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Journey to the Center of a 180
Hi everyone, I posted a couple days ago saying I would do a write up of my study experience, and here it is. For context, I scored a 180 on the October LSAT after nine months of studying. I didn’t think it would be quite so difficult to recall everything, but I suppose part of me is trying to block it out. I’ve separated this beast into a few sections in case people feel like jumping to a section, but in writing it I got the feeling responding to individual scenarios/questions might both be easier for me than trying a one size fits all and more helpful to you, so for the next week or so I’ll try to respond to any personal messages/questions. I’ll be around for a week or so after this, at which point I’ll be retiring from the LSAT for the foreseeable future.
I tried to address everyone’s wishes in here, but I’m mentally fatigued from work (it doesn’t end with the lsat I guess) so let me know if I forgot something! I never took a cold test but after the powerscore books and before the 7sage course I took the 7sage diagnostic and scored a 167. Also, I know people asked about my approach to the sections and I tried to outline them below, but a lot of that just came from instinct and not from a method. What will be more helpful I hope is my experience with mental fatigue and dips. I also would heavily emphasize planning and organization to avoid needing to cram work in. Cramming is death.
Also, the fact that I got a 180 means I did really well on the LSAT. It doesn’t mean I’ll make an excellent lawyer, that I’m a genius, or anything outside of the world of admissions. Through personal experience I know a woman who got a 158 on the LSAT and is an incredible trial attorney. Just for some perspective for those stressing. Strive for the best score you can, but don’t think it determines your entire future. A 180 also does not make me an expert on everything. All of this is only my thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. They aren’t a rigid guide or what you must absolutely do (except restricting the number of PTs). You know what works for you. Just experiment first to find your optimal approach.
For my final last minute addition, when planning plan for a minimum of six months. You cannot guarantee reaching your max in less. At the same time, I wouldn't do more than 8 or 9 months. I'd say an optimal schedule would be to plan on 30, 2 per week. Count back the weeks, so about 15 weeks, plus one for a break. Give another 15 weeks for studying the material. Probably more than you'll need but you can always take a break or explore a bit. That'd be about 7 months, as an example.
Overview
I began studying for the LSAT in February 2015, intending to take the June LSAT. I began with the Powerscore Bibles, doing a couple chapters of each book a week. While I found their techniques to be overly complicated and not very useful for me, there were some ideas that were beneficial, and I found them especially good for hammering in the basics and formal/conditional logic. I’d recommend them if you have plenty of time before your LSAT, to lay the foundations for the 7sage course. Do the drills, not the practice questions. Save those for 7sage. Plus while I generally found 7sage’s techniques more useful, perhaps you’ll take away more from the Powerscore approach than I did.
Starting 7sage in March, I began to get more serious about my studying. I altered my schedule completely, going to sleep at 12 and waking up at 8 almost every day. I set aside 3 hours each day for 7sage, completing the course and all of the practice sets by mid April. I then planned for taking four practice tests a week until the test itself in June, totaling 28. I started well with improvement from 170 to a high of 174 over three tests, then fluctuated between 170-172 over the next ten or so. I became increasingly frustrated and stressed, not understanding exactly what was going on. I didn’t feel that I was doing too much or that I was mentally tired, but I made mistakes that I found easily when going back over tests. I also barely BR’d, just wanting to speed to see what my score was. With June approaching, I decided to postpone until October, feeling that I had so much more room to improve.
Now saddled with almost too much time, I re-evaluated my schedule. Since I would be graduating, I would soon be free from my student job, school, and extracurriculars. I decided to cut my PTs down to three per week for July and August, then 2 per for September., totaling 33 tests. Since I had taken 13 of the earlier tests, but one new one would be available, there would be a few tests of overlap but I figured retaking those would be a good way to ease back in. However, I took the last two weeks of April and the first two of June to relax, studying only one day a week on Mondays by going over my weak spots in LR in 7sage, basically just to keep it in my mind but also shoring up my fundamentals. The last two weeks of June I basically went through the 7sage course again minus the problem sets, taking handwritten notes on approaches and tactics. The act of writing it helped cement it in my mind.
