How do you know when you've maxed out? Forum

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p89sean16

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How do you know when you've maxed out?

Post by p89sean16 » Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:23 pm

I post this pondering whether to take the LSAT a 3rd time. I went from 159 in December to 166 in February and feel like I have peaked. I have studied for about 8 months and consistently PT from 164-169, so scoring within the range and not several steps below on the actual retake made me happy. My question is simple: Based on your experiences with this test, when have you maxed out? I feel like I would pretty much have to take a perfect test to improve, given my ability level here. I am prepared to go in next cycle with the 166/3.75, but a 168 is that much shinier.

Any thoughts would be great. Thanks.

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RhymesLikeDimes

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Re: How do you know when you've maxed out?

Post by RhymesLikeDimes » Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:15 pm

Are you struggling with any particular section? There is probably a point where, realistically, your RC just is what it is. Unless you're -0 or -1 on every LG section, you can always improve there. LR is going to depend on what your weaknesses are.

bp shinners

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Re: How do you know when you've maxed out?

Post by bp shinners » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:05 pm

RhymesLikeDimes wrote:Are you struggling with any particular section? There is probably a point where, realistically, your RC just is what it is. Unless you're -0 or -1 on every LG section, you can always improve there. LR is going to depend on what your weaknesses are.
This. It depends on where you're losing points. Most people have a hard limit on RC (even top scorers lose 1-2 points on there regularly), LG can always be improved until you're -0, and LR depends on the amount of time/effort you want to put into it (though I do believe people have an almost-hard limit on their LR scores, meaning that the amount of time and effort it would take to reliably improve is just not worth it).

p89sean16

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Re: How do you know when you've maxed out?

Post by p89sean16 » Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:23 pm

It's not really one section. I'm at -0/-1 for LG, consistently -7/-8 total for LR and have been there for months, not sure I can really get that much better, and RC can be anywhere from -5 to -9 depending on the content. I'm pretty consistent, which is good, but my range is limited and I know I won't be a 17x test taker. I hate the idea of leaving points on the table but I'd feel like a real clown if I went down. Oh well, hopefully my 166/3.75 will carry me.

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Richie Tenenbaum

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Re: How do you know when you've maxed out?

Post by Richie Tenenbaum » Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:57 pm

How much particularized studying have you done on LR? How accurate on LR can you be without time constraints?

Two possible suggestions:
1) Do some LR sections with a longer time limit. Can you get down to between 0 and -2 per section with ~45 minutes per section? If so, start working backwards and slowly make jumps to the 35 minute time limit.

2) Do work on LR by question type. What question types are you missing most? Work hard to understand what's going wrong and why you are getting tripped up by these types of questions.

General LR advice: Really take to heart the idea that there is a fatal flaw with 4 of the answer choices. Focus on doing this when reviewing questions you missed AND the questions you guessed on / weren't sure about.

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