Self-study
I feel like I could cry! From beginning at 148, getting stuck in 160s hell, and now this! Studying for the LSAT over the past months has definitely felt like an exercise in patience and endurance, but I'm happy with the progress I've been making!
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38 comments
@Zenaida-Macroura Congrats! Did you use a tutor or group classes? Once your finished the core curriculum how did you know which drills to do and when(what point in your studying). Did you just drill each question type repeatedly? I'm struggling with how to know when to move on from drilling a specific question type.
@Isabella! Thank you! I self-studied since that was the cheapest option lol. I actually didn't feel the need to go too deeply into the ENTIRE core curriculum, since I had previous experience with the LSAT years ago when LG was still a section; I mainly just focused on question types I struggled with (ex: Flaw/Weaken/Strengthen). I didn't really have a specific system for which questions I studied first (because of past experience), but I would move on to a different type once I got comfortable in my thought process for answering it (ex: get familiar with the right type of flaw answers and get them correct more often than not).
Initially I would do around 5-10 questions of a given type a day to practice until I felt I knew how to predict answers after reading the questions. When you move on is really up to you but definitely trust your gut. If you find yourself struggling less or not at all with a question type AND you're confident, you're probably golden!
How much time would you study each day?
@Zach_bramble It really depends, but I don't study for more than 2 hours a day, that's my maximum! Some days might be 30-45 min when I drill, other days could be longer.
Congratulations!!
@Marissa20 Thank you!!
Amazing! What has your timeline looked like? How long did it take you to go from 148 → 160s → 170?
@danjpeach96 I've been studying for around ~7 months and I personally found it easier to go from 140s → 150s (a little over a month) by building a general foundation of all the question types, and go from 150s → 160s (around 2-3 months) by learning which question types appear the most and paying particular attention to that. The hardest past has been the past 2-3 months where I saw myself moving from low 160s → to mid/high 160s, but never actually breaking 170, which I think stemmed from a lack of confidence in my thought process. I feel that scoring in the 160s shows I definitely know the material, but just need more exposure with constant PT'ing to hit 170 which I (finally) have!
@Zenaida-Macroura Awesome TY!
Congratulations! This is so amazing! I hope you're taking the time to acknowledge and reward yourself for this progress! I've been studying full-time since mid-February, and I'm curious about how you broke into the 170s. Do you have any advice you could provide? I would so appreciate it! (:
@iselachavezg Thank you! It still feels surreal! Interestingly, my hardest struggle was actually leaving the 160s and the best I could really do to break 170 was just being disciplined about PT'ing! I PT once a week on weekends, but use the other days of the week for untimed drilling/PT review. I've started getting better and spotting (some) trap answers and usual right answers for the question types and I think that's what will really push you over 170! If you're focusing on accuracy during untimed practice and letting yourself form a solid thought process, it gets sooo much easier!
@Zenaida-Macroura thank you! This helps a ton! Wishing you all the best on your LSAT studying!
Incredible!!
@astorialovescake Thank you!
Congratulations! Do you have any advice on time management? I get all the questions correct untimed but the time limit gives me anxiety:(
@j_w180 Getting all the questions right untimed is a GREAT sign! It shows you have some good understanding of the material and a solid thought process!
As you mentioned, sometimes anxiety causes dips in performance, but you honestly have to start trusting yourself: If you can get it right untimed, you CAN do the same under timed conditions. Use the confidence you had in the untimed practice and apply it to the timed practice. It's easier said than done, but once I slowly started doing this, I started having EXTRA time towards the end! It might also help (in my opinion) when practicing to focus on ACCURACY and ignore the time. That way, when you review and you've done, let's say, only 10/25 questions, you can at least be sure that the majority of those 10 questions are correct to understand your thought process and why it might be slowing you down.
I would also advise that if you're someone who feels they may need accommodations, maybe you can request additional time to alleviate some of the anxiety.
@Zenaida-Macroura Thank you so much for the advice! I don't think I trust myself and that might be something that I should work on... I keep doubting myself even though I get things correct:( I should try to have more confidence!