My approach to studying now was rigid and disciplined. My daily approach I’ll go into more detail below so people can skip to it if they wish but I began to adopt a more serious method. I also began meditating to improve my ability to focus. My first test after my “reset” I scored a 176, a new high. I then got a 177, then 179, then 180. My review, my new approach and mindset, and my patience with BR all helped me improve. I maintained my scores in the high 170s for the next month, taking three a week. However, by the end of August, I began experiencing the same mental fatigue I’d felt when I was taking four a week in April.
This time I realized the issue, and cut back to two tests a week immediately. However, I kept studying on between days, with breaks only on Fridays. I couldn’t accept that studying less might be the key to doing better. Stress mounting, my scores lowered to 173-175 range. I eventually accepted that additional practice sets and games could not possibly prepare me more, and cut back to two tests and nothing else. I realized stress would only hurt, and decided to just enjoy the rest of my time and cut out as much stress as possible. With two weeks to go and three PTs left, I got a 177 on my Wednesday test, then a 179 on my Monday. I decided to skip the Wednesday, figuring the rest would be better and I didn’t want a freak poor day on the most recent test to tank my confidence.
They don’t give the test in my town, so I booked a hotel 5 minutes from LMU for the Thursday and Friday before so I’d have some time to acclimate. The night before, I slept horribly. I didn’t feel nervous, but I kept thinking about how important it was for me to sleep, which made it impossible to sleep. Eventually I drifted off. I then woke up, ate my breakfast, and went to the test center. I was sent in to the first room, where I had a large desk. We started early, which was a huge advantage since during the break there was no line for the bathroom and I had less time for nerves to sink in.
During the test, I had to do some breathing techniques to calm down. When we started, I tore through that first LR section. I finished the section in 20 minutes flat. I checked every question, corrected one, then sat and waited for the next. RC. Great. My weakest section because I would always lose focus during one of the passages. This time, I focused no problem and finished with a minute to spare. Next I had what would be the experimental LG. Super easy, done in twenty minutes. Then the break. I felt excellent, and beyond excited to be so close to finished with the LSAT. I came back in, finished the more difficult LR without a hitch, then turned to the last section, another LG. I came dangerously close to blowing it here. The whole time I kept thinking the questions were a bit off so it was probably the experimental. I finished with time to check my work, but found I had truly made a mess of question three. I fixed all of the questions but one, which I managed to eliminate two of the answers then blindly circled in E, by some miracle getting my guess right. And that’s how I got a 180 instead of a 179.
Study Approach
While I was doing the 7sage course, I broke up my studying into smaller 30 minute chunks with plenty of breaks, giving my mind time to soak in the information. I made sure to do three hours a day though. For July through test day, I woke up at 6:45 and went to sleep at 10:30 every night without fail. I meditated for 15 minutes every day from 5-5:15. On test days, I woke up, showered, ate breakfast/coffee, did a warmup, then simulated waiting for the test to start, then began the test between 8:30 and 9:30 to simulate possible variation. On non test days, I took it a bit easy but did a couple games and an LR section, sometimes throwing in an RC. I set aside Friday as a rest day, since I intended to do nothing the Friday before the actual test. I took tests on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. During my PTs, I circled every question I was unsure about and followed the 7sage method. The keys to a good study approach to me are replicating whatever you will do on test day, and adopting a consistent sleep schedule. Sleep is crucial, and an easy way to improve the quality of it is consistent hours every day. When working through the course, designate one hour each week to plan your study hours for the entire week up to your designated hours. For example, I always set aside between 18-20 hours in 30-45 minute segments. Find aa time segment that works for you, but don’t try to study for three hours straight. The PTs are for training your mind’s strength, when you are learning the approaches and skills you need to be able to absorb it permanently, and there’s a limit to how much you can take at once. Lastly, re-evaluate your needs honestly. If with three weeks to go you feel you have room to improve, maybe you should take the extra months instead. If you feel you’re suffering from test fatigue, take a couple days immediately and scale back.
