How long till improvement on LR?

gdhanda23

Hello,

I just have recently started studying for the LSAT and I am about 60 hours into the Core Curriculum after about 2 weeks. I am going through massive up's and downs when it comes to LR as it is very new for me. I am just beginning to introduce myself to Must Be True questions and I did a problem set with a high difficulty but got 0 correct even after BR (fucking abhorrent, I know) which is really discouraging. I was just wondering how long it took some of you guys to see significant improvement in LR?

I am determined to get a good LSAT score and keep going. My GPA is nothing to worry about but I really want a good LSAT score as well. I guess this post is me wanting to know if there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Thank you!

simple_jack

It took me a solid six months of studying 2-3 hours a day to see improvement in LR. It’s been the hardest section for me so you could see some improvement quicker

Engineer.Educator_to_Esquire

There is but you need to keep practing and I would take the level of difficulty down. Start with some 2 and 3 star questions because as you can see from the BR there are still some fundamentals that you need to make concrete first.

If you make sure you have a solid understanding, plus a sound strategy for each question type, along with a wrong answer journal where you can articluate your reasoning for why you got a question wrong and even ones that you got right but you guessed and didnt know why it was right, then you'll start to see improvements.

The longer you stick with studying correctly, the more familer you'll become with the material and answering LR questions will even become fun after awhile.

EagerestBeaver

If you are at 60 hours after two weeks, that would be 30 hours a week. That is about the maximum you should be at, and you may want to consider taking an hour or two more off. I was totally like you when I started studying. I kept hour logs, put that work in every day, and was sure after a certain amount of hours the work would show. Unfortunately, the LSAT is not a brute force academic test. You need to be grounded in the fundamentals before you see lasting improvement and that improvement is the last thing you see in regards to your effort.

Like @simple_jack, it took the CC and an in-person course over five to six months for me to see that shift. It took three more months to make the leap from I understand to I am almost good. Before you get too frustrated about not seeing major improvement, focus on that step by step progress. Based on your comment about the MBTs, you are still working on getting a fundamental understanding for what some questions types are asking for (and that is super okay).

Be patient and kind to yourself. Super cliche but this a marathon, not a sprint.

hcdbsu24

Just for reference, it took me a month to see a significant improvement in LG, about 6 months for both LR and RC. But, everyone's mind works differently. Hard work and using your time effectively does not lie, so keep chugging away and you will eventually see an improvement. Sometimes, it's quicker and sometimes it takes FOREVER

studyingandrestudying

There's reason to hope if you stay in the game. You can do this.

gdhanda23

@simple_jack said:
It took me a solid six months of studying 2-3 hours a day to see improvement in LR. It’s been the hardest section for me so you could see some improvement quicker

Thank you, hopefully I do!

gdhanda23

@"Engineer.Educator_to_Esquire" said:
There is but you need to keep practing and I would take the level of difficulty down. Start with some 2 and 3 star questions because as you can see from the BR there are still some fundamentals that you need to make concrete first.

If you make sure you have a solid understanding, plus a sound strategy for each question type, along with a wrong answer journal where you can articluate your reasoning for why you got a question wrong and even ones that you got right but you guessed and didnt know why it was right, then you'll start to see improvements.

The longer you stick with studying correctly, the more familer you'll become with the material and answering LR questions will even become fun after awhile.

I will keep the idea of a wrong answer journal in mind, maybe that will help significantly. I always try to figure out why my answer is wrong immediately after I BR. Thank you!

gdhanda23

@EagerestBeaver said:
If you are at 60 hours after two weeks, that would be 30 hours a week. That is about the maximum you should be at, and you may want to consider taking an hour or two more off. I was totally like you when I started studying. I kept hour logs, put that work in every day, and was sure after a certain amount of hours the work would show. Unfortunately, the LSAT is not a brute force academic test. You need to be grounded in the fundamentals before you see lasting improvement and that improvement is the last thing you see in regards to your effort.

Like @simple_jack, it took the CC and an in-person course over five to six months for me to see that shift. It took three more months to make the leap from I understand to I am almost good. Before you get too frustrated about not seeing major improvement, focus on that step by step progress. Based on your comment about the MBTs, you are still working on getting a fundamental understanding for what some questions types are asking for (and that is super okay).

Be patient and kind to yourself. Super cliche but this a marathon, not a sprint.

Yeah that was like one of the first set of MBT I did that were part of the core curriculum. I am going harder however, I am spending 40+ hours a week on studying and I only did about 30 hours a week cause I had to study for my university finals. I will spend some more time coming back to the fundamentals of LR and getting them down first once I am on the LG section of CC and beyond. Do you think that the skills learned in the LG section will eventually compliment the LR section as well? Thank you!

EagerestBeaver

Does LG compliment LR? Unfortunately, not really. The same type of phenomenon of seeing the same types of questions over and over create some familiarity. Like, you may recognize a rule in one game to another game the same way you may see a flaw question that uses the same reasoning as a previous question. When you can start to pick up those moments where you know exactly what is going on because you remember exactly where you saw it before, you will know you are making some progress.

gdhanda23

@EagerestBeaver said:
Does LG compliment LR? Unfortunately, not really. The same type of phenomenon of seeing the same types of questions over and over create some familiarity. Like, you may recognize a rule in one game to another game the same way you may see a flaw question that uses the same reasoning as a previous question. When you can start to pick up those moments where you know exactly what is going on because you remember exactly where you saw it before, you will know you are making some progress.

Thank you this does make sense. I am hopeful that my initial struggles with LR are just coming from this being a new thing to learn in general. I am optimistic that familiarity and repetition will help and ready to continue grinding.