Should I study CC as presented or jump around?

OliviaClare

Hello Everyone! I am aiming to take the LSAT in June of 2022 and I am struggling to figure out a study schedule. My goal right now is to take it easy but I am anxious about whether I should go straight through the CC as it is presented in the syllabus or mix and match (such as one day do some LR then jump to LG then back to LR). I would love to hear how people approached the CC and if they did decided to jump around how they decided what lessons to pick and do without getting confused. Thanks!

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I would recommend you do the CC as presented but with ONE caveat:

1) If you are just starting off on your LSAT journey, the LSAT will be like learning a new language. Everything will be new anyways so there is no harm either way whether you jump around or do in order. Anything new is new so it will add to your arsenal of knowledge. But generally speaking, if you do things in order, it helps solidify your understanding of something the more you spend time on that component. Skipping around might delay that solidification but again, I don't think it's harmless.

2) The CC is set up in a way that is beneficial for new test takers. It starts off with LR, then LG, and then RC. This seems quite reasonable because LR probably takes the most time to wrap your head around in terms of logic. Note that I did not mean "the hardest to improve." I mean that formal and conditional logic and all just take time to marinate and solidify and thus would be a good place to begin. LG can be pretty unfamiliar for most people but the lessons you learn in LR will help give you a foundation to improve on in LG as both are "logic." Finally, RC may be the most difficult to improve for people but you have been reading your whole life so, at the start, you're probably better equipped there than the other 2 sections.

Here is my 1 caveat:

-- Do not feel compelled to have to DRILL every single question and question set that the CC offers. Of course if you do them all that is awesome. But feeling like "you have to do them ALL because it's in order" can be a nemesis in your understanding. The LSAT is hard, really hard in the beginning. You will probably get a lot of questions wrong to start and it can be demoralizing.

What I encourage instead is this - Pay careful attention to the videos/lessons and take note. Really pay attention and them apply them correctly on the practice questions. Take as much time as you need to understand the question before moving on.

Many people confuse "movement with progress" aka doing more questions or completing the CC means I am progressing. Not so. The LSAT is hard but it is repetitive. You doing more and more to progress in your CC but constantly getting it wrong isn't doing you any good. It simply means you do not understand and you are delaying your understanding.

So do 5 questions really, really well and then move on to the next topic/lesson and then periodically come back to the remaining problem sets to drill and refine. Rather than doing ALL at once and ALL in order, do periodic sets in quality fashion and then keep the rest to refine and retool later in your process. You will find that with time, the concepts on the LSAT marinate really well and make sense eventually

In my mind, that is the best way to prep for the LSAT.