Mental Approach
The LSAT is a mental beast. I don’t mean in terms of the difficulty, that mental aspect is obvious. The less obvious one is the one that kills you just as surely but far more subtly. I’m talking test day nerves, long term stress, fatigue, negative attitudes. People who score 180s on their PT can tank test day because they didn’t mentally prepare for the actual test, and others get a test day boost by channeling their adrenaline. This is my advantage. I was a pitcher for years until I tore various ligaments in my shoulder, and learned all sorts of mental fortitude tricks and methods. When I sat down for the real LSAT, I felt nervous. Then I changed those nerves to adrenaline, breathing in and out in a pattern and viewing the next four hours as a battle that I was going to utterly dominate. The LSAT was my enemy, and I was going to crush it. I’d found my way to combat those nerved from years of sports. I recommend anyone starting to study go find a book on mental toughness (there are dozens of good ones about sports) and study up. Can’t hurt.
As far as long term mental issues. This approach will vary hugely from person to person, on temperament and what else you have in your life. Most important is to avoid test fatigue. DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN THREE TESTS A WEEK. Maybe, maybe if you’re two months away and want to nail down your routine for each section take more, but scale back asap. If you feel fatigue, take a break. Do nothing mentally fatiguing for a couple days. Then reevaluate what you really need to do and how much you can handle. The LSAT feeds into my greatest strengths of logic, reasoning, and reading. I experienced test fatigue. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it doesn’t mean you aren’t as mentally strong as the people at TLS pretending to take a PT a day, it means you need to step away. I did, and I got a 180. So if that helps you take a break, tell yourself that. I studied for nine months, about a month too long for me. By the end I was so sick of the lsat, I never wanted to think about it again. Even with all my breaks and stress relief, it weighs on you over time.
Also, test fatigue isn’t limited to tests. Any sort of studying fatigues you, as does reading, writing, or any mentally demanding activity. This was hard for me to accept, since I read all the time, but you may just have to go for walks or watch tv instead to rest your mind. Again, evaluate this for yourself, but when I stopped reading my RC score jumped a question or two since I wasn’t glossing over words anymore. If you read too much you read too quickly or carelessly.
Lastly, I cannot recommend two activities enough: meditation and exercise. Download a meditation app and just spend 15 minutes sitting or lying down clearing your head. It’ll help. Spend an hour a day four days a week doing serious exercise, it’ll help your brain be active without fatiguing and it’ll give you more energy, plus everyone should exercise for the myriad of health benefits anyways. So now’s your chance to start!
Individual Sections
LR
For LR questions I did not generally note anything or write anything, with the exception of the most difficult parallel reasoning or disagree questions. I found I didn’t need to. I would read the stem, then the stim, then the stem, then go through the questions and eliminate those I could, then weigh those remaining. If I couldn’t come to a 100% solution, I’d circle what I was leaning towards, circle the question, and move on. I aimed to finish 10 by 10 minutes, 20 by 20 minutes, and the section by 30, leaving 5 minutes to review those few questions I’d circle. LR was the section I was most affected by test fatigue with, but otherwise I usually missed one or none, occasionally two.
LG
My approach to LG probably will not be great for most of you. I would write each rule, including the contrapositive when appropriate, and make a quick number of inferences. If there were many questions that seemed to be scenario or inference based, I would spend more time on that initial inference step. Otherwise I moved on through the question. If I was wrong, I often could work through the inferences required quickly enough to not lose much time when I skipped the initial setup of game boards or alternatives. Essentially I went with my gut feeling on a given game, which is frustratingly hard to describe but the truth.
