161 last june, 3 months to June retake reasonable for 10 point bump? Forum

[midwestkid06]

Last year about this time I slowly started studying for the LSAT with Matt Kim's LSAT Trainer. I fell behind and really didn't start studying (1-2) hours a day till mid-March. I scored a 161, which got me WL at UC where I want to attend. My AR on the test was good -3, LR was -5&-6 and RC was -9 . I was hitting 164-166 timed PT's probably 5 full ones before sitting for the exam. Work ethic and dedication is everything but time is still a factor, I could only study close to 2-3 hours a day up to the June test( I work 55 hours a week). With the knowledge I haven't touched any test material since last June. I'm pretty healthy, eat right, exercise daily and get enough sleep. I feel I read enough but from looking at other posts the books may not be of enough substance to have an impact. Is a 10 point increase(liberal) realistic in that time frame? Should I bust my ass for June or study longer/less intensely for the October date?

[splitterfromhell]

Last year about this time I slowly started studying for the LSAT with Matt Kim's LSAT Trainer. I fell behind and really didn't start studying (1-2) hours a day till mid-March. I scored a 161, which got me WL at UC where I want to attend. My LR on the test was great -2, AR was -4 I believe and RC was -9 . I was hitting 164-166 timed PT's probably 5 full ones before sitting for the exam. Work ethic and dedication is everything but time is still a factor, I could only study close to 2-3 hours a day up to the June test( I work 55 hours a week). With the knowledge I haven't touched any test material since last June. I'm pretty healthy, eat right, exercise daily and get enough sleep. I feel I read enough but from looking at other posts the books may not be of enough substance to have an impact. Is a 10 point increase(liberal) realistic in that time frame? Should I bust my ass for June or study longer/less intensely for the October date?

There's no way that a -15 would equate to a 161.

[fliptrip]

It's odd to me that you'd do -6 in arguments and so much worse in reading comprehension. Are you running out of time in RC or are you actually missing questions. If you have any problem with main conclusion and inference questions, you are going to have trouble in RC because many of those questions are main conclusion/inference questions. That's all to say that simply more study won't guarantee anything, it's what you study and how that will determine the progress you're able to make.

[Clyde Frog]

Last year about this time I slowly started studying for the LSAT with Matt Kim's LSAT Trainer. I fell behind and really didn't start studying (1-2) hours a day till mid-March. I scored a 161, which got me WL at UC where I want to attend. My LR on the test was great -2, AR was -4 I believe and RC was -9 . I was hitting 164-166 timed PT's probably 5 full ones before sitting for the exam. Work ethic and dedication is everything but time is still a factor, I could only study close to 2-3 hours a day up to the June test( I work 55 hours a week). With the knowledge I haven't touched any test material since last June. I'm pretty healthy, eat right, exercise daily and get enough sleep. I feel I read enough but from looking at other posts the books may not be of enough substance to have an impact. Is a 10 point increase(liberal) realistic in that time frame? Should I bust my ass for June or study longer/less intensely for the October date?

There's no way that a -15 would equate to a 161.

Correct. -15 got you a 167 last June. -23 or -24 for a 161.

[midwestkid06]

It's odd to me that you'd do -6 in arguments and so much worse in reading comprehension. Are you running out of time in RC or are you actually missing questions. If you have any problem with main conclusion and inference questions, you are going to have trouble in RC because many of those questions are main conclusion/inference questions. That's all to say that simply more study won't guarantee anything, it's what you study and how that will determine the progress you're able to make.

Would usually have plenty of time, would struggle with the inference questions especially ones "from this section the author most likely agrees with which one of these statements" etc. to be honest RC was and is definitely my least favorite section to study and I've always been an avid and strong reader.

[fliptrip]

It's odd to me that you'd do -6 in arguments and so much worse in reading comprehension. Are you running out of time in RC or are you actually missing questions. If you have any problem with main conclusion and inference questions, you are going to have trouble in RC because many of those questions are main conclusion/inference questions. That's all to say that simply more study won't guarantee anything, it's what you study and how that will determine the progress you're able to make.

Would usually have plenty of time, would struggle with the inference questions especially ones "from this section the author most likely agrees with which one of these statements" etc. to be honest RC was and is definitely my least favorite section to study and I've always been an avid and strong reader.

Then there you have it...focus your study on inference questions and make sure you intensively review when you're done with each practice session. Don't just check over what's wrong, review what you got right and force yourself to explain why its right. If you can do that faithfully, you should be able to get your score up in these next three months.

[theconsigliere]

clearly games are not your biggest hurdle but they're by far the most learnable. With the right amount of studying you can probably be perfect on the games section, there's a 2-3 point bump in just one section

[87mm]

10 point jump is possible if you are close to an "aha!" moment. I went from 155-->160-->167 from june to december. Its not as huge as a 10 point jump but between october and december (mostly in november) things just "clicked" much better and I know on the Dec test I could have scored at least another 1-2 points if I wasnt being an idiot

Keep at it. Also consider a manhattan prepcourse if you want to try one. It helped me a ton.