Best approach to LG improvement in my situation?

Karsa Orlong

LG is by far my weakest section and I intend to write the Nov LSAT. I've done all the LGs from 10-75 but I was ignorant and casual about studying in the past (wasn't sure about pursuing law school). I'd do them, watch an explanation video and never revisited them to ensure my understanding. There'd also be large breaks / gaps between games sometimes. I did another circuit from 40-75 again in that time as well. Needless to say, my improvements have only been modest, my confidence in LG is low, and I remain prone to catastrophic breakdowns.

I've only now purchased 7sage and have backfilled all my past papertest results into the system to generate an analysis. I can see where my weak spots are. What should I do now? Do I drill my weak areas by type & difficulty progressively? Or take full 35 min sections of LG from diff PTs and foolproof them?

Anyone that can suggest a focused regimen for me would be greatly appreciated. I find myself ruing my decision not to sit for the old LSATs back in 2017, 2018 etc. where this only represented a quarter of my grade...

LawyeringForLife-1

First, don't worry. If you convince yourself you can't make it - you won't. As a matter of fact, undermining your own confidence by worrying can result in 10 point score swings compared to what your actual skill set can produce.
Second, pretty much everyone here has made the mistake of careless studying at one point or another. So, again, nothing to worry about.
Third - foolproof all the way - forget everything you think you know about games and do the Pacifico method (you can find it in the forums). In short: Do a game, score it, review the video and pay special attention to the methodology and shortcuts. Do the same game again right away and try to apply what you saw. Next, do it the next day and re-watch as needed. Lastly do it a week later to see what you remember.
Then drill, drill, drill.
Not sure what you are scoring, but my guess is anywhere from -10 to -15 if you say you are prone to breaking down. By the time November comes around, there is no reason why you can't be -0/-1. LG is extremely learnable section.
Now, I would recommend you think of your practice as a 3-stage process with the implementation of 3 different strategies.
Stage 1: This is when you are still all over the place. Watch the videos to learn how to do the games in a good way. JY does an excellent job.
Stage 2: This applies when you have good foundational skills and you have built up confidence, so you are finishing the section consistently. Watch the videos to see what shortcuts you have missed, i.e. watch out for what JY refers to as high-level approaches. For example: scan the answer choices and strategically define why you are starting by testing answer choices D.
Stage 3: This happens when you feel solid and well-versed in the games. Watch videos critically - why did JY not follow his own shortcut this time; JY did this question with this method, but if you just apply the rules it works out faster. Now you are trying to beat JY at his own game and find faster and better ways than him to get to the correct answer. This is a mastery level skill that you will be able to do at that -0/-1 range.
All the best with your practice. Go out there and kill it!

Karsa Orlong

@LawyeringForLife

Thanks for the detailed response.

One of my bad habits was not doing full PTs and wasting material on single section tests. On those LG sections I usually get 4-9 wrong. The only PTs that have remained untouched are the one's past 75 (had the sense to preserve these, at least). I did my first full PT since my diagnostic a few days ago and got a -14 on 88's games. It was by far the worst I've done in ages and shattered my confidence. I've since read that it was one of the toughest games sections, but it did little to assuage me. I guess I should be grateful that I took it early and shook myself out of complacency, god knows how I'd have reacted to that one near the test date!

Alright, I'll follow that method. I'm just starting to foolproof but I was giving it one day before re-trying the game. I'll be doing them immediately afterwards as well now.

Do you have any suggestions on how I should space out my fresh 75+ PTs until November? I've also heard people talk of saving some for retake preparation. I've never written the LSAT before btw.