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Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 1:49 am
by meadmans
Just dry humped a 142. Does anyone think its possible to bring my score up to a 160?

LR 11/26
RC 9/26
LR 15/26
LG 9/23

Prep test 36

Based on these scores i need to work on everything i would say correct?

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:01 am
by glucose101
I went from a 145 to a 157 in the matter of reviewing one test.

You can improve as much as you want. If you want a 160, work for it, and it's yours!

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:08 am
by birdlaw117
meadmans wrote:Just dry humped a 142. Does anyone think its possible to bring my score up to a 160?

LR 11/26
RC 9/26
LR 15/26
LG 9/23

Prep test 36

Based on these scores i need to work on everything i would say correct?
I think the most concerning aspect is that you got 9/26 on RC. RC is the most innate of the 3 sections. You can definitely raise LR and LG, but raising RC significantly is tougher. What was the issue for the low RC score? Time? Didn't read thoroughly enough?

That said, I think 160 is certainly within reach. You just have to work at it. But don't let 160 be your goal. Try to get better and better, and once you start to see improvement, keep shifting your goals. Take it one test at a time. Try to hit 150 with your next one. Once you do that, try and hit 155, and so on.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:27 pm
by meadmans
Yeah the RC was basically just slow reading to much trying to learn the information which i heard your not supposed to do.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:33 pm
by UofO
Op, I started off w/ a 136 on my cold diagnostic; I just took my first PT (SP-A) and scored a 164. I am currently following the Pithypyke method + using my PS course material. Also, my RC was about the same as yours, but now i've improved to the point of (-4 to - 7).

Granted, these are on older RCs, which are suppose to be "easier", but improvement is possible. Keep working.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:35 pm
by Lieut Kaffee
Without knowing more I'd put the chances at around 85% with adequate effort on your part.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:38 pm
by TMC116
glucose101 wrote:I went from a 145 to a 157 in the matter of reviewing one test.

You can improve as much as you want. If you want a 160, work for it, and it's yours!

Wow that's some intense review. How long did you spend looking over your PT?

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:44 pm
by Lieut Kaffee
TMC116 wrote:
glucose101 wrote:I went from a 145 to a 157 in the matter of reviewing one test.
You can improve as much as you want. If you want a 160, work for it, and it's yours!
Wow that's some intense review. How long did you spend looking over your PT?
I went from 152 to 164 simply by trying again, i.e. no review. People really need to not freak out about their diagnostics.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:59 pm
by sandwiches5000
birdlaw117 wrote:
meadmans wrote:Just dry humped a 142. Does anyone think its possible to bring my score up to a 160?

LR 11/26
RC 9/26
LR 15/26
LG 9/23

Prep test 36

Based on these scores i need to work on everything i would say correct?
I think the most concerning aspect is that you got 9/26 on RC. RC is the most innate of the 3 sections. You can definitely raise LR and LG, but raising RC significantly is tougher. What was the issue for the low RC score? Time? Didn't read thoroughly enough?

That said, I think 160 is certainly within reach. You just have to work at it. But don't let 160 be your goal. Try to get better and better, and once you start to see improvement, keep shifting your goals. Take it one test at a time. Try to hit 150 with your next one. Once you do that, try and hit 155, and so on.
No section is "truly" innate. Yes, there are sections that one can innately be better at but you can still improve any section with hard work, determination, and a good breakfast.

Read a lot of boring stuff. Practice back-to-back RC sections for a few days. When I did this I went from a -4 to a -1. I used to score worse in this section when I was first prepping. Just gotta get in the groove.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 1:21 pm
by glucose101
Well, I feel like a large part of it is that I put too much pressure on myself. I had already read MLSAT/Powerscore for all the guides (except MLSAT LG), but I think it was just the pressure. I had a version of a LSATProctor type mp3, and found it VERY distracting--to the point that I don't think it'd be like that on test day. So the second time, I did it without, and realized which sections I needed to focus on: LR and RC. I'm still getting there, but I'm slowly getting better. It's matter of pattern recognition.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:52 am
by richalvarez
I just took my first practice test (proctored) and got a 152, as part of the first day of a powerscore course. I have mixed feeling on my results. At first I was disappointed to have scored so low, when I'm aiming for a 165+ on the real thing. However, I realize I have to start somewhere and I took this test cold with no knowledge of what the test would be like. I guess I'm trying to see if my 165+ goal seems realistic to anyone, or if I need to temper my expectations a bit.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:56 am
by glucose101
It's realistic if you plan on putting in the time to achieve the score you want. If you don't, you won't--I can tell you that much.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:59 am
by richalvarez
glucose101 wrote:It's realistic if you plan on putting in the time to achieve the score you want. If you don't, you won't--I can tell you that much.
Do you think two months is enough time, or should reschedule for Dec test. I was planning on completing this two-month prep course and taking the month of Sept off of work to put in some extra study time.

Re: Chances 142 to a 160?

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 3:15 am
by birdlaw117
richalvarez wrote:
glucose101 wrote:It's realistic if you plan on putting in the time to achieve the score you want. If you don't, you won't--I can tell you that much.
Do you think two months is enough time, or should reschedule for Dec test. I was planning on completing this two-month prep course and taking the month of Sept off of work to put in some extra study time.
It may or may not be enough time. If you aren't hitting 165+ on PTs consistently by the time the test is coming you can always push it back (or take it and cancel). You just have to be aware of the time crunch you're under and plan accordingly. You can push hard for this short amount of time and, if you don't get burnt out, you could be very well prepared.

Last year I didn't start my prep until the very last week of July and I was pretty pleased with my performance. I had plenty of time make improvements and schedule a good amount of study time. Just to give some perspective, however, I took ~30 PTs between the end of July and October 9th, so I was studying pretty non-stop.