For those who once were scoring well below the 169+ mark, what were some of the larger breakthroughs in your prep that allowed you to finally start scoring in the 169+ range?
How was your approach to questions different for when you were scoring
well below 169+ to then scoring above 169+?
Thanks in advance for those that share their thoughts.
Comments
https://7sage.com/webinar/lsat-prep-for-170-plus/
There's a few more in the webinar section, and one will be uploaded soon given by @cmelman95 which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Once I was scoring in that range I found myself not taking notes in the recorded webinars but shaking my head in agreement. Almost as if I was part of giving the lecture.
My big breakthrough was focusing on one section at a time. Focused on RC for about 2 weeks and did not do anything else. In that two weeks I seriously learned to read faster, and in review I learned where the writers hide the information they ask me about. I went from -10 to -4. Additionally my score for other areas rises when I do this as well. After my RC mini camp my LR scores went from -4/-5 to -1/-3
Reviewed correctly. For me talking out loud and acting like I am explaining something really helped me get through BR and break my bad habits that were keeping my out of the 170+ range.
Knowing how, what, and when to skip is what I am working on now. Hoping this gets me those last few points! Watch the webinar!
Edit:
I have received a few messages about this so I wanted to elaborate on a few things.
1. About 90% of my improvement for R/C came through BR, Intense no corner cutting BR. After I took the section I would then go back UNTIMED and justify every answer for why it was wrong and why the correct one was right. I know you have heard this 1 million times but I promise this is where the money is made. I know it sucks but it is what it is. Oh and I think my exact time spent was 1.5 weeks not two, but don't think you need to do exactly what I did maybe less will work for you.
2. I also learned how to utilize my time. I had trouble finishing and I was always leaving questions on the table thus I was missing out on the low hanging fruit.
3. Lastly my increase in LR was due in part because I learned how to grasp important information faster. A larger part however was because the time I took off LR really helped. Several Sagers have commented that they have seen this effect as well.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
For me, it was much bigger than the LSAT. It’s like what Teddy Roosevelt said (or was it Bill Clinton?): "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
It really is about maintaining exceptional, highly disciplined study habits. And for me, a lot of that was psychological. When I was treading water in the low 160’s, it was nevertheless still incredibly difficult for me to accept that I was not already outstanding. The brain has powerful mechanisms by which to reject these kinds of thoughts, and those mechanisms do not yield quietly. But until I managed to do it, I couldn’t achieve what I wanted because I was convinced I was already excellent. That’s obviously ridiculous from a rational standpoint, but that’s the only way to express what I felt subconsciously. I could only make excuses. What I was doing was lowering the bar on what it actually meant to do it so that the bar was very near where I already was in order to protect my ego. So my 162 on the Dec. 2016 test was not because that was an accurate reflection of my abilities, it was because of Game 3 and a disproportionally high number of flaw and NA questions which were the only things I wasn’t 100% on. Right, lol. Breaking into the 170’s is so much more difficult than I thought it was at that time, that I could never have overcome it. It’d be like trying to knock out Mike Tyson in his prime, only you’re under the impression that you’re fighting a malnourished 5 year old. It’s just never going to happen. So in breaking into the upper echelons of the LSAT, or anything else I’d suspect, you’ve first got to break your ego protecting illusions to realize that you are inadequate for the task. Then, make yourself adequate. We’ve all got the potential, I really do believe that. We just have to be able to accurately assess the actual distance between where our abilities are and where they need to be. And there is very little that the human brain does worse than that. That, for me, was the hard part. From there, the rest followed pretty naturally.
And by the way, if there’s anyone that actually gets that horrible quote misattribution joke, I’m not sure I necessarily respect you for it, but I definitely think we understand one another.
NOT Bill Nor Ted.
Party on @kgbawuah .
What's your current average and your section breakdown?
Here it is: for the first 10 questions of each LR section, don't overthink the questions. Just glide through them! Almost as if they are just a warmup for the actual questions. Read for detail, be attentive, select the best answer and just move on. If you do this, you'll have a much much better chance of finishing the section on time.
It sounds useless, but you'll be amazed. You really should be able to get through the first 10 questions in 10 minutes. Sometime even the first 13 in 13 minutes. Not only is that 20 points you're not dropping, it's also very very useful minutes in your pocket for when you need to take on questions 10-25. Also, you're more focused and less taxed going into the harder questions. But once you do hit question 10, gird your brain loins.
Occasionally they do sneak a difficult question or two into the first 10, but you'll recognize them when you see them. While you're practicing, assume that all 10 are easy and avoid overthinking at all costs. If it turns out you missed a few of them, identify what made them difficult questions. That way you'll know to slow down a little when you see a similar question next time.
I really believe the most dangerous traps on the lsat are the ones we set for ourselves. Stroll through 1-10, then machete your way through the rest. Of course this all assumes that you're willing to take upwards of 30 practice tests, and review them in detail. If you're not doing that, then do that.
The score boosters in LG and RC come with learning their unique nuances through sheer repetition. There's no magic bullet, it's more like a magic buckshot that you agonizingly build one magic pellet at a time. That's my most useful insight. God speed!
For me, what's been working for all 3 sections is the following:
1) LR: doing sections timed loosely (meaning I'd set a stopwatch but I wouldn't feel beholden to the time) but really going through the mechanics of solving an LR question. This means writing out or diagramming the argument core, anticipating the flaw/answer choice, and carefully reading the answer choices. I tend to miss questions because I'll read the answer choices too fast so it was important for me to slow down at that part. I will then BR the section to make sure that my logic is sound on any question. When I get questions wrong, I'll write down why the right answer choice is right and why the wrong answer choices are wrong, typically using the Manhattan LR forums as a guide.
2) RC: doing sections timed loosely. For RC, I really needed to have a crystal clear reading method so I did sections loosely until I could speedily read through a passage using the method I created for myself.
3) LG: just practice. Typically doing 1 section a day, strictly timed and aiming to go about 30-32 minutes for the section. This is possible for me because LG has always been my strong suit so I just want to make sure I don't lose my skills.