The most important part of any approach to Logic Games is mental flexibility. Every game is unique in some way, but the good news is every game you practice on helps you see another possible scenario and gives you a framework for approaching future problems. Lastly, find your system. I didn’t use strictly the 7sage or Powerscore methods/notation, I created my own bastardized system that worked best for me because I made it. It didn’t work or make sense to anyone else, but it was for me, not them. Experiment and find your system, and don’t worry about being able to explain it. Just make sure it’s clear to you, useful, and flexible.
RC
RC was my least improved section, going from average of -3 to -2 by the end, although I got a perfect on test day. This is where the ability to channel nerves into focused energy on test day is so crucial. Normally I would glaze over for at least one passage, but on test day I was uber focused and sailed through.
RC is also where you really, really, really need to develop your own approach. Everyone reads differently and will find different things helpful. For me, it was scribbling while reading. Not summarizing, but writing in-between the text and the questions as I read. Rewriting words, paraphrasing sentences, all of it just kept me engaged and slowed me down a tad so I didn’t race through. I didn’t read my writing during the questions, but it helped cement in place where things were in the passage. Basically I took the 7sage method and tweaked it to fit me. Find your tweak, it’s what the practice sets are for.
Test Day
If you’ve been simulating test day each PT for 2 months, you’ve nothing to worry about. It’s just another test. You’ll be nervous, but you’ll be fine. Everyone is nervous. Use it. There’s an excellent Dr Who scene talking about fear as a superpower because of how much it pumps you up and increases your physical abilities. Nervousness can do the same for you. Just wake up, eat your breakfast, and take the test. Follow the same methods you’ve used before. Know that if you make a mistake, you can retake it.
And that’s it. I wish I could be more specific about my month by month process but to be honest when I was working through the course was 7-9 months ago. I can tell you to do alllllll the practice sets, every LG, and plan everything. Plan when you’ll take your first test through when you’ll take your last. Plan your weekly hours, your breaks, your meditation, your workouts, and do everything else AROUND THAT. This is the most important thing for the next few months. Organization is very important, since when you get into the studying you’ll be stressed. Do everything you can to remove possible stressors. Give yourself leeway in your schedule for breaks when you experience fatigue. It won’t hurt. You won’t forget everything with a few days or a week away. My scores always improved after a break.
Best of luck to everyone! Bring two watches and lots of pencils on test day, because I had a watch die in the middle of a PT, but had it been the test I would have been lost. I'm sorry if there are any errors, this grew longer than I expected. Oops.
I tried to address everyone’s wishes in here, but I’m mentally fatigued from work (it doesn’t end with the lsat I guess) so let me know if I forgot something! I never took a cold test but after the powerscore books and before the 7sage course I took the 7sage diagnostic and scored a 167. Also, I know people asked about my approach to the sections and I tried to outline them below, but a lot of that just came from instinct and not from a method. What will be more helpful I hope is my experience with mental fatigue and dips. I also would heavily emphasize planning and organization to avoid needing to cram work in. Cramming is death.
Also, the fact that I got a 180 means I did really well on the LSAT. It doesn’t mean I’ll make an excellent lawyer, that I’m a genius, or anything outside of the world of admissions. Through personal experience I know a woman who got a 158 on the LSAT and is an incredible trial attorney. Just for some perspective for those stressing. Strive for the best score you can, but don’t think it determines your entire future. A 180 also does not make me an expert on everything. All of this is only my thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. They aren’t a rigid guide or what you must absolutely do (except restricting the number of PTs). You know what works for you. Just experiment first to find your optimal approach.
For my final last minute addition, when planning plan for a minimum of six months. You cannot guarantee reaching your max in less. At the same time, I wouldn't do more than 8 or 9 months. I'd say an optimal schedule would be to plan on 30, 2 per week. Count back the weeks, so about 15 weeks, plus one for a break. Give another 15 weeks for studying the material. Probably more than you'll need but you can always take a break or explore a bit. That'd be about 7 months, as an example.
