What to do after untimed/blind review?

BirdLaw818

Hi all. So I took pt 43 and got a 172 yesterday. Today I did blind review, and was up to a 176. Idk if it's technically blind review , I just took the test and redid it with more time and finished maybe around 4 hours along my start of the sopranos lol.

Now, I want to see which answers I switched over correctly and incorrectly and break them down into question type and practice those sections with some questions.

Is there anything you guys think I could do better here or is my process okay? And I'm really pleased with the 172 since it was my first actual PT since the June lsat and I'm doing a lot more untimed questions by section type and I think it's paying off. I'm aiming a PT a week whereas before I did like 4 PTs a week (very stupid as I've learned). but idk, I got in the 170s a couple times pting but didn't break 160 on the actual test. I basically did much lower than my PT average and I treated this studying like a full time job. Still do for September? So idk maybe I'm missing something and it was those beers all along. Jk. /rant

Thanks

Alex

Nice score!

One thing that might help is after taking a timed PT to not just redo the test but to do a proper blind review. This means you want to go through the questions you circled untimed and examine them on a deep level. This means breaking down the stimulus/argument, writing out why each answer choice is either correct/incorrect, and doing everything you can to understand why you had trouble with the question. I find that if I just try to redo the test similar to how I did it when I was timed, I lack the opportunity to examine my approach and mindset when dealing with harder questions.

This webinar explains how to treat what you do during and after your BR process depending on where you are in relation to your goal score. I think this will help you in deciding whether or not taking in September is in your best interest.

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

Good luck and may the force be with you.

NotMyName

What @"Alex Divine" said. The reason one only reviews questions one circled, is to calibrate your confidence and ID patterns. By redoing the whole test, you lose out on a lot of really useful info. For example, did you miss a question which you did not circle (meaning you answered it with 100% confidence)? Are you consistently circling a particular question type but never getting it wrong (meaning your confidence is not calibrated to reality)?

Paul Pederson

But how do you gain confidence? Many times I've answered questions I know are correct however in the back of my mind I think I still may have gotten it wrong, just a little bit.

tanes256

@"Paul Pederson" if you are continuing to see that you're getting these questions right even though you doubt them then there's a chance that it's just luck but there's also a chance that you know what you're doing. The only way to determine which of the two regards you is to break the question type down and determine if you're spot on or you're just getting pretty lucky. Once you see that you're handling the task of the question type appropriately and getting the correct answer that should boost your confidence. The fact that you still have just an inkling that you're incorrect sounds like you're shaky on the task for that question type. Drill, drill, drill.

NotMyName

@"Paul Pederson" If you are consistently getting a QT right (90+% accuracy), then the chances of it being luck are quite low in my opinion. Once you feel very confident in BR and observe a clear pattern of consistency, then I would recommend implementing confidence drilling. That is where you take either a timed section or full pt and throw caution to the wind. no diagramming. no debate. spot an answer you feel 60% confident in and move on. grade that and adjust. Maybe you missed a ton. In that case, increase your threshold to 70%. Eventually you'll reach an equilibrium. And while getting there, hopefully you;ll have trained yourself to eliminate that nagging voice in your head which encourages ambivalence where none is needed.

The point of all this is that you need to break through the hurdle that unjustified low confidence provides. Else, you'll be stuck. You just don't have enough time to debate many questions in LR and score highly.

Paul Pederson

@tanes256 said:
@"Paul Pederson" if you are continuing to see that you're getting these questions right even though you doubt them then there's a chance that it's just luck but there's also a chance that you know what you're doing. The only way to determine which of the two regards you is to break the question type down and determine if you're spot on or you're just getting pretty lucky. Once you see that you're handling the task of the question type appropriately and getting the correct answer that should boost your confidence. The fact that you still have just an inkling that you're incorrect sounds like you're shaky on the task for that question type. Drill, drill, drill.

@jkatz1488 said:
@"Paul Pederson" If you are consistently getting a QT right (90+% accuracy), then the chances of it being luck are quite low in my opinion. Once you feel very confident in BR and observe a clear pattern of consistency, then I would recommend implementing confidence drilling. That is where you take either a timed section or full pt and throw caution to the wind. no diagramming. no debate. spot an answer you feel 60% confident in and move on. grade that and adjust. Maybe you missed a ton. In that case, increase your threshold to 70%. Eventually you'll reach an equilibrium. And while getting there, hopefully you;ll have trained yourself to eliminate that nagging voice in your head which encourages ambivalence where none is needed.

The point of all this is that you need to break through the hurdle that unjustified low confidence provides. Else, you'll be stuck. You just don't have enough time to debate many questions in LR and score highly.

Thank you both, that is some very good advice.