The 160s Club! Join all ye 170 hopefuls! Forum

[brose002]

I feel like a just took a step back today. I took the September 07' test and scored a 166 with a 85 raw score. The sections went like this
LG(Exp.)=-2
LG=-1
LR1=-3
RC=-8
LR2=-2

It feels so bad because I wasted some really good scores by doing absolutely horrible on reading comp. I feel like my RC scores have been getting consistently worse as time goes on. One of my main problems has been getting the main idea questions right. 3 of my 8 wrong answers were main idea questions. Im not sure if this is some fundamental problem that I have, or if Im simply doing too much RC( Ive been taking roughly 5 tests a week for the last month). Does anyone have any insight on how to fix this problem? Would anyone recommend that I take a break from doing actual Practice Tests and focus on doing solely RC sections for a while? Any opinions would help, because I am really baffled at this. I was consistently scoring between -3 to -5, but it has gradually declined. This is also the worst I have done on RC since my first diagnostic, so I am very worried.

[02082010]

Did LR get significantly harder btw PTs 43-53?

During the last few weeks of my prep I have honed my LR skills so I was missing 1-2 questions per section or 2-3 if doing a PT. Anyway, I took PT 43 on Monday and got a 176 with -3 on LR. Today I take PT 53 and got -9 on LR and a 167 If I would have been at my normal -3 it would have been a 174 but I am very worried. I'll be going over it tmw very thoroughly.

[JJDancer]

I feel like a just took a step back today. I took the September 07' test and scored a 166 with a 85 raw score. The sections went like this
LG(Exp.)=-2
LG=-1
LR1=-3
RC=-8
LR2=-2

It feels so bad because I wasted some really good scores by doing absolutely horrible on reading comp. I feel like my RC scores have been getting consistently worse as time goes on. One of my main problems has been getting the main idea questions right. 3 of my 8 wrong answers were main idea questions. Im not sure if this is some fundamental problem that I have, or if Im simply doing too much RC( Ive been taking roughly 5 tests a week for the last month). Does anyone have any insight on how to fix this problem? Would anyone recommend that I take a break from doing actual Practice Tests and focus on doing solely RC sections for a while? Any opinions would help, because I am really baffled at this. I was consistently scoring between -3 to -5, but it has gradually declined. This is also the worst I have done on RC since my first diagnostic, so I am very worried.

It could definitely be burnout!
Take a day off from ALL LSAT.
Then the next day review all of the RCs you missed this week.
And do 3 RC passages a day for 3 days.
Also everyone has bad days and it may just be that you are tired.

[missvik218]

I feel like a just took a step back today. I took the September 07' test and scored a 166 with a 85 raw score. The sections went like this
LG(Exp.)=-2
LG=-1
LR1=-3
RC=-8
LR2=-2

It feels so bad because I wasted some really good scores by doing absolutely horrible on reading comp. I feel like my RC scores have been getting consistently worse as time goes on. One of my main problems has been getting the main idea questions right. 3 of my 8 wrong answers were main idea questions. Im not sure if this is some fundamental problem that I have, or if Im simply doing too much RC( Ive been taking roughly 5 tests a week for the last month). Does anyone have any insight on how to fix this problem? Would anyone recommend that I take a break from doing actual Practice Tests and focus on doing solely RC sections for a while? Any opinions would help, because I am really baffled at this. I was consistently scoring between -3 to -5, but it has gradually declined. This is also the worst I have done on RC since my first diagnostic, so I am very worried.

It could definitely be burnout!
Take a day off from ALL LSAT.
Then the next day review all of the RCs you missed this week.
And do 3 RC passages a day for 3 days.
Also everyone has bad days and it may just be that you are tired.

+1 RC blows! Jk ... I think JJ's advice here is good, give it a break and come back at it fresh. Judging by the rest of your scores it's not that you can't do it, you must just have some sort of block. What strategy are you using for RC?

[JJDancer]

I feel like a just took a step back today. I took the September 07' test and scored a 166 with a 85 raw score. The sections went like this
LG(Exp.)=-2
LG=-1
LR1=-3
RC=-8
LR2=-2

It feels so bad because I wasted some really good scores by doing absolutely horrible on reading comp. I feel like my RC scores have been getting consistently worse as time goes on. One of my main problems has been getting the main idea questions right. 3 of my 8 wrong answers were main idea questions. Im not sure if this is some fundamental problem that I have, or if Im simply doing too much RC( Ive been taking roughly 5 tests a week for the last month). Does anyone have any insight on how to fix this problem? Would anyone recommend that I take a break from doing actual Practice Tests and focus on doing solely RC sections for a while? Any opinions would help, because I am really baffled at this. I was consistently scoring between -3 to -5, but it has gradually declined. This is also the worst I have done on RC since my first diagnostic, so I am very worried.

