Improving from the low 170's Forum

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SunDevil14

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Improving from the low 170's

Post by SunDevil14 » Thu Nov 10, 2016 6:28 pm

With the December Exam less than a month away, I am seeking some good advice on how to slightly improve my score. I tend to score in the low 170's. Furthermore my occasional high 160's performances are offset by my mid 170's performances. I am not looking for a miracle, or are large score increase just an additional 1 to 2+ point average on my practice exams.

LG: maxed out -0 consistently.

LR: -2 to -4 on average. I struggle with the most difficult questions perhaps a slight weakness in assumption, but far from any glaring weakness on a particular question type. Occasionally rush on the last question or two in a 26 question section.

RC: -4 to -5 on average. I struggle with the most difficult passages rather than a particular type of passage or question type. Occasional timing issues on longer sections (27-28 questions), which is to say that although I finish all 4 passage sometimes I rush the last few questions in the final passage.

If I had to chose to aggressively drill LR or RC, which is the more prudent choice?
As of now I have spent much more time on LR (which makes up a larger percent of the test) but my rate of progress has been stubborn. I have spent significantly less time on RC, and thus it is my weakness section, though I hear the improvements in that section are much harder and time consuming.

As for struggling with difficult portions of the test, is there any other good advice than consistently drilling hard passages/questions?

-Thanks Guys

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34iplaw

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by 34iplaw » Thu Nov 10, 2016 6:37 pm

Retaker... probably a similar boat. Doing RC right now and will probably lean heavily on RC. TBH, I don't feel like you or me should be getting -5/-6 in RC.

Your timing issues may benefit from both, but I, personally, feel like RC is a bit harder timing wise so maybe it will help a little more.

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Tazewell

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by Tazewell » Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:28 pm

I sure the same as you, and I went from a -5 to -7 RC to about -2 to -4 RC by just doing them over and over again, and I do about half of them untimed and the other half timed. I played around with notating but found that it didn't help me, so I don't notate at all.

This is probably going to sound dumb, but I generally find that there's two easy passages (usually the first is always one of them), and a medium and a hard. I really focus on going perfect on the two passages that I identify as easy, because I usually never miss more than 2 on the hard one. Confidence was key to me, and making telling myself to go perfect made me really take my time on the easier one as opposed to rushing through it to spend 10 minutes on the hard passage.

Sorry if that's no help, but it's what I did. Studying for RC sucks, but treat it like games and do at least a section every day and you'll get better at them.

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34iplaw

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by 34iplaw » Fri Nov 11, 2016 8:09 pm

Tazewell wrote:I sure the same as you, and I went from a -5 to -7 RC to about -2 to -4 RC by just doing them over and over again, and I do about half of them untimed and the other half timed. I played around with notating but found that it didn't help me, so I don't notate at all.

This is probably going to sound dumb, but I generally find that there's two easy passages (usually the first is always one of them), and a medium and a hard. I really focus on going perfect on the two passages that I identify as easy, because I usually never miss more than 2 on the hard one. Confidence was key to me, and making telling myself to go perfect made me really take my time on the easier one as opposed to rushing through it to spend 10 minutes on the hard passage.

Sorry if that's no help, but it's what I did. Studying for RC sucks, but treat it like games and do at least a section every day and you'll get better at them.
There's hope! I will be doing this. At least four passages a day keeps Eileen Grey at bay.

I feel like notations just sort of help me slow down and focus...most of my notation is sort of abstract but it seems to be helping.

Stuff like... bracket or line on side of paragraph for a sort of continuous thought with a word or two
...examples I circle and draw an arrow to what they are an example of.
...star for viewpoints
..."dis" for distinctions

On individual passages, I'm spending closer to 3-4 minutes reading but many of the questions I blaze through this way.

I'll know more when I go back to timed sections.

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SunDevil14

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by SunDevil14 » Fri Nov 11, 2016 9:18 pm

Well looks like most of us on this thread are in similar circumstances. For the most part notations are not a large part of the approach (perhaps minor for some).

Just hammered out 3 four sections passage, and will review them in depth either later tonight or tomorrow. I agree with the sentiments that given good performances in the other sections of the test, that an equitable performance on RC is doable on the exam so long as we really work on it before test day.

Also mentioned above, I more or less follow the approach of taken the time to get the easy passages right and just give it my best on the hardest/final passage with the time I have remaining usually 7 to 8 minutes. It's just discouraging to see -0 to -2 on three of the passage and then a staggering -3 or -4 on the hardest passage.

