Illusive 170 Forum

[MrBain_]

I just got home from the library after taking PT60 and I feel like a need to vent a little.

I’ve realized that the lsat curve has been strategically designed so that I can score no higher than 167. About a month ago I started taking full PTs and would normally score -0 on LGs, -6/7 on LR, but RC was awful sometimes -10+. Any time I would get my RC down a little I would fudge up one of the games and fail to reach my ultimate goal of 170. I began working on making sure to be more of an active reader will going though the RC passages and recently have gotten my RC down to about -4/5. But for some reason while becoming better at the RC section I seemed to forget how to do the LR section and I began to miss about 10 combined on LR and I could not get above a damn 167. On the last PT I took 59, I went -4 on RC but bombed the LR again, and I promised myself that I would buckle down and stopped making stupid mistakes on the LR and I would get my score up to 170. My recent PT scores were 166,167,165,165,167, but I convinced myself that my LR mistakes were over and PT60, with a generous -12 curve, was going to be the test that broke me through into the 170s.

About 8 hours ago I was in the library experiencing what I like to refer to as “superfast mode” were LG inferences and LR answers seem to jump off the page at you and I was feeling really good going into the last section (RC). I normally skip the passage with the fewest number of Qs in case I get short on time I won’t have to guess on a passage with 7 or 8 Qs. This particular test decided for the second section to have 5 Qs on it, but section 2 also was the comparative reading passage (which just so happens to be my favorite of all the RC passages). When I got to the 2nd passage I said to myself “I don’t need to skip the CR passage cause its my best passage…but it only has 5Qs, so if your running outa time you need for this passage to be last…. but CR is my fav…. 5Qs!!! (that thought process lasted about 0.5 seconds) so I skipped the 2nd passage and went on to the 3rd which took me 4ever to finish and I had to race through the 4th leaving me with just a few minutes for the CR passage. I decided to quickly skim A and answer Qs that were A specific and try to make educated guesses on the rest of them. That wasn’t that bad of an idea right?

Ok now to grade this thing, -12 curve, I’m sure I didn’t miss too many on that last section I’ve got this 170 in the bag!!

Section 1 LR: -1, see I knew I didn’t forget how to logically reason.
Section 2 LG: -2, that’s ok, I did get hung up on that one game. I’ve still got this
Section 3 LR: -2, -3 total on the LR, I knew I was over those silly LR mistakes.

Through the first 3 sections I’m -5 and with a -12 curve I’ve got 7Qs to spare.

Section 4 RC: -11, you’ve got to be fn kiddin me right? I haven’t missed that many Qs on a RC section in like 10 test! The 4th passage that I hurried through I ended up going 2/7 and the CR passage 0/5 with one straggler in the middle somewhere. If I had listened to “primitive immediate gratification me” and answered the Qs in order I could have easily went 5/5 on the CR passage (it was a fairly straight-forward passage) and if I completely guessed on the final section picking all Ds I would have went 1/7. My total Qs missed for RC would’ve been, yea you guessed it, -7, for grand total of, wait for it…….-12 overall and a glorious, but oh so illusive, 170! So for practice test #60 I ended up going -16 for an agonizing 167, again.

What I’m getting at with all the above ranting is: how many people do you guys/gals know that were PTing in the upper 160s and ended up scoring 170 on the real thing? I feel like I have the skills for a 170, I simply can’t seem to put them all together in a single test. I can score 170 on test day, I just need a perfect storm of all my LG, LR, and RC abilities, but then again, even if this happens, the curve will end up being an epic -7. So if I was you I would be rooting for me to bomb a game or two on Monday and give you guys a decent curve.

[incompetentia]

Focus and concentration.

As somebody who scored +6 from their PT average, there can be up to a 10-12 question swing just based on how dialed in you happen to be.
However, I may note that if you're already doing well in this category in your tests (missing the same question types consistently, minimizing mistakes already), you're probably near your ceiling without having a little bit of luck on test day.


If you're consistently scoring like that on RC, though, you have other underlying issues that you need to work intelligently on fixing.

[lakers3peat]

lol some of the test is just luck sometimes. the same thing happens to me alllllllllllll the time. you decide to skip a passage or do a particular passage to end up finding out the one you skip is easy and the one you choose to do is really hard then you get screwed in the bigger picture of things. you cant look back at things in retrospect though that will just make u depressed. just trust that you might get a little lucky on test day, and the "hard section" is something you are best at(say logic games) and the easiest section is something u suck at (say reading comp).


anyways, 167 to 170 isnt the end of the world. go from 167 to 160 and i'll feel for ya .

imo, the diff b/w 167-170 can be luck based but the 160-167 diff means you don't have a full grasp on the material. you clearly get whats going on, just hope ur test day nerves are better than ur PT nerves lolz

[MrBain_]

I work this weekend so i'll probably only take 1 more PT, do a couple of RC sections and hope it all comes together Monday. Typically i've been a good test taker so hopefully my adrenaline will give a little 170ish boost. That plus ill eat an extra good luck banana Monday morning.

