How did you break into the 170's from high 160's?

Comments

• 3 Likes

  gd717727737747 Alum Member

  February 7 18 karma

  Hi I'm not sure this advice will be along the lines what you seek, but this is how I went from PTing 164 to a 168!

  I have been studying for almost two and half months so the way I see it I have already covered most skills that are needed to answer every question correctly. But it is so hard to make the rubber meet the road on a PT. To make the jump I needed to be answering every question to the best of my ability and without any distractions or anxiousness holding me back. The solution that I found is to create a routine that clears my mind and freshens up my thoughts before every PT. First all distractions like cell phones, chores, and other work are put away. I start out by taking a long shower in which I try to "wash away" all my other thoughts. First I focus on thinking about "nothing" if possible, next I try to think of what errors where made on the previous test and replay the correct solutions in my mind. After this, if needed I rest for a while longer while continuing to keep my thoughts as clear as possible.

  When I feel fully confident I begin the PT!
  I hope you find this helpful!
• 3 Likes

  sr742 Core Member

  February 8 27 karma

  I'm in a bit of a similar position; I usually PT high 160s low 170s, but will BR low-mid 170s. But when I first started, I was scoring similar to you.

  For me, what worked for RC was doing untimed sections and just going for accuracy. The more I did, the faster I got over time. I started off initially only finishing 3/4 passages within the time, but now usually have 1-1.5 min left with slightly better accuracy. I essentially started off giving myself 45min and working my way down to 35. I also recommend RC Hero: I never actually finished the course (which you should, many people rate it very well) but it simply changed the way I looked at RC and drastically improved my performance.

  For LR, this helped me increase my score drastically: target first 10 questions in 10 min, target next 5 in the next 5 min, flagging anything you aren't 100% sure on. Then hopefully you have ~20min left for the last 10 questions, and can go back to the ones you flagged. I do all in order with the exception of parallel reasoning questions that I need to diagram (which personally take me the longest) and go back to those at the end. I personally read the stem first so I know exactly what I'm looking for in the passage.

  Making sure LG is -0 is important to make sure you break into 170+. Following 7sage's curriculum was great (I didn't watch the videos but just did the psets in order). I generally find it easy do well here, but the newer exams sometime seem harder. One thing I think is important on the newer exams is recognizing when you can't really diagram out possibilities for a game, so you don't waste time: just start going through each answer choice 1 by 1. This doesn't happen on every test, but when it does it can be stressful, so like JY says you just have to stay calm and accept it. Because this can happen, you want to make sure you have time for it. Don't double check all answer choices once you've found your correct answer--trust your diagram and spend the rest on the time on harder games/questions. I personally found that my target times for the sections I found 'easy' on LG, I had to be faster than what 7sage says in order to have more time for the games I found hard.

  Kind of similar to some of the points I made regarding whole LG games, occasionally I come across a question in a game where I have diagrams drawn out, but no leads to answers. I'll leave it blank, and come back to it after answering other questions in the game. I'd say around 1/2 the time, a diagram I drew out for a different question will help me find the answer (or at least cross some out).

  I haven't actually taken the LSAT yet (I'm taking the February in 3 days!), but I've taken around 30 PTs and done many problem sets since late December when I started and this is what has worked for me so far. I'd love to hear other people's tips and insights as well!
• 6 Likes

  AlexLSAT. Alum Member

  February 8 edited February 8 802 karma

  I was PTing around 174 and scored a 171 official a few months ago. I broke 170 by doing a few things:

  1. LG -0 with extra time left to check answers. Being completely honest, this section is a guaranteed -0 for most 170+ scorers, and you should treat it as such too. Getting there is not hard, especially if you're already mid 160s, and with the amount of variance in RC and LR difficulty, your LG needs to be as consistent as possible. Foolproof until you're finishing LG sections with 5 minutes to spare, because on the real test it is a lot easier to use up more time due to nerves. I finished my LG on my actual LSAT with 10 seconds left, and I normally finish with 5-6 minutes left on PTs.

  2. LR -0 on first 15ish questions. I did speed drills until I went 15/15 in 15 minutes. Curve breakers are hard, and you're allowed to miss a few, but the easy questions should be guaranteed points. Work on this by setting up problem sets with the first 10-15 questions and do a q per min.

  3. RC Passage read through in 3 min. I got my RC readthrough down to 3 min, and this allowed me a lot more time to answer questions (and get more of the hard ones right). This honestly was the biggest grind, so I'd recommend just spamming a bunch of RC passages and getting used to the timing.
• 2 Likes

  sarahislam Alum Member

  February 8 116 karma

  1) I started doing a more thorough BR process where I made a chart of questions I got wrong, why I chose wrong answer, and why the right answer was right. I did this over a couple of weeks and reviewed the chart regularly started seeing conceptual patterns in what types of concepts I was struggling with and focused mainly on improving those.

  2) after finishing all of my 7sage course material, I did take Powescore's Advanced LR course and that helped me raise my score after a long plateau. The course is just a series of recorded videos so not very expensive but def the info you need to know (that is hard to deduce just on your own just from practice) to get a 170+ score.