Stuck on 153-155. LSAT in 24 days.... Possibility for 10pt? Forum

[sjlawand88]

All,

I am currently registered for the October LSAT. My PTs are consistently 153-155. I am aiming for a 165.
PT 56- LG- 3 LR- 12 LR- 9 RC- 14

My scores are ALWAYS similar to the above.

I am fixing to take a leave of absence for the next 24 days for LSAT. What do you all recommend regarding my problem? I have read the LG bible.

Is it possible to gain 10 points within this time frame?

Thanks!

[whymeohgodno]

Possible. But it seems like you're doing not horribly on LG.

I would focus on improving LR. If you go through LR bible I'm sure you could improve a lot on your LR section.

RC...I have no advice. I haven't improved at all myself since I started.

[bk1]

What prep have you done in regards to the RC/LR sections?

[sjlawand88]

I have read the LR bible...

As far as LR goes- I ALWAYS miss 3-5 of numbers 20-25. I also fall short on time- always have to guess on 4 of them. I try to keep the most difficult (20-25) as the guessed answers......

Even when I try to do 20-25 after the time lapse, I usually miss most of them.

[whymeohgodno]

I have read the LR bible...

As far as LR goes- I ALWAYS miss 3-5 of numbers 20-25. I also fall short on time- always have to guess on 4 of them. I try to keep the most difficult (20-25) as the guessed answers......

Try reading the question before you read the argument. It helped me on time. I know the LR bible tells you not to but for me personally it helped me out.

And it can't hurt to try.

[sjlawand88]

I have read the LR bible...

As far as LR goes- I ALWAYS miss 3-5 of numbers 20-25. I also fall short on time- always have to guess on 4 of them. I try to keep the most difficult (20-25) as the guessed answers......

Try reading the question before you read the argument. It helped me on time. I know the LR bible tells you not to but for me personally it helped me out.

And it can't hurt to try.

Thanks- I have tried both methods. I currently read the question stem in prior to stimulus. Works better for me.

[whymeohgodno]

Have you tried trying to do the first 15 questions in 15 minutes?

I know a number of people who spend too much time on the easier question because they nitpick every choice.

[sjlawand88]

Have you tried trying to do the first 15 questions in 15 minutes?

I know a number of people who spend too much time on the easier question because they nitpick every choice.

I am going to attempt that tomorrow. Thanks!

[am060459]

All,

I am currently registered for the October LSAT. My PTs are consistently 153-155. I am aiming for a 165.
PT 56- LG- 3 LR- 12 LR- 9 RC- 14

My scores are ALWAYS similar to the above.

I am fixing to take a leave of absence for the next 24 days for LSAT. What do you all recommend regarding my problem? I have read the LG bible.

Is it possible to gain 10 points within this time frame?

Thanks!

possible yes. realistic no.

im retaking and looking for even a one point increase and im even worried about that (granted that you might not have reached your full potential and i have).

i would strongly suggest postponing to december. LR and RC are very hard to improve on. 24 days is not enough time to improve on.

given all this i still wish you best of luck

[Adjudicator]

Anything is possible. But certainly this is not likely. Many people report scoring lower than their PT averages, but you don't often hear of anyone scoring 10 points higher than what they were averaging in practice.

[KevinP]

I'm going to assume you are taking your PTs timed. Since you are having trouble figuring out the correct answers, my recommendation would be to take PTs untimed until you scoring less than 3 wrong per section. Also, make sure you thoroughly work out any hard questions or questions you got wrong and make sure you completely understand them.

It is possible to improve by 10 points but not very realistic in such a time frame.

[DearCan]

I haven't heard any mention of individual question diagnostic yet, so I'll offer that as my advice. That's honestly the best way to improve your LR and RC scores. After you take a PT, go through and look at the ones you got wrong, and group them into categories. Are you missing mostly "weaken" questions, parallel reasoning "questions", etc. Then look at the answer you chose and try to deduce why you chose that answer, then look at the correct answer and make sure you understand why that answer is the right one. It might at least help you avoid some incorrect answers that are alluring.

You also mentioned that you almost always guess on the last five. This is a mistake. There could very often be questions you're good at among those five. If you think you can do this without messing up your score sheet, try to take a practice test where you skip the question types you often miss (or the ones that take the most of your time) and come back to those at the end, so at least you're getting to the end of the section. Even if there are only two questions out of those five you're good at, hey that could be four points added to your raw score between the two LR sections.

Another thing I did that helped was to look at the questions I got right and group those. If you're getting most or all of a certain kind of question right you might possibly be able to identify those questions while you're taking a test and be able to save time on them, instead of second guessing yourself on ones you consistently get correct.