It could definitely be burnout!
Take a day off from ALL LSAT.
Then the next day review all of the RCs you missed this week.
And do 3 RC passages a day for 3 days.
Also everyone has bad days and it may just be that you are tired.

+... Do a couple of UNTIMED or 40 min sections and make sure you get every question right and def the main point.
Upon reading the passage or while reading it - note the main pt. Then scan the questions to see if there are any main pt ones (usually the first 2 or last 2 qs for the passage).

[brose002]

Thanks for the advice guys. MissVick, My strategy for RC is to read the passage once and pretty thoroughly. It takes me about three minutes. I mark up names, authors attitude, and underline parts that I think will be asked later. I have been doing the same thing since I started practicing. I tried some of the other strategies suggested on here and I actually did worse. I think I figured out what I am going to do. I am going to take a day off(Haven't done this in a while) and relax. Then I'm going to spend the weekend doing nothing but reading comprehension sections. I will do as many as it takes to break this bad habit. Hopefully on Monday I can come back and start doing PTs again.

[missvik218]

Thanks for the advice guys. MissVick, My strategy for RC is to read the passage once and pretty thoroughly. It takes me about three minutes. I mark up names, authors attitude, and underline parts that I think will be asked later. I have been doing the same thing since I started practicing. I tried some of the other strategies suggested on here and I actually did worse. I think I figured out what I am going to do. I am going to take a day off(Haven't done this in a while) and relax. Then I'm going to spend the weekend doing nothing but reading comprehension sections. I will do as many as it takes to break this bad habit. Hopefully on Monday I can come back and start doing PTs again.

Ok, Good luck!

[justski]

took a practice test this morning and i hope it was a fluke. I bombed the LG and RC and did my average on the LG's. I ran out of time on LG and RC. I had a ton of distractions with a lot of people walking around and talking so I hope that is a factor but my score dropped to a 152!!! Wish me luck that it is not a downward trend.

[brose002]

It should be a fluke. Don't get too discouraged. Distractions were probably a significant factor in the score. I know that whenever I have distractions, I typically do worse than my average. Take another test in a quiet environment, and you should be good.

[JJDancer]

Took the Kaplan administered PT 36 today and I am a little disappointed.
I missed 21 questions total and got a 163 --> OUCH! I don't think I missed more than 18 on my first cold PT even.
But it was the first time I had a 5th section added. And the first proctored test I have taken.

Also I missed 13 LR questions (which is my weakspot) and on at least 5 of them I couldn't decide between 2 answers and just picked the wrong one.
I have already gone through 75% of the LRB but I'm not giving up on it yet (or myself) and will finish it this weekend and review it all and just do LR sections on sat/sun and try to get the tools to attacks all the different arguments/types of questions.

Hopefully I will bounce back to a 170+ score next week

Past scores: 170, 167, 173

[ruleser]

Did Oct 05 LG's last night, finished 5 mins ahead of time, which for me is unheard of - but did get -3. So I think finally it's time to slow down and focus a little more on accuracy for LG's. My new technique of how I handle the variables has helped a ton, as well as writing down the time splits - those two things alone have made everything different. I no longer panic wondering if I'm taking too long just because 1 question requires time, and I don't end up lost with 8 letters/names jumbled in my head.

[tamlyric]

Did Oct 05 LG's last night, finished 5 mins ahead of time, which for me is unheard of - but did get -3. So I think finally it's time to slow down and focus a little more on accuracy for LG's. My new technique of how I handle the variables has helped a ton, as well as writing down the time splits - those two things alone have made everything different. I no longer panic wondering if I'm taking too long just because 1 question requires time, and I don't end up lost with 8 letters/names jumbled in my head.

What did you start doing differently with variables and time-splits?

(Sorry if I missed a previous post where you already made this explicit.)

[ruleser]

Did Oct 05 LG's last night, finished 5 mins ahead of time, which for me is unheard of - but did get -3. So I think finally it's time to slow down and focus a little more on accuracy for LG's. My new technique of how I handle the variables has helped a ton, as well as writing down the time splits - those two things alone have made everything different. I no longer panic wondering if I'm taking too long just because 1 question requires time, and I don't end up lost with 8 letters/names jumbled in my head.

What did you start doing differently with variables and time-splits?

(Sorry if I missed a previous post where you already made this explicit.)

