I've been studying on/off since June. I'm kind of getting lost in the cycle of studying. Advise?

lgsb0629

Greetings everyone,
I am writing because I was supposed to take the Sept LSAT and apply to law school fall 2016. I took a Testmasters course summer 2016 and only saw my score improve by a few points (142 to 147). Part of my low performance was my lack of commitment to studying and another part of it was how it was taught. Since that course, I bought the LSAT Trainer and have studied from that for about a month or so. I graduated from undergrad in 2014 and work full time with an awesome immigration attorney since then. My point is that I'm lost as to how to approach studying for the LSAT. I want to purchase 7sage because it offers explanations and more structure (which is something I desperately need). So, has anyone had a similar experience such as mine? I fear I will jumble up all the methods and be even more miserable than I currently feel now. I plan to take the June LSAT and I want to get a score 160-165. I know I can do it, I'm just not sure how to do it. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You

tanes256

Hi, @lizg629! The LSAT Trainer is a good choice. Lots of ppl here use it along with the 7 Sage curriculum. I wouldn't use them simultaneously though. It may be a little hard to match everything in both as you go. I would suggest purchasing a 7 Sage pkg just to get your feet wet. There is a 14 day (or 7 day, don't quote me on that) money back guarantee, so what's there to lose? As you stated, the curriculum will provide you will a schedule to stay on track and you'll also develop within the course. I think this is important because often everything is thrown in your lap at once and you have no idea what to make of it. The analytics provided with 7 Sage are very beneficial as well. Once you begin the PT phase you'll be able to spot your weaknesses and you'll know where you need to focus more attention. Even if you do not decide to purchase a pkg just make sure that you thoroughly understand the logic and you put in 100% effort when you blind review and you'll be good to go!

TimLSAT180

I don't know if you were able to participate in Jonathan Wang's awesome webinar yesterday, but one of the things that he pointed out that I think is probably the essence of the LSAT is that when you approach this test, you have to approach it with a mindset that you WANT to develop certain skills. That can be either reading, parsing out difficult grammar, expanding vocabulary, diagramming logic, etc. I think a lot of people approach the LSAT with the goal of attaining a 170+. But, that's not really the MOST important thing in my opinion. The process is the most important thing. Everyone has certain skills that they lack in order to master this test. It's just a matter of knowing yourself and finding out what specific skills you lack. Once you find that out, you have to go and develop it on your own by using the 7sage CC, the Trainer, reading the Economist, reading a grammar book, reading a book about logic, anything that might be of aid really can do the job. This is why getting really good at this test takes so long because mastering skills takes time just like mastering an instrument. You have to constantly exercise your brain and expose yourself to logic and difficult grammar everyday in order to develop these skills. Hope this helps!

danielznelson

@doohocho brings up excellent points that I really don't even need to elaborate on. But directly to your question, switching around from curriculum to curriculum isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as you stick with the one you end up with. I myself moved around a bit and eventually found 7Sage. Sure, the different style required some adjusting, but it was nothing compared to the benefit of actually using 7Sage as my primary source for prep material. If you know you can do it, that's a great start. In my opinion both built from my own experiences as well as those from others, you would do well using 7Sage, especially compared to other test prep companies.

TimLSAT180

Thanks @danielznelson! Another thing I wanted to mention is that I also did the online course for Testmasters for a month and I learned a lot of techniques which brought me up from a 146 on my diagnostic to around a 160 on my second PT. But the issue is that just by learning these techniques is not enough. Learning and knowing these techniques are necessary for mastering the LSAT, but they are not sufficient. In order to master the LSAT, you need to be able to execute these techniques seamlessly and efficiently. One point that Jonathan brought up yesterday is that there are people who can score in the mid-160s who can execute conditional logic that may take them 3-4 seconds, but most test-takers who score in the 170+ can execute it within half a second. Now, that may not seem like a big difference in our daily lives, but when it comes to something formidable as the LSAT, you have to start thinking that they actually DO make a difference. So, I read another helpful comment on 7sage where someone used the analogy of using 7sage as a workout gym. A lot of prep companies advertise themselves as being a "boat" that takes you to the desired destination (a good score on the LSAT), but really that's not how the LSAT should be approached. I would strongly advise you to use the analogy of the workout gym and go over the core curriculum as many times possible during your prep to really hone your skills and techniques in the areas that you may be lacking. After having done the online course for Testmasters, I'm currently going through the 7sage CC and realize that I have a long way to go to understand the fundamentals. That's the key: knowing that you don't know Hope this helps!

Cant Get Right

Hey Liz, I struggled a lot with the issue of how to approach studying for the LSAT as well. It's something that can be reduced to a methodical approach though. If you can make it, I'm doing a webinar on Thursday and Friday that addresses this exact question in detail: https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/10361/webinar-post-curriculum-study-strategies-with-sage-josh-thurs-feb-9-fri-feb-10-7pm-est

lobell79

I realize this is like ancient history, but it looked useful. Downloaded ye olde gotomeeting and it wasn't available- any other way to look at this piece of wisdom?
Thanks!

miriaml7

I think this might be what you're looking for:

https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/

@lobell79

lobell79

Thank you Miriaml7!