I Know to Retake But Need Advice Forum

[stateschoolshame]

Hello TLS community,

So grey day was devastating for me: scored a 163 when my PT average was in the high 160's. I'm still depressed about it, but I know I can do better, so I'm looking to this community for advice on putting together a study plan. I should say that I'm taking a gap year and not applying this cycle, so I have plenty of time.

I really screwed up logic games, more so than I expected. I knew that I bombed the virus game, but I also blew three questions on the third game, so I think I need to continue drilling LG.

Also, I got -6 on RC, which is pretty unusual for me. I'm never perfect on RC, but not that bad.

For LR I'm averaging around -2 or -3, so I'd be happy to stay at that level, since I'm really shooting for low 170s (although I'm not opposed to improving it either, if it means I can somewhat compensate for a lower RC or LG score.)

As for how I studied for September, I did Powerscore LG and LR bibles, and Prep Tests 29-38 and 62-71. Almost all of those were timed, but I'm worried that the way I'm reviewing my practice tests is hurting me. I know about the Blind Review method, but I can't say I used it religiously, since it seemed sort of awkward. Maybe I just didn't understand it well enough and need to read it again.

So I guess my main question is whether people think I should go back to the drawing board and use 7sage or another course. (I must say, I used 7sage's youtube LG explanations and found them extremely helpful, but since I was used to doing LG the way Powerscore recommends, I was a bit lost at points.)

The other option is to just get the rest of the prep tests and drill the hell out of them, making copies and reviewing them. Or I could always do both (which is sort of how I'm leaning - get 7sage's basic course, complete it, then start going through the practice tests again - I'm just worried there is a better way to improve RC)

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

PS I should say that I'm a reverse splitter, since my GPA is perfect (hooray grade inflation!), so I think a retake is especially important for me.

[SunDevil14]

Hello TLS community,

So grey day was devastating for me: scored a 163 when my PT average was in the high 160's. I'm still depressed about it, but I know I can do better, so I'm looking to this community for advice on putting together a study plan. I should say that I'm taking a gap year and not applying this cycle, so I have plenty of time.

I really screwed up logic games, more so than I expected. I knew that I bombed the virus game, but I also blew three questions on the third game, so I think I need to continue drilling LG.

Also, I got -6 on RC, which is pretty unusual for me. I'm never perfect on RC, but not that bad.

For LR I'm averaging around -2 or -3, so I'd be happy to stay at that level, since I'm really shooting for low 170s (although I'm not opposed to improving it either, if it means I can somewhat compensate for a lower RC or LG score.)

As for how I studied for September, I did Powerscore LG and LR bibles, and Prep Tests 29-38 and 62-71. Almost all of those were timed, but I'm worried that the way I'm reviewing my practice tests is hurting me. I know about the Blind Review method, but I can't say I used it religiously, since it seemed sort of awkward. Maybe I just didn't understand it well enough and need to read it again.

So I guess my main question is whether people think I should go back to the drawing board and use 7sage or another course. (I must say, I used 7sage's youtube LG explanations and found them extremely helpful, but since I was used to doing LG the way Powerscore recommends, I was a bit lost at points.)

The other option is to just get the rest of the prep tests and drill the hell out of them, making copies and reviewing them. Or I could always do both (which is sort of how I'm leaning - get 7sage's basic course, complete it, then start going through the practice tests again - I'm just worried there is a better way to improve RC)

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'd recommend drilling the hell out of PT's and LG. Since you were already averaging the high 160's I believe that you have a solid foundation and that another prep course would not be necessary or recommended. I would relentlessly drill weaknesses. -0 on the games can be attained.

For what is worth I was never a big fan of 7sage blind review method. Use the review method that works best for you and gets you the best results.

PS I should say that I'm a reverse splitter, since my GPA is perfect (hooray grade inflation!), so I think a retake is especially important for me.

[Rigo]

Hello TLS community,

So grey day was devastating for me: scored a 163 when my PT average was in the high 160's. I'm still depressed about it, but I know I can do better, so I'm looking to this community for advice on putting together a study plan. I should say that I'm taking a gap year and not applying this cycle, so I have plenty of time.

I really screwed up logic games, more so than I expected. I knew that I bombed the virus game, but I also blew three questions on the third game, so I think I need to continue drilling LG.

Also, I got -6 on RC, which is pretty unusual for me. I'm never perfect on RC, but not that bad.

