Can I improve in time? Forum

[swtlilsoni]

I took the LSAT last december and got a 166. My goal was 170+ so I decided to delay a year. I am taking it in october now. Over the summer I finished Manhattan LSAT's logical reasoning, and reading comprehension books. This month I started cracking down - I finished a Kaplan LR book, and Manhattan's logic games book in three days. I am ordering the Powerscore Bibles (which should be here in a few days) and doing technique review on PTs until then. I might even do a Princeton Review Book.

(as of now I am missing about 1-3 in logical reasoning, not sure about RC & LG yet because I haven't done enough full sections of them yet)

I am pretty much devoting most of my time this month to studying and can finish a book in at most two days. When not working on books, I can do two practice tests a day.

Do you think I can improve to 170+ by Oct 1?

[Yeshia90]

If you got a 166 9 months ago and have been putting in more work since that time, then, well, yeah. But take some PTs and answer it for yourself.

[swtlilsoni]

Well what I mean to say is I haven't been putting in THAT much work since then and I just started going all out this month. So assuming I am still at 166 will cracking down now be able to bring me up?

[imjustjoking22]

Well what I mean to say is I haven't been putting in THAT much work since then and I just started going all out this month. So assuming I am still at 166 will cracking down now be able to bring me up?

Like Yeshia said, take some PTs and figure out what you're averaging, TLSers cannot predict the future

[Eichörnchen]

I took the LSAT last december and got a 166. My goal was 170+ so I decided to delay a year. I am taking it in october now. Over the summer I finished Manhattan LSAT's logical reasoning, and reading comprehension books. This month I started cracking down - I finished a Kaplan LR book, and Manhattan's logic games book in three days. I am ordering the Powerscore Bibles (which should be here in a few days) and doing technique review on PTs until then. I might even do a Princeton Review Book.

Don't waste your time with this. If you have time to do another book, redo one of the MLSAT or PS books. PR is trash. And this really can't be answered until you do a full, properly timed PT. Do one today and see where you stand.

[Tiago Splitter]

I scored a 166 last year, didn't study for a few months, and then took a Testmasters class in the spring. I scored a 164 on their opening diag and then another 164 a month later as I tried to apply the concepts. I ended up scoring much higher and I think you can too but it might take a bit more time. Take a PT ASAP to see where you stand.

[swtlilsoni]

I'm feeling really discouraged. Normally I only miss 2-3 on logic games, and this time when I took a practice test I was struggling with two of the games and couldn't even finish! I don't know what happened. Logic games was NEVER this hard for me. When I took the test last year they were pretty easy! I don't know what happened!
And a few weeks ago when I practiced LR I was able to finish the section with 5 minutes to spare and only missed 3 max. This time I missed 5!

What is the deal! Maybe I am burnt out? Maybe I lost my touch. Maybe I am simply not smart anymore. I think my brain died.

[Obelisk18]

I'm feeling really discouraged. Normally I only miss 2-3 on logic games, and this time when I took a practice test I was struggling with two of the games and couldn't even finish! I don't know what happened. Logic games was NEVER this hard for me. When I took the test last year they were pretty easy! I don't know what happened!
And a few weeks ago when I practiced LR I was able to finish the section with 5 minutes to spare and only missed 3 max. This time I missed 5!

What is the deal! Maybe I am burnt out? Maybe I lost my touch. Maybe I am simply not smart anymore. I think my brain died.

In my (limited) experience, LG, like Math, is most susceptible to degradation. If I go even 3 or 4 days without doing LG, my score drops. I fall back into bad habits. I get lazy with the set-up. My methods are inconsistent. Etc. I think LG scores are overwhelmingly determined by (or at least correlated with) consistency of methods and an ability to recognize patterns. Something as simple as recognizing when two elements are substantively identical (either both indeterminate or covered by the same rule) can have enormous implications when testing answers. So if X are basically interchangeable, then when both are offered as an answer choice, neither can be right. Or recognizing that, if you've missed the unlocking inference, answers with indeterminate elements (elements that can be placed anywhere) should be checked first on "can be true" questions. But all of these intuitions are products of having done a lot of games recently. When we (or most of us anyway) haven't worked on games in awhile, we forget these things and games acquire a bit of their original mystery. If you were good at games in the past, I wouldn't fret. You have the skills to consciously, or unconsciously, understand their inner workings. Just do more of them. It'll come back.

As far as improvement goes...well, I'm in the same boat. A few weeks ago, I was testing in the low 160s. Now, I'm between 167 and 170. My goal is 175+ (I'm taking in October). Others will probably be better guides about the plausibility of that level of improvement in general. I'll say that, in my case, I'm optimistic. A few weeks ago, I was between -3 and -4 on each LR section. Today I took 3 LR sections (2 on a PT), none of them in ideal circumstances (lots of noise, 1 after hours of studying and bleary-eyedness) and I got 1 wrong through 75 questions. My theory: unless your central issue is time (you can never quite finish) a substantial improvement in a short window isn't out of the question (diagram that). You're bound to take awhile to get back into the swing of things and it may be that you've waited longer than is ideal to refresh yourself, but 17 days is still a fair amount of time. Potentially over 100 hours.

[warandpeace]

As far as improvement goes...well, I'm in the same boat. A few weeks ago, I was testing in the low 160s. Now, I'm between 167 and 170. My goal is 175+ (I'm taking in October). Others will probably be better guides about the plausibility of that level of improvement in general. I'll say that, in my case, I'm optimistic. A few weeks ago, I was between -3 and -4 on each LR section. Today I took 3 LR sections (2 on a PT), none of them in ideal circumstances (lots of noise, 1 after hours of studying and bleary-eyedness) and I got 1 wrong through 75 questions. My theory: unless your central issue is time (you can never quite finish) a substantial improvement in a short window isn't out of the question (diagram that). You're bound to take awhile to get back into the swing of things and it may be that you've waited longer than is ideal to refresh yourself, but 17 days is still a fair amount of time. Potentially over 100 hours.

you just gave me hope <3