Self-paced
Hi,
I think I need confirmation that I am on the right path to meet my goals. So, I apologize if this is a bit long.
I am following a comprehensive study plan where I completed the foundation section and I am currently working through the LR section. The RC section is scheduled to begin mid June, and test practice will begin at the end of June. I plan to take my first LSAT in September and based on my study plan I should have about 10 weeks of practice time.
When I first started studying in February, I was doing it on my own and planned to take the June LSAT and realized that it wasn't working well for me and signed up for 7Sage in April. My current study plan is set up for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, and those 3 hours are turning into 5-6 hours a day to complete, which can be a lot some days. I am primarily working through the lessons and the drills included in the lessons, and I am not adding additional drills.
I took a cold diagnostic before I started studying in February and scored 140. I know I am improving and but have not taken another diagnostic and don't plan to until I finish the lessons in mid-June. I hope to reach the 160s when I take the test in September.
Not knowing what anyone else's schedule or study plan looks like adds to my uncertainty, and I just need to know I am on the right path.
Thank you for sticking with me through this long rant!
2
6 comments
This looks similar to the study plan I followed from December - June for the June LSAT. I was studying part time after work around 10-20 hours a week (2-3 hours,5-6 days a week). Similarly to you, sometimes it took longer to get through the lesson plan, but there are some weeks you will be much faster than the plan.
You can also tweak your study plan to be 1-2 hours a day, and it will adjust. I am pretty sure I had mine set to 1-2 hours/6 days a week. This will probably take you the 3 hours you have to spare. The lessons are great as an introduction, but I made much more progress in the practice stage of the study plan, so I wouldn't be too scared of changing your study plan to be less hours at this stage - it will cut out certain lesson videos that aren't deemed strictly necessary. You can always select other lesson videos that aren't in your study plan if you need. I watched additional videos on sufficient assumption and necessary assumption questions for example.
The only thing I would say is that there is not enough drilling throughout the foundations/curriculum. The skills builders are good for foundations, but once you do the LR question types it's a good idea to get used to LSAT style questions. Add in drills by question type ASAP. By the time I finished RC I had forgotten so much of the LR stuff I had to review a lot of the lessons again. This took up 2 weeks of my 'practice time'.
In hindsight I would have made custom drills by question type earlier on - start with levels 1/2, once you get 100% on those, go to level 3. Level 4-5 may be too tough for now. Keep drilling the LR question types as you do the RC lessons. I promise this will set you up so much better for when you get to the practice stage. It shouldn't add too much time, even 5 question drills are better than nothing. Additionally, you will already start to get faster with the questions with additional drilling - timing is a huge hurdle when you start the practice stage of the studying.
Same with RC when you get to those lessons, you can practice untimed drills for the passage type, really focusing on the active reading and getting used to that.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
@angantous Thank you so much, your comments and suggestions really help. I feel like as the lessons progress, I may forget the LR lessons. I started adding some LR drills yesterday but it added more time to my studies. I work full time so this is a struggle. Based on your suggestions, I plan to add 1-2 sets of 5 question drills a day for now.
I'm concerned that if I adjust my study hours, I will not have enough lessons to fully grasp each question type. Did you adjust your hours at any time, and how did it affect your lessons?
@Sucalder Hey! I am not the original commenter, but just wanted to add my two cents. If you start drilling a question type and feel that you aren't understanding it well, you can always go back and watch more videos of that question type! For now, it seems like reducing your study hours and adding short drills would be more productive than pushing through 5-6 hour study days. Also make sure to take care of your mental health and avoid burnout! Pushing yourself too hard and getting burnt out can have much worse consequences than reducing your hours and possibly having to revisit some question types.
@Sucalder Hi, sorry I didn't reply sooner, I took the LSAT last Friday!
I found that setting my study plan to 1-2 hours/day was much more manageable and I did not miss any core concepts. 10 weeks is not a lot of practice time, so getting through the core lessons to get a basic grasp of the question types while incorporating drills will help you a lot! You won't "fully grasp each question type" from the lessons alone. They introduce the types and the key strategies, but it doesn't fully sink in until you're practicing in my experience. Like the other commenter said, you can always go back and watch additional lessons or rewatch/reread ones you're unsure of. 5-6 hours is far too much to manage while working full time.
I did 1.5-3 hours (usually 2 max) after work on week nights, and slightly longer on the weekends. This is including 20-30 minutes of breaks as well as I used the Pomodoro timer method. Don't be scared of missing out on extra lessons. There's a reason 7sage offers the ability to tweak your study plan hours. Your study plan has got to work for your schedule and capacity, you don't need to make your schedule fit around the plan. I improved a hell of a lot more drilling the practice part of the plan than from the lessons alone.
My first PT after completing the curriculum was 160. I never did a true diagnostic test before studying, so I can't say for certain where I would have started without the lessons. But the lessons only take you so far - drilling by question type got me to high 160s within a few weeks of practice. After 4-5 weeks of practice I was PTing low 170s. I never studied 5-6 hours a day (except on some weekends when reviewing practice tests, and even then it was usually 3-4). I went on vacation a couple times while studying and took weekends or whole weeks off as well. This test requires you to be able to use your brain in an intense way. Putting in endless hours only gets you so far if you're too tired to think. You need to be able to get good sleep, move your body and take care of your physical and mental health during the study process.
Feel free to ask any other questions. You've got this!!!
@AsemanShahsavand Thank you for the comment. It helps to hear that reducing my study hours isn't the end of the world. I'm trying to add short drills, have reduced my study hours, and took a break this weekend, and my mind feels clearer this week. Thank you for advice.
@angantous I hope your test went well. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Taking your advice, I plan to modify my study plan to shorten my study hours, and also add more practice time. I see what you mean, when I am completing drills, I feel that my question review is helping me understand where I am going wrong (and right). Reading your experience with studying helps. Thank you.