For LR I'm averaging around -2 or -3, so I'd be happy to stay at that level, since I'm really shooting for low 170s (although I'm not opposed to improving it either, if it means I can somewhat compensate for a lower RC or LG score.)

As for how I studied for September, I did Powerscore LG and LR bibles, and Prep Tests 29-38 and 62-71. Almost all of those were timed, but I'm worried that the way I'm reviewing my practice tests is hurting me. I know about the Blind Review method, but I can't say I used it religiously, since it seemed sort of awkward. Maybe I just didn't understand it well enough and need to read it again.

So I guess my main question is whether people think I should go back to the drawing board and use 7sage or another course. (I must say, I used 7sage's youtube LG explanations and found them extremely helpful, but since I was used to doing LG the way Powerscore recommends, I was a bit lost at points.)

The other option is to just get the rest of the prep tests and drill the hell out of them, making copies and reviewing them. Or I could always do both (which is sort of how I'm leaning - get 7sage's basic course, complete it, then start going through the practice tests again - I'm just worried there is a better way to improve RC)

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'd recommend drilling the hell out of PT's and LG. Since you were already averaging the high 160's I believe that you have a solid foundation and that another prep course would not be necessary or recommended. I would relentlessly drill weaknesses. -0 on the games can be attained.

For what is worth I was never a big fan of 7sage blind review method. Use the review method that works best for you and gets you the best results.

PS I should say that I'm a reverse splitter, since my GPA is perfect (hooray grade inflation!), so I think a retake is especially important for me.

I found Waldo for you OP.

[SolRs]

I think you need to focus more on 72-78 tests. I noticed a huge difference for me as well. I was PTing at 175 up until 71 and then starting seeing a drop to high 160s. Verbiage seems different. I took the Sept 2016 exam without spending enough time on figuring out WHY my scores were lower on 71-78 and it showed. I got a 160. Tough to swallow when I was PTing consistently in the 170s for a while. Yikes. I plan on taking my own advice, by the way, about the 170s tests.

[Vino.Veritas]

I think you need to focus more on 72-78 tests. I noticed a huge difference for me as well. I was PTing at 175 up until 71 and then starting seeing a drop to high 160s. Verbiage seems different. I took the Sept 2016 exam without spending enough time on figuring out WHY my scores were lower on 71-78 and it showed. I got a 160. Tough to swallow when I was PTing consistently in the 170s for a while. Yikes. I plan on taking my own advice, by the way, about the 170s tests.

This is an interesting point, and one I hadn't thought about. I'm going to keep this in mind.

Would someone be able to explain the Blind Review method? Is it helpful? I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of my PT reviews.

[Rigo]

Would someone be able to explain the Blind Review method? Is it helpful? I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of my PT reviews.

https://7sage.com/the-blind-review-how- ... at-part-1/

[SolRs]

I think you need to focus more on 72-78 tests. I noticed a huge difference for me as well. I was PTing at 175 up until 71 and then starting seeing a drop to high 160s. Verbiage seems different. I took the Sept 2016 exam without spending enough time on figuring out WHY my scores were lower on 71-78 and it showed. I got a 160. Tough to swallow when I was PTing consistently in the 170s for a while. Yikes. I plan on taking my own advice, by the way, about the 170s tests.

This is an interesting point, and one I hadn't thought about. I'm going to keep this in mind.

Would someone be able to explain the Blind Review method? Is it helpful? I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of my PT reviews.

Blind Review is DEFINITELY better than looking at your score immediately after taking, and then just going over what you got wrong (often already having peeked at the answer). I intend to do this much more up until December. Very time consuming, but it seems to be worth it.

[Vino.Veritas]

Would someone be able to explain the Blind Review method? Is it helpful? I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of my PT reviews.

https://7sage.com/the-blind-review-how- ... at-part-1/

Haha in retrospect I probably could have just googled that. Thank you! I really appreciate it!

[kindofcanuck]

I think you need to focus more on 72-78 tests. I noticed a huge difference for me as well. I was PTing at 175 up until 71 and then starting seeing a drop to high 160s. Verbiage seems different. I took the Sept 2016 exam without spending enough time on figuring out WHY my scores were lower on 71-78 and it showed. I got a 160. Tough to swallow when I was PTing consistently in the 170s for a while. Yikes. I plan on taking my own advice, by the way, about the 170s tests.