Overview
I began studying for the LSAT in February 2015, intending to take the June LSAT. I began with the Powerscore Bibles, doing a couple chapters of each book a week. While I found their techniques to be overly complicated and not very useful for me, there were some ideas that were beneficial, and I found them especially good for hammering in the basics and formal/conditional logic. I’d recommend them if you have plenty of time before your LSAT, to lay the foundations for the 7sage course. Do the drills, not the practice questions. Save those for 7sage. Plus while I generally found 7sage’s techniques more useful, perhaps you’ll take away more from the Powerscore approach than I did.
Starting 7sage in March, I began to get more serious about my studying. I altered my schedule completely, going to sleep at 12 and waking up at 8 almost every day. I set aside 3 hours each day for 7sage, completing the course and all of the practice sets by mid April. I then planned for taking four practice tests a week until the test itself in June, totaling 28. I started well with improvement from 170 to a high of 174 over three tests, then fluctuated between 170-172 over the next ten or so. I became increasingly frustrated and stressed, not understanding exactly what was going on. I didn’t feel that I was doing too much or that I was mentally tired, but I made mistakes that I found easily when going back over tests. I also barely BR’d, just wanting to speed to see what my score was. With June approaching, I decided to postpone until October, feeling that I had so much more room to improve.
Now saddled with almost too much time, I re-evaluated my schedule. Since I would be graduating, I would soon be free from my student job, school, and extracurriculars. I decided to cut my PTs down to three per week for July and August, then 2 per for September., totaling 33 tests. Since I had taken 13 of the earlier tests, but one new one would be available, there would be a few tests of overlap but I figured retaking those would be a good way to ease back in. However, I took the last two weeks of April and the first two of June to relax, studying only one day a week on Mondays by going over my weak spots in LR in 7sage, basically just to keep it in my mind but also shoring up my fundamentals. The last two weeks of June I basically went through the 7sage course again minus the problem sets, taking handwritten notes on approaches and tactics. The act of writing it helped cement it in my mind.
My approach to studying now was rigid and disciplined. My daily approach I’ll go into more detail below so people can skip to it if they wish but I began to adopt a more serious method. I also began meditating to improve my ability to focus. My first test after my “reset” I scored a 176, a new high. I then got a 177, then 179, then 180. My review, my new approach and mindset, and my patience with BR all helped me improve. I maintained my scores in the high 170s for the next month, taking three a week. However, by the end of August, I began experiencing the same mental fatigue I’d felt when I was taking four a week in April.
This time I realized the issue, and cut back to two tests a week immediately. However, I kept studying on between days, with breaks only on Fridays. I couldn’t accept that studying less might be the key to doing better. Stress mounting, my scores lowered to 173-175 range. I eventually accepted that additional practice sets and games could not possibly prepare me more, and cut back to two tests and nothing else. I realized stress would only hurt, and decided to just enjoy the rest of my time and cut out as much stress as possible. With two weeks to go and three PTs left, I got a 177 on my Wednesday test, then a 179 on my Monday. I decided to skip the Wednesday, figuring the rest would be better and I didn’t want a freak poor day on the most recent test to tank my confidence.
They don’t give the test in my town, so I booked a hotel 5 minutes from LMU for the Thursday and Friday before so I’d have some time to acclimate. The night before, I slept horribly. I didn’t feel nervous, but I kept thinking about how important it was for me to sleep, which made it impossible to sleep. Eventually I drifted off. I then woke up, ate my breakfast, and went to the test center. I was sent in to the first room, where I had a large desk. We started early, which was a huge advantage since during the break there was no line for the bathroom and I had less time for nerves to sink in.