[sjlawand88]

I just took PT 43 and scored 158.

LR- 7 LR- 7 LG- 4 RC- 12

Interestingly, I ALWAYS get the first 10-11 RC questions correctly.

[sjlawand88]

Have you tried trying to do the first 15 questions in 15 minutes?

I know a number of people who spend too much time on the easier question because they nitpick every choice.

I just attempted that strategy. It threw off my accuracy.

Strategy= not nitpicking every choice on the first 15 questions. Predict the answer.

My LR without this strategy: I only miss one question between 1-18
My LR with this strategy: My mistakes ended up being scattered.

I think timing is my problem. I am not able to finish fast enough. My LR without the strategy left me with getting 19-24 wrong due to time constraints.

[Anaconda]

Have you tried trying to do the first 15 questions in 15 minutes?

I know a number of people who spend too much time on the easier question because they nitpick every choice.

I just attempted that strategy. It threw off my accuracy.

Strategy= not nitpicking every choice on the first 15 questions. Predict the answer.

My LR without this strategy: I only miss one question between 1-18
My LR with this strategy: My mistakes ended up being scattered.

I think timing is my problem. I am not able to finish fast enough. My LR without the strategy left me with getting 19-24 wrong due to time constraints.

Still try to do 15 in 16-18 minutes - you need that extra time for the tough questions at the end. If you have even a trouble with a question, skip it and move on. I find skipping an easier question that has convoluted language or one that I don't understand very well is always much more manageable when I come back to it later on in the section.

[sjlawand88]

Have you tried trying to do the first 15 questions in 15 minutes?

I know a number of people who spend too much time on the easier question because they nitpick every choice.

I just attempted that strategy. It threw off my accuracy.

Strategy= not nitpicking every choice on the first 15 questions. Predict the answer.

My LR without this strategy: I only miss one question between 1-18
My LR with this strategy: My mistakes ended up being scattered.

I think timing is my problem. I am not able to finish fast enough. My LR without the strategy left me with getting 19-24 wrong due to time constraints.

Still try to do 15 in 16-18 minutes - you need that extra time for the tough questions at the end. If you have even a trouble with a question, skip it and move on. I find skipping an easier question that has convoluted language or one that I don't understand very well is always much more manageable when I come back to it later on in the section.

I just went over the LR I got wrong. All the errors I made were careless- I expect due to anxiety and speed. As I went over the wrong LR problems UNTIMED, I was easily able to solve each one correctly.

I think this 15 in 15 minutes will only decrease accuracy.

[3|ink]

It's highly unlikely, but you might as well take it if you're school will accept that range. They'll probably accept 2 scores.

[sjlawand88]

Just took a newer PT- PT 58. I scored 153....
LR- 10 RC-15 LG-7 LR- 7

One thing I noticed...
The first LR section, I was extremely motivated and focused (at least thats what I felt) and missed 10.
During the second LR section, I was not focused, worked slowly and ended up missing only 7......

[sjlawand88]

Went over that PT I just took....

Of course, careless mistakes. I was easily able to identify the correct answer. I think the pressure caused by the time constraints is affecting my anxiety. In result, decrease of accuracy.

[waxecstatic]

All,

I am currently registered for the October LSAT. My PTs are consistently 153-155. I am aiming for a 165.
PT 56- LG- 3 LR- 12 LR- 9 RC- 14

My scores are ALWAYS similar to the above.

I am fixing to take a leave of absence for the next 24 days for LSAT. What do you all recommend regarding my problem? I have read the LG bible.

Is it possible to gain 10 points within this time frame?

Thanks!

possible yes. realistic no.

im retaking and looking for even a one point increase and im even worried about that (granted that you might not have reached your full potential and i have).

i would strongly suggest postponing to december. LR and RC are very hard to improve on. 24 days is not enough time to improve on.

given all this i still wish you best of luck

Postponing to December is not a good idea if you want to apply for this admissions cycle.

[am060459]

Postponing to December is not a good idea if you want to apply for this admissions cycle.

in this case its the best idea. scoring in the low to mid 150s is not a score you want to apply with.

scoring higher > applying early

[dakatz]

Only postpone until December if you know you will improve by at least a few points. If you only go up a point or 2, it is better to just apply now. But if you truly feel like the extra time will get you 3 or more points (which it certainly should given your current range), I'd wait. And no, you will not see a 10 point gain in 24 days. Some people work for months for that type of gain, and while these things click faster for some people than others, I've never heard of someone improving that much that quickly.