20 pt increase in 20 days? Forum

[MdmMoisel]

Taking Dec test. Time management kills me. I'm getting -0 on most sections except that I get -5 or -6 on each because I run short of time. Two practice tests a day would help you think? Any words of encouragement?

[calilaw]

You mean, you get -0 without timing, and -5 or -6 timed?

[mapleleaf]

I'm kind of in the same boat, though it sounds like my problems are not nearly as extreme. One thing that has helped me is to split up LG and RC sections into individual passages and games, and really concentrate on using efficient techniques. It may not be wisest for you to just do full PT after PT if you're not sure what your strategy is for improving your speed. But maybe others would disagree with that.

[GoodToBeTheKing]

unless you change your strategy or learn some new tricks you will not increase your score that much, and most likely will score about the same...

[Sandro]

Two pts a day? no! terrible idea. take one and review the hell out of it

[MdmMoisel]

calilaw, no, I miss -6 in each section on timed tests (but otherwise i hardly get any answers wrong).

mapleleaf, thanks for the advice. You're right about splitting sections and doing them individually. I should focus more on creating efficient techniques for each section.

Sandro, I review- my problem is I make mistakes if I rush through questions. When I take it slow, I nearly get all questions right.

Anyone else??

[DukeCornell]

I'm kind of in the same boat, though it sounds like my problems are not nearly as extreme. One thing that has helped me is to split up LG and RC sections into individual passages and games, and really concentrate on using efficient techniques. It may not be wisest for you to just do full PT after PT if you're not sure what your strategy is for improving your speed. But maybe others would disagree with that.

This worked for me as well.

[JazzOne]

calilaw, no, I miss -6 in each section on timed tests (but otherwise i hardly get any answers wrong).

mapleleaf, thanks for the advice. You're right about splitting sections and doing them individually. I should focus more on creating efficient techniques for each section.

Sandro, I review- my problem is I make mistakes if I rush through questions. When I take it slow, I nearly get all questions right.

Anyone else??

20 points in 20 days? I'd say 15:1 against.

[DoubleChecks]

mm im a bit skeptical, but best of luck to you regardless!

i mean, time is sort of the thing that makes the LSAT hard. i dont know how tough getting -0 on sections would be if i had all the time in the world (or really, just 10-15min more)...so how much more time are you needing? if you are short 5-10, then i think you can do it!

[wanderlust]

you'll burn out before seeing any improvement.
better take the time to analyze what slows you down.

[MrAdams]

MdmMoisel, you know what might work, or well seems to be working for me? Giving yourself extra time but still answering as fast as you can and then incrementally reducing the extra time each pt.

I found that my LR was pretty bad. My LG and RC are now solid averaging -1 and -3, but my LR sections were at -7 each = not. good. enough. So I started pting the other day with 45minute, and then 44 minute, 43 minute LR sections. Hilariously, when I started to do this I was still completing the LR sections in the 35minutes (or at least 1 minute over) but was much more accurate at -1 to -4.

[09042014]

If you've already studied for a moderate amount of time and taken a handful of PT's you won't go up 20 pts if you study the rest of your life.

[RebelRebel]

As someone who is about to retake for the Nth time and has made careless and stupid mistakes, there are several issues to consider.

-You can improve your timing by doing as many exams as possible and even doing a section in less than 35 min.
-If you tell me that accuracy suffers that much then you definitely are having problems with the questions and not just with time.
-Take note of all questions that you are having problems with and try to classify them according to type - see if you always get the same kind of questions wrong, what is the pattern?

But the most important overstated advice - and this is contingent upon time:

UNDERSTAND WHY THE WRONG ANSWER CHOICES ARE WRONG.

I would lose points because I would select the first right choice that I read, forgetting that some answer choices were more right than others.

[Cmoss]

Two practice tests a day would help you think? Any words of encouragement?

I feel like one/day is a burn out waiting to happen.

if you dont get why you got the question wrong it seems stupid to continue trying with more questions...quick someone quote the definition of insanity

[DieAntwoord]

I'm not to sure about this whole burnout thing. I took 6 section tests everyday for about 20 days before the lsat and it was not a problem. And on top of that I did 5 logic games a day from REA's practice makes perfect. (I did not stop until the day of the test)

[MdmMoisel]

Thanks guys! Parallel Reas. and MBT qs. slow me down.

Desert Fox, I've so far taken 5-6 full length timed PTs, so I'm 100% sure there's room for improvement. And PT 1/day is a burn out? Are you kidding me? I can handle 2/day, but if it doesn't improve me score, why do it is the question. But as OPs mentioned, I'll work on pacing giving myself 45 min and less and see how things work. Reviewing is definitely helpful. I'm not that good at Formal logic and I'm a slow reader, so MBT and Parallel questions eat up my time. But thanks for your advice. Whether or not I actually increase up 20pts, will come back to you after the test

DoubleChecks, I only need 5-6 more min! Ughh...

[FlanAl]

have you used any of the prep companies books? If you haven't then going through powerscore's bibles or atlas' books in the next couple of weeks should definitely help you out, like a lot.

[fosterp]

Your problem is definitely not unique....most people here would say they could get a perfect score given 0 time constraints.

Practice is really the only thing that will make you faster. Its that intuition that you gain from seeing the same question types over and over and over again that allows you to pin answers very fast and bank up plenty of time for the hard ones.

[MdmMoisel]

Thanks both of you. I'm working on each section one by one, identifying my mistakes and why it takes me so long. My biggest problem so far is RC. If I take time and focus on accuracy, one entire passage always gets left out. If I rush, I do complete all passages somehow, but my accuracy gets compromised (I get like -12) in RC total

I've gone through Superprep's explanation, and I know the questions types for RC. But can't increase my reading speed. Is there any technique that helps?

I've gone through LRB and LGB and Superprep explanations for LR and LG. My accuracy is fairly constant (-1 or -2) in each section, but I miss a whole lot of questions cause I run out of time. Only 2 weeks left for Dec test!! I just hope with practice I can make it

[gobluemich]

Taking Dec test. Time management kills me. I'm getting -0 on most sections except that I get -5 or -6 on each because I run short of time. Two practice tests a day would help you think? Any words of encouragement?

As time is basically the only constraint, it seems futile to focus at all on your untimed score

[bee's vision]

One thing I realized this time around is the difference between finishing on time and not is just an average of 10 seconds per question, at least for LR. Looking at it this way I found it a lot easier to speed up. I did a lot of drills timing myself for each question. I found that there was a lot of things I was doing that wasted time like marking up the stimulus way too much, reading too slow, and spending way too much time double checking easy questions that I knew were right. Also, drilling questions of the same type is essential to recognizing patterns. So you might have a pretty thorough knowledge of the question types and techniques but they havent become second nature enough. Just practice, practice, practice. Good Luck.