Post
by Comstock » Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:37 pm
Hey guys,
PT 56:
LG 19/23 (-4)
LR 1 22/25 (-3)
LR 2 21/25 (-4)
RC 23/27 (-4)
Score: 167
Upon blind review:
LG 23/24 (-0)
LR 1 24/25 (-1)
LR 2 24/25 (-1)
RC 25/27 (-2)
Score: 178
So I made a bunch of dumb mistakes in LG which cost me, but I'm learning from it and working to improve on it so as to avoid in the future. I still think I can get LG down to a consistent good score and that I have room to improve and work on it, so that's a good sign. However, I'm starting to feel like LR and RC are approaching my 'natural' ability in a way, and I'm stuck on how to consistently improve it. When I go over LG with mistakes, I quickly see what the issue is and can identify ways to make this go better for next time, whether it be in my game-set up, timing on other games, etc. In other words, I feel like I have concrete approaches to get better and more consistent.
On the other hand, when I go over LR and RC, I can identify the question I'm getting wrong quickly (as done in the BR) and easily get the right answer down for 97%-99% of the questions I do in LR/RC. But, there are absolutely 0 trends I see (even LSAT QA is all over the place) with certain question types I'm getting wrong - they are almost all just stupid mistakes. I've also had success in these sections before, so its not like I'm incapable of doing well on them, it just seems that there is a lot of luck in whether I make a dumb mistake or not.
I've gone perfect on a PT at some point in all of LR, RC and LG, as well as numerous times of -1/-2, etc. It seems when at least a few of the sections align well (as in, I don't make/ I catch a bunch of dumb mistakes in more than one section or two) I'm able to break 170. To be honest, I'm happy with a 167 and my original goal was anything 165+ so I'm very happy with my score range at the moment, but its frustrating seeing how many mistakes I'm making simply because I miss a key word or read something wrong, which upon review I identify in 30-45 seconds. It would almost be less frustrating if I got a 167 and had to look up in textbooks/online why what I did was wrong - then at least I would know I'm performing to my abilities.
So at this point I'm wondering if anyone has any tips/tricks or strategies for improvement who has experienced similar things. My strategy right now is to continue doing PTs consistently, while also writing out why I got a question type wrong after each PT. So for example I have a page where I write down where my thought process went wrong for each LR and RC question I got wrong, and I re-read it a few times before my next PT to try and internalize where I'm getting trapped so as to make conscious moves to avoid them in the future. Hopefully this helps, but any other pro tips? I really don't think Cambridge packets or anything like that is useful for me anymore - again, I have the fundamentals, just need to put it all together consistently in a PT.
Then again, I may also just be at the point of diminishing returns where I'm going to have to work a lot to see my average scores go up consistently and/or I may just be at getting close to a natural peak where my average is around 168~ and on "good days" I can break 170. I guess only time will tell! Hope everyone else is doing well and thanks for any advice in advance.