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ha.atwal · October 2017

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sunflowersandlaw · October 2017

I feel you. I didn't do as great as I would have hoped.
I don't know if this helps, but from now until December 2, I plan on pinpointing where my mistakes are and working on trying to understand why the right answers are right. From the end of September until now, I was working on re-learning the material, but I'm going to start really drilling the information by the end of October.

Don't feel discouraged. Your dream score isn't going to come easy, granted, but if it was easy, everyone could do it. Just take today off, restrategize, and keep pushing. I think you'll be just fine.

ha.atwal · October 2017

@sunflowersandlaw said:
I feel you. I didn't do as great as I would have hoped.
I don't know if this helps, but from now until December 2, I plan on pinpointing where my mistakes are and working on trying to understand why the right answers are right. From the end of September until now, I was working on re-learning the material, but I'm going to start really drilling the information by the end of October.

Don't feel discouraged. Your dream score isn't going to come easy, granted, but if it was easy, everyone could do it. Just take today off, restrategize, and keep pushing. I think you'll be just fine.

Thanks so much for this Yeah I'm sort of in the same boat strategy-wise, I think I've grasped the fundamentals, but I was probably not as hard on myself during PTing and BRing as I should have been. Ultimately though, timing completely destroyed me and hopefully it's something I can see improvement on with using skipping more often (I rarely skip, but I watched the webinar and it's very convincing).

Good luck with your LSAT studying the rest of the way, I hope we both reach our target score!

richellegernan · October 2017

I'm on the exact same boat, got a 152 but was scoring around 157 - 164 during my practice tests the weeks prior. I forgot my watch the day of the test and timing threw me off. Just trying to find the motivation to get back to studying even harder and more intentional. I do agree that we should take today off and re-strategize tomorrow.

ha.atwal · October 2017

@richellegernan said:
I'm on the exact same boat, got a 152 but was scoring around 157 - 164 during my practice tests the weeks prior. I forgot my watch the day of the test and timing threw me off. Just trying to find the motivation to get back to studying even harder and more intentional. I do agree that we should take today off and re-strategize tomorrow.

Wow! I had my watch and my timing was still off haha. Yup, I feel the same way.. Ever since the September test I've been working on law school apps and taking a break from the 3 months of intensive studying.. Now I feel lost and do not know where to begin. We'll get our mojo back, but it's hard right now to feel motivated enough to study.

akriegler · October 2017

Same situation and same score as you. We can do this!

Nunuboy1994 · October 2017

Some reading comp passages are just brutal like that- I feel like with the LR section you eventually become really familiar with the traps and at some point everything clicks. RC can be way more fickle because some passage you just get right away- don't give up.

acsimon · October 2017

Can you discern some specific issue that you have with RC (e.g., timing)? If so, what is it (what are they)?

ha.atwal · October 2017

@Nunuboy1994 said:
Some reading comp passages are just brutal like that- I feel like with the LR section you eventually become really familiar with the traps and at some point everything clicks. RC can be way more fickle because some passage you just get right away- don't give up.

Yup... the placement of certain RC passages (and particularly hard questions) can absolutely wreck your momentum for the rest of the section as well.

ha.atwal · October 2017

@acsimon said:
Can you discern some specific issue that you have with RC (e.g., timing)? If so, what is it (what are they)?

I think I tend to read through the passages faster than I should, so when I start approaching the questions I often have to refer back to the passage a lot and this burns me for time. Also I'm a little hesitant with skipping, so when I run into a difficult passage in the beginning I have this mentality of wanting to get through it first rather than coming back to it later and attempting an easier passage instead.

In general, I find the nature of the RC questions difficult (analogy, inference, AP). I was consistently averaging -8/-9 while I was PTing, but for some reason the September test really overwhelmed me (particular the judicial candor passage if you took the test) and it left me with 5 minutes for the last passage which is obviously awful timing on my part.

acsimon · October 2017

Oh, ok. Well, I'll post something on some of these points as soon as I get in front of my computer and have time (which might not be until tomorrow since I have to prepare a lecture). In the meantime, don't get down though. I actually think that RC is a very learnable section (far more than ppl give it credit for). Look forward to posting more later!--A.c.S

ha.atwal · October 2017

@acsimon said:
Oh, ok. Well, I'll post something on some of these points as soon as I get in front of my computer and have time (which might not be until tomorrow since I have to prepare a lecture). In the meantime, don't get down though. I actually think that RC is a very learnable section (far more than ppl give it credit for). Look forward to posting more later!--A.c.S

Thanks I appreciate that! Looking forward to reading your post

acsimon · October 2017

Haven't forgotten this!--Still putting something together; I expect that I'll post over the weekend. In the meantime, I hope that you all are enjoying your gains and hard work!--A.c.S

ha.atwal · October 2017

@acsimon said:
Haven't forgotten this!--Still putting something together; I expect that I'll post over the weekend. In the meantime, I hope that you all are enjoying your gains and hard work!--A.c.S

Perfect, can't wait to read it!

acsimon · October 2017

Finally getting to this; so sorry for the delay! I suppose that I should preface my comments with some qualifications regarding what I'm going to say.

(a) I don't claim that this approach will be the best for everyone. All, I can say is that it worked for me on the RC, and I didn't have much time to prepare for that particular section (because of the way I had to structure my study schedule given the areas that I was especially weak in).

(b) I had some (so-so) natural ability with the RC, so I didn't start off PTing at -8 or more. It was more like -6 or -5, mostly (unless I didn't get to all the questions and had to guess, which led me to conclude that timing was a big threat). However, I went from being pushed to finish in time at that score, to -0 on the Sept test with over five minutes to spare. In fact, it meant that I didn't realize that the "judges" passage was THAT difficult (although, I did know that it was more difficult than the other passages since it's the only passage I returned to in order to answer a question and check another); seeing the boards I definitely got a little worried that I must've missed something. But, after getting my score, I feel more comfortable saying that I think this method will be helpful to most anyone even when the section includes a passage with high difficulty. And, what's probably more important on a test of a longer duration like this (where your subjective assessment of your performance on one section and bleed into your performance on a later section), is that it calms your nerves and improves your confidence.

(c) I’m not claiming to be a reading comp. expert. I have never taught the test, and there are plenty of people on this site and other sites who have and are great resources to talk to about improving in this section. Again, I’m only trying to say what worked for me in preparing for a specific test which (I’m guessing) didn’t have a reading comp section that was significantly easier than other exams.

So, with these comments out of the way, I'm going to give a modified version of something I wrote a while back which is how I studied for the RC in a short amount of time (@2 and a half weeks-3weeks).

(1) Go through the memory method in the 7sage course as well as some of the other videos associated with RC (you don't need to do them all, but knock yourself out if you want some directed explanations of actual passages or just to hear JY’s voice). Afterwards, learn a highlighting/marking strategy (or three) to work on along with the memory method when you drill passages. The one I used was an adapted version of...I think nicole hopkins' (am I getting that right?!?) which I think is very helpful to begin with and you can pare down if you feel more comfortable with reduced highlighting. There are others out there, and I believe that people do this "high/low" resolution strategy that you might want to look into. I tend to believe that seeing the structure of the passage comes with continuous practice but if you feel making this an explicit priority of yours early on, more power to you.

(2) Don't even do timed sections!--Set aside like 10 PTs just working on the memory method, your favorite highlighting strategies, or what have you. You can cut these up however you would like. you can start by doing 2 whole sections (perhaps not in one sitting) while practicing these techniques then move to 5 PTs where you just do the passages individually (BRing after each completed section) and move back to whole sections for the remaining. Or some other allotment. I would think though that doing individual passages would be preferable in the beginning.

Importantly, don't even do the thing where you keep track of your time without trying to complete the section under the alotted 35min.

Two reasons. First, you're going to rush yourself when you're clocking yourself--it's just a tendency. But at this stage, you do yourself a disservice--you just want to spend as much time you need to be comfortable with the passage and the question types--not to mention the memory method and highlighting strategies--without even thinking about time. And then you'll of course review and reflect and do this again for other sections/passages.

But, lest I forget, second reason. You are really in no position to do well on a timed section and, unless you have some natural talent with the RC (some do, many don't), your score will be negatively impacted and you don't need that negativity at this stage. You're trying to build up empirically supported confidence, not trying to kill yourself by letting yourself know how bad you are too early--often when it will be unhelpful and even detrimental to your improvement.

So much for support. Remember, at this stage don't worry about time.

(3) Once you have some basic understanding of the RC down and some accuracy, I would transition into just timing yourself (on individual passages and then whole sections) but not necessarily trying to complete the section in the allotted time. Review and repeat. Really, you want to really hone the strategies you've been practicing untimed and note both your accuracy and the time it usually takes. Later one you will work on shrinking your time while keeping your accuracy constant (even if you're still missing some questions); after you've successfully reduced your time while maintaining your accuracy, you will be able to use the extra time to attack those questions in the passages that you find most difficult (with the leftover time).

