Top Law Schools

Hello fellow law school alumni, students, and hopefuls.

I'm taking the December LSAT and was just wondering what advice you guys might have for me. I regret never knowing about this forum until now! A little about my history:

I took a Kaplan Advantage course in April, and then opted to take their higher score guarantee and took a Kaplan Extreme course in July. I was planning on taking the October test, but thought I could improve my score with several more weeks of self-study. My initial diagnostic score was 154, and after the first Kaplan course, my score went up to a 162. After the second Kaplan course I was up to a 168. For the last month or so my motivation to study has somehow dwindled, but I want to put in a good 10 days now - I have absolutely no other commitments. My improvement and gains have been quite stable, they have not see-sawed at all, and have gone up steadily. I have PT 61-63 left at my disposal, and a handful of older PTs that I have saved.

My scores generally look like this:
Logic Games mistakes: 0-1
Logical Reasoning mistakes: 5-7
Reading Comprehension mistakes: 5-7

Clearly, I'm happy with LG and just hoping for no surprises on test day. Most of my studying thus far has been placed into LR, and I'm quite happy with my performance - making about 2-4 mistakes per section. RC is another story. From day 1, I knew it would be my worst section. There have been tests where I've managed as low as 3-4 mistakes, but they are not the norm and often with lots of uncertainty. The plan was to work on RC for these last 6 weeks, and though I've worked on my confidence levels, my accuracy has not seen substantial improvement.

My initial goal was 172, and I still want to achieve it. If I'm able to get a perfect LG score, make 3 mistakes or less on each LG section, and make 2 mistakes or less on RC, I will have 172+. What should I do these last 10 days?

tl;dr - I have 10 days left before the test, RC is my worst section, I'm making 5-7 mistakes on the section on average, and I want to reduce that to only 1-2 mistakes - on the difficult passage. I have no other commitments during this period so I will dedicate every waking moment to studying, and besides working on them whilst taking PTs, will ignore supplementary study in LR and LG. I have PTs 61-63 at my disposal, and a few other older PTs as well. How do you sages suggest I spend my last few days before my destiny is decided? Thank you for reading and your help!

Really ain't shit you can do. Rc is the hardest to improve on because you have to increase reading speed and comprehension. You could practice writing small summaries on the aide of each paragraph. Maybe circle ideas or names. And if you only have the chance to finish three passages try doing one passage really fast and see what happens. But I'd focus on reviewing old pt's and see which kinda LR you are missing. I say Fuck Rc and work on lr.

bruss wrote: I say Fuck Rc and work on lr.

This. RC is harder to improve than LR, and LR is worth about twice as many points.

I disagree with the dogma of the position that RC cannot be improved in a short period of time. What's your main issue with it?

Clave (a Spanish word): Extreme focus during the 2-3 minutes you spend reading the passage. You've been through courses so you already know what you should keep an eye out for (i.e. author's position, purpose; main idea; passage structure--the author's procession); but keeping extreme focus (you want to remember the passage well when you hit the questions) is utterly key. I find that I can bang out (under time, -0) a passage when my focus is strong; at other times, when I'm tired and not on the aforemenioned level, my performance slips.

I have total faith that if you 'play your cards right', as it were, you'll see desired improvements by test time.

Say a prayer, humbly, stating exactly only what you want, and why. Regardless of whether someOne hears it, it is guaranteed to help.

PM me if you wanna talk about anything else.

lexleon wrote:I disagree with the dogma of the position that RC cannot be improved in a short period of time...

Clave (a Spanish word): Extreme focus during the 2-3 minutes you spend reading the passage. You've been through courses so you already know what you should keep an eye out for (i.e. author's position, purpose; main idea; passage structure--the author's procession); but keeping extreme focus (you want to remember the passage well when you hit the questions) is utterly key. I find that I can bang out (under time, -0) a passage when my focus is strong; at other times, when I'm tired and not on the aforemenioned level, my performance slips.

I have total faith that if you 'play your cards right', as it were, you'll see desired improvements by test time.

PM me if you wanna talk about anything else.

Thank you so much, this is exactly what I wanted and needed to hear. I, too, find that sometimes when focus is strong, I need not make any notations on the page, and answer all of the questions with virtually no reference back to the passage. Clearly, this probably will not be the case with the one "difficult passage" of the four, but keeping strong focus on the three easier ones is my goal. If I can take those three out in 6-7 minutes, I will feel very comfortable having 15 minutes for the difficult passage.

My biggest worry is that I run into the familiar situation of... What. Did. I. Just. Read. and start to panic. In practice, it's an annoyance, on test day, it would be an utter nightmare. What are some of your strategies to maintain focus on each of the passages? Suggestions for when you totally blank out halfway through a passage? What if I lose focus on a truly simple passage, and read it with the feeling that I understood it well, and completely blank out on the questions? All of these things have happened to me, and let alone knowing how to prevent them, I'm not even able to really put up a fight against them...

bjlee85 wrote:What are some of your strategies to maintain focus on each of the passages? Suggestions for when you totally blank out halfway through a passage? What if I lose focus on a truly simple passage, and read it with the feeling that I understood it well, and completely blank out on the questions?

This is an old speed-reading tip, but spend about 10 seconds convincing yourself that what you're about to read is the most interesting thing you've ever come across. Sounds dumb, but it can help.

Also, spend a few seconds after each paragraph and leave a note on its role in the passage. If the viewpoint/attitude shifts halfway through the paragraph, note that too. It's harder to drift if you're constantly invested in noting viewpoints and shifts in attitude, etc... This will also help you when you blank out on the questions - you'll have a table of contents to refer back to. Heck, for some of my students who take good notes, I can the questions to a passage I've never seen without looking at anything other than those notes.

bp shinners wrote:

bjlee85 wrote:What are some of your strategies to maintain focus on each of the passages? Suggestions for when you totally blank out halfway through a passage? What if I lose focus on a truly simple passage, and read it with the feeling that I understood it well, and completely blank out on the questions?

This is an old speed-reading tip, but spend about 10 seconds convincing yourself that what you're about to read is the most interesting thing you've ever come across. Sounds dumb, but it can help.

Also, spend a few seconds after each paragraph and leave a note on its role in the passage. If the viewpoint/attitude shifts halfway through the paragraph, note that too. It's harder to drift if you're constantly invested in noting viewpoints and shifts in attitude, etc... This will also help you when you blank out on the questions - you'll have a table of contents to refer back to. Heck, for some of my students who take good notes, I can the questions to a passage I've never seen without looking at anything other than those notes.

This. It does work. Be super excited about each passage. Also, I mouth the words as I read. (silently, of course).