Go Back to the basics or continue PTing?

Sleepysloth

So I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of the overall concepts from CC, but I've done 2 PT's post CC and received scores I'm terribly unhappy with (153 and 156) I am aiming for 165+ on the September LSAT and so I am asking for advice on whether i should go back to the CC or just continue PTing until the LSAT and hopefully my score will improve as I practice? I think my main issue is time atm because I am rushing to complete all the questions and thus compromising on accuracy. Once I BR my score improves by 5-6 points. RC is my weakest point but again it's mostly because of time, because i am averaging -1/-2 on RC when untimed... thanks for any advice!!

keets993

So if you BR score is just touching on 160 or low 160s, I believe the general adage is to revisit the CC. Your BR score should be, at minimum, above your target score.

samantha.ashley92

To piggyback off of what was already said, I also think that 160 is a good goal to have for the September exam. PTing is good for stamina, but revisiting the CC is what is going to get your score up.

Leah M B

The good news is: most people don’t improve a ton of points immediately after the cc. It takes a while of putting all the concepts in practice for it to really sink in.

I’m on my phone at the moment so not super easy to directly link, but I highly highly recommend watching the webinar called “Post-core curriculum study strategies”. It will give you lots of ideas on how to study and how to gauge your progress.

I think PTing once per week with a full BR is appropriate for most people. In between PTs, work on various drills. Practice questions by question type, a little later down the road you can try confidence drills. One of the really helpful (but a little brutal) things I’ve heard someone say is, if you’re getting questions right but not fast enough, you don’t actually have all the basics down. It makes sense... if you really knew the basics inside and out, you’d be able to get through things much faster. I think if you work on drills between PTs, you can then go back to the cc as needed. You’ll figure out where you need the most work. I don’t think you need to go back and re-watch the whole thing.

I always advise that it’s better to go slowly and not quite finish a section than to rush through it and get a bunch wrong because you’re going too fast. It might be helpful to practice full sections but use a stopwatch instead of countdown timer. Find out how much time it really takes you to get through a section if you’re going as quickly as you can but accurately. Is it 37 minutes? 45? Then you could try recording yourself and see where you’re spending all your time. Maybe it’s certain question types that slow you down, and you can try skipping those and coming back to them. Or maybe it’s really all of them and you need to firm up some fundamentals.

For RC, it also helps a lot to play around with how you’re notating. If you’re writing and underlining a bunchwhile you read, it might be helpful to try cutting back on that.

Some people also keep a journal of questions they get wrong. You write down the test/section/question number and write out your explanations of both why the answer you chose was wrong and why the correct answer is correct.

I’d start with the webinar I mentioned above to give you an idea of ways to study. But there are lots of different things to try besides either just PTs or going back to the cc!

JustDoIt

Never be afraid to revisit the curriculum. Often times, you may feel like you are moving backwards. But actually you are going to move forward much faster if you take time to understand the materials through the lessons.

Sleepysloth

thanks so much for the advice everyone! I really appreciate it and will be going back to CC for specific areas I find I am slowest in. Also I do I think I might unfortunately have to bring my goal score down to a 160 to be realistic considering we're only less than 2 months away from test day! Good luck everyone with their studies