During the test, I had to do some breathing techniques to calm down. When we started, I tore through that first LR section. I finished the section in 20 minutes flat. I checked every question, corrected one, then sat and waited for the next. RC. Great. My weakest section because I would always lose focus during one of the passages. This time, I focused no problem and finished with a minute to spare. Next I had what would be the experimental LG. Super easy, done in twenty minutes. Then the break. I felt excellent, and beyond excited to be so close to finished with the LSAT. I came back in, finished the more difficult LR without a hitch, then turned to the last section, another LG. I came dangerously close to blowing it here. The whole time I kept thinking the questions were a bit off so it was probably the experimental. I finished with time to check my work, but found I had truly made a mess of question three. I fixed all of the questions but one, which I managed to eliminate two of the answers then blindly circled in E, by some miracle getting my guess right. And that’s how I got a 180 instead of a 179.
Study Approach
While I was doing the 7sage course, I broke up my studying into smaller 30 minute chunks with plenty of breaks, giving my mind time to soak in the information. I made sure to do three hours a day though. For July through test day, I woke up at 6:45 and went to sleep at 10:30 every night without fail. I meditated for 15 minutes every day from 5-5:15. On test days, I woke up, showered, ate breakfast/coffee, did a warmup, then simulated waiting for the test to start, then began the test between 8:30 and 9:30 to simulate possible variation. On non test days, I took it a bit easy but did a couple games and an LR section, sometimes throwing in an RC. I set aside Friday as a rest day, since I intended to do nothing the Friday before the actual test. I took tests on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. During my PTs, I circled every question I was unsure about and followed the 7sage method. The keys to a good study approach to me are replicating whatever you will do on test day, and adopting a consistent sleep schedule. Sleep is crucial, and an easy way to improve the quality of it is consistent hours every day. When working through the course, designate one hour each week to plan your study hours for the entire week up to your designated hours. For example, I always set aside between 18-20 hours in 30-45 minute segments. Find aa time segment that works for you, but don’t try to study for three hours straight. The PTs are for training your mind’s strength, when you are learning the approaches and skills you need to be able to absorb it permanently, and there’s a limit to how much you can take at once. Lastly, re-evaluate your needs honestly. If with three weeks to go you feel you have room to improve, maybe you should take the extra months instead. If you feel you’re suffering from test fatigue, take a couple days immediately and scale back.
Mental Approach
The LSAT is a mental beast. I don’t mean in terms of the difficulty, that mental aspect is obvious. The less obvious one is the one that kills you just as surely but far more subtly. I’m talking test day nerves, long term stress, fatigue, negative attitudes. People who score 180s on their PT can tank test day because they didn’t mentally prepare for the actual test, and others get a test day boost by channeling their adrenaline. This is my advantage. I was a pitcher for years until I tore various ligaments in my shoulder, and learned all sorts of mental fortitude tricks and methods. When I sat down for the real LSAT, I felt nervous. Then I changed those nerves to adrenaline, breathing in and out in a pattern and viewing the next four hours as a battle that I was going to utterly dominate. The LSAT was my enemy, and I was going to crush it. I’d found my way to combat those nerved from years of sports. I recommend anyone starting to study go find a book on mental toughness (there are dozens of good ones about sports) and study up. Can’t hurt.
As far as long term mental issues. This approach will vary hugely from person to person, on temperament and what else you have in your life. Most important is to avoid test fatigue. DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN THREE TESTS A WEEK. Maybe, maybe if you’re two months away and want to nail down your routine for each section take more, but scale back asap. If you feel fatigue, take a break. Do nothing mentally fatiguing for a couple days. Then reevaluate what you really need to do and how much you can handle. The LSAT feeds into my greatest strengths of logic, reasoning, and reading. I experienced test fatigue. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it doesn’t mean you aren’t as mentally strong as the people at TLS pretending to take a PT a day, it means you need to step away. I did, and I got a 180. So if that helps you take a break, tell yourself that. I studied for nine months, about a month too long for me. By the end I was so sick of the lsat, I never wanted to think about it again. Even with all my breaks and stress relief, it weighs on you over time.
