Increasing BR score

Comments

• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 8021 karma

  Are you BRing the whole test or just circling questions you're not 100% on? If it's the former you just need to keep working at it to refine your skills a bit more, and maybe take a little more time to BR. If it's the latter, then it sounds like you need to close the gap between the number you get wrong and don't circle and the ones that you do circle. Once you're circling all the ones you get wrong then you're on your way to maxing your BR score. Developing a methodology for this might help you. For instance, you could circle any question that you narrow down to two choices after the first time through the ACs. Even though you might feel 100% confident in you final answer, if you weren't confident enough on the first time through then that might be an indicator.
  
  I would also highly recommend getting in on the group BR calls if you haven't done so already. It really helps to reinforce good reasoning skills to hear from the perspectives of others.
• mes08 Alum Member

  July 2015 578 karma

  Hi @Pacifico, thanks for replying. For the last several PTs, I've been circling questions I'm not 100% on, but then I BR the entire test. This gives me a better idea of the questions I struggle with under timed conditions and I try and figure out what made the question hard. I usually circle any question that I haven't been ale to eliminate all four other answer choices confidently.
  
  Do you have any advice about how I can better identify/anticipate confidence errors? I usually make 0 or -1 in LG and can catch my mistakes in RC during BR most of the time; it's mostly in LR where I tend to make 1-4 confidence errors overall.
  
  Unfortunately I live abroad and because of the time difference, I can't make the BR group calls, but thanks for the tip. Maybe I'll join when I'm in the US on vacation in September
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 8021 karma

  Sounds like you have a good BR process then. And mid 170s is already an excellent BR score, so even if it's tough to close that final gap, just know you're already in great shape. The best advice I can give to catch confidence errors is really just to humble yourself during blind review. You'll naturally want to stick with your first choice, which is what really anchors the difficulty inherent in blind reviews. Some people like to write out justifications for why each answer is right/wrong and they feel that helps them to find problems more easily.
  
  Perhaps try to find some study buddies in your part of the world and set up your own BR calls. I can't express enough how valuable it is to get the perspectives of others, especially for LR.
  
  Also, is there a specific question type that is hanging you up in LR? Use the 7Sage analytics to your advantage so you can find patterns should they emerge.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 7965 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  Even though you might feel 100% confident in you final answer, if you weren't confident enough on the first time through then that might be an indicator.
  

  Agree with this—I (try to remember to) always circle something where I was between two AC's.
  
  Often times I have confidence issues even when I have clear reasons to eliminate/choose, but that's more of an emotional issue (which of course is in play on the LSAT!). It's probably a bit tied to personality styles. If you're normally risk averse and deliberate a lot, well, you will probably have more confidence wavering issues than someone who pulls the trigger and doesn't look back. That's just a guess. AH see now I'm deliberating again
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 7965 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  you'll naturally want to stick with your first choice, which is what really anchors the difficulty inherent in blind reviews.
  

  I try to completely ignore my original choices when doing BR so as to mitigate this tendency. Start with a clean copy of the test and more or less go through the whole thing and do it over. OR just do the ones you circled but don't look at which answer choice you gave. Often times I'll remember which one I chose, but I'm never 100% certain of/reliant upon my memory.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 8021 karma

  Oh I find it preferable to use the same copy because it forces me to question myself and the humbler I can be, the more logically sound I usually am.
• 1 Like

  nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 7965 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  Oh I find it preferable to use the same copy because it forces me to question myself and the humbler I can be, the more logically sound I usually am.
  

  But but ... I don't need more temptations to believe my own crap!!
  
  Just kidding. I find that knowing what I picked the first time stresses me out. Adds another layer of pressure and deliberation. Goodness knows I don't need any more of either of those things.
• GSU Hopeful Core ⭐

  July 2015 1644 karma

  I'm still torn about which is better: only BRing those questions that were circled, or the entire PT. On one hand, I like the idea of going back through the entire thing again and reinforcing the thought processes. However, I find the time factor a major drawback since its going through the entire test again. Further, I'm afraid of it not exposing the confidence errors in comparison to the former. I've done it both ways, but the extra time spent going through questions that I didn't circle doesn't seem like a fair tradeoff in terms of extra time. The past few tests, I have only circled the LR questions that I wasn't 100% on, BR those and completely went through RC and LG during that stage of BR.
• 2 Likes

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 7468 karma

  I think fundamental errors are more important than confidence errors early on in the process. Maybe you should look at every question and once you get a BR score that you’d be happy with as an actual score, then use the circle method.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 8021 karma

  @DumbHollywoodActor said:
  Maybe you should look at every question and once you get a BR score that you’d be happy with as an actual score, then use the circle method.
  

  I think this is a great approach and an excellent example of how to add a little nuance to the 7Sage canon.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 edited July 2015 7965 karma

  @DumbHollywoodActor said:
  Maybe you should look at every question and once you get a BR score that you’d be happy with as an actual score, then use the circle method.
  

  Well look at you! I think this is great advice and well-stated. Another thing ... after a while, it gets super boring to BR questions you were 100% certain about to begin with. So Mr. Levine's method would account for that.
  
  
• harrismegan Member

  July 2015 2074 karma

  Ah this thread is so helpful. Thanks everyone
• GSU Hopeful Core ⭐

  July 2015 edited July 2015 1644 karma

  Thank you all for the comments. I find myself in a somewhat frustrating situation. My BR is right where I'm happy with (174-178 avg) but my timed PT is lagging way behind (mid 150's). I am still in the -5 range on LG so I know that will close the gap somewhat. My BR score tells me that I understand the fundamentals of the test, but I would like suggestions on successfully closing that gap. I'm 12 tests in with a 146 diagnostic, 160 high and an average of 155ish. During the same span, my BR scores have gone from 165 to the current average with a high of 178.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  July 2015 8021 karma

  Tighten up that LG, and then use the analytics to really figure out what question types on LR are really hurting you on times tests. RC should improve with LR improvement and understanding so just keep plugging away.