(4) These bouts of study should be done with nothing else on your plate as far as studying is concerned. You should have at least 3 hrs for 4days just to do RC passages at this stage. Actually, for me, all my studying was such that I worked on specific sections (and nothing else) on particular days. That might not be entirely helpful for some people--I know that focusing on one kind of thing can be annoying, boring, and the rest of it. But I also feel that your time is not divided at a crucial stage where you have some competence with the section, but you're trying to really give it a work over. Plus, you need to get to the point where you hit a passage and are able to do it and move one with completely new information, do it, and move on to another, and so on. You need to simulate that transition between passages with completely different topics and information even when you're not really trying to make time. This is the longest stage but I think that there are some real gains in accuracy and comfort to be made here.

(5) Once you're pretty decent with the RC sections as far as accuracy is concerned (I'm talking no worse than -4 usually), then do a couple of complete timed passages (in the allotted 35 minutes). Note your accuracy, how many you get right, how many you didn't get to, etc. I would say don't do more than 3-4 sections like this (to make sure that you still have ample test materials).

(6) Unless your percentages on the answers you get right drop way off (say, > an additional 3 wrong)--this does not count the ones you are not getting to in time---you can do this to improve your time. Print 5-10 individual sections, and do them--but timing for 30mins.

I've seen people say that the 7sage apt timing scroller is stupid...nah, homie--it's not. Pushing yourself through passages (after your have a fair degree of competence with the RC, of course), while knowing that you are really under the gun, helps with two things:

(A) You naturally develop strategies to process the passage more efficiently: you'll mark the passage more effectively and not too much, you'll really home in on certain aspects of every passage that every question set will hit upon, and so on. This really helps because you'll find yourself looking back a lot less at the passage and also looking back more efficiently as well.

(B) I don't know about y'all, but a lot of time I spent on RC came from reading the q-stems and also hovering between multiple answer choices. Doing sections when timing for 30mins eliminates that shit. You simply have to get good at scanning through the question stems in a couple of glances, comprehending what the question is asking, and barreling through the questions. Two answer choices look good--guess what? you don't have time to iny miny moe those mofos for 30-45 seconds—you still have two passages left. Your subconsicous will tell you to pick one and more the f' on. You'll be surprise how much quicker you make it through passages & questions this way after you do a few.

Of course, you want to review afterwards. If you drop off--well, you can use some more work on the substantive strategies you're employing. If you don't but still are getting a few of those questions where you thought that two (or more!) answer choices looked good, you'll want to look hard at these. Perhaps you just made a mistake or perhaps, there's some general lesson that can be taken away and employed subconsciously to RC sections in the future. For instance, it might be that both answers seem right, but one is more specific to the particular passage you're reading (in this case, choose the more specific). Or it might be that one answer choice makes a stronger claim than the other, both of which are somewhat connected to the material in the passage (in this case choose the weaker)

(7) Other, general things:

i. If you’re not exercising in the midst of your prep, get your life together please! This is   not an episode in fat shaming, a homage to “bro” mentality, or anything like that. Rather,  it is something that is very often overlooked as part of studying. You might think… “well, an hour and a half in the gym sounds good, but I don’t like the gym and also I could be studying during that time.” Fair enough. But then don’t complain so much about your stress levels, about not feeling alert and focused, and the like. While there is no silver bullet to issues that arise in LSAT studying, exercise can definitely help. And I didn’t even get into its relationship with (BDNF) and how that effects your performance on cognitive tasks, memory, and the like. I didn’t mention how it helps even further regularize your routine and provides structure to your study days. I didn’t mention how it improves your overall self-confidence in the form of consistency development, self-image improvement, and so forth. All you need to do is just try it for a few weeks within your study cycle and see how your overall well-being during your study time changes. 

ii. Drink plenty of water. More if you’re following (i) and/or are also using caffeine. 

iii. Do something else to relieve stress or increase your motivation. Many, for instance,   have taken up meditation to combat overall life stress, decrease the threat of test anxiety,    and increase focus. Great, great, and great. I myself didn’t meditate (though, I wish I had), but I did listen to a lot of things that motivated me along the way. For instance, probably the most significant of these was the recordings of the late great Greg Plitt. But there are plenty of other things that might motivate you: could be poetry, classical music, a documentary, or a movie. But whatever they are, collect these items and use them. They are especially helpful on the days where you feel down, demoralized, or just plain done   with the test. Whether you just took a PT and scored 7 points lower than your average or just can’t seem to “get” a particular type of logic game, these little motivational talismans you compile can help you take those negative feelings and transform them into positive energy (e.g., directed anger) you can use at your next study session. I highly recommend them. 

iv. General reading does help, although it can hurt as well. I would say that reading stuff     on the level of, say, the Atlantic or, if their politics don’t suit you, some other publication like the National Review can be helpful. Also, popular scientific magazines like Aeon.  I will say that you should probably be actively reading these at a heightened pace. The words “actively” and “heightened” are key. The “active” denotes your actually trying to     understand not only the main point of the article but the general structure in which it is written, as well as discern certain things about the viewpoints present in the article (including the authors). 