Also, test fatigue isn’t limited to tests. Any sort of studying fatigues you, as does reading, writing, or any mentally demanding activity. This was hard for me to accept, since I read all the time, but you may just have to go for walks or watch tv instead to rest your mind. Again, evaluate this for yourself, but when I stopped reading my RC score jumped a question or two since I wasn’t glossing over words anymore. If you read too much you read too quickly or carelessly.
Lastly, I cannot recommend two activities enough: meditation and exercise. Download a meditation app and just spend 15 minutes sitting or lying down clearing your head. It’ll help. Spend an hour a day four days a week doing serious exercise, it’ll help your brain be active without fatiguing and it’ll give you more energy, plus everyone should exercise for the myriad of health benefits anyways. So now’s your chance to start!
Individual Sections
LR
For LR questions I did not generally note anything or write anything, with the exception of the most difficult parallel reasoning or disagree questions. I found I didn’t need to. I would read the stem, then the stim, then the stem, then go through the questions and eliminate those I could, then weigh those remaining. If I couldn’t come to a 100% solution, I’d circle what I was leaning towards, circle the question, and move on. I aimed to finish 10 by 10 minutes, 20 by 20 minutes, and the section by 30, leaving 5 minutes to review those few questions I’d circle. LR was the section I was most affected by test fatigue with, but otherwise I usually missed one or none, occasionally two.
LG
My approach to LG probably will not be great for most of you. I would write each rule, including the contrapositive when appropriate, and make a quick number of inferences. If there were many questions that seemed to be scenario or inference based, I would spend more time on that initial inference step. Otherwise I moved on through the question. If I was wrong, I often could work through the inferences required quickly enough to not lose much time when I skipped the initial setup of game boards or alternatives. Essentially I went with my gut feeling on a given game, which is frustratingly hard to describe but the truth.
The most important part of any approach to Logic Games is mental flexibility. Every game is unique in some way, but the good news is every game you practice on helps you see another possible scenario and gives you a framework for approaching future problems. Lastly, find your system. I didn’t use strictly the 7sage or Powerscore methods/notation, I created my own bastardized system that worked best for me because I made it. It didn’t work or make sense to anyone else, but it was for me, not them. Experiment and find your system, and don’t worry about being able to explain it. Just make sure it’s clear to you, useful, and flexible.
RC
RC was my least improved section, going from average of -3 to -2 by the end, although I got a perfect on test day. This is where the ability to channel nerves into focused energy on test day is so crucial. Normally I would glaze over for at least one passage, but on test day I was uber focused and sailed through.
RC is also where you really, really, really need to develop your own approach. Everyone reads differently and will find different things helpful. For me, it was scribbling while reading. Not summarizing, but writing in-between the text and the questions as I read. Rewriting words, paraphrasing sentences, all of it just kept me engaged and slowed me down a tad so I didn’t race through. I didn’t read my writing during the questions, but it helped cement in place where things were in the passage. Basically I took the 7sage method and tweaked it to fit me. Find your tweak, it’s what the practice sets are for.
Test Day
If you’ve been simulating test day each PT for 2 months, you’ve nothing to worry about. It’s just another test. You’ll be nervous, but you’ll be fine. Everyone is nervous. Use it. There’s an excellent Dr Who scene talking about fear as a superpower because of how much it pumps you up and increases your physical abilities. Nervousness can do the same for you. Just wake up, eat your breakfast, and take the test. Follow the same methods you’ve used before. Know that if you make a mistake, you can retake it.
And that’s it. I wish I could be more specific about my month by month process but to be honest when I was working through the course was 7-9 months ago. I can tell you to do alllllll the practice sets, every LG, and plan everything. Plan when you’ll take your first test through when you’ll take your last. Plan your weekly hours, your breaks, your meditation, your workouts, and do everything else AROUND THAT. This is the most important thing for the next few months. Organization is very important, since when you get into the studying you’ll be stressed. Do everything you can to remove possible stