LSAT Prep 5 weeks left

[UBCstudent1234]

Hey powerscore,

I am studying for the second time for the Jan LSAT. I was studying for it in the summer taking a prep course but relied too heavily on the course and didn't have enough time to feel comfortable to improve my score so I didn't write. I started with a 145 and made my way up to 154 (my goal is to get at least a 160). I have a science background and because of that I am relatively new to this kind of thinking that is required but I have made improvements which I am happy about.

Since starting back up again, I have been studying for the past 7 weeks and changed my studying strategy. In the course over the summer, we used up material without knowing everything that was required on the test, i.e. did RC without knowing certain patterns or games without knowing how to do a typical game. This time around, I reviewed all the material from the powerscore bibles within a month and a half. Now I have around a month and a half left but I don't know what to do to best execute an improvement. I realize I can just do practice test after practice test, but I don't want to just waste material and not improve so I know I have to review and practice concepts but I am just not sure what specifically to do.

I have done 5 practice tests so far again and got back to where I was when I last finished, 150, 150, 153, 153 and then flopped one recently and got a 149 somehow which really was demoralizing.

My sections are usually all over the place and whenever I do well on one of them, the others fall off a bit. For example, scored a 22/27 on an RC but had 14 on each of the others in the PT. Then in another PT, got 18 in arguments, but flopped the others. Right now I usually complete 3 RC passages, 3 games (but I like games and am trying to push for four) and usually can answer around 20 arguments but I make dumb mistakes on some of the early arguments and on average end up with around 15 correct.

When I do look over my answers, for the most part I understand why the answer I chose was wrong after the fact but I don't know how to use my past mistakes as guidelines for future questions.

As of right now, I have a solid 10 new practice tests left, some of them are the most recent as well (61, 63, 65, 66, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84). I also have all the old PT that I can use for practice 1-50s. PT 70-77 were completed over the summer but I don't want to use those as legit practice because I am afraid I will know little bits and pieces of them and it will not be representative.

I want to improve by an average of 10 points, basically get out of the 61-64 range and make it into the 70s. I have gone over all the material so I am used to everything, it's just about applying the skills.

I just haven't figured out how to bring it all together and would really appreciate some guidance.

Sorry for the ramble and thanks in advance for any comments.

[Brook Miscoski]

UBC,

It looks to me like you have made a large gain in points and questions answered, but then leveled out. Let's think of what you've accomplished--about 16 additional questions correct on the test. That's a sizable accomplishment. Still, your goal is to get about 11 more questions right. That means about 3 more questions right per section, although you could pick up more from some sections and fewer from others.

I don't know what class you took, but it would be very normal for a class to cover a few types of games, then a few types of passages, and so forth. That approach keeps learning manageable. It sounds to me like that helped you. Right now, you have overloaded yourself with information, and you're finding that cramming doesn't work for an LSAT the way it might work for a test of pure information rather than a test of technique.

My experience tells me that you need to take a step back and double down on technique. When you say that you can only get to 20 arguments and are making "dumb mistakes" on early questions, what I hear is that you are focused on the goal (getting to more questions and getting them right) rather than on the technique (reading and understanding the stimulus and its logical structure, correctly interpreting the question stem, and carefully using all of your technique to eliminate incorrect responses). What I hear is that you miss questions you should have aced and then start getting bogged down later in the section, both missing questions and slowing down. What I hear is that you need to focus on technique.

If you had a number of prep book sections where you felt you got the idea well although you didn't ace the practice, then you didn't get the idea as well as you could have gotten it. You can also use the question types that you are missing to go back and review technique.

For anything more specific I feel that you would need to speak with an instructor directly and show the instructor your specific problems. Because there are some limitations to this medium (e.g. we can't naturally talk through a few questions), I can only interpret your recounting of your difficulties based on general experience.

[UBCstudent1234]

Hi Brook,

Thanks for the reply. When you mean practice the technique, what specifically are things that I can do to improve that have worked for other people. Specifically in terms of Logical Reasoning.

Today I did one LR untimed took me twice as long to complete, but I got 20/25 and was pretty happy by what I got correct vs what I got wrong. The things I got wrong were things that I didn't understand.

Then I did a timed section after and thought I was doing pretty good, but I bombed it and got 10/25. Only answered 19 and guessed the last 7. I had 5 in between 2s.

If anything, I understand the concepts pretty well. Timing seems to be a major obstacle for me.

What are some things I can practice that would help me improve?

[Dave Killoran]

Hi UBC, take a look at the ideas in this article I wrote about improving your score. It should help!

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/retaki ... your-score