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Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 10:26 pm
by aas911
Hey Everyone,

I've been lurking for a while and this is my first post. Sorry for the rage :evil: ... but I can't get past the F&^k*ng low 160 range and I'm going to explode... I got my games down to (-1 to -3) but for some reason I've been getting consistently worse in RC. Here are my PT results:

June 08 - 150 (taken completely cold)
Oct 08 - 151
Sep 06 - 152
Jun 06 - 150
Dec 06 - 161
Jun 07 - 162
Dec 08 - 158
Sep 07 - 159

I'm looking to get a 165+ but it seems like any advances I make in LR or LG comes along with a set back in RC. Any suggestions?

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:50 pm
by WWAD
I was not getting better in RC and then I just stopped trying to mark the reading up and then I started doing better. The notes were taking too long and taking away from my focus. Also, as it has been said in other posts, it is easy to drill games and they become fun, but you have to do the same with RC. Do a bunch in one day and review them all. Start seeing the patterns. Get a "boring" magazine and read all the long articles and then write down what you learned.

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:57 pm
by stintez
WWAD wrote:I was not getting better in RC and then I just stopped trying to mark the reading up and then I started doing better. The notes were taking too long and taking away from my focus. Also, as it has been said in other posts, it is easy to drill games and they become fun, but you have to do the same with RC. Do a bunch in one day and review them all. Start seeing the patterns. Get a "boring" magazine and read all the long articles and then write down what you learned.

+1

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 2:00 pm
by Azmatt
...I did a 150 the other day after a nap right after work. That was my very first test. I did no studying or pretest-prep for it. The score shocked/frustrated me, but after doing a little research, I see how much you can prepare for the LSAT. For some reason, I was real nevous. Besides this, it's very encouraging to see your progress. My goal is 170, but we'll see... :?

It's hard for me to say what would work for you as you've progressed far, but I'm coming up with a system where I'll track progress of the tests then stratify the sectional progress, as well as analyzing certain question types within each section. I've just begun reading The Logic Games Bible, and there's a lot of in depth analysis on the different question types within each section. I'd just apply that to the RC like WWAD said...

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 2:58 pm
by stowhat
I had a similar problem with the RC section. Oddly enough, reading the LR Bible really helped both my LR and RC. Maybe you could try this if you have time? Only read the first 200 pages or so...

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 6:26 pm
by Azmatt
stowhat wrote:I had a similar problem with the RC section. Oddly enough, reading the LR Bible really helped both my LR and RC. Maybe you could try this if you have time? Only read the first 200 pages or so...

It does seem somewhat wordy. The other 300pages didn't help you?

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 2:40 pm
by stowhat
Azmatt wrote:
stowhat wrote:I had a similar problem with the RC section. Oddly enough, reading the LR Bible really helped both my LR and RC. Maybe you could try this if you have time? Only read the first 200 pages or so...

It does seem somewhat wordy. The other 300pages didn't help you?
I found the entire book helpful but the last half focuses on questions you would mostly see in the LR section, so if you had a limited amount of time and were looking to improve your RC, I would recommend only reading the first half.

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 6:36 pm
by aas911
Quick Update:

I just scored a 166 on the December 2007 Test!

-8 on LR, -3 on LG and -5 on RC

I took the approach WWAD suggested (by reducing my marking to only "key terms" that were defined in the passage). In all honesty, I felt less confident after the section. However, I'm justifying the score increase to my belief that I was better able to grasp the general meaning of and authors attitude in the passages.

Thanks you so much! I'll keep drilling RC and hopefully I can produce that kind of score on the real deal in a couple weeks.

Re: Just when you think you're on track.....

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 3:15 pm
by Azmatt
Awesome. Good job, I'm going to apply those tips myself in a few minutes when my boss leaves for his lunch. :P I figure if I can concentrate on a test at work, then nothing in the testing center will distract me.