Help. Me.

Comments

• 2 Likes

  littlesnickers Member Inactive Sage

  August 2015 271 karma

  Welcome! If this were a text, I would send the one-humped and two-humped camel emojis.
  
  PTing around 170 usually involves (1) finishing most sections with at least a few minutes left and (2) flying through most questions with near certainty that you got them right. Going back to the basics could help with both those things. You might find a new way of thinking about a section or question type that clicks.
  
  I don't know where your problems are exactly -- you would take a different strategy if your problem was not finishing the sections, for example, as opposed to finishing but getting a lot of questions wrong.
  
  Generally, here's what helped me in the last couple months of my prep. I did a lot of timed sections, usually one LR, one RC, and one LG via foolproof method every day. I kept a log of every question I got wrong, including an explanation of why I got it wrong and why the right answer was right. Seeing the patterns in that log helped me figure out where my problems were. I also watched all the course videos that covered fundamentals. They kind of tell you different things once you've been PTing for a while. Finally, I know I'm in the minority here, but I didn't BR. I am not saying you should stop doing this! Personally, I found that it took up a lot of time and energy that I instead used to work on my weaknesses. Plus not BRing kind of gave me confidence in my intuition, in a way, which gave me the confidence to speed past questions I was good at and get to questions that I needed more time on.
  
  Just putting all this out there. Take what you want
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 8021 karma

  How many PTs have you done? What are your analytics telling you? Are you BR'ing with a clean copy of the test or fighting against your answers on the one you took? Which sections are you struggling with? What kinds of questions? It's hard to give you much advice without answers to such questions because if you're -15 in LG and okay on everything else my advice would be much different than if you were just bad at LR for example. If you are doing BR the right way it will expose your weaknesses and I think it is a more effective use of your time than drilling. Also, while finishing each section early is neither a sufficient or necessary condition for getting a 170+, it is super helpful, and I know for me the issue with not finishing early is spending too much time on the easy questions so that may be something to look at in your own tests. I would just do 2-3 PTs per week with an excellent BR on a clean test and then check your analytics and also check the actual questions you get wrong to see if there are any commonalities. Earlier in my prep I was struggling with NA/SA almost exclusively, but now that I've shored those up generally I am making stupid mistakes in conditional logic across many different question types (PF/PR/SA/MBT) and so I'm focused on reinforcing my mechanical skills to improve my intuition because conditional logic questions should be freebies at least 90% of the time in my opinion.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 7965 karma

  @Castlewood3427 said:
  With that said, what study method do you all recommend for maximizing my score for October and leading into December?
  

  Join our BR groups! Lots of fun, lots of learning.
  
  

  @sockstcat said:
  PTing around 170 usually involves (1) finishing most sections with at least a few minutes left and (2) flying through most questions with near certainty that you got them right.
  

  Yes. (!!!)
  
  

  @Pacifico said:
  I would just do 2-3 PTs per week with an excellent BR on a clean test and then check your analytics and also check the actual questions you get wrong to see if there are any commonalities.
  

  Yes!
  
  
• Castlewood Free Trial Member

  August 2015 26 karma

  Thanks for the input everyone!
  
  @sockstcat I'm usually finishing the sections but never with any time to review. Hopefully with more practice I can get through the easy questions quicker so I can have some time at the end.
  
  @Pacifico I haven't done nearly enough PTs yet (only 9) and my inconsistencies in the sections is whats confusing me about how how I should approach studying. At times I've gone -10/-12 in RC while other times I've gone -3/-5. Same goes for my LG sections. LR I'm consistently around -3/-5 until last night, of course, when I missed 11 (?!). According to the analytics, Flaw questions give me the most trouble. I'm torn on whether I should just keep doing PTs or drill flaw questions.
• 1 Like

  NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  August 2015 edited August 2015 1654 karma

  @Castlewood3427
  It seems to be that you have the potential to score 170+, but I think it's a terrible idea to take the October exam if you are scoring in the upper 150s now. You're setting yourself up for failure. You should never go into an exam thinking about a retake. Rather, you should take the exam when, and only when, you are fully prepared. It is highly unlikely that you will improve from the 150s to the 170s in the next 7 weeks. It took me months to jump from the low 160s to the 170s. Many other people share my experience. From what I have seen, only the "gifted test-takers" can score in the 170s after a few weeks, and these individuals score in the mid to upper 160s on their diagnostic. For the rest of us, the standard test-takers, improvements come in increments.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 7965 karma

  @alexandergreene93 said:
  but I think it's a terrible idea to take the October exam if you are scoring in the upper 150s now.
  

  Well put.

  @alexandergreene93 said:
  It is highly unlikely that you will improve from the 150s to the 170s in the next 7 weeks.
  

  100% agreed.
  
  I've been 165+ since .... early March? And only now am I confident to score in the low 170's, let alone above that.

  @alexandergreene93 said:
  From what I have seen, only the "gifted test-takers" can score in the 170s after a few weeks, and these individuals score in the mid to upper 160s on their diagnostic.
  

  "Unicorns," I like to call them.
• Castlewood Free Trial Member

  August 2015 edited August 2015 26 karma

  @alexandergreene93 @nicole.hopkins I was thinking of taking it so I can get a better sense of actual testing conditions. Although I try to mimic these kinds of conditions when I PT (in a library, strict timing) I don't think I'll be able to know what it's really like until I actually take a real LSAT. By no means do I have an extra $175 to spend but I thought the experience would be valuable as I've seen/heard a lot of people underestimate test day pressure. Am I over planning??
• NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  August 2015 1654 karma

  @Castlewood3427
  Simply put, you are planning to fail and then try to succeed on the second time. Don't put on the gloves until you are confident in you ability to bob and weave. Timing yourself with the alotted time using a no. 2 penicil is actual testing conditions. The exam will be like all of the exams before it. No different. I think people exaggerate about the actual day.
• Castlewood Free Trial Member

  August 2015 26 karma

  @alexandergreene93 O_o ...... that makes sense.. a lot of sense..
• NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  August 2015 1654 karma

  @Castlewood3427
  You should take the October exam and cancel right after if you want to see what the actual exam is like.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 7965 karma

  @Castlewood3427 said:
  O_o ...... that makes sense.. a lot of sense..
  

  YOU'LL BE OK! Seriously ... we're all in there with you ... you got this ... It's so hard to figure out the timing with this crazy test ... Lengths of time that would be totally reasonable for anything else just aren't enough for some (I am the poster child for this).
• littlesnickers Member Inactive Sage

  August 2015 271 karma

  I'll echo @alexandergreene93 about taking care not to hype up test day too much.
  
  You have taken standardized tests, and you have taken a timed LSAT in a public setting, so you do know what the real thing is like. And I think people underestimate their *reaction* to the pressure, not the actual conditions. Maybe that distinction doesn't mean much to you, but it helps to think of your test day experience as something you can control. Be as prepared as you can be and take it seriously... but don't let it own you. Because you are going to own it.
  
  I will add that one unexpected (I should have expected it) difference between PTing and the real thing was taking the LSAT around other people taking the LSAT. A week out from the test, I took a free proctored test at a local prep company. I was thrown off because I would be distracted when I noticed people flipping pages really fast, or being at the end of a section when I was still in the middle, or being on a completely different section. I'd be like, "Am I on the wrong section?! Am I behind time?! What is my experimental?!" But I realized I had to totally ignore what everyone else was doing, and I did that on test day.
  
  If you're planning for December, you have plenty of time to get really good at this test and own it on test day.
  
• nye8870 Alum ⭐

  August 2015 1749 karma

  @sockstcat said:
  What is my experimental?!
  

  Is there a way to detect which section is the experimental?
• littlesnickers Member Inactive Sage

  August 2015 271 karma

  @nye8870 No there isn't! Haha and that was why it was so bad for me to waste time thinking about it. There are a few different "test forms" given out on a given test day. The test forms have different experimental sections and in different orders. For example my test form was LG LR LG RC LR with the first LG as the experimental. But other people taking the same test might have had a test form that went LR RC RC LR LG with one of the RCs as the experimental.
  
  Best not to think about it. Just give every section your best effort.
• 1 Like

  nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 7965 karma

  @sockstcat said:
  about taking care not to hype up test day too much.
  

  Thanks, guys—I really needed this reminder. Encouraging.
  
  

  @sockstcat said:
  Maybe that distinction doesn't mean much to you, but it helps to think of your test day experience as something you can control. Be as prepared as you can be and take it seriously... but don't let it own you. Because you are going to own it.
  

  Wow. Need this on a tshirt.
  
  

  @sockstcat said:
  But I realized I had to totally ignore what everyone else was doing, and I did that on test day.
  

  Excellent pro-tip.
• jyang72 Alum Member

  August 2015 844 karma

  @nicole.hopkins , I've heard that the magical number for 170 is 40+ PTs. It seems practice makes perfection.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  August 2015 7965 karma

  @jyang72 said:
  I've heard that the magical number for 170 is 40+ PTs.
  

  It certainly took me that many to see any kind of 170+ consistency!