How to avoid/shake-off LSAT "rustiness" in timed work and skills?

youbbyun

hey all

so I've noticed that in my PT phase, I can find myself getting rusty in certain areas after not working on them for a few weeks or not doing timed practice for some time.

For example, Monday - I take a timed PT. Then from Tuesday to Sunday, I spend that time reviewing it (BR, watching and reading explanations for Q's I got wrong, etc.) From Tuesday to Sunday, however, I spend very little time doing any timed work or drilling - I'm just BRing and reviewing my PT and seeing what I got wrong and why.

Then on the following Monday, when I do a new timed PT, I feel myself pretty rusty/slowish on LR and RC especially, because I haven't done any under pressure timed work in 7 days.

I now realize that before any fresh new PT I take, I would like to spend the day before at least doing a few timed repeat sections in LR, RC, and LG just to get my juices flowing and to remind myself what working under timed conditions is like. Otherwise, if I jump straight into a fresh PT and it's been like 8 days since I've last done any timed work, I can find myself kinda rusty and slow.

Has anyone else experienced this??

In a sense, it's like doing a "timed practice" warmup the day before doing a fresh real PT, just to get those brain juices flowing and breaking any rustiness that might have accumulated over a past week.

I also sometimes feel rustiness when I do a deep dive intensive into something like LG fool proofing for two weeks, where all I do is foolproof LG for two weeks. Then after those 2 weeks when I suddenly do a timed fresh LR section without any warmups, I can find myself slow, rusty, and prone to silly mistakes.

Anyone experience something similar. Anyone have any advice on avoid rustiness and maintaining top LSAT shape before one takes a fresh test?

Thanks.

Alex

One thing I did to avoid this was take full PTs less often and split tests up into timed sections. I still think it’s super important to take full PTs, but I saw more improvement and better results splitting tests into timed sections and reviewing each section right after.

Before the full PTs I did I always did a warm up. Usually just an old game and either the first 10 of an LR section or a single RC passage. A small warm up can do wonders to get the brain going!

KeepCalm

I completely agree with @Alex. Full PTs really wore me down and I had zero energy left to review them. Once I started splitting them, I found myself with enough energy to properly BR, to watch J.Y.'s explanation in depth (several times!), type up explanations in my notes, and really understand each exam question without just 'letting one slide'. Taking full PTs are extremely important, but I had to gradual reach that point because I did not have enough endurance to take them in one sitting and properly review them afterwards. BR-ing is just as important and without taking the time to review my PTs I was not helping myself at all. Endurance is key and the rustiness will no longer be an issue!