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Diagnostic 142; BR 148. PT36 after CC a 146; BR 148.
sbc.mom_3x
Alum Member
Decent improvement? Is there hope? Or is this too terrible for any hope? Ha. Wasn't much of a jump. Although I am glad it went up rather than down. I don't think I BR as well as I could/should. I find myself not knowing an answer and I say to myself fuck it I just don't know if it's right so move along. Finally got that PT following the CC out of the way. Now onto drills & FP!
Comments
There is certainly hope. If you don't mind me asking, how did you do on the games from PT 36? It contains in my estimation the single hardest game of all time.
That was as big as my first improvement! I went on to improve 20 points from my diag. Of course there is hope
Your main goal right now is to take everything you have learned, get really good at doing it, and doing it in short periods of time. This is where the dedication part comes in.
You have this huge toolbox of strategies and tips, now you have to organize the box so that when you reach in to use one of your tools, you grab the right one without having to search.
This will take time but it is completely doable! Picture BR as organizing your toolbox. You need to figure out how and when to apply negation, when to rely on conditional logic, when to skip a question, etc. etc.
You will see slow progress from here on out as you get better!!
I was -13 on the games. Which is slightly an improvement for me. Prior PTs w/no CC I had gotten. Do you happen to be referring to the game that includes people sitting on a bus in window or aisle seats, in rows 1,2,3?
Thank you!!!!
@"sbc.mom_3x" yes, that is an absurdly difficult game. A -13 on that section is not terrible considering this was your first post CC exam, the bus game appeared, plus you probably don't have a refined skipping strategy for games just yet. What I would like to see personally from your next PT is +4-5 on that section's score. A -8 on the next exam's LG section would be in my estimation a really substantial improvement.
Thanks for the insight. Oddly, I had a unique game board that I thought worked well and I felt confident in the answers, but I missed each question on that game! Talk about over-confidence. I felt so comfortable with it.
I also did better on RC, which I believe was due to the fact that I was genuinely interested in the readings. I only got about 9 right on the first LR section, and then 15 or 16 right in the second LR.
Yes. There is always hope!
At this point, however, you should avoid score chasing and just focus on getting better. In that sense, your BR score should be more or less what you're aiming to push as high as you can. If you can do that, your timed score will follow.
It seems like you completely rushed the most important process of the test; doing a thorough BR. Judging from your comments, it seems like it took you ~2.5 hours to BR PT 36 in its entirety. Considering this is your first PT, it should probably take you closer to 2.5 days to do a proper job to BR. If I were you, I would go back and try to do a better job BR'ing. There's really no better way to improve. Really try your best to understand each question you circled and understand to the best of your ability why you missed it. Start keeping an LSAT journey/spreadsheet where you write down explanations of questions that gave you difficulty. Then I think it's worth it to watch JY's explanations for PT 36 before moving on. Going to do drills and FP'ing before you've gone and done a good job BR'ing is putting the cart in front of the horse. Maybe you won't be able to get a ton more answers right on BR, but studying the test untimed has more value than just a BR score. It can help you to see patterns, how the test makers structure questions, and exactly where in the problem solving process you get lost on certain questions.
There's a lot of juice to squeeze out of a PT... Embrace your weaknesses at this point, return to the CC a bunch, and drill those weaknesses. The more you can find and address now, the better you'll do on your next PT!
Good luck
@"Alex Divine" i totally did not BR appropriately. Maybe I should've taken more time between the timed PT then BRing. I perhaps felt rushed. For no reason, however. Other than eagerness to finish it. I will be mindful to take more time BRing. With that, do you think I should BR PT 36 a second time, but more thoroughly?
Happens to us all... I just completely removed emotion---to the best of my ability---from my PT scores. To me, it's all about learning and improving. The best gauge for this is your BR score. It tells you where your current theoretical ceiling is for the test. So always work to raise that higher!
Yes, if I were you I would go back and re-BR PT 36. I know it sucks and you just want to move on and get better, but I am telling you that this is one of the most important parts of improvement. You'll not only be able to re-examine your thinking and strategies, but little by little you will start to notice patterns in the test. These are things we completely miss when under timed pressure. When I started noticing these patterns and how to effectively deal with them (untimed) it translated to my timed score increasing...a lot... At the beginning stages of your prep, there is still a lot you don't know and that's ok. Like I said, part of your BR will be to give you specific data on where you need to improve. It's not that helpful to know you suck at LR assumption family questions. It is helpful to know that you get lost because you can't always see the gap in the reasoning. The more specific you can make your review and drilling, the more efficient and effective you will be with your prep!
My advice would be to not pay attention to your score at this point. Focus on total number of questions answered correctly v. total number of questions.
A 142 to a 146 is somewhere around a 9-10 percentile point jump.
Agree with everything that's been said. I would also suggest maybe warming up before the test? The first LR section being significantly lower than the second might just mean you're warmed up enough - same thing happened to me.
A 6 point jump post-cc is great! I think I only improved like 1-2 points on me... basically the same score.
But yes, as the others said, the BR is the most important process of this whole thing. It's not just glancing over your work but really wrestling with each question. Fight through each one until you really figure out what the answer is. Or, if you do end up caving because you really can't get it, watch the video explanation. Do this for literally each question! And re-do each game slowly and thoughtfully. BR is really where I think you make the most improvement in this whole process. Drilling and foolproofing are a close 2nd, but BR is very very key. It feels completely arduous, and it is. But no pain, no gain! Haha.
Absolutely there is hope. I improved +13 from my diagnostic and am not done yet. Starting in the 140s means there's even more room for improvement. Once you really get fundamentals down, you'll be into the 150s. And from there, it's just finessing and refining as you increase point by point. As you improve, BR will also take less time, so that's something to keep in mind too.
You got this!
I will be re-BRing 36. I'll take my time on it for sure, before I hit the drills
Thank you all for the advice. Stay tuned for an updated, hopefully improved, BR score of pt 36.
Guys, I think I may have ruined any chance of further BRing PT36 because I am halfway through the first LR section and I know the answers because I remember the letter choice that was correct when I scored it earlier. Perhaps it won't be this way for the LG section, but should I take PT 37 and do a true, extensive and thorough BR?
No way! There's still plenty to get out of a test even if you remember the correct answers.
Even if you know the answers you can still work through the questions and examine your thought process. See if you can find reasons to eliminate the 4 wrong answers choices and find a reason why the credited response is correct. Practice diagramming out any lawgic on the test too, that's always a helpful exercise while doing cookie cutter review.
Before taking 37, you're going to want to return to the CC to review + drill. It also is a good idea to at least begin fool proofing games since you missed quite a few on 36. You want to go into PT 37 knowing you've done everything you can to improve! I bet if you work hard you have what it takes to hit the 150s on your next PT
Awesome, thanks! I see the answer and remember (for example) oh yeah it was B and I chose C, etc. So I can examine why it was this and not that.
Exactly! Also try to write out your own explanations. You may not be the best at doing them right now, but as you get better they'll get easier.