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1 Like
Optimal # of PTs a week?
elenanisonoff
Core Member
For Oct LSAT, I took a PT almost every day to get my stamina up, and I'm pretty sure that I (definitely) reached burn out mode. What have you guys found is the sweet spot of PTs to take in a week? I believe I'm starting a full-time remote job soon, so that's also a consideration for me. Thx!
Comments
Personally, I can only handle about 1 per week. After that it usually takes me 2-3 days to blind review and then once i'm done ill look at the explanations for questions that I flagged or got wrong. Then I use the rest of the days to drill. This is really subjective though, the answer is going to be different for everyone, so really its just what you can handle without burning out. I think 1 per day is madness, but i've also seen other people do it and find success.
Thanks! I think scaling back to 1 or 2 is going to be really beneficial--oddly, my score started suffering after a prolonged period of that. How do you choose what you drill, if you don't mind?
Hey @elenanisonoff I work full time remotely so maybe sharing my approach will be helpful for you in the future! I take a PT over the weekend and won't BR the day of. Its so important to maintain work/study life balance, I use to constantly feel burnt out because I was trying to cram so much into one day. Quantity over quality is what I discovered the hard way!
Typically I spend one day doing each section, I go through the whole section and not just the one's I flagged. Once I've reviewed each section, I'll go back to my previous PTs and apply what I learned from my current BR. This helps me recognize whether I'm truly understanding or if I just understood for that one question. I categorize which questions to drill by priority; 1st priority, drilling the questions I spent too much time on and still got wrong. 2nd priority, drilling questions I spent too much time on and got right (what can I do better). 3rd priority, where did I rush (spend little time) and got the question wrong.
There are definitely people on here who have taken 2/3 PTs a week and have found that to be their sweet spot. If you take that route just be sure to be mindful not to get burnt out (again) and to rigorously go through the material for each PT. If you're trying to build stamina, try doing 4 or 5 sections at a time and not just stimulating flex. Lastly, I honestly believe mediating helps with focus which I believe then helps with stamina.
I can't do any more than 4. 3 is my 'sweet spot.'
I spend the entire next day after a PT reviewing everything from the test and then may or may not do a drill day the next day (depending on how I'm progressing and if I feel like I need a refresher/kick-in-the-pants on a type)
I'll generally focus the remaining days on the worst performing section I had from my PT, unless of course its some type of outlier. But generally speaking, you should know what your weakest section is. If you're equally consistent across them all, you can focus on specific question types from each section that you may be struggling with. Pay attention to your analytics and plan accordingly.
good luck!
with flex I've been doing one a day and reviewing it without issue; no burnout or score dropoff. 1h:45m of cognitive effort even if intense shouldn't result in a degree of mental strain that 20 hours of rest/recovery cannot alleviate.
@OneFortyDotSix second that, one Flex per day is not too much.
I do about one Flex test every other day alternating between reviewing and taking the exam.
I think it also depends on how you're scoring. Naturally someone who's scoring 150 should spend significantly more time reviewing than someone who's achieving 170.
I'm usually doing one every 2-4 days as I like to feel as though I've made some ground on whatever I felt was weak on my previous one before I 'use' another PT. I also find this helps almost look forward to writing the next PT, as you have something new you're wanting to apply.
I'd also be more inclined to take a PT more often if my BR was significant higher than my timed score, as I'd think I could benefit the most from gaining speed at that point.
I would absolutely not take daily PT, you are going to burn out as well as waste precious resources. Since I have been studying for awhile I typically take I PT a week, however as you are getting closer to your test date I would increase to two PT's a week, which is what I have been doing. I do one PT in 7 Sage where I do a detailed BR. As in, I write out every single question for at least one of the LR sections (if I take two) re do the games as well as re read the passages for reading comp.
The second PT I take in lawhub. The reason for this is that law hub is exactly what you will be using on test. The fonts are different, the interface is clunkier and there isn't an option for blind review.
While I think most people will learn the most from BR it is important to practice and be comfortable in the interface you will actually be using on test day.
1-2 PTs per week max. Testing in November but will also in January. Personally, what is more important than actually doing a PT is knowing WHY you got answer choices wrong so that you're not doomed to repeat that same error.
Running out of clean PTs is a problem and I would really recommend against just taking more PTs with your time. I did two a week and that was challenging working 40+ hours a week, I am sure with less work and good discipline you could do 4 or so and still review well, but you could also drill specific problem sets and weaknesses instead of just burning through questions. PTs exist to get practice with the test format as assess where you are at a given point, but as for just improving score there are other more effective uses of your time. I am a big proponent of partner/group BR after PTing. You can learn a lot from another person's perspective. If possible, multiple different partners a week. I PT'd with one group of 2-3 for 3 or 4 weeks and then had two solo partners I PTd with for more than a month. I got far more out of them than the curriculum at times and certainly more than just grinding questions.
As someone who practiced strictly through 7Sage (wasn't even aware it would matter) and found myself thrown off by the way the real test looked, I think this is really important advice.
I second the comments here that suggest that flex is different, as not only is it three sections, but it also involves less blind reviewing.
That being said though, before I decided to do three-sections, I planned for 1 PT a week; with Flex, I'm doing two PTs a week.
I was surprised that Lawhub felt so different, but it does. The highlighter is very clunky. Sometimes it is difficult to find the scroll bar on a MAC. The line numbers aren’t labeled on reading comp. All the tools look a little bit different.
There is exactly two things that I do like about Lawhub better than 7 Sage though. The first is the ability to pause a section or test with just a push of the button. I am very aware that you can’t do this on an actual test but it is nice during practice, particularly for those of us who have been stuck with children home during Covid. The second thing is the ability to set a custom time. I have met quite a few people who don’t need need double time but would have been able to work through test anxiety and making sure they were focusing on the right things rather than racing the clock if they had 40 or 45 minutes for a few tests or sections and could then gradually scale back the time.
For those of you concerned about the LawHub interface, just practice with it. I agree that it is more awkward than both 7Sage and Khan Academy, but you get used to it too. I hated it the first PT I did on it, but by the third it did not bother me. You can also adjust both the font and the line spacing. That helped me. Just a suggestion.
If we want to take the PTs on law hub, do we need to buy the $99 subscription or is there a way to sync it up with our access to PTs on 7Sage?
When you subscribe to 7Sage that grants you access to a certain number of PTs, depending on what subscription you have. For example I did the max subscription so I have access to most of the disclosed PTs on lawhub. No need to pay for two subscriptions