Plateau Forum

[lawschoolgirl312]

Halp.

I'm taking it in December, but it seems like I have plateaued at 165...

I miss -5 on each LR section, 0 on LG, and around 4-6 on RC.


Any suggestions or words of wisdom??

I want a 172

[Blueprint Mithun]

Halp.

I'm taking it in December, but it seems like I have plateaued at 165...

I miss -5 on each LR section, 0 on LG, and around 4-6 on RC.


Any suggestions or words of wisdom??

I want a 172

Plateauing is probably the most frustrating state of LSAT prep. The way to pull yourself out of that hole is to analyze your mistakes as closely as possible. Take your last few preptests and look over the questions you got wrong. Identify which question types you tend to get wrong the most on LR and work on those. Chances are, you have a few weaknesses. In that case, it's a good idea to go back over the methods and tips & tricks you've amassed for those types of questions. See if there's a step in the process that you've shirked or overlooked in the past.

With Reading Comp, do your best to identify what's holding you back and leading you to lose 4-6 points on that section consistently. Do you feel as if you're running out of time? Not understanding passages well and/or missing "big picture" questions like Main Point, Author Attitude, etc? It would probably help to do a review of your strategies for Reading Comp. The Blueprint method is built around identifying MP, AA, and the structure/intent (primary purpose) of each passage as you're reading it the first time. These are the core ideas behind each RC passage, which the questions invariably revolve around. Thinking about them actively as you're reading is key, so you won't waste too much time scanning back over the passage while answering questions.

[lawschoolgirl312]

Thanks for the response!

For RC, what is the best way to pratice this? When I do it without timing myself, I can get it to -1 or -2...but when its time, its like all shit blows up...

What do you suggest I go about drilling? Should I just keep timing myself??

[Blueprint Mithun]

Thanks for the response!

For RC, what is the best way to pratice this? When I do it without timing myself, I can get it to -1 or -2...but when its time, its like all shit blows up...

What do you suggest I go about drilling? Should I just keep timing myself??

I would recommend a mixture of untimed and timed sections. Do mostly timed sections, as those will be more helpful, but it's good to mix it up and take the pressure off sometimes. Do you rush yourself when it's timed because you feel like you're not working fast enough? Try doing a few timed sections where you work at a comfortable pace without trying to necessarily answer every single question, and see how well you did. You might actually end up doing better, even if you don't have time to answer the last few questions.

When you do untimed sections, you should still keep a log of how long it takes you to do the whole section comfortably. Don't worry about the 35 minutes or anything, just set a stopwatch, work on the section normally and check it when you're done. This should give you a better idea of how far you are from finding the ideal pace to work at.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to practice. Do some RC every day - you'll start to feel like the passages are smaller and more manageable. And don't forget to look out for different viewpoints and the author's attitude as you read. The key to saving time on RC is to draw as much out of the passage on your first reading as you can.

At Blueprint, we suggest making simple role-oriented tags next to the paragraphs, like "viewpoint 1," "evidence for viewpoint 2," etc. These can help you log where certain info is on the page. And the act of writing it usually helps you remember it better, whether or not you actually read your tags. Don't get carried away with writing super detailed tags - that usually just creates clutter and wastes time.