Especially for advanced linear (but really wherever I can) I don't just list the variables as a list of 8 on the side, or 2 groups of 4 different type variables on the side, I put them right next to the lines on the diagram which variables can possibly go there - and every time I redraw it next to a question, I put the variables next to where they could go. If it is a little more complex question, I'll relist all eight variables for the question so I can cross off the ones that don't fit. This has eliminated one of my biggest areas of getting lost and saved more than a bit of time. It's amazing how many games this first part applies to - the famous Dino game from June 09 would work perfectly - I would split the 5 spots into 3 and 2 (the 2 mauve ones) and put right next to the 2 mauve spaces the ones that can be mauve, and relist right next to the other 3 spaces which ones can go there, even if some are repeated because they can go either place. I just want all possibilities right there, and to waste no time sorting out what isn't possible.

For time splits, I just did a finish time in the past. Now, I write the end time, but then list the start time, and do 8 minute splits and write those on each game - so say I start a game at 1:00, I write :35 (for the end time), then 1:00 (to remember the start time) than on top of game 1 write :08 for the split time I should be done there, on game 2 I'd write :16, game 3 would be :24. This makes it so much simpler when, say, in the middle of game 2 I hit a hard question and wonder if I have the time to put in or if I have to move on - I can easily look up at the split and know - it has saved so much panic, which led to many of my problems. As you can also see there are 3 extra minutes in there, so if you can keep the 8 minute splits for 3 of the games, then hit a hard one, you have 3 more to go, or 3 left to review things at the end.

[missvik218]

The LSAT giveth and it taketh away ... brought back down to earth after my 170 break through earlier this week.

PT51
LR -6
RC -3
LR -4
LG -1

Raw +86
Scaled 168

I tried a skipping around LR strategy on my first reasoning section, not doing that again!

[lawduder]

The LSAT giveth and it taketh away ... brought back down to earth after my 170 break through earlier this week.

PT51
LR -6
RC -3
LR -4
LG -1

Raw +86
Scaled 168

I tried a skipping around LR strategy on my first reasoning section, not doing that again!

You looked like you really did fix RC... are you doing the read twice strategy or just reading once, (relatively) slow and answering questions from comprehension?

[missvik218]

You looked like you really did fix RC... are you doing the read twice strategy or just reading once, (relatively) slow and answering questions from comprehension?

Once relatively slowly, I was worried it wouldn't work as well on newer RC (I think they're more complex) but looks like it's working fine ... now I just need to spend some time figuring out where I'm going wrong with LR.

[Bustang]

Just took PT #37

Raw Score: 84
Scaled: 165.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. I didn't get to review as much this week as I'd hoped to (2 21st birthdays), and while a 165 isn't a 170, this curve was a bitch and my raw score is increasingly steadily. Besides logic games, I'm finishing every section early and feeling very good (perhaps even excited?) when I'm taking the test. Stupid little mistakes on RC/Arguments landed me -6 on two sections, and confusing a rule midway through the first game took me from -2 to -5. Other than that my performance was solid and I'm happy. My goal is go be getting 85+ on all my PT's from now on. Woop.

Edit: While i'm still missing -5/-6 on average with this new RC strategy (just reading and circling names/critical stuff and nothing else) I see it working better for me. I'm no longer missing MP questions etc. I just need to stop second guessing myself on infer questions and my score will go to -2/-4. Thanks guys.

[missvik218]

Just took PT #37

Raw Score: 84
Scaled: 165.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. I didn't get to review as much this week as I'd hoped to (2 21st birthdays), and while a 165 isn't a 170, this curve was a bitch and my raw score is increasingly steadily. Besides logic games, I'm finishing every section early and feeling very good (perhaps even excited?) when I'm taking the test. Stupid little mistakes on RC/Arguments landed me -6 on two sections, and confusing a rule midway through the first game took me from -2 to -5. Other than that my performance was solid and I'm happy. My goal is go be getting 85+ on all my PT's from now on. Woop.

Edit: While i'm still missing -5/-6 on average with this new RC strategy (just reading and circling names/critical stuff and nothing else) I see it working better for me. I'm no longer missing MP questions etc. I just need to stop second guessing myself on infer questions and my score will go to -2/-4. Thanks guys.

Good job!! I think it's important to focus on raw scores rather than scaled, as long as your consistently getting the same number of questions right (or better yet increasing this number) you're solid.

[02082010]

I'm content with -2/-3 combined for LR. Content with -0/-1 for LG. But I'm not content with -4 for RC. Any advice on how to get that down to a consistent -2 at worst? Help please!

[cunni1775]

PT 52 this morning.

