2-3 week before lsat score jumps/increases!! Plus few tips Forum

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lawschoolmg

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2-3 week before lsat score jumps/increases!! Plus few tips

Post by lawschoolmg » Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:42 am

:P Hey guys,

Wanted to start a thread regarding lsat score increase in the last 2-3 weeks before exam.

Saw a few posters that had pretty decent jumps 2-3 weeks before exam.
Example “ Richard Rorty wrote:
i did it. I had a couple 162-3's, and a 165 I think. Two weeks and two days to go I got a 167 and then exploded to 174, and continued to score there. 173 on the real thing.”


For those that have increased more than 2-3 points , or even if 1 point, what were your last 2-3 weeks left study methods. Did you continue to study the same way as you’ve been studying? If you did anything different , what did you change or start doing ? Any specific plans?
Also what kind of score increase did you achieve ?
Anyone break through from anywhere in 160s to anywhere in 170s in that time period ?

Would really appreciate your responses !!


So for me, I have a tutor now and his plan for me is to focus on my strong suits and perfect those (LR) by constantly drilling the LR question types I’m seeing a pattern in getting wrong and then don’t move on from that type until I could “tutor” him and explain why the correct answers are correct and the wrong aren’t correct.

Then keep drilling LG ( kinda same method as for LR). As for time (which is a huge issue of mine) DON’T RUSH. Just keep practicing the games over and over and the deductions will start to become more clear to you and you’ll spot them faster and be able to work through the game faster naturally. When you rush you put pressure on yourself and can miss key deductions- which I can attest has seriously ruined games for me that would have went well if I just spotted that one deduction.
Also a trick he taught me that has been working well is, look for the least restrive entity in the answer choices for “could be true/could be false” questions, esp if you’re pressed for time. Then for “must be true/must be false” questions, look for the most restrictive entities , cause that are USUALLY (not always) the ones the questions will be most focused on. Try and make as many deductions as you can in the beginning before going to the questions. At first I thought this would waste time but it’s helped me TREMENDOUSLY. Some questions I could answer in literally seconds just from a deduction made in my main game board in the beginning that made it possible for me to see the answer right away.

Now RC, this is my ok section. I say this because untimed I don’t perform badly. Around -4 or -5 (although my goal is -2/-3) but timed I’m getting around -8 or even -12 because I barely get around to the last passage and if I do I only have time to answer the 1st or maybe 2nd question if I’m lucky :cry: . I think the best I did timed was -6 or -7 and not sure how lol.
He said this would be the most diff to increase a lot in in the next two weeks but keep practicing and work on not reading the passage fast but reading the passage in a way in which you grasp the idea of what is being written properly.
Also read in a way that you are paying attention to how it’s structured and make sure you can clearly identify the conclusion. For main point questions that’s what you look for. And for the summary questions you look for the answer that the majority of the passage speaks about, usually a topic that 2 or 3 of the pharagraphs all speak about.

Are any of these tips helpful to any of you?
I have some more but not sure if people would actually even care to read them lol.

However, if anyone has any other tips please share !


So to get back to the original topic, if anyone can answer that has
1) Taken the lsat already and had a jump in score within the last 2-3 weeks before test.
2) Also anyone that has seen jumps in 2-3 weeks in score.

Please share and also say what scores you went from and what you did to get there !


Best of luck to everyone, keep pushing !!

Blueprint LSAT
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Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:43 pm

Re: 2-3 week before lsat score jumps/increases!! Plus few tips

Post by Blueprint LSAT » Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:05 pm

I'd say that the best way to improve in the last 2-3 weeks will depend a lot on how much/what kind of studying you have been doing to that point.

It sounds like you had a great tutor. Those are some good tips. In general, in the last few weeks I work with my students on finding as much "low hanging fruit" as possible. You already covered drilling the question types that are eluding you, exposing yourself to lots of games and reading for structure/point of view so I'll add a few others.

Specifically, related to timing, 2-3 weeks out is a great time to assess where your are spending your time on each section.

In LR: Do you have a specific plan for where you are spending your time? This may sound obvious, but a lot of people aren't as methodical about it as they should be. How much to trust your gut in which parts of the section is actually a pretty personal thing. I have some of my smartest students talking themselves out of the right answer on the first half of the section and missing questions they shouldn't because of it. The LSAT is designed to trick smart people, but sometimes you just get it. If you are the sort of person who is hovering in the mid-160s and often find yourself picking the wrong LR answer because it seemed "too easy" maybe you should try experimenting with trusting your gut more on the earlier questions. You can always go back to hardcore paranoia if it doesn't work. :D

RC is tougher and a bit more personal but you should think about where you are spending your time. If you are taking a long time to read the passage because it just seems so complicated you have to find ways to save time.You can't skim RC sections in the way you skimmed reading in undergrad, but that doesn't mean you have to focus hard on every word. Once you start to break things down in to "evidence" and "conclusions" you can start to skim some details because you know what point they are there to support.

Games are all about organization and exposure. Once you understand the basics you just need to get more adaptable. The deductions won't come easy at first but if you have a solid idea of how to set things up you will get better with practice. Just like in LR you can spot check issues you are still struggling with and focus your time on practicing that. Also, remember that future you can't be trusted. Your notes have to be very clear and the same every time or you five minutes from now may misunderstand them and get a game wrong.

I could say more but this is getting long. Hopefully others will add their own. Good Luck!

Andrew McDonald, Blueprint LSAT Instructor

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