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I'm planning on taking the Jan LSAT and applying for Law school right after ( I know I am very behind). I am currently in my gap year and was hoping to apply and get into law school for the fall.... I am worried I won't be able to do that anymore. I've noticed I'm struggling the most with LR and being able to identify the correct approach for each of the question types. It is taking me too much time to get through the LR sections, and by the end of the time I have about 7-8 questions that are still unanswered with about 2 mins remaining.
I need a comprehensive study method to help me. I join the live classes every day and do drill sets, journal my work, both correct answers and incorrect ones. And I don't feel like it is working. I do at least 6 hours of classes and drills a day (excluding weekends), and I am not seeing any change, which is TERRIFYING. Does anyone have recommendations on how to study more effectively? My methods are not making me feel confident at all. My LSAT score goal is 160+. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I am also looking into getting a tutor. I don't know if I should do it through 7 Sage or a different platform. Any and all recommendations and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!!
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Not my advice!!! I saw that someone else said it, and I thought it was good "What helped me was a mental shift in approaching sections. Before each section I would tell myself to focus on accuracy instead of getting through all the questions. All the questions you attempt you should be confident in those answers. No point in answering all 26 questions if you rushed through most of them. Focus on getting the first 16 questions in each questions right since those are the easier questions and points to get. Remember all questions are worth one point so focus on getting the easy ones first. After you focus on being accurate on the first 16 you could even guess on the rest of the questions (you will probably still get 3 right from random guessing) and still be able to average a mid 150. After that you will notice you will have extra time to accurately attempt questions 17 to at least 20 and get those additional points. Work smarter not harder. Then review what the questions types are that you a consistently getting wrong even when you spend a decent amount on time on them and drill/do review of the core curriculum for those question types until they start clicking. Long story short change your mental framing in approaching the exam. Through this, I am able to tell myself to focus on accurately answering the first 18 questions in sections and now I am entered into 160s after so long of thinking I was not capable of doing so. I also took a 2 week break to relief some pressure and stress off myself and it was the best thing I could had done. You are capable. Please keep going!"
I'm also not really improving. But I will say that I did wind up fixing the timing issue. What I did was I practiced on paper for about 2 weeks without doing any timed sections at all. Instead I focused on spotting the important details (quantifiers, relative vs. absolute language, etc). People say this all the time and for a while I just kept doing timed sections which got me pretty far -3/-4 LR but then I'd easily slip back into -8. Slow down, doing the hard work by really dismantling every single question for about 2 weeks. My last PT I got -1 across the board. So slowing down really does help!! From there after you can easily spot the language speed comes naturally. I know it's hard because it feels like there's a time crunch. But if you start doing this now for just 2 weeks you can still spend a while month and a half focusing only on timing! And once you get the fundamentals down and are understanding exactly where you're going wrong will go very smoothly.
emma first of all you got this!! second of all, the overarching suggestion is (and this is gonna sound counter-intuitive given the time crunch you're feeling) to slow down. getting right answers is less about reading fast but about reading comprehensively and getting better at understanding + identifying patterns. doing too much / focusing on going too fast means you're likely bulldozing over building foundational skills. i was in a similar boat and started doing a slower/more methodical approach and jumped 10-14 points.
first thing is, if you haven't already, finish foundations.
second, don't worry just yet about timed drills. instead, do untimed drills and select the "show answer after each question" option. honestly an untimed drill of 10 questions just as (if not more) beneficial than 10 timed drills if you don't understand the patterns. here's what i've been doing (just a suggested approach, if you need structure inspo):
friday morning (same time every time): timed practice test. [and don't stress too much about not getting wrong answers as you do it -- let them come out in the wash. you want to see your mistakes so you can work on them].
saturday: day off, don't touch anything, don't think anything lsat related. go find a body of water and float around.
sunday: blind review friday's test. taking time to read every word. this is gonna sound time consuming, and it is, but it's good for you, this is the seat of improvements.
sunday - monday: review every wrong question, flagged question (even if i got them right), and wrong timed/right BR question, and honestly you could give yourself all day sunday on this. i will spend 15-20 minutes on a single question. here's how to structure this review: click the clean response, so you don't see your timed/BR answer[s]. you're going to try and answer this question again but at a snail's pace, and also try to suspend any pre-conceived ideas of what your initial answers were (this will help you too -- confirmation bias on the test will fuck you up. if you pick answer too quickly, you will convince yourself it's right). read the question stem, write down the question type. read the stim, underline the conclusion. ask yourself: are there gaps between the premises and conclusion? [if MSS] are there any notable inferences? write that shit down, doesn't matter if it's gonna serve you in the question hunting, this will just build instincts. if there are any conditionals, diagram. also doesn't matter if you need to or not, take it as an opp to practice diagraming (eventually it will become second nature). then, go to the answer choices one by one and write down in your journal why each is wrong. question every word!! show the right answer and answer to yourself/your journal why is it right (or why is it the best choice). this will feel like a lot of work and ya it is, but is so fruitful. a blind review/test review of the wrong questions is as much an opportunity to practice that question specifically and every single type of question! each question shares qualities with others, and practicing one SA question will also build skills for PSA, or MSS. underlining the conclusions of every question will build skills for MC. questioning if there are any crucial gaps between premises and conclusions will build skills for NA, PSA, RRE, SA etc. it's like walking through thigh-deep mud but your quads are gonna be rock solid when you come out the other side.
tuesday - thursday: drills, untimed. just build your base here. follow a similar structure as the blind review.
once you're getting 90-100% on these drills, add a few more questions, or an RC passage, or make them only 4-5 stars. start to hone in on one question type that you're struggling with at a time. if you're having a hard time with Strengthen/Weaken, then do drills of just those question types on tuesday/wednesday, and spend the day understanding the patterns and structure of these question types. then, bake them in to your thursday drills. the following week, focus on a different question type for that week, and intermittently add in S/W question types to your drills so you don't lose those skills. your time will improve because you will get better at identifying patterns.
rinse and repeat. <3
Omg same!! I'm so terrified, I'm not improving I've been stuck for 3 months
it took me like 5 months (probably more) to become fast. you may just need to keep practicing and LR will become easier to quickly skim. you will get better at quickly eliminating traps/wrong answers. conditional questions start to become second nature. i was doubtful when i first started and people would tell me this but its true. i've done almost every PT availble and im finally fast at it. how many of the PTs have you done, less than half or?
I am in the same boat... we got this!