LR1 -6
LG -2
LR2 -8 (GRRRRRRRRRRR)
RC -6

Raw- 78/ Scaled- 162

I have been stuck in this 77-81 raw score limbo for my last 4 pt's. I have been taking a pt every tues and sat with thorough review in between. I feel as though I need to do something else in order to break out of this plateau (9 more pt's before game day on this schedule). I made some foolish reading mistakes on this LR, but I had been scoring consistently in the -2 to -5 range on the older tests. Is the consensus that has LR gotten harder on the the more recent tests? RC is what it is, trying to expose myself to more of it as I only use RC as my exp.

Help!

[missvik218]

PT 52 this morning.

LR1 -6
LG -2
LR2 -8 (GRRRRRRRRRRR)
RC -6

Raw- 78/ Scaled- 162

I have been stuck in this 77-81 raw score limbo for my last 4 pt's. I have been taking a pt every tues and sat with thorough review in between. I feel as though I need to do something else in order to break out of this plateau (9 more pt's before game day on this schedule). I made some foolish reading mistakes on this LR, but I had been scoring consistently in the -2 to -5 range on the older tests. Is the consensus that has LR gotten harder on the the more recent tests? RC is what it is, trying to expose myself to more of it as I only use RC as my exp.

Help!

I just moved into the newer exams and I definitely think that the LR is both different and more difficult than on the older test.

[JJDancer]

Took the Kaplan administered PT 36 today and I am a little disappointed.
I missed 21 questions total and got a 163 --> OUCH! I don't think I missed more than 18 on my first cold PT even.
But it was the first time I had a 5th section added. And the first proctored test I have taken.

Also I missed 13 LR questions (which is my weakspot) and on at least 5 of them I couldn't decide between 2 answers and just picked the wrong one.
I have already gone through 75% of the LRB but I'm not giving up on it yet (or myself) and will finish it this weekend and review it all and just do LR sections on sat/sun and try to get the tools to attacks all the different arguments/types of questions.

Hopefully I will bounce back to a 170+ score next week

Past scores: 170, 167, 173

Just reviewed all the answers for this exam and I have FINALLY started reviewing not just the questions i missed but also ones I wasn't sure about. I think this will help TREMENDOUSLY in the future because it helps me see what makes a right answer.

Also, I feel so much better about this unusual score (I generally score 168-173) because I found out a mistake I had made many times.
I chose an answer (I assume in haste) that had one word switched.
For example, if the answer would have been right had it said: "the symptoms of mental disturbance caused by purely organic factors can be alleviated with PSYCHOTHERAPY" instead the answer choice said
"the symptoms of mental disturbance caused by purely organic factors can be alleviated with MEDICINE" which is the opposite idea but I picked it because in my head I had already pre-phrased an answer that was similar to the psychotherapy one. I think this caused me to assume the lsac people had written down what I wanted to see.

Although its hard to be super alert during the whole test this missing 2 questions because of this "trick" makes me watch out for it.

Just wanted to post it in case someone else had a similar issue.

[brose002]

So I ended up taking a test today instead of doing more RC. Boy did that bite me in the ass. I ended up with a 165 and an 83 raw score
LG: -2
LR(EXP):-1
LR1:-5(I ran out of time on this, and didn't get a chance to double check my answers)
LR2:-0( I was so happy when I saw this score. My first -0)
RC:-11!!!!!!!(And I was pissed with my -8. I ended up running out of time after the third section, and guessed on the last passage. I ended up getting 5 out of 6 wrong on that. I also had to rush the third passage and got 4 out of 6 wrong on that)

This is irritating me so much, because I know I can do well enough on the LR and LG to get a 170, but this RC makes me want to pull my hair out.

[Veritas]

Oct '08

RC: -7 (didn't get to last 3 questions )
LR: -6
LG: -3 (misread a rule, should be -0)
LR: -6

raw: 79 (160)

Everything is improved, and keeps getting better

[JJDancer]

So I ended up taking a test today instead of doing more RC. Boy did that bite me in the ass. I ended up with a 165 and an 83 raw score
LG: -2
LR(EXP):-1
LR1:-5(I ran out of time on this, and didn't get a chance to double check my answers)
LR2:-0( I was so happy when I saw this score. My first -0)
RC:-11!!!!!!!(And I was pissed with my -8. I ended up running out of time after the third section, and guessed on the last passage. I ended up getting 5 out of 6 wrong on that. I also had to rush the third passage and got 4 out of 6 wrong on that)

This is irritating me so much, because I know I can do well enough on the LR and LG to get a 170, but this RC makes me want to pull my hair out.

Don't worry. You will get it. Instead of doing PTs take the advice people gave before with time off and untimed RC only!