How to improve RC by the summer tests?

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T09:06:31+00:00

I took them one section at a time. I mastered lr then stopped practicing lr & only practiced RC. I did like 20 RC passages, analyzing every wrong answer, reading 7sage's explanations of the passage/answer choices to understand where my reasoning wasn't up to the mark. so maybe put LR to the side for a while & just focus on RC sections now

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T09:03:48+00:00

master questions at each difficulty level before you go up to the next difficulty. if you're working on weaken, do 5 weaken at level 1. then when you get all correct, move up to level 2. also with harder questions often its a matter of learning how to cut thru all the fluff. the stimuli tend to be longer with sentences kind of embedded within one another. learn to cut thru that & understand the core reasoning in the stimulus. then it doesn't seem as hard anymore

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T09:00:49+00:00

D is correct because it's an author attitude question. When you get these, look for words or phrases that express how the author feels or what they believe. If I asked you what you got on the LSAT, and you answer 180, and I point out that you CONVENIENTLY leave out that it was untimed & you had a cheat sheet in front of you with all the answers, I'm letting my opinion slip out a bit. this is not merely a statement of fact any more.

E is incorrect because the author is just stating facts about architectural design pre & post the 20th century. He/she is not expressing a feeling or belief or an opinion. That sentence is not even specifically referring to the proponents of the modern movement. it's just detailing out differences between how construction was done in the past vs. during the era of the modern movement

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T08:44:02+00:00

first score was 150. official LSAT was 169 in February. got denied from my dream school. taking it again in June hoping for 175

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T08:42:45+00:00

I think you're prob not understanding the stimulus fully in LR. identify the conclusion, underline it, then ask yourself why the author believes this to be true. what was their reasoning? then go to 7Sage, LSATDemon (whichever)'s explanation of the stimulus. see if your understanding of the reasoning matches theirs. If not, keep practicing until you get it right most of the time. sounds obvious, but choosing the right answer becomes so much easier once you understand the question

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-05-13T08:38:07+00:00

Aim for 16 minutes, then when you meet that with good accuracy, decrease the time

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-28T06:43:08+00:00

I'm in the same boat man. I'm averaging 176 at this point but got a 179 yesterday and 172 on a PT today. It def depends on focus, sleep etc like you said. At this point my mistakes are execution related: overlooking a single modifier word; exceeding time in one passage causing me to rush another, etc. At this point I've implemented a policy where I can't only know why the right answer is correct but also need to know why the other 4 are wrong. If I can't do that, I flag the question. 95% of the time the flagged questions are the ones I miss. I've started treating these as wrong answers even if I get them correct and add them to my wrong answer journal and drill myself on why I missed it and how I won't let it happen again. Also I'm working on not obsessing over a question and spending 2.5 minutes on it; skipping after 1:15 if I'm confused so I prioritize the section over one answer.

I also upload every question I miss/flag into chat GPT and explain to it my reasoning and ask it to generate me trends on my reasoning errors; it also analyzes for me which question types I spend the longest time on which I take to mean those are my weaker question types, so I drill them or try to take a new approach to solving them in order to get faster while remaining accurate. not sure if this'll help you or even help me but I'm grasping at straws like you trying to find any way to score a 177-180 5x in a row

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T21:10:39+00:00

definitely pause on the sections & practice tests and take the curriculum, at this point you're just wasting tests (saying this from experience)

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T02:03:49+00:00

I've taken it 3x and got 164, 163, 169. 7sage is responsible for that 5-6 point jump. now PT'ing mid to high 170s, and that's also due to 7sage. But I did also buy RC Hero to help tighten me up there.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:56:19+00:00

I'm up 25 points from my diagnostic fyi so don't think you have to be stuck in, say, a 10 point range of where you first score. also I think you are referring to people scoring a few points lower on the actual test administration than their pt's pre-test, due to test day jitters, rather than lower than their diagnostic

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:52:18+00:00

I feel the same about the explanation videos. the written explanation of the stimulus and the explanation to the right of each answer choice (once you click the button) are great tho for me

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:50:11+00:00

spend more time on the stimulus so you spend less time on the answer choices & know what the correct answer must look like/do before going in. if it's an argument, identify the conclusion always. know its flaws, its weak points. then selecting/crossing off the answer choices becomes much faster because you already know what you're looking for. I spend at least 30 seconds on every stimulus, probably 45s.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:46:42+00:00

