Score Decrease - Advice needed

SubpoenaColadaSubpoenaColada Core Member
edited November 8 in Reading Comprehension 185 karma

I've experienced a RC score change from -3/-4 (August and September) to -9/-10 (October and November) in timed sections and PTs. My timing for passages have been off as I'm finding it harder to synthesize the information despite review. On passage that I've retaken from early in my study, I'm doing worse than before and getting more questions wrong. Has anyone else experienced something similar with their scores?

Not much has changed in my study routine. I've studied very consistently since July but have placed less emphasis on RC this past month / month and a half. (On the plus, my LR is getting better.) Regardless, I find it strange that my score has gone this way. Have my RC skills really decreased this significantly? How can I get back to my better score average? Any advice?

Thanks in advance. And happy studying!

Comments

  • s-1334200s-1334200 Core Member
    edited November 8 108 karma

    In your change from -3/-4 to -9/-10 have you learned new information that may be affecting the way you approach RC? I found that as I learned, my scores actually didn't progress linearly. I am going to explain why I think why the number of questions you got wrong went up despite the fact that you technically know more than before. Spoiler, I don't think it is because you're reading comp skills have gotten worse. I am a math person so visualizing your progress like a graph personally helps me. I experienced a similar situation and i will try to explain what was happening with me. Maybe this can shed some light on what you are experiencing. If you go to https://www.desmos.com/calculator and type in the function y=-x(x-3)^{2}+5 you can follow along with my explanation. The x axis (horizontal) of the graph represents the amount of "information" i knew about the test and the y axis (vertical) represents the number of questions i was getting wrong. It obviously isn't an exact representation but helps with the explanation.

    When I fist started out, my X (information) was 0. Because I hadn't learned anything, I got about 6 wrong. Which makes sense. Then as I learned a little bit, my score started to go down. Also make sense. But then you'll notice as I learned even more, the number i got wrong started going up. That didn't make sense to me at the time. But then eventually, i reached a hurdle, and once I crossed it, my score started going down again, eventually I got so good that i could consistently get -0/-3 per RC section.

    So my explanation for why my scores got worse despite the fact that I was learning more info is because I was learning more information but I hadn't yet mastered how to apply that information.

    When you first start out, you are going purely off of instinct. You don't yet know anything. That explains why you generally do worse on your diagnostic.

    Then as you learn a little bit of information, your score drops because know you learn a few techniques that will help you prevent getting some question wrong. For example, in LR learning how to draw Lawgic diagrams meant that i could pretty consistently get sufficient assumption questions, where as with my knowledge being 0 I was relying purely on intuition.

    Then as you learn more and more, problems start to arise. The problem isn't that the information is bad, the problem is knowing when to apply it. When I first did my lessons, I got really good at Lawgic diagrams, so I started drawing Lawgic diagrams for pretty much every question. The problem is that eats into your time. As I got to the midpoint I had less time than previously and therefore had to rush through the second half. So even though I was technically better at the material and knew more, I was actually getting more wrong. You see, while I knew the techniques, I still wasn't able to master when to apply them and when to save time by using intuition or doing it in my head without writing out the problem.

    Once, i learned when/how to do that, my score started dropping again.

    While i noticed a more drastic example in my LR score, my RC score mirrored it a bit. You see, what happened with me was that as I got good at LR, i started getting really good at breaking down argument structures. So what was happening was that I was spending too much time breaking down the argument in the RC section. I started overanalyzing and therefore struggled to fully break it down. I had effectively abandoned my earlier technique of not trying to fully understand the passage before diving in. If you want an understanding of how i approach RC sections take a look at my comment in this discussion post. https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/comment/216591

    What i would recommend is maybe try comparing your tests where you did particularly well on a RC section with those that you did bad in. See if maybe you are spending significantly more time on certain sections/question types than you were before!

    Additionally, I will say that sometimes you can get a bad test or not be fully rested or a million other factors that can affect your performance. Don't let one errant score affect your confidence. Just try to understand the factors that led to your low score and take it from there. Best of luck on your LSAT journey.

  • sunnedwhosunnedwho Alum Member
    11 karma

    When I had encountered this issue, it was because I had essentially experienced burnout. Its really easy to develop a sort of tunnel vision with the LSAT, you start to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. Everything you learn begins to just swim around in your head. What worked for me was dialing back my practice, or even not practicing certain days. A fresh mind makes a huge difference.

    I also agree with the other poster, progression isn't linear, and when you change your thinking, you're going to have a regression before progression. If you went from driving automatic to driving stickshift, you're going to get worse at driving before better!

  • s-1334200s-1334200 Core Member
    108 karma

    @sunnedwho said:
    When I had encountered this issue, it was because I had essentially experienced burnout. Its really easy to develop a sort of tunnel vision with the LSAT, you start to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. Everything you learn begins to just swim around in your head. What worked for me was dialing back my practice, or even not practicing certain days. A fresh mind makes a huge difference.

    I also agree with the other poster, progression isn't linear, and when you change your thinking, you're going to have a regression before progression. If you went from driving automatic to driving stickshift, you're going to get worse at driving before better!

    I love your driving analogy!

  • natemanwell1natemanwell1 Core Member
    40 karma

    I would do a practice test where you speed read through each passage, then read each passage in order three more times. that will allow you to work on your reading comprehension under speed, and the active recall will help you better remember and understand the material. you also probably don't know the specific details that make the answers wrong and and how to rank answer choices and the procedure for each question

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