160 plateau - Need advice

[nikaar]

Hi,

I was hoping to ask for advice from those of you who have experienced and have got passed a160 plateau.

I started studying for the LSAT in May and my initial diagnostic score was a 145. My last five recent PTs are 159, 159,162,160, and 160 and my blind review score average is around 170. After I do the blind review I get almost all LR right, maybe except one or two questions, and the same goes for LG. But I still get around 5-6 wrong on RC. My goal is to get a 165 and I am writing the test in September.

My average incorrect answers in each section are as below:
LG: -4
LR: -5 each
RC: -8 (I am an ESL student so at best I have to spend 3:30 min on each passage)

Right now I am doing three PTs a week and I do BR after each plus I am still fool proofing more rare/mapping/pattern games.

Since I got almost the same score in my last 5 PTs I have started questioning the effectiveness of doing only PTs followed by BR. What I am not sure about is whether doing PTs is going to increase my score or should I still do more drills and work on my techniques.

Thank you

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Nikaar,

Thanks for the question. It is clear that you have two big opportunities for score improvement:

1. Perfect score on Games.
2. Improvement on Reading Comp.

Let's talk about games first. If you're missing games questions even in blind review, zero in on where and how you miss those questions. Students miss questions on games for one (or more) of several reasons:

• Incorrect information/setup in initial diagram.
• Incorrect information in question diagram.
• Misreading questions/answering the wrong question (could be true answer for must be true, etc.)
• Doing insufficient work to get questions right. In other words, you're mostly sure you've found the right answer, but not 100%.
• Confusing questions (could be weird local/global, or rule substitution, etc.)
• Running out of time

Since you miss a couple even in blind review, one or more of the above situations applies to you. Identify how and why you miss questions on games. Determine what you would need to do to get those questions right. Attempt the game again, going through the process of getting each question right.

For LR, it sounds as though you've made substantial progress. There will likely be a couple questions that are extraordinarily difficult. You can miss a couple on LR and make a score between 165 and 175, as long as you maintain very high accuracy on the rest of the test.

Work on cementing the progress you've made on LR. Focus on the remaining situations in which you miss LR questions. Are you missing the very hard questions, no matter what the question type? Or are you missing certain kinds of questions more often than others? If you have a weakness on a certain kind of question, you will want to do targeted review on that.

Reading Comp is the other big area where you have room for improvement. Part of the challenge on RC is likely timing. With 3:30 minutes per passage, we're going to be facing a bit of a time crunch. I understand your situation with ESL (and I commend you for the remarkable job you're doing with the exceptionally challenging language on this test); however, I wonder whether we can streamline your initial reading slightly to give yourself more time on the questions.

Read as though you're on a train track. The train goes one direction. It does not stop until it arrives at its destination. As you read, ask yourself:

• What did I just read?
• How does that tie into what came before?

Dynamically construct your understanding of the main point/primary purpose and structure of the passage. As you notice ViewSTAMP stuff, mark it with appropriate annotations, but work to ensure that any annotating you do does not distract you at all from your reading.

When you do the questions, consider working on more of the Must Be True-Specific Reference and Content Reference questions first. Do some of the detail-oriented work so that the Global Reference and more complicated question tasks go faster.

Consider timing yourself while you're doing drills. Set a timer for 8 minutes per passage and do whatever it takes to get maximum points in the time allotted.

These are just some suggestions to help you bust through this wall. Above all, remain positive and confident. Keep doing your work with the practice tests. If you need to drop one a week to give yourself more time for specific concept review, go for it. Make sure you're not burning out. Take days off to chill out and refocus yourself.

I hope this helps!