I am going to start a new thread more geared to specific RC concerns, approaches, and strategy in order to see if their are some good suggestions we can use.

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Blueprint Mithun

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by Blueprint Mithun » Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:53 pm

SunDevil14 wrote:With the December Exam less than a month away, I am seeking some good advice on how to slightly improve my score. I tend to score in the low 170's. Furthermore my occasional high 160's performances are offset by my mid 170's performances. I am not looking for a miracle, or are large score increase just an additional 1 to 2+ point average on my practice exams.

LG: maxed out -0 consistently.

LR: -2 to -4 on average. I struggle with the most difficult questions perhaps a slight weakness in assumption, but far from any glaring weakness on a particular question type. Occasionally rush on the last question or two in a 26 question section.

RC: -4 to -5 on average. I struggle with the most difficult passages rather than a particular type of passage or question type. Occasional timing issues on longer sections (27-28 questions), which is to say that although I finish all 4 passage sometimes I rush the last few questions in the final passage.

If I had to chose to aggressively drill LR or RC, which is the more prudent choice?
As of now I have spent much more time on LR (which makes up a larger percent of the test) but my rate of progress has been stubborn. I have spent significantly less time on RC, and thus it is my weakness section, though I hear the improvements in that section are much harder and time consuming.

As for struggling with difficult portions of the test, is there any other good advice than consistently drilling hard passages/questions?

-Thanks Guys

I'd suggest focusing more on RC then LR. I was in a fairly similar boat in the weeks leading up to my LSAT. RC was my biggest weakness, as it would fluctuate from -2 to like -6. I started to drill two RC sections per day in my last few weeks of prep, and it definitely helped. I started to feel as if the passages were much shorter, and that I could absorb all the major relevant points after one read-through. This improved my speed and my accuracy. With LR, it's tricky to see consistent improvements without having a specific area that you know is holding you back.

Another strategy I used in the last few weeks of my prep was to compile really difficult LR sections. I would go back into PTs I'd already done, and take the last 10 LR questions in a few different sections. I put them together into one super section, and then take that, since LR questions typically get harder the further you get in the section. This helped improve my endurance and attention to detail, as harder LR questions tend to have more dense, complicated stimuli, and rely on more subtle details. I'd highly recommend giving it a shot.

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SunDevil14

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Re: Improving from the low 170's

Post by SunDevil14 » Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:53 am

Blueprint Mithun wrote:
SunDevil14 wrote:With the December Exam less than a month away, I am seeking some good advice on how to slightly improve my score. I tend to score in the low 170's. Furthermore my occasional high 160's performances are offset by my mid 170's performances. I am not looking for a miracle, or are large score increase just an additional 1 to 2+ point average on my practice exams.

LG: maxed out -0 consistently.

LR: -2 to -4 on average. I struggle with the most difficult questions perhaps a slight weakness in assumption, but far from any glaring weakness on a particular question type. Occasionally rush on the last question or two in a 26 question section.

RC: -4 to -5 on average. I struggle with the most difficult passages rather than a particular type of passage or question type. Occasional timing issues on longer sections (27-28 questions), which is to say that although I finish all 4 passage sometimes I rush the last few questions in the final passage.

If I had to chose to aggressively drill LR or RC, which is the more prudent choice?
As of now I have spent much more time on LR (which makes up a larger percent of the test) but my rate of progress has been stubborn. I have spent significantly less time on RC, and thus it is my weakness section, though I hear the improvements in that section are much harder and time consuming.

As for struggling with difficult portions of the test, is there any other good advice than consistently drilling hard passages/questions?

-Thanks Guys

I'd suggest focusing more on RC then LR. I was in a fairly similar boat in the weeks leading up to my LSAT. RC was my biggest weakness, as it would fluctuate from -2 to like -6. I started to drill two RC sections per day in my last few weeks of prep, and it definitely helped. I started to feel as if the passages were much shorter, and that I could absorb all the major relevant points after one read-through. This improved my speed and my accuracy. With LR, it's tricky to see consistent improvements without having a specific area that you know is holding you back.

Another strategy I used in the last few weeks of my prep was to compile really difficult LR sections. I would go back into PTs I'd already done, and take the last 10 LR questions in a few different sections. I put them together into one super section, and then take that, since LR questions typically get harder the further you get in the section. This helped improve my endurance and attention to detail, as harder LR questions tend to have more dense, complicated stimuli, and rely on more subtle details. I'd highly recommend giving it a shot.

I have been doing the first suggestion the last few days, I may incorporate the second suggestion. I have also been studying an extra few hours a day in order to build my stamina.

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