[FantasticMrFox]

I work this weekend so i'll probably only take 1 more PT, do a couple of RC sections and hope it all comes together Monday. Typically i've been a good test taker so hopefully my adrenaline will give a little 170ish boost. That plus ill eat an extra good luck banana Monday morning.

Good luck! I've always had the idea of "practice makes perfect" so if you could, you should take more than one more PT before Monday.

Eh, I guess that 170 is elusive as well

[DaftAndDirect]

5 hour energy on test day - half at the start and the other half after the break. I swear it did the trick. Try it with a PT.

[FantasticMrFox]

5 hour energy on test day - half at the start and the other half after the break. I swear it did the trick. Try it with a PT.

those taste awful...may i suggest NoDoz, caffeine pills in lieu of those drinks that rarely works (for me)

[Kabuo]

The first 170 can be elusive, but you just have to not psych yourself out during the test or expect something to go wrong because other things went right. Once you've put in the time and mastered or at least become comfotable with the material, the test becomes almost entirely confidence based. Stop thinking about your score while you're taking the test if you can. Try to forget about the section you just did as soon as you're done with it.

When I took the test in Feb, I pretty much had to score above a 175. I felt like I missed between 4-7 on the RC, which was my first section, and wanted to give up. I powered through it though, and gave the rest of the test my best effot and was rewarded with a 176. The same thing had happened to me on so many PTs that it was just second nature to ignore what I thought was a test-ruining section because I knew it frequently wasn't as bad as I thought it was in the moment, and that if I let it distract me, it almost certainly would ruin the other sections and become as bad as I had feared to begin with.

Just stop worrying about it and be confident that you know the material. I think you'll be amazed at how often "super fast" mode comes to you when you approach the test this way.

[Curry]

Do not start taking caffeine supplements or anything of the like now. Its far too close to test day to fuck with your body.

[yngblkgifted]

Do not start taking caffeine supplements or anything of the like now. Its far too close to test day to fuck with your body.

+1

[coldshoulder]

There is really not very much luck involved in this test. Between a 177 and a 180 maybe, but not for breaking a 170. You need to develop a strategy for RC that is consistent. You also really, really need to read faster. I try to take about 7 minutes per passage, and if I'm over ten something has gone really wrong.

[Rooney]

5 hour energy on test day - half at the start and the other half after the break. I swear it did the trick. Try it with a PT.

those taste awful...may i suggest NoDoz, caffeine pills in lieu of those drinks that rarely works (for me)

5hr energy is all about the Vitamins B6/B12, way more effective for me than caffeine

[DaftAndDirect]

For those of us picking on OP's word choice, I'd argue that a 170 can be illusive as well:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/illusive

The grammar/word police here should calm down a tad.

That said, I also agree that taking a caffeine supplement or energy drink when you've never done it before is risky. The first time I took a 5-hr energy for an LSAT related activity was actually on the day of my second test. I had, however, used it for work in the past and had experienced increased focus/ stamina while working on very detail oriented and analytical tasks as a result.

Give it a go on a PT and see if you like it. If not, then no harm done. It's not like you'll be suffering withdrawal symptoms after one rodeo with the little red bottle.

Cocaine on the other hand is probably inadvisable... as well as one hell of a drug.

[ArtVandalay]

For those of us picking on OP's word choice, I'd argue that a 170 can be illusive as well:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/illusive

The grammar/word police here should calm down a tad.

That said, I also agree that taking a caffeine supplement or energy drink when you've never done it before is risky. The first time I took a 5-hr energy for an LSAT related activity was actually on the day of my second test. I had, however, used it for work in the past and had experienced increased focus/ stamina while working on very detail oriented and analytical tasks as a result.

Give it a go on a PT and see if you like it. If not, then no harm done. It's not like you'll be suffering withdrawal symptoms after one rodeo with the little red bottle.

Cocaine on the other hand is probably inadvisable... as well as one hell of a drug.

Charlie Murphay!

[Kabuo]

For those of us picking on OP's word choice, I'd argue that a 170 can be illusive as well:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/illusive

The grammar/word police here should calm down a tad.

That said, I also agree that taking a caffeine supplement or energy drink when you've never done it before is risky. The first time I took a 5-hr energy for an LSAT related activity was actually on the day of my second test. I had, however, used it for work in the past and had experienced increased focus/ stamina while working on very detail oriented and analytical tasks as a result.

Give it a go on a PT and see if you like it. If not, then no harm done. It's not like you'll be suffering withdrawal symptoms after one rodeo with the little red bottle.

Cocaine on the other hand is probably inadvisable... as well as one hell of a drug.

