Not reaching Feb. LSAT target score

[kev2015]

Dear Powerscore,

I am registered for the Feb, 2016 LSAT, and I am not reaching my target goal. My target score is not something super high, I just want a 157. I have previously taken the June 2015 LSAT, and have gotten a 151.

I have been studying for the LSAT for several months, and have done the 1992-1999 as drilling questions, and the 2000-2009 as 4-section full-timed PTs. Since January, I have been doing full-timed 5-section PTs, scattered from 2010-2014. However I am not reaching my target goal.

Below are my scores:

Early in Jan. when I first began the 5-section after year 2010 PTs, my scores were: June 152, Oct. 153.
Then, PT 2010 ---> June 156, Oct. 154, Dec. 159
PT 2011 ----> June 155, Oct. 151 (did this one yesterday), Dec. 155 (did this Dec. one today)
PT 2013 ---> June 155, Oct. 158
PT 2014 ----> June 154

My score breakdown for each section is approximately like that:
- LG --> 15-18 out of 23/24 (can finish 3.5 games)
- LR ----> One section is around 15-18 ouf of 26, the other 18-20 out of 25 ( can finish 20-22 questions for each LR, I skip the questions I think are hard or long, e.g.: parallel reasoning)
- RC ---> 10-13 out of 27/28 (can barely finish 3 RC)
I realize that my RC score is SUPER low, and I have worked on it for the entire time, however it did not seem to improve. Usually when I do not time myself, my score is much higher. My RC score was even higher on the real June 2015 test I took last summer, I had 14/27, with an overall score of 151.

I realize that there is very little time left to study until the Feb. LSAT, and so therefore I would like to know according to your experience, is it a reach-able to obtain a 157?

If yes, how do you think I should direct my study? I only have 5 PTs left from the years 2010-2015 that I have never seen. I have pretty much seen all 70 sth PTs questions, and have a vague memory of them, except for these last five ones from the year 2010-2015 that I have never done.

One thing is that, I feel LG there is still room for improvement, because I usually cannot get all first three games perfectly correct, and for the fourth game, I can only finish around 2-3 questions. For LR, I feel that the only improvement I can still make is to try to do one more question per section. I don't think that I can finish all the Qs, and I do not think that I can get every single question that I have done correct.

I feel so anxious now, and I really would need appreciate it if you could give me some advice. Thank you very much in advance!!!

[Ladan Soleimani]

Hey kev2015,

First of all I admire all the hard work you've done. That is a lot of test questions to work through. I do think you have a chance of reaching your goal on the February test. Your median is a 155, only two points shy of your goal and you have gotten there on a couple practice tests. Every single question is going to be important so you want to grab every chance you have to get another one correct. While seeing the breakdown of how you are doing on the sections is helpful, I have a few questions that will better allow us to determine what you should focus on. First, when you were doing the drill questions, what was your approach? Have you learned specific techniques and how to approach the questions or were you working through them with your own method? Are there question types or concepts, like conditional or causal reasoning, that you notice you struggle with? Picking a particular question type, especially if it is a common one, to focus on in the next two weeks may get you the couple extra correct answers you need.

On RC you said you barely make it through 3 passages; are you rushing to get through those three? If so, slowing down and focusing more on the first two passages and even just a question or two on the third may increase your accuracy enough to net you more correct answers overall.

Finally, if you think you have room for improvement on the games, that would be a good place to spend a lot of your time. If you can get all the questions correct on the first three games you should be at your goal. If you are running short on materials I would recommend doing some of the games from the beginning of your prep. It is unlikely that you will remember them enough to have it effect how you perform. Then use the remaining practices tests to gauge how you are improving.

I hope this helps. The more understanding you have of what exactly you are missing concept wise, the better able you will be to target your prep for the next two weeks.

Ladan

[kev2015]

Thanks a lot for the reply!! I do agree with your strategy!

Would you think then that there would still be some time for me to work with an individual tutor from powerscore to try to obtain several more points on the RC? I'm not looking into doing more passages, I just want to improve my accuracy a bit more, as my accuracy is really bad right now. I feel that I just need to do 4-5 more questions correct overal to reach a 157.

