How to break into solid mid 160's.

Comments

• Anna Marie Alum Member

  November 2016 210 karma

  What's your average score breakdown on LG? In my own prep, the most points gains came from a very intense period of drilling LG over and over and over again. If you haven't foolproofed games 1-35 yet, doing so is likely to help your LG average and, by extension, your overall score. While it is possible to see some RC and LR improvement in the 3 weeks between now and the December test, I would argue that the most drastic improvement in that amount of time would come from focusing on LG.
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  My logic games section is my worst, I am averaging 14+ correct. Within the given time period, I am normally only able to do two sections. Of the sections I do complete, I get them all right usually but then I guess on the other two. Honestly, I have tried drilling several times with minimal improvement but I am going to try to keep at it.
• stepharizona Alum Member

  November 2016 3197 karma

  @hakeemmuhammad498 said:
  My logic games section is my worst, I am averaging 14+ correct.
  

  I was going to suggest games anyways, but really go into the foolproof method. Every point you can gain here will really help push you into the mid 160s. Watch JYs videos mimic what he does, but those 8-9 points could be your ticket to the score you need.
• 1 Like

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  November 2016 23929 karma

  @hakeemmuhammad498 said:
  I would at least like to score "160" and not in the 150's range. Any tips from now to December to achieve that goal? I also plan on taking the exam on February.
  

  
  As said above, if you're missing 8-9 questions on games alone, I would make fool proofing all of the games my priority. They are extremely learnable with enough practice and repetition.
  
  https://7sage.com/how-to-get-a-perfect-score-on-the-logic-games/
  
  I'd try to fool proof all the games from PTs 1-35 and then any of the games you may have encountered since on PTs.
  
  As far as taking next month, I don't think your average will be at the 165 mark. I'd hold off on sitting for the exam until I was comfortably above a 165. Most people experience a test day drop of somewhere between 3-5 points. So perhaps taking in Feb or June of 2017 and applying next cycle is the better plan here. Don't waste a take or sit for the test until you are consistently hitting above your target score.
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  You're right, just calculated and 8 points more on logic games would mean 165. Believe me, on my first diagnostic I only got nine questions correct on the logic game portion. I have honestly been drilling like crazy doing several games multiple times with very minimal improvement. But I am going to keep at it. And as far as holding off until next cycle, I can't do that. I've already come to agreement with my family that I would be going to law school next year.
  I will be going to law school next year with whatever score I get to a school within my range. Just my goal for December is 160, and my goal for Feb is 165. I think if I get a good score in Feb though enough for a t-14, I could convince my family to allow me to wait until next cycle.
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  People who struggled at logic games, how long did it take you to get good? I've been doing three plus months of solid drilling just to be at 14.
• loosekanen Alum Member

  November 2016 138 karma

  I would recommend getting really good at one type of game at a time. There will very likely be one simple sequencing and one simple grouping game on each lsat. finding those games and knocking them out early helps me a lot. I tend to get through those two types of games in about 12 minutes total as they're so formulaic. At that point I can really take my time with the last two games, especially the setups, making sure i've found the proper inferred rules. Just like RC, the more time spent before the questions refining knowledge usually equates to more success once you hit the questions.
• 1 Like

  Anna Marie Alum Member

  November 2016 210 karma

  LG did not come naturally to me at all. Like you, I could usually only get through 2-3 games per section. It took a few months, and then it just seemed to "click." I spent 2-3 weeks just doing individual games and full sections. I made copies of all the games I was struggling with and would do them over and over again. My LG average is now -0/-2 and I still play them over and over again because it's definitely a skill that can get rusty. At the top of each game, I write the date, how long it took me to complete, and whether I need to replay. Sometimes, I note the "key inferences" of the game and where I've seen similar games (because pretty much every LG has a clone out there somewhere). I make notecards for any difficult inferences I encounter, and will cycle through those from time to time.
  
  For timing, I also focused on getting really, really fast at the easy line games so I could allot more time on the harder games. Timing also got better once I'd done so much repetition, because I started being able to predict answer choice and go into "hunt mode" for easier questions.
  