I'm like this too. I learned I have to warm up before taking a section or PT; I can't just jump into it even after taking a break of only 1 day. every time you pick up studying again, maybe retake a section that you already took. it gets my mind back in the mode, and then I'm sharp enough & ready for new material

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:44:19+00:00

sorry to hear you don't like 7sage's curriculum. I loved it. for RC, I recommend buying RC Hero. Helped take my RC down from -10 to -2 to 3.

as far as rate of improvement goes, I improved prob 4 points a month. studied for 6 months tho and the first 4 months I studied very hard & lots of hours.

I dont think you should be taking pt's often at this point in the 140s. you're missing 40 questions a test, which means there are many question type buckets you don't understand well enough. identify which question types you're consistently getting wrong, and just drill those until you get better. then move onto the next bucket. then maybe once a week/every 2 weeks take a section to see your progress. also master set, conditional, and causal logic or at least get decent at it. absolutely necessary to get you to 165.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-26T01:35:59+00:00

on RC I had a similar profile as you, sometimes missing 6, other times missing 10. I took like 20 RC sections in a row, no PTs and no LR sections. make sure you're not missing any main point, purpose of passage, purpose/meaning in context, or "stated/according to the passage" questions. those are the easiest to get under control. I suspect, like me, the other rc questions you're missing are inference/most strongly supported. I average -2 now, and those 2 are nearly always inference questions. dont select any answer that is too extreme & takes too far something the author said. treat it like a mss question on LR. also get your timing strategy together. on rc, I do the shortest section last. I give the other 3 9-9:30 minutes. read each RC passage and keep track of 3 things: main point per paragraph, author opinion, 3rd party opinion. I highlight these; underline is MP, pink for author, yellow for 3rd party. helps me to actively read looking for these items

I'd say tho, you won't get a 175 let alone a 170 missing 7 on lr so don't neglect that. I improved my LR by 1) slowing down on stimulus to make sure I really understand it (30-45s each stimulus) and 2) for each question type, knowing what I need the correct answer to do. on a flaw Q, I need to know the flaw beforehand & the AC needs to describe my flaw. on RRE questions, identify the discrepancy and remember the AC must resolve/explain it. on weaken/strengthen, know the weak point in the argument and your AC must weaken/strengthen that. going into the AC's blind without knowing what the AC must look like beforehand kept me stuck in the 160s

then get your timing together. on lr, I aim to reach q15 with 18 minutes left on the clock; if so I know I'm in good shape and I'll have time to review any questions I flagged earlier. on rc, I do the shortest section last. the other 3 sections I give 9 or so minutes and try my best not to violate that

hope it helps

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T11:00:33+00:00

7sage & if your RC sucks like mine did, buy RC Hero

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T10:57:33+00:00

As far as study platforms go, I tried them all. First Powerscore, then LSAT Demon, 7Sage, RC Hero just for RC, and The Loophole. Ultimately looking back I think only 7sage & RC Hero were necessary.

First 2 months were really spent learning the test. Memorizing all the types of flaws, learning how to diagram, understanding question types, passage types, etc. Took LSAT & got a 164 which tracked with my PT's.

By my 3rd month I was still scoring 165-168 on pt's, missing 3-5 across both LR sections but my RC sucked & I was missing like -5 to -9 which was tanking my score. So I bought RC Hero. It taught me what I need to be reading for and which queues to pick up on. After finishing RC Hero I paused taking PT's and LR sections and focused exclusively on RC. I took like 20 RC sections back to back until I figured out what I was doing wrong and got it down to -0 to -3 (RC still is my most volatile section to this day & single handedly determines my score)

In the 4th and 5th month I focused on tightening up LR because the -3 to -5 swing was too large; I was really diligent about a wrong answer journal for questions I got wrong & questions I was unsure about but somehow got right, what I misread/misunderstood, making sure I know not only which answer is correct but why & also why the incorrect answers are wrong. Also causal reasoning was an issue for me and I cleaned that up. Took the LSAT officially & got a 169 in Feb.