I like how one of the first things your link says is that it's sometimes used mistakenly in place of "elusive." And I'd argue that elusive makes more sense for his post. I'm only one of two who even pointed it out, other poster just typed it normally, and I did so just by bolding it when I typed it. And I then followed it with what I hoped was on topic advice for OP. If you think I need to calm down, I can't wait til you see one of the many threads where the first response would have been something like "With spelling like that, for you a 170 probably is illusive."

[DaftAndDirect]

Fair enough...I've been stalking this forum long enough to know that people can be much more harsh and that your comment's pretty benign in comparison. I just can't stand when people get on their high horses to punish people about spelling and grammar on a forum where "lolwut" is accepted as part of the vernacular - and I'm sometimes compelled to stand up for those on the receiving end of that punishment.

Anyway, illusive or elusive as that 170 may be...Lemon Lime 5 hr energy FTW.

Mr. Fox you really don't like the way it tastes? It's like a freakin liquified BlowPop!

[crumpetsandtea]

There is really not very much luck involved in this test. Between a 177 and a 180 maybe, but not for breaking a 170. You need to develop a strategy for RC that is consistent. You also really, really need to read faster. I try to take about 7 minutes per passage, and if I'm over ten something has gone really wrong.

+1 to this. It really isn't about luck...but you haven't necessarily hit your score cap either. My first time studying, I sort of bs-ed the prep and PT-averaged in the high 60s (I think I only got a 173 like once, maybe a 170 another time), and ended up getting in the high 160s. This time around, with better prep, I am consistently scoring above the 170s. It's not about 'luck,' it's just about preparation and learning the tricks/what answers the LSAT looks for/prefers.

It's kinda late for this now, but if RC is what's bugging you, the Manhattan RC Guide helped me. You might want to check that out.

Also, fwiw, the LSAT is not curved the way you think it is. The curve has been fixed by the time we get to the test, if I'm not mistaken...you doing worse isn't going to change anyone else's score. So we're all rooting for you (:

[incompetentia]

There are things outside the test itself that aren't attributable to luck.


Focus and concentration! Know under what circumstances you focus, and know how to replicate those circumstances, and you're well ahead of the game.

[Nulli Secundus]

There is really not very much luck involved in this test. Between a 176 and a 180 maybe, but not for breaking a 170. You need to develop a strategy for RC that is consistent. You also really, really need to read faster. I try to take about 7 minutes per passage, and if I'm over ten something has gone really wrong.

+1 to this as well, except the bolded change. *cough* *cough*

Nah seriously, first step on the way to beating RC is to stop assuming you can recover the time you lost during an earlier passage on the later ones. It usually doesn't work that way and when you understand it won't, it only causes unnecessary panic. What you need to do is this: Seeing there is 35 / 4 = 8 minutes and 45 seconds per passage, you shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 minutes reading the passage and underlining names of people and ideas being introduced or examples being given. (While Mr. Jonesy said, Though observations showed a different result, One of these symptoms is etc, so on so forth).

When you get to the questions, rely mainly on what you remember, treat the parts you underlined like links on your computer, if a given question refers to something you underlined, go back and check that part real quick etc.

Hth.

[heretostay88]

if you can't break 170 you should seriously reconsider law school.

the legal profession is an extremely adversarial profession and if you aren't intelligent you will be destroyed. unless of course you look forward to dui cases

[Nulli Secundus]

if you can't break 170 you should seriously reconsider law school.

the legal profession is an extremely adversarial profession and if you aren't intelligent you will be destroyed. unless of course you look forward to dui cases

This idea is very fresh and you are not a troll. Also these are not the droids I am looking for.

[crumpetsandtea]

if you can't break 170 you should seriously reconsider law school.

the legal profession is an extremely adversarial profession and if you aren't intelligent you will be destroyed. unless of course you look forward to dui cases

lame troll is lame.

[FantasticMrFox]

Fair enough...I've been stalking this forum long enough to know that people can be much more harsh and that your comment's pretty benign in comparison. I just can't stand when people get on their high horses to punish people about spelling and grammar on a forum where "lolwut" is accepted as part of the vernacular - and I'm sometimes compelled to stand up for those on the receiving end of that punishment.

Anyway, illusive or elusive as that 170 may be...Lemon Lime 5 hr energy FTW.

Mr. Fox you really don't like the way it tastes? It's like a freakin liquified BlowPop!

It sort of burns my tongue too and it's too sour blehh

And I actually agree about illusive vs elusive; they both apply here hence my first post in which i make the point it can be elusive as well.

But some people get heart palpitations or weird symptoms when taking supplements so as someone above said, if you had never taken them before, don't start now. (but later, when you are in law school )

[incompetentia]

Caffeine is unhealthy, bros

[heretostay88]

keep reassuring yourselves that it will work out for you if you want to work in the highest parts of this profession a >170 will not suffice.