Question re scheduling

Maritzaa

Hello!

I am having some trouble making a schedule for the coming months. I am shooting for the Feb exam but I am still struggling with timing and certain question types. Since there isn’t much time left, do you recommend drilling entire sections, specific question types, or both?

If I should drill sections, should I be utilizing PTs 17 – 34? If so, how should I Incorporate the question bank? Wondering what use that is if I decide to drill sections.

Also, what is the significance of the question bank? How should PTs 1 - 16 be used? I know there was a post somewhere giving details but I can't find it.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Pacifico

What is your PT average versus your target score? What is your BR average? How many PTs have you taken? What types of questions are you struggling with? What sections do you have timing issues on?

Drilling is overrated in my opinion.

You really need to be focusing on full PTs at this point and just using very light drilling to shore up weaknesses in specific areas as needed. Your BR should be where the vast majority of the learning takes place. Drilling 100 NA questions is not really going to help you reach your end goal because it puts them in isolation and doesn't test how the LSAT tests your brain overall.

Anything from 1-35 is fine to use for drilling purposes. The question bank is super useful to help target specific weaknesses so you can quickly find all the hardest PF questions or the hardest SA questions so you can hone your skills in one area. I would only drill specific question types if you are well below average in one type or another. Otherwise I think you're wasting materials. Drilling full sections can help with timing, but really if you have timing issues then a full PT will help you eradicate those best since you're mimicking the real deal.

Timing issues usually come down to two things:

1) You spend way too much time on easy questions.
2) You don't skip questions when you don't know what's going on, which leads to you spending way too much time on the harder questions.

There are definitely questions that can take 2-3 minutes to answer on LR, but you don't have the luxury of doing that the first time through. You need to pick your signifiers for moving on and then hopefully finish with extra time and come back. Spinning your wheels on question 12 is a great way to run out of time. Instead, circle it and keep pushing and later when you come back to it the second look alone may let you see things clearly.

Maritzaa

Probably should have clarified, but I am looking to focus on timing/drilling in November. December and January will be for PT/BRing (3 per week - about 24 tests before Feb exam). If I don't feel ready, I will push back until June... just want to make sure I don't burn through all of my material.

Pacifico

Oh I understood what you were saying, I just don't think it's a good use of your time to try to work on timing by drilling rather than PTing. Plus life invariably gets in the way and your 3 PTs a week might turn into 1 or 2 at times and then you end up only getting to 17 PTs before February. Don't be scared to start PTing now and build up your analytics and then let that guide your prep. Why would you start drilling now if you don't really know any data about what you struggle with during PTs?

Maritzaa

@Pacifico Thanks! The only reason why I am hesitant to start PTing is because I don't want to burn through tests (especially if I have to wait until June/Oct). I took about 5 PTs thus far and I am below target score and there is a 12 - 15 pt difference when I BR. My issue is timing, certain question types and not knowing when to skip questions. I still have to go through LG 1 - 35 (doing your LG recommendation). Since that will take me 3 - 4 weeks to complete, I might as well pull some LR/RC sections from older PTs and drill in between, right? Thoughts?

nicole.hopkins

@Pacifico said:
I just don't think it's a good use of your time to try to work on timing by drilling rather than PTing

Agree. Emphatically.