Self-study
I really think I'm burning out. How do y'all get out of the slump? I'm aiming for anywhere between a 155 and 160 on the LSAT. My best PT score is a 158 and most of my BRs are in the 160s.
I took a PT 2 weeks ago and got a 153. Took one today and got a 152. I'm finding that by section 3 I'm starting to feel the burnout.
I took the September LSAT and got a 151 and wanted to die haha. Since then I've been really hunkering down on keeping a thorough wrong answer journal, reviewing all my questions, working on my timing (which is really good now). But now I'm at the point where I just don't know what to do next.
Any tips? I work full time and I'm a mom so my study time in the evenings is ROUGH.
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5 comments
I wouldn't focus on timing until you're happy with your accuracy. Instead of drilling for speed, drill for accuracy-focus on less questions but aim for not moving on until you're sure you've found the right answer. The great thing about accuracy drills is you can do 2 or 3 questions at a time and get just as deep of an understanding if you're really breaking down the question and explaining to yourself why your AC is right and why each of the other 4 is wrong. You can even try to break up shorter accuracy drills throughout the day before evening exhaustion sets in-maybe 1 in the morning and 1 on your lunch break. On days with more time practice doing a full section to start to build up endurance. Not a mom but a full time student also working 30+ hours a week-I know the struggle! You got this, and remember to take a break when you can as well-rest is just as important for building muscles as working them is :)
@LauraByrne love this - thank you!!
You have really limited time and energy thanks to living in the real world. You've worked hard on this test for a long time so you probably know more than you think you do, and the stress of the test is part of what's getting in your way. Assuming those premises are true I'd try this:
1) Have a glass of wine and watch a good movie tonight. No LSAT prep.
2) Tomorrow, with the one good hour or 90 minutes you have to study, do 5 LR questions untimed, and for each one, don't read the question until you absolutely understand the stimulus. Then read the question and answer it. Then do a blind review and see how you did. If you do noticeably better under untimed circumstances and are taking longer than the target time suggests, that argues for approaching the test differently than you might be now. Most people taking the exam intend to read and think about all 27 LR questions, but that's often a poor strategy because correct answers to any of these questions come ONLY from understanding the stimulus, which can take a fair amount of time. I suggest not reading the question first because if you do read it first, you then have two mental tasks running concurrently: understanding the stimulus AND applying it to the question. That's really difficult, given how subtle many LR questions are.
@JoelKeenan thank you! definitely going to try to read the stimulus first vs the question first. I 100% do that since it's drilled into our brains. I think you're right - I get overwhelmed with trying to find the answer while also trying to comprehend what I'm even reading. I feel like I do better on RC sections because we're "forced" to read the passage/stimulus first.
@JenniferKmetzsch I took the test in sept after about 8 mos of studying. 164. Was frustrated with my exam. I felt tense, pressured, hurried, sort of unable to deeply consider any given question. I took a week off after the test and then did an LR section just reading the stimulus first. I had never done that, had always assumed reading the question first saved time because it focused my assessment of the stimulus.
But I was wrong about that assumption. I found I had, ironically, a faster understanding of the stimulus and a deeper understanding of it, without having the question intrude on my thought process. (For me and probably for you reading the stimulus includes reacting to it, judging it as either a good argument or flawed and if so in what basic way. That’s essential because it often leads to the right answer before you’ve even read the question.)
Changing that approach has made a big difference for me and it just makes so much sense to me, doing one thing at a time, first the stimulus, then the question. That, and calming down, just focusing on lowering the emotional temperature, some deep long breaths before starting a section – those two changes have helped, I think.