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Not sure how/if I should study materials for RC/LR. Worried I might break something... Advice?

devin.balutdevin.balut Free Trial Member
edited January 2015 in General 77 karma
Hi 7Sage! I love this forum, sorry to pester you all again with walls of text.

Background: I started studying the June 2007 test. I did well on the RC/LR sections but only got halfway through the second game of the LG section before I hit 35 minutes. I think I got three wrong so ended up 6/23 for the section. Since then my entire focus has been on logic games. I've probably printed out some 40 games and completed them under timed conditions, and I've read the entire Powerscore LG Bible. I still can't complete 4 games in 35 minutes consistently. It's easily my weakest section despite putting all my focus on it.

I knew there was no chance I could study for the February exam with school going on so I decided to take last December's while I was traveling so I could see where I was at. I missed an entire game on the LG section (filled in all Ds for it so I might have gotten me a point or two) and scored a 166.

Since then I've taken 4 timed PTs and scored very well when I complete the LG section in time (172, 175) and worse when I don't (166, 167). Generally I lose very little on RC/LR (they're about equal losses for me) and that hasn't really changed since I started taking tests. That said I think the only way I'm getting accepted into a decent law school in Canada with my abysmal GPA (the program I'm in is terrible for GPA but that's another story) is with a T14 level LSAT. So I know that in all likelihood if continual drilling of LG sections is not improving my speed anymore I really need to be able to count on a -0/1/2 for each of the other three sections.

BUT I also know that reading about LGs dramatically changed how I approach them and how I think about them. In some ways it's good, in some ways I think it's actually slowed me down (surely a lot of my improvement can be chalked down to repetition). I am very nervous about studying RC/LR extensively only to destroy some innate logic I've developed before the LSAT or to slow down my reasoning as I usually finish those sections with 1-2 minutes. I'm also worried of making my logic formulaic (as stupid as that might sound), because the way I approach RC/LR right now feels pretty organic, and the way I do LG feels totally formulaic.

Of the questions I've gotten wrong, no type stands out. The only similarity between them is that they were all 4/5 star difficulty questions, but I have no types of question to drill/learn about specifically. So for anyone who has been at the point where they average -3/-5 or something like that on LR/RC and wanted to take that down to consistent -0/-2 did you manage it? And how did you go about doing it? Or if anyone found LR/RC came naturally to them did you find studying those sections specifically was actually detrimental? And if anyone thinks it's worth studying LR/RC, what would you say I should start with material wise? As for LG, is there any better speed improving strategy than to drill?

Sorry this is so long or if it all comes off as paranoid. I'm just feeling a little nervous after talking to schools and finding out the level of score I'll have to get to be accepted anywhere decent and am kind of lost on how to move forwards from here.
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