170 Going to 175+ in One Month Forum

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puppytiff

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170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by puppytiff » Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:07 pm

Hi,

For all those who score in high 170s, is there a time when you feel you master all the hard questions, yet still get some simple ones wrong?

Did you ever want to bang your head when you get every questions right during the blind review, yet still miss a couple during the timed practice?

It's happening to me for some time now. I've been stuck at 170s with the break down of LG-1,RC-4,LR-5.

I've been trying to improve LR to -1 or -2, because during blind review, I get at most 2 wrong and immediately realize what I did wrong during the first try. How can I do to improve?

For RC, I mostly get the analogy questions wrong, and I know those tend to be the harder ones. But I will also get a couple of easy ones wrong. Sometimes I missed a detail questions because I didn't find that in the passage. Sometimes I mistakenly made an assumption that I'll later think is a stupid mistake.

mountwhite

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by mountwhite » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:35 am

Wondering about this as well

AJordan

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by AJordan » Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:27 pm

A few things:

170+ scorers shouldn't miss LG questions. If you're looking to improve a record 170 and you don't leave a test with a perfect LG section that's like the only time I recommend cancelling an LSAT. You're trying to improve like 4 or 5 questions. 1 LG point may seem insignificant until you understand that it's a full~20% of that makeup you need.

As far as LR is concerned, it's also concerning that you're missing "some" easier questions. Some in the colloquial, not logical sense. One is probably the limit. You really need to be at the point where you are getting everything right that you understand in LR. Dropping that number from 5 to 3 should be a pretty easy thing to do if you're already at 5. Just really delve into why you're missing the questions you are missing and fix those errors. Look for patterns in question type as well and maybe even do a full restructure of your base knowledge for certain portions. For instance, I've been working at this test for 2+ years, first as a taker and now as a tutor, and I'm still just now fully realizing the importance of the connection between premeses and conclusion on the questions along the assumption continuum. I think that has pushed me from a ~175 median up closer to 180.

If you're missing that many in RC there may need to be a complete rebuild of your strategy. Do you go back into the passage a lot after first read? I'm a believer that you should. I really think most points lost in RC come down to just not being able to consistently identify the direct support needed to answer the question. That's the RC skill. Not some sort of unidentified genius.

QContinuum

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by QContinuum » Tue Sep 25, 2018 7:27 pm

AJordan wrote:A few things:

170+ scorers shouldn't miss LG questions. If you're looking to improve a record 170 and you don't leave a test with a perfect LG section that's like the only time I recommend cancelling an LSAT. You're trying to improve like 4 or 5 questions. 1 LG point may seem insignificant until you understand that it's a full~20% of that makeup you need.
I don't agree with the advice to cancel. First, if one has a previous record of 170, there's zero downside to getting a 174 vs. a 175 on the record as a second score. Second, there's a 20% chance one gets a LG question correct by blind guessing. So why cancel?

mountwhite

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by mountwhite » Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:33 pm

mountwhite wrote:Wondering about this as well
My thread on a similar topic (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=298023)
Would love any advice!

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albanach

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by albanach » Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:50 am

QContinuum wrote:
AJordan wrote:A few things:

170+ scorers shouldn't miss LG questions. If you're looking to improve a record 170 and you don't leave a test with a perfect LG section that's like the only time I recommend cancelling an LSAT. You're trying to improve like 4 or 5 questions. 1 LG point may seem insignificant until you understand that it's a full~20% of that makeup you need.
I don't agree with the advice to cancel. First, if one has a previous record of 170, there's zero downside to getting a 174 vs. a 175 on the record as a second score. Second, there's a 20% chance one gets a LG question correct by blind guessing. So why cancel?
I also agree there's no need to or benefit from canceling. That said, the general advice is correct - once you're in the 170s, you shouldn't be missing a point on LG. There has to be carelessness or something causing that, or you haven't yet mastered the section. LR is probably where to grab the next points, or at least in my opinion it was easier to improve accuracy there than in RC which is simply more varied and requires a skill that's harder to master quickly.

puppytiff

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by puppytiff » Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:21 am

AJordan wrote:A few things:

170+ scorers shouldn't miss LG questions. If you're looking to improve a record 170 and you don't leave a test with a perfect LG section that's like the only time I recommend cancelling an LSAT. You're trying to improve like 4 or 5 questions. 1 LG point may seem insignificant until you understand that it's a full~20% of that makeup you need.

As far as LR is concerned, it's also concerning that you're missing "some" easier questions. Some in the colloquial, not logical sense. One is probably the limit. You really need to be at the point where you are getting everything right that you understand in LR. Dropping that number from 5 to 3 should be a pretty easy thing to do if you're already at 5. Just really delve into why you're missing the questions you are missing and fix those errors. Look for patterns in question type as well and maybe even do a full restructure of your base knowledge for certain portions. For instance, I've been working at this test for 2+ years, first as a taker and now as a tutor, and I'm still just now fully realizing the importance of the connection between premeses and conclusion on the questions along the assumption continuum. I think that has pushed me from a ~175 median up closer to 180.

If you're missing that many in RC there may need to be a complete rebuild of your strategy. Do you go back into the passage a lot after first read? I'm a believer that you should. I really think most points lost in RC come down to just not being able to consistently identify the direct support needed to answer the question. That's the RC skill. Not some sort of unidentified genius.
Thank you for the advice. I admit that many questions I missed in LR and RC were due to carelessness or time pressure, because during Blind Review, I get them all right again without spending significantly more time. However, when I'm doing a timed practice, I'll miss some questions here and there. I don't know how to avoid this.

AJordan

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Re: 170 Going to 175+ in One Month

Post by AJordan » Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:10 am

Practice more. Learn how to focus better. Become more confident in your fundamentals and processes. Part of it is luck at that point. We all miss stupid questions every once in awhile. Today on a prep session for a client I missed a disagree question because I thought it said agree. It just happens.

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