know what the work is that you need to do to resolve the concern you have, AND (B) think you can do the work in 60-70 seconds or less. Column 2 is for question that fail either (A) or (B) or both. Column 3 is for questions that you might feel squeamish about, but can't articulate a reason to worry about. On round 2, start with column 1 and work in order through column 3. This will help you start with questions you are most likely to boost your score with.

  If you are averaging -4 in LR, then I think that skipping is still valuable for you. I would set yourself a goal of skipped at least one, possibly two, question(s) and doing it FAST. I'm talk 30 seconds or less. These should be questions where as soon as you get into it you know you have less than optimal odds of getting the question right in 60 seconds or so. Don't be afraid of skipping either, you can always come back to these questions in round 2!

  I would do a few drills where you track your confidence. Do some retake LR sections and record how confident you are in each answer you select. See how your confidence lines up with your accuracy. If you find out that you are consistently getting questions right when you are only, say, 6/10 confident, you can use that as another tool to move on from questions more quickly.

  The underlying theme here is timing. The trick to getting in the 170s consistently is twofold: (1) having enough time for a consistent and robust second round, and (2) learning how to use that time as effectively as possible.

  Also, just FYI, I benefited a lot from tutoring when I was in your position. If you want to schedule a free consult with a tutor to talk about that can help, here is a link https://calendly.com/7sage-consult/7sage-tutoring-free-consult?utm_source=HD

  I hope this helps!
• ekhydroxide Core Member

  August 2022 53 karma

  @james.marmaduke @jmarmaduke96 this is super helpful, thank you so much for the insight. Since I am taking the August LSAT in about a week, I'll hold off on tutoring because I'm afraid a drastic change in my thinking process will hurt more than help. If I end up retaking, I'll definitely pursue some tutoring. I usually only have a minute or two left in every LR section which I end up using to make sure my parallel reasoning / parallel flaw questions are correct because I know I can always get them right if I spend enough time on them. On some questions, I feel like I just can't quite make the connection to why the right answer is correct, so I end up picking what I feel like is the best answer (even though I know it has a small flaw or doesn't quite feel right). An example of this was PT83 S1 Q23; even after my blind review when I knew I got it wrong, I could not figure out what the right answer was until I listened to JY's explanation.

  For the next week, I'm definitely gonna work on getting LR faster so I have more time to do a second round. Thanks again for your help -- it's really appreciated
• 1 Like

  jellegoods Member

  August 2022 14 karma

  I don't have great advice but I'm exactly in the same boat. I realized nearly all my mistakes are due to skimming answer choices and taking a trap AC for granted (lol a classic LSAT flaw). Sending you best wishes and let's get it done once and for all!! Feel free to inbox me if you'd like some peer support!