  Based on what you said and the fact that you plan to take the December test, I would most certainly focus on LG. If foolproofing isn't working for you right now, maybe it's time to revisit the curriculum or try to diagnose an underlying problem in your fundamental skills (for example, do you have trouble with In/Out games? If so, that might be a conditional logic issue). But, definitely don't be disheartened by the games section -- it IS a learnable section, it might just take some extra time. It did for me. Best of luck and happy foolproofing!
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  Thanks, for me the issue is speed. I've scored between 0 to -2 when TIME is not a factor and I do it untimed. But when I do it timed, its a whole other story. So I am gong to flooproof and focus on speed. thanks.
• 1 Like

  Wind-Up Bird Alum Member

  November 2016 284 karma

  Heya,
  
  I was in a similar situation during my prep, where I was scoring in the low 160s and missing ~ a game and a half each PT due to time constraints. As I began to accumulate techniques and intuitions through watching J.Y.'s video explanations and PT commentaries, I was able to push to consistently score in the high 160s/low 170s. The new "miscellaneous" games in the late PT70s might give you a fair bit of trouble, but being able to have at least an 80% accuracy on LG is probably the easiest way to score in the mid 160s.
  
  
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  November 2016 23929 karma

  @"Anna Marie" said:
  Based on what you said and the fact that you plan to take the December test, I would most certainly focus on LG. If foolproofing isn't working for you right now, maybe it's time to revisit the curriculum or try to diagnose an underlying problem in your fundamental skills (for example, do you have trouble with In/Out games? If so, that might be a conditional logic issue). But, definitely don't be disheartened by the games section -- it IS a learnable section, it might just take some extra time. It did for me. Best of luck and happy foolproofing!
  

  This is also good advice. Always return to the CC and work on fundamentals if you are not seeing improvement after fool proofing. I know this helped me tremendously with respect to grouping games which I was terribly slow doing.
• Stevie C Alum Member

  November 2016 645 karma

  Drill LG, starting the with the LG parts of core curriculum. It will probably pay off more than PTs. LSAC gives you points for getting questions right -- they don't care how many PTs we've taken!
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  Which specific parts of the cc should I resist?
• 1 Like

  J. Tharp Alum Member

  November 2016 575 karma

  Logic games is probably key, as others have said. I've been in a similar situation to yours and just recently scored, for the first time, around 165. I have also been struggling with the games, and while the fool proof method is surely the best way, I do feel that it misses something - drilling full timed sections. This is what eventually improved my logic games score. I was only drilling games one at a time, and timing each game, but I never until recently began doing full timed sections when I wasn't taking a full PT. So, keep it up! Getting up to finishing 3 games shouldn't be that difficult before Dec 4th. Don't hesitate to delay if you're not getting there, though!
• J. Tharp Alum Member

  November 2016 575 karma

  Also: focus on the types of games you are doing worst on. Everyone is different. Oddly enough, I struggle the most with sequencing games while finishing the harder grouping and in/out games pretty fast.
• jurisprudent Alum Member

  November 2016 326 karma

  Don't give up! My LG score was truly hopeless at first, but with months of drilling (on and off - I think you shouldn't let yourself burnout with just LG) I'm finally scoring around the -3/4 range. I would also advise for taking timed, full-length games sections. This really helped me with speed and urged me to get through easier games even faster than I normally would when doing individual games. Another tip for timing is to learn to trust your set up and inferences -- which allows you to not read all of the answer choices and move on to the next question when you think you've found the right answer.
  
  Also, JY has this really high-level approach of looking at the answer choices in a once-over type of way, and "smells out" any fishy answer choices. This can save you the time and trouble of brute-forcing through answer choices that are designed to suck up your time. If you see a suspicious answer choice (whether it's wrong -- cross out or right -- to try out) this can save so much time.
  
  Also, if there was a particular game that was tied to a fundamental CC lesson (as JY says in almost all of his videos) I would flag and revisit them continuously. I also committed all of the main rules (sufficient/necessary rules, or/not both rules) to memory. (For me, I struggled to memorize the or/not both rules for grouping games and when I did, this helped me so much on those types of games and allowed me to use them to make inferences that I had been missing.)
  
  Hope this helps!
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  Do you recommend drilling those weird games in the early 1-35 practice tests that are not known to appear on modern lsats?
• loosekanen Alum Member

  November 2016 138 karma

  In your shoes, no. If you're not perfect with sequencing and easy in/out games then you're doing yourself a disservice by wasting time on what are essentially assignments that test your spatial reasoning which you have admitted is not your strength. Put it another way: if I told you that there would be 13 of 23 questions on the LSAT that just tested your basic French vocabulary of 200 pre-selected words you would memorize the hell out of those words before worrying about anything else, right? If you can't do the easy sequencing and easy grouping games quickly and accurately you are wasting time by worrying about other things.
  These easy games also build fundamentals which are key in later games.
• LSATtruth. Alum Member

  November 2016 175 karma

  THanks, actually for the most part I have sequencing games done but need to improve with grouping/ in and out. I was just asking because game 3 on lsat 10 seems very abnormal.