How are you studying when you're not PTing and BRing?

trevorNYCgoal

I'm currently working through the core curriculum and like taking a break to read discussion posts about success stories, score increases, and study habits. Especially with study habits, I get excited at the thought of having completed the core curriculum and can take what I know and apply to PTs.

My main question comes for those of you having completed the core curriculum and are now studying without the guidance of the core curriculum. PTing is relatively straight forward. BRing is all about the review of the PT and evaluating every answer choice you're not sure of under an untimed environment. 7Sage recommends about 2-3 PT a week with BR so account for 2-3 days for that.

What are you doing when you're not PTing and BRing?

I see a lot of users talk about their study habits of 5-6 days a week. What does the day of studying look like when you're not PTing and BRing? Are you going over core curriculum videos? Are you reviewing vocabulary and materials that assist in LR? Are you doing drills and practice sets? Just curious of how you set up your study sessions when you're not dedicating most of your time to PTing and BRing? Thanks!

LegallyGray

Mostly crying and rocking back and forth. Seriously though, interested to hear what others have to say!

Matt Sorr

Though there's a bunch of things you can do when you're not BRing or PTing, I think there's a few that just about anybody can benefit greatly from. This list is by no means exhaustive, but there's a few foundational activities I find particularly helpful:

1. Fool proofing LG. If a game gave you any trouble during a PT, fool proof it. If you're not familiar with what fool proofing is, just check out the video in the curriculum. You can find it quickly "ctrl + F" or "command + F" and typing in "fool proof" on the curriculum page. IIRC, it's covered entirely in one video so you'll know you're at the right link. Seriously, no matter how good someone is at LG, fool proofing games you don't get 100% correct or under the target time is super helpful for making games second nature.

2. Drilling full, timed section. If you've been feeling shaky with LG, LR, or RC, drilling one or two sections can help a lot. I find that it helps me get into a "groove" with a section, and there's just no substitute for repetition when you're trying to get comfortable with the test taking format. It may even be useful to drill two full sections (of the same or different types) back to back before BRing them.

3. Building on number two, working on timing and attack strategies for sections. Often, and particularly as people get into the higher score rungs, timing can be the difference between missing one or two questions you otherwise wouldn't have. For instance, if you didn't have time to review a couple of questions you wanted to on LR before you ran out of time, and you end up missing those questions, there's a great chance you could've gotten one or both correct if you would've used your time more wisely. Perhaps you spent too much time making sure you got an easier question right (which you probably would've gotten right without extra time) or you spent too long staring at a question you simply didn't understand. Either way, it's worth thinking of ways to approach each section. You may tell yourself that no matter what, you will get through the first 10 or 15 LR questions quickly, even if it makes you a bit uncomfortable.

4. Drilling weaknesses timed and untimed. If you find a certain kind of game, reading passage, or LR question is really giving you trouble, taking time to go back into the CC and review the lessons on whatever is troubling you can help a ton. Then, make a drill with maybe four games, or three passages, or ten LR questions of the type you're struggling with. Keep doing that until you're a bit more comfortable. Then, start doing the drills timed.

Again, there's all sorts of stuff you can do between PTs, so seek out other answers! I've just found these things useful. I hope this helps a bit!

aleiakat

@"Matt Sorr" - thank you so much for your response! Very helpful explanations and great ideas for how to study in the off-days.

For my part, I try to take at least 1 practice test in full each weekend, Blind Review before the work week (I'm a FTE working in the Bay Area, so midweek study time can be hard to come by).

During the work week, I want to aim for taking at least 1 full practice section daily.

I choose a section (LG/LR/RC) based on vulnerabilities identified during my last practice test and blind review. Depending on the analytics of the most recent 1-3 tests, I'll either:
(A) drill a preset section (e.g. "All LR Questions from PT 61"); or
(B) make a custom set of questions of 3-5 types with varying difficulty ("Flaw, MSS, Weaken, Strengthen Questions from PT 24, 28, 35")

I find that just drilling prebuilt sections is more sensible for my purposes than building custom sets. It's quicker to get into the meat of practice, and I think it gives a more realistic statistical performance metric. I only make custom question sets when I want to try a new testing habit or hammer on a particular testing strategy to make sure it sticks.

If you have time to spare, adding extra logic game sections each week can be super valuable. It will make you faster (efficient note-taking, board-building, and intuition) and help you maintain high speed in the games, and it will make you more accurate.

I have heard from many people that statistically, students usually see the biggest and quickest boost in their overall score from improvement in Logic Games. If you're on a time crunch for studying, LG is likely to be the easiest target to improve your score.

RaphaelP

Lots of great comments above, but here's what I'd add:

1) Like others have said, keep foolproofing. This should be a daily activity because LG is the most vulnerable to attrition. I'd try to do at least a little bit every single day.

2) Reviewing the Wrong Answer Journal (and adding to it). As part of the PT process, you should be journaling. My process would be PT --> BR --> videos --> journaling. And each day you should look over your journal.

3) Timed sections! Outside of PTs (so on non-test days) I would suggest doing at least 1 timed section. It can be a way to practice skills that you'd use on a PT, but in an accelerated way (since it's just 1 section).

4) Targeted drills - figure out the question types or other weaknesses you have and do drills to deal with those.

Thank you JY

@RaphaelP can you elaborate on the wrong answer journal? Thanks!

RaphaelP

@LSAT_Athlete said:
@RaphaelP can you elaborate on the wrong answer journal? Thanks!

Sorry, missed this! Big thing is to log every missed question in a word document (screenshot of the question, explanation of right answer, explanation of each wrong answer, some pattern). Then, you review it near-daily. This is the best way for you to make improvement in LR and RC.

I'm also going to send out a newsletter on this topic this week... You got me thinking about it!

Thank you JY

@RaphaelP thank you for the response + looking out for that newsletter