Hello all,
I recently completed my entire foundations over the span of 3 months with a consistent streak of 68 days. However, as I've just entered the drilling phase of my curriculum, I expected to at least increase in 10 points yet my analytics show otherwise. The Sage AI proposes that I just drill Causr and Phenom considering that these are my 2 main leaks, yet it feels as though I am spreading myself thin.
What I mean by this is why is it that when I drill in these areas, I get half wrong and half right (EX: 5/12, 7/12 BR). And in PTs, I score a 139, BR 152, when my goal is just a 162. I've thought about drilling each question type until in which I know the mechanical process down to a T before moving onto another question type I need to improve in. For example, I'm consistent in solving MC question types so I figured I could apply this approach to other question types. Moreover, even if I just consistently do my practice blocks, I still feel as though I am just doing a task instead of actually internalizing a mechanical process.
Does anyone have any tips or is feeling the same way? I'm just a bit ambivalent here as to what I should do. It would also be nice to talk to a tutor but this curriculum alone is all I can afford at the moment.
Thankyou
3 comments
Going to echo Alex. I don't want to say something is or isn't possible in terms of score but it sounds like slowing down and trying to better reinforce the fundamentals is a far better use of your time than trying to drill questions, let alone sections or PTs.
If the 7sage curriculum doesn't connect with you, I'd suggest maybe trying a different resource like The Loophole by Ellen Cassidy. I can't say if it really differs that much from 7sage but it's what I used as the basis when I first took the LSAT last year. You would probably improve if you brute force questions but I don't think that's the best use of your time and the limited amount of official LSAT questions and tests.
Likewise, I don't want to say that MC are the "easiest" questions but I think they are one of the most approachable question types as they intuitively connect to how we generally think about arguments. The other question types aren't explicitly as intuitive and without a firm understanding of both what the stim is doing and how the question is looking to test you, you are going to run into a world of issues, even if you sometimes or even oftentimes get the question right.
A streak is great but a streak isn't in and of itself sufficient. You wouldn't expect someone who started tacking on tons of miles of running day after day without a foundation to do well, but they're still keeping up their streak. Similarly, you want to make sure you are working with the strongest of foundations you can give yourself because it is directly linked to the capacity you have to consistently improve with a given question type or aspect of the test.
I'm not an LSAT tutor but I do have experience teaching and tutoring students in other subjects. I self guided taught myself with a few books and paper LSATs in a few months when I took it in November last year before using 7Sage for a second go in January. I opted to not go to school this year because I wanted to get a higher score and make myself a better applicant. If you'd like to talk over message or if you'd like to talk more in depth like on Zoom, I'd be happy to give my 2 cents.
Ultimately, I think the LSAT is a big opportunity to "teach" yourself how to study and approach something systemically. You don't have to but it's a great exercise, especially since we're going to be going to law school.
When you say you completed the foundations, what do you actually mean by that? What did you do to study them? If you’re still scoring a 139 on PTs, either you just don’t have enough time or you don’t know the concepts.
I would guess the latter from the added context of your drill scores. So what I’m guessing based off of pure speculation is that you just spent 3 months going through the motions of doing the core curriculum without really fully internalizing it. Perhaps you have notes, perhaps you don’t, but I would guess that it is more likely than not that you were not doing things like processing your notes the next day, making flashcards, reviewing flashcards, checking for understanding and re-learning, etc. All of this is essential for actually internalizing a concept. Just watching the videos and doing the skill builders is not enough.
TLDR; What I would guess is that there is a leak in your essential study skills rather than in any particular question type.
Please don’t take this personally. If you graduated HS during/right after COVID you probably didn’t have the opportunity to learn these skills in high school. Or maybe your school didn’t teach them if you graduated earlier.
DM me.