Need LR Advice!

[LS20114ME]

Hey everyone,

I've been prepping for the december LSAT since mid-august and have improved from my initial diagnostic of 151 to consistently hitting mid-high 160's. My breakdown is usually as follows:

LG: -0 to -1
RC: -2 to -3
LR: -10 (anywhere from -3 to -7 wrong per section)

I am really frustrated by the fact that I am so close to breaking the 170 barrier (usually getting 2-3 questions right will do the trick) but I always end up falling short, primarily due to the LR sections. I have read the LR bible and done many practice tests and have noticed that my biggest issue is with timing. I have adopted the first 10 questions in 10 minute strategy and usually get those questions right. My mistakes come mainly from questions in the 11-22 range where there will be at least a couple of questions where I spend too much time on and then have to rush through the rest of the section. I've been tracking my questions but there doesn't seem to be a particular question type that I get wrong more than the others.

I would really appreciate any advice people have on improving my LR sections. I would very much like to break the 170 barrier for the december test but I my LR performance is really discouraging me . Is it even realistically possibly to jump from -10 to -5/6 in the three weeks remaining? It just feels like I have hit a plateau

Thank you in advance for your comments & best of luck to everyone in prepping for december!

[chrissyc]

I would recommend that you look at the LR sections and see if you are missing a certain question type and try to find a pattern in your errors. Read the explanations and make see if there's some sort of consistent errors in the questions that you miss.

[DrackedaryMaster]

I would recommend that you look at the LR sections and see if you are missing a certain question type and try to find a pattern in your errors. Read the explanations and make see if there's some sort of consistent errors in the questions that you miss.

+1. OP, that looks about where I was at on my PTs. If you look close enough, they'll probably be a few question types you get wrong more than others. Then it comes down to analyzing those and figuring out what went wrong. I can tell you from my own PT and real LSAT experience, that weaken questions were a pain in my a$$, especially when the answer involved an alternate cause. I got so paranoid with these, whenever I had a weaken question, I'd immediately look for an alternate cause answer choice, but many times fell into the trap of what looked like an alternate cause but didn't answer the question completely, or got lost because the correct response related to another weakening idea. Case in point was the Parking Space Q and Dinosaur Q on PT 61. I also had a bit of a tussle with Principle questions. The others, like PR or Qs that required diagramming was learning not to panic in time pressure.

[kkklick]

Everyone has a section that just kills them and drops them out of 170 contention. To be a 170+ test taker you have to be proficient at all 3 types. For LR, I assume you are missing the hard questions, the best thing to remember is that for the hard questions the answer will likely "look" like it is not the correct answer, but often it is the BEST answer, because the other AC's have little flaws here and there. In my opinion, on a really hard LR question, if the answer comes to you to quickly, or the answer seems to solid, it is often not the correct answer. Try eliminating the wrong choices before looking for the correct answer, works for me.

[tourdeforcex]

be not discouraged.

i do believe it is realistically possible to improve -10 to -6 in the next 3 weeks. even if it isn't, don't tell yourself that. and the best part about tackling LR is that the effort proves itself twice during the test b/c we have 2 LR / exam.

so timing is rough and it can be beat. try to expand from 10 q / 10 min to 15 q / 15 min. sometimes i can even push myself to 20 q / 20 min and that feels great. my main tactical suggestion is be comfortable skipping a question if you get held up. like you read the stimulus. and think *wtF?!?!* skip it--even if it's #8, keep going and finish the section, read it again and at least (for me) 50% of the time i'll just get it. A, obviously. on one of my recent PTs, i skipped 4 questions and thought "wow what a hard LR section," turns out i got only 1 wrong and it wasn't even one of those 4. true story, glad you enjoyed it haha

but my main advice is keep pushing. try not to be frustrated. you're clearly dedicated and you're driven. make it happen.

[birdlaw117]

Keep a log of the type of questions you are more likely to miss, then you can focus your studying. That's pretty much all I did 2 weeks prior to the October test and I ended up going -0/-0 on it (I was getting about -4/5 between the two prior). It can be done, and it can be done quickly. You just have to be efficient with your prep.

[LS20114ME]

Just want to say thanks everyone for their responses, TLS is awesome! I definitely will start further analyzing the questions I got wrong to see where my reasoning failed.

so timing is rough and it can be beat. try to expand from 10 q / 10 min to 15 q / 15 min. sometimes i can even push myself to 20 q / 20 min and that feels great. my main tactical suggestion is be comfortable skipping a question if you get held up. like you read the stimulus. and think *wtF?!?!* skip it

20 q / 20 min is an impressive feat! While I don't think my skills are quite there yet I am going to take your advice and try going for 15 q in 15 min. I usually never skip questions even if I read them and have no idea what I just read. Im going to try skipping those ones and coming back to them at the end to see if that helps out.

Keep a log of the type of questions you are more likely to miss, then you can focus your studying. That's pretty much all I did 2 weeks prior to the October test and I ended up going -0/-0 on it (I was getting about -4/5 between the two prior). It can be done, and it can be done quickly. You just have to be efficient with your prep.

THIS really raises my hopes. Love reading success stories like this on TLS, they really boost my confidence. Hopefully ill be able to add my own after december