This is an interesting point, and one I hadn't thought about. I'm going to keep this in mind.

Would someone be able to explain the Blind Review method? Is it helpful? I also feel like I'm not getting the most out of my PT reviews.

The problem with BR as 7sage seem to recommend it is that if you're getting things wrong, you're going to continue in the same vein.

It's definitely, definitely a good idea to review everything that you were unsure about. Whether you got it right or wrong, if you were less than certain about the answer, you should force yourself to slowly go through all the choices, explaining why the right one was right and the wrong ones were wrong. That makes you engage with the answers, and the logic, and drags your way of thinking round to the logical way the LSAT demands.

The reason I would never do it 'blind' is that if you do this without first finding out which ones are in fact right, you're going to be persuading yourself, and changing your way of thinking, towards answer choices which are not necessarily right. This is the last thing you want to be doing.

Review. Review, review, review. It's slow, and time-consuming, and a lot of work, and totally worth it. But (my personal take is) for gods sake, don't use the time to convince yourself answers are right (including explaining to yourself why) when, in fact, they're not. Use the answer key first, to find out what logic you need to think yourself into in the first place.

[Vino.Veritas]

The reason I would never do it 'blind' is that if you do this without first finding out which ones are in fact right, you're going to be persuading yourself, and changing your way of thinking, towards answer choices which are not necessarily right. This is the last thing you want to be doing.

Review. Review, review, review. It's slow, and time-consuming, and a lot of work, and totally worth it. But (my personal take is) for gods sake, don't use the time to convince yourself answers are right (including explaining to yourself why) when, in fact, they're not. Use the answer key first, to find out what logic you need to think yourself into in the first place.

Reading through the method, this was my thought as well. I think what I'll likely do is do a short blind review on the questions that I could have used more time on, check which questions I got wrong, and redo those without looking at the correct answer. Then go through each wrong/circled question one by one to examine my logic on each.

[stateschoolshame]

So it sounds like the consensus is to drill the last batch of prep tests and review them using some helpful method.

Would it be worth getting Cambridge packets or Manhattan books for Logical Reasoning?

Also, what about the really early prep tests? Are those considered unhelpful because of how different the test is today?

Thanks!

[SunDevil14]

Hello TLS community,

So grey day was devastating for me: scored a 163 when my PT average was in the high 160's. I'm still depressed about it, but I know I can do better, so I'm looking to this community for advice on putting together a study plan. I should say that I'm taking a gap year and not applying this cycle, so I have plenty of time.

I really screwed up logic games, more so than I expected. I knew that I bombed the virus game, but I also blew three questions on the third game, so I think I need to continue drilling LG.

Also, I got -6 on RC, which is pretty unusual for me. I'm never perfect on RC, but not that bad.

For LR I'm averaging around -2 or -3, so I'd be happy to stay at that level, since I'm really shooting for low 170s (although I'm not opposed to improving it either, if it means I can somewhat compensate for a lower RC or LG score.)

As for how I studied for September, I did Powerscore LG and LR bibles, and Prep Tests 29-38 and 62-71. Almost all of those were timed, but I'm worried that the way I'm reviewing my practice tests is hurting me. I know about the Blind Review method, but I can't say I used it religiously, since it seemed sort of awkward. Maybe I just didn't understand it well enough and need to read it again.

So I guess my main question is whether people think I should go back to the drawing board and use 7sage or another course. (I must say, I used 7sage's youtube LG explanations and found them extremely helpful, but since I was used to doing LG the way Powerscore recommends, I was a bit lost at points.)

The other option is to just get the rest of the prep tests and drill the hell out of them, making copies and reviewing them. Or I could always do both (which is sort of how I'm leaning - get 7sage's basic course, complete it, then start going through the practice tests again - I'm just worried there is a better way to improve RC)

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'd recommend drilling the hell out of PT's and LG. Since you were already averaging the high 160's I believe that you have a solid foundation and that another prep course would not be necessary or recommended. I would relentlessly drill weaknesses. -0 on the games can be attained.

For what is worth I was never a big fan of 7sage blind review method. Use the review method that works best for you and gets you the best results.

PS I should say that I'm a reverse splitter, since my GPA is perfect (hooray grade inflation!), so I think a retake is especially important for me.

I found Waldo for you OP.

Haha thanks. My bad.

I also echo the statements about the most recent PT's