@j_w180 Definitely! Even now I still struggle with that, but you WILL do better once you trust your thought process!
This is amazing, congratulations!
@angantous Thank you!!
Congrats! I started with the same diagnostic, how long ago did you start studying and what was some studying strategies that worked best for you? Any help appreciated :)
@srios Hello! I first took the LSAT YEARS ago when LG was still a section, so I already had some understanding of the test; I hadn’t really studied since then until October/November of last year, so I've been studying for around 7ish months.
I was very intentional about learning ALL the question types and how to answer them, then drilling on individual question types until I was comfortable (ex: practicing flaw q’s over and over until I got good). I actually didn’t PT very much in the beginning because I wanted to work on accuracy, so I did A LOT of untimed practice. I noticed that once my accuracy got better, so did my time management and score!
Once you practice the question types enough, you start noticing patterns which makes it easier! This might not work for everyone, but it definitely helped me!
Congrats!!
@Studiousstudent Thank you so much!
Thats awesome! Congrats! My baseline score is 148 now, so this gives me some hope!
@kikamorim If you're anything like me, you really DO have to be EXTREMELY patient and kind to yourself!!! You got this!
congrats!
@DestinyLindsey Thank you so much!
@Zenaida-Macroura You're so welcome! How did you break that? I'm still kinda stuck ion the high 140's/low 150's lol.
@DestinyLindsey Scoring in the high 140s/low 150s might indicate that you need to shift your focus to the foundational concepts of the exam. When I was scoring within the 140s/150s range on PTs, I realized it was because I never really sat down and learned the different question types and how to tackle them. That might need to be your focus first instead of mixing questions together and doing drills. I know at least for LR, when I first started studying, I learned about flaw Q's then studied them over and over until I had a grasp on it, then moved on to other question types and did the same thing. You might just need to develop a good foundation FIRST. I hope this helps even a little!
@Zenaida-Macroura it actually helps a lot. I have a hard time with conditionality honestly. I'm going to definitely take your advice.
Congratulations! How long have you been prepping and how many full PT's have you taken? My highest so far is 169 .... working hard to get into the 170's! Any inspo appreciated.
@MariaO’Brien Hi Maria, thank you so much! I don't PT very often (personal preference), but I think I've done around 10-15 full PTs! I actually prefer to do 90% of my studying as untimed drilling, which helped to improve my accuracy, and better accuracy helps with timing!
Some advice I received that helped me break out of the 160s was to be confident in my answers. For a lot of questions, I used to second-guess myself and switch answers, but now I just tell myself to stick with the first answer I chose and trust myself, which has yielded better results. Additionally, you need to know yourself and what works best for you! For example, I know some people advise against reading the questions first (which I understand), but that was the only thing that really worked for me in analyzing arguments.
Also, I've seen many 170+ scorers say that what also pushed them out of the 160s, in addition to knowledge of the question types, was just testing over and over again! Now, I PT every week, and I get more familiar with certain AC patterns and question types, which definitely helped my score go up.
My highest score before this was 168, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to increase it T_T! But once you get better at the pattern recognition gained through constant test exposure, the results WILL show themselves. You got this!
@Zenaida-Macroura Did you keep redoing ones you missed or did you always try fresh questions?
@KMayo I've only done fresh questions! I actually haven't tried re-doing previous questions that I missed because I (personally) feel that understanding why I got it wrong the first time is enough to help me with future questions, but I see no harm in doing that!
@Zenaida-Macroura Did you ever run out for PTs?
@KMayo Nope! I still have around 15+ to use, including ones that were originally specified for drills! I do my best to test every weekend, but ONCE in a blue moon I won't PT on a busy week, so I still have material!
@Zenaida-Macroura Thank you so much! Very thorough and helpful. Funny, the RC passage I just completed I would have gotten 100% on except I double gussed myself and changed my answer from correct to incorrect. Appreciate the encouragement and advice, thanks!