Thanks again!

[Clay Cooper]

Hi kev,

Thanks for your detailed post and questions and for your follow up question. It is gratifying to see a student working so hard to improve.

Your follow-up question was: is there still time to work with a PowerScore tutor and improve your RC score between now and the test date?

I will answer based on my experience. I have found that RC is, unfortunately, the most difficult section in which to make progress. That is certainly not to say that progress is impossible - on the contrary, I have seen it happen many times. This section is, however, the one most dependent on a skill that takes a lifetime to develop and improve, and which therefore can be difficult to tackle in a short time.

However, it is absolutely possible to improve your score, especially if you take the following approach: I would encourage you to use the prep time that remains to focus on your test-taking strategy in RC rather than your reading ability itself.

To elaborate, I have seen, many times, students who read at a certain level of comprehension but whose scores in RC improved when the student began to pay careful attention to their practical strategy, timing, and pace within the section.

Consider the following: you mentioned that you score much higher in untimed RC sections than in timed practice, and that when timed you typically struggle to finish 3 passages, answering on average 10-13 questions correctly. It is possible - possible, not necessarily the case - that you might benefit from purposefully slowing down within the section. Since there are an average of 26-27 questions in a RC section, we can generalize that any two passages are likely to account for (let's say) about 13 questions. Imagine if you purposefully ignored two of the four passages within the section; that would leave you with 17:30 per passage for the two you do tackle - a number much closer to the pace you use when you are not timed. If, by slowing down like this, you are able to increase your accuracy, it might turn out that you can consistently answer 10-12 of these 13 questions correctly. That number would already place you almost at the level you achieve when attempting three passages; plus, you can expect to guess correctly 20% of the time on questions you answer blindly. Since, under this approach, you would blindly guess on about 13-14 questions, you could reasonably expect to average 2-3 correct guesses, which would bring your total to 12-15 correct - more in line with your goals.

Most importantly, if you find that, even at a slower, more comfortable pace, you have a little bit of time left at the end (less than enough to fully tackle a passage; let's say, for example, 4-5 minutes), you might very well be able to tackle a couple of questions from the next passage, or even half of them - greatly improving your odds on these questions over blind guessing.

In my experience, students rarely improve their scores in RC by speeding up over their typical timed pace; some, however, improve by slowing down - often improve significantly.

I would encourage you as well to make sure to be selective in the passages you attempt (you should do this anyway, even if you end up attempting three passages). If you are better at comparative reading, make sure you attempt that passage. If you excel in diversity or law passages, make sure you do not skip them. If science passages make you want to throw up, make sure they are among the ones you skip. Do not spend any more time than is necessary to determine the topic of a passage, but I have found that determining which topic category a passage falls into typically doesn't take long.

Finally, when you find yourself with a little bit of time left after the end of a passage, but not enough time to fully attempt the next one, be selective about the questions you attempt. Global questions (such as main point or tone) will generally be harder to answer correctly when you haven't thoroughly read the passage as a whole. Specific reference questions, by contrast, can sometimes be answered with much less actual reading. If the question asks "The author mentions left-handed panda bears in line 34 in order to..." you might be able to quickly scan that paragraph and determine the answer, even if you don't have time to read the whole passage.

Finally, your score in RC is highly dependent on your ability to focus while reading and retain what you read. To that end, if you can improve your ability to focus, your score is likely to improve as well. Though this may seem obvious and unhelpful, I have found that there are simple steps you can take that might help. For instance, breathing exercises (in which I close my eyes, breath deeply, and focus on the sensation of breathing for about ten seconds) vastly improve my retention of what I read. Often I read a paragraph before bed and realize at the end of it that I have no idea what it said - usually when that happens, I find that it is because I am thinking about sushi or how bad the Titans are rather than what I am reading. Taking ten seconds to refocus helps me tremendously and might very well improve your retention and your score.

I hope all of this helps - remember, your strategy, pace, and focus in RC are extremely important and can almost always be improved. Keep working hard! It pays off.