The “heightened” denotes your reading at a speed which is “urgent” (which most of the   time we don’t hit when doing normal reading) and that doesn’t involve much cycling back to re-read words and sentences. LSAT passages are decent enough, but they are not Wittgenstein, Baudelaire, or Saro-wiwa. They do not involve convoluted prose or especially deep reflections on the relationship between language and thought, the human   condition, or the harsh realities of post-colonial rule. It’s good that they don’t because you simply don’t have time to read them as if they did. SQR3 reading will not work for the LSAT; best not the practice it when reading material that is supposed to be auxiliary support to your RC studies. 

v. Start early on your entire studies and don’t study too much on any given sitting. Really,    I would say that you shouldn’t really study for longer than 3 and a half hours at a time without a break of at least 2-3 hrs between. And even those three and a half hour periods should be broken up by short breaks (of 2-7mins; 10min if you have to go to the bathroom). I say this, in part, because of psychological evidence surrounding the phenomenon of “chunking.”  I won’t try to explain it, but here is a great high level explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FvYJhpNvHY. Quit those 8-9hr, Adderall supported study sessions; you’ll be better for it. 
vi. Another reason to start early on your studies is so that you can develop very specific  plans at very specific points in your study schedule which constitute adjustments and/or    elaborations of your study general study schedule (which you might draw from the 7sage  study plan). Not only does it give you flexibility which is always good if your do a little extra work to provide structure and monitor your progress as you continue, it also allows you to try to implement incremental and laser focused (small) changes to your studying and techniques you are employing. The results, even in a rather short span of time, can be pretty remarkable; this is one of the reasons why I said before that you can pretty greatly improve your abilities in RC in as little as 3 weeks if you’re willing and able to concentrate on just RC on the days you study RC in that time. The other reason I say that this is    important is that by making marginal changes to a particular routine you have (which repeats itself in many, many choice points that you have throughout the day/week/month) you can see dramatic results. I won’t go too much into this, but here is a video which is provides some explanation of the thing I have in mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQMbvJNRpLE. Note that a lot of work in this regard is done “upfront” and on the management side of things—which does not involve studying per se. However, I think that study time goes a lot quicker with a little bit more conscientious work upfront. 

vii. If you can swing it, plan on two test dates for your cycle. This means planning on     testing in June/Sept, June/Dec, or Sept/Dec. This has all kinds of psychological benefits. One is the fact that you don’t see your first test as “make or break” and so think of your test day as a do or die situation. If you “botch” this one—whatever that means in your mind—you have another with some time in between to continue to improve. Also, I think that having the testing experience can be good for future tests; you just are more comfortable with being in a “high-stakes” situation if you have been in one before. Third, you provide yourself the opportunity to apply early if you get the score you want. If you wait to take until December then this might negatively impact your admissions changes and/or scholarship opportunities. If you have to take in December, then that’s ok. But at least give yourself a chance to benefit from the ability to apply before the December ppl can apply. 

Ok, I’m going to leave it there. There are some more specific things that I did to study for RC (e.g., approach to answering certain question types) and may add them in the future if anyone wants. However, the above constitutes a good deal of my approach to preparing for the RC section of the test (along with following the more general points described). Improving on this section is so important for anyone trying to score 175+: you just can’t afford to get -4 on this section (which, all things considered, is definitely not a bad score for this section). However, if you hit -2 or better, foolproof your LGs, then you have 3-4 questions you can get wrong spread between the two LRs (a section for which you can be really, really great at, but still hit questions occasionally which you answer incorrectly). In any case, this advice isn’t just for those trying to score really highly on the LSAT; I think it will be helpful to those who are just trying to improve wherever they are at with the test and whatever goals they have in mind. It is definitely not just for those looking for a spot in HYS; I wouldn’t post it if I—being something of an anti-elite—thought it was. 

Anyways, I’ll end this here. Good luck to all who are stumbling, struggling, and studying for the LSAT (I think that these may all come to the same thing). I really do hope this is helpful to at least someone out there who is “having it out” with RC. Many cheers—A.c.S

acsimon · October 2017

Why my post came up in this format, I have no idea...Does anyone?

FerdaFresh · October 2017

@acsimon, I made a note to wait for your answer on this thread after seeing your post-September LSAT post. Great stuff. Also, I recall you saying you hit well above your initial target score of 167+; I don't want to be presumptive, but -- based on your tone and insights -- I have a gut feeling that you're "Sage" material for this site

Congratulations and thank you for this!

p.s. I am definitely part of what I think is a large boat of people that is interested in those "specific things" you did (i.e. your approach to RC question types). It is by far my weakest section, and I see it being the bane preventing me from a 170. Cheers

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