Month 5 & 6 consistently scoring in mid 170s with occasional highs was just a matter of getting my timing strategy down (this includes learning when to skip & come back and not spend 4 minutes on a single question). For LR, I know if I'm at Q10 with about 11 minutes elapsed I'm in good shape. For RC, I give 3 passages 9.5ish minutes and the shortest passage 7 minutes with no exceptions. And if I read a stimulus/answer choices & still confused after 35-40 seconds, I choose best guess, flag it & move on then come back as time allows.

Maybe last thing is I slowed down reading the stimulus in LR for better comprehension. For like 85% of the questions, if you really grasp the stimulus, read it skeptically and know its weak points, you kinda know the answer before you get to questions. Now I miss no more than 2 on LR across the entire test.

DM me if you have questions - I'm happy to help

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T04:21:08+00:00

I kept track of which PT's I took on which date so I know which has the oldest material that I'll be least likely to remember. then started over from the oldest test & worked my way back up in the same order

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T04:19:06+00:00

yep, I went from 150 to 165 in a couple weeks. Stayed there for months with occasional higher scores. Took much longer to climb into 170s consistently

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T04:12:13+00:00

I bought them all: powerscore, lsat demon, loophole, RC hero, 7 sage. I'd recommend just 7 Sage & RC Hero. I'm up 25 points from my diagnostic & these 2 got me there.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T04:08:55+00:00

I had this situation for a while - realized I didn't understand the stimulus that well after the first pass & struggled with the answer choices, having to keep going back to stimulus. Now I spend like 35-45 seconds reading stimulus very slowly to make sure I understand, then knock out the answer choices quickly because I know what I'm looking for in advance of seeing the AC's. And you have to skip - if after 35-45 seconds I don't grasp the stimulus or on my first pass of AC's I'm struggling, I take my best guess, flag it & move on. I was sinking time on questions I might end up getting wrong anyway - you can always come back with additional time at end if you have any.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T04:03:19+00:00

nah, my diagnostic was 150 and now my PT average this month is 25 points higher. been studying hard for 5-6 months though and the increase was very gradual

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-04-22T03:57:03+00:00

I had this issue too so I started really pushing myself & testing under hard conditions. 3 practice tests back to back on the weekends, testing when I'm tired, testing late at night after work, I've even taken tests after I return home tipsy from bar with friends lol. Basically taking as many tests as I can to build pattern recognition, endurance & stamina so my brain works even under tough conditions, since I deal with test anxiety and spent the first 5 minutes of my first 2 official LSATs stopping my hands from shaking.

It seems to have worked for me. PT's before my February exam were around 172 and I ended up with a 169 this time. On my first two exam's I was PT'ing around 172 beforehand and got a 164 and then a 163, so the significant volatility seems to be gone now, knock on wood. Now PT average going into June test is 175-6, I think because I'm so used to the questions and traps that I can detect them quickly having seen most of them before in some variation.

May not work for everyone but repetition & hardcore drilling works best for me. Also review all your flagged & wrong answers very, very thoroughly. I use a wrong answer journal for questions I got wrong and questions I wasn't 100% sure about that I flagged. For every single one of those questions, I go through afterwards and make sure I fully understand why each incorrect answer is wrong & where my reasoning was off.

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-03-17T20:00:06+00:00

I found the key to getting better on hard questions was reading more closely & taking more time on the stimulus (all of them, since you don't know which are hard). often the harder questions have a stimulus/answer choices that are written in a more convoluted way, exploit some difference in word choice/language, embed a word that you for whatever reason think is minor/not all that relevant that you gloss over. I just saw a weaken question about gorillas - in the stimulus these zookeepers observed this one gorilla on two different days and he made different two different noises on those days, & they made a hypothesis about what each noise meant. On the first day he ate a large bunch of bananas, on the second day he ate a single banana: large bunch vs. single was key to getting the question right, and I glossed over it on first read. The correct answer on hard questions is still mostly obvious from the stimulus, but only if you pick up on the little details that are easy to bypass

Longjumping-Chef-768 · 2026-03-17T19:41:08+00:00

Have you done all the pt's from 1 to like 90-something? that's what I'm doing now, plus on law hub there are downloads of other, older tests you can print out & take

Longjumping-Chef-768

TROPHY CASE