Thoughts on converting high untimed into high TIMED score?

[oychoi]

Hi Team,

I am currently in the midst of a massive LSAT plateau. I am scoring currently in the low 160's and am aiming to hit into the 170's+. The distance to get through is a few more questions correct, but I know that the last jump is going to be very challenging.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on my study process because I am in that weird situation that I am sure you all aware of with students - scoring high untimed but underperforming timed.

It drives me absolutely crazy when I do Blind Review afterwards and easily get most of the questions correct! It's not unique to one question type or so, just scattered.

One thing I am wondering is this - is the situation I am mean that my mental processes are not finely tuned or not completely automated?

When untimed, we have all the time in the world to go through each step and reflect and think through each part of the process. But when timed, everything is speeded up so we tend to skip a part of the process, which throws a wrench in the curve?

Sorry if that sounds very vague but I am wondering if you can relate and if that is the key to the breakthrough? Figure out what part of my mental process is not fully automated and fix it?

At this point, no amount of reviewing Flaws or the various ways to Weaken/Strengthen seems to help since I have reviewed them countless times. I am wondering if the key is identifying the wrench in my thinking process.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi oychoi,

Great question, and thanks for asking!

You've already overcome a significant hurdle in this test by getting to the point where you have very high blind review scores. That's not something that just anyone can achieve. And keep in mind that almost everyone (except people who routinely get high 170s and 180 scores on timed tests) sees a difference between their blind review scores and their timed test scores. That's natural and shouldn't be surprising.

Here are a few things you can do to try to jump start the process of closing that gap. First, examine whether you're really fully comfortable with efficiently handling any instances (even complicated ones) of the more "technical" reasoning concepts tested in LR. For example, can you instantly identify and diagram any conditional, or formal logic style, statements when you need to? If not, those are concrete areas for improvement that will allow you to pick up speed. They're also things that can easily be practiced, by going to the end (questions 15-25) of LR sections, locating questions utilizing those concepts, and just drilling the diagrams of those types of statements until you can do any of them without a hitch or any hesitation.

Second, don't let the "perfect" be the enemy of the "good enough." Realize when you've gone far enough with your analysis to yield a confident answer choice. This is easier to do in logic games: in plenty of cases, I diagram a couple steps into, let's say, a Local Must Be True question, and I realize I've got the inference I need. Learning when to "stop," because you've already got the answer, is a massive key to speed. But, and here's the interesting part, this applies to logical reasoning and reading comprehension as well. Sometimes I see students working too hard to spin out the "full story" (the "complete explanation") of a question, when they've already identified the basic logical principle driving the question (a logical principle that could let them easily eliminate four wrong answers and choose a correct one without necessarily telling me the full story of, or completely explaining, the question). For example, do you see "new information" in the conclusion of a Justify question? Immediately narrow your answer list to answers that refer to it. Is there only one answer that refers to it? That's your answer. Forget spinning out the complete explanation to the question. Another example: is your Flaw question stimulus using a cause/effect style argument? Immediately get rid of those answers referring to conditional or non-causal technical flaws. One final example, from a question I was working with a student on this morning: is your Resolve the Paradox question stimulus presenting a numbers/percents style factual problem? Don't feel the need to undergo complicated calculations (or a full quantitative analysis) in your head. Find the answer that plugs into the general quantitative problem being discussed (i.e., that refers to the relevant percents/amounts).

Third, do some "immediate review" so you can remember the thought processes that you were using for a question. Do 5 timed questions in LR, then immediately review them. Go through the blind review process, but once you've done that, then ask yourself, "what was inefficient about my thought process under timed conditions?" "How could I have gotten to the answer more simply?" It's sometimes hard to remember what your thought process was if you wait too long to review certain questions. By immediately reviewing, you're closer to what you were thinking during timed conditions, and you can make the fixes to your mental processes more easily.

Last, remember that speed often just comes from increased familiarity with the patterns and processes of the test. There's no shortcut to developing that familiarity. It just involves seeing lots and lots of LSAT questions. I've had students who spent a year or more developing that level of familiarity, and it paid off for them in the end (in the form of 170s scores in many cases). Keep at it. Persistence, and allowing yourself time, is key to that 170s level performance. Don't give up on it just because it seems to be taking awhile!

I hope this helps!

[oychoi]

Thank you so much Jeremy!

That was extremely detailed and really helpful. I'll aim to see if I can incorporate that into my next practice sessions.

As a follow-up, how important do you think one's mental mindset and positivity (aka avoiding burnout) plays a role in the final score? Do you think it can be responsible for those last 3-4 points (which is basically 4-5 more questions correct once you are in the 160's land)?

I've been overworking myself in LSAT prep because I want to do so well but I'm starting to wonder if I need to dial it back as I lead up to test day. But my brain tells me I need to ramp it up because it's going to eventually be test day! haha

Thank you!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi oychoi!

Mindset can definitely make a big impact on your score--for better or for worse. Leading up to test day it's important not to burn yourself out. You need to take breaks. Remind yourself that these breaks are not you "slacking off" when you could be studying for the LSAT. These breaks are an important component of your LSAT preparation. Allowing yourself to rest and to think about non-LSAT related things will put you in a better position to get your highest score. Test mentality is such a big factor in how you ultimately perform on this test and, unfortunately, it's a factor that test takers so often overlook in their preparation!

Check out this blog post with some helpful links to other posts about test mentality: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/the-ul ... urce-list/

Hope this helps! Good luck on test day!

Best,
Kelsey

[tretch_778]

it comes naturally as you practice. If you've ever dribbled a basketball before, you'd know that you don't just start out dribbling really fast. You gotta start slow, and build up your co-ordination so that you can go fast eventually.

I had this same problem and I got to averaging -2/0 on timed LR sections by drilling, doing timed sections repeatedly, and adopting time saving strategies. When you're BRing/taking sections untimed, you have all the time in the world to "second guess" yourself and verifying before you move from a question. Well, on timed sections, you wanna avoid doing this except for questions that are especially tough, or for situations where you have plenty of time saved up. This was a pretty hard habit for me to drop-- all throughout college I did well on exams by spending the extra time and verifying all my answers. But the LSAT is just a different beast where half the battle is the timing. As such, you may have to deliberately get rid of some of the testing strategies you're used to from school.

I mainly try to shoot for completion of the first 10 questions in 10 minutes. These questions are usually easier than the later 1/3 of the test, so completing these in a minute each will allow you to build up a time bank for the tougher questions. Among these, you're likely going to have some "gimmies." Basically these are questions where you can just skim the stimulus and prephrase the correct answer. These are significant time savers for me-- I don't use PoE for these and simply scan for the correct answer. As you naturally improve at LR, you'll be able to do this more generally. In fact, I don't use PoE too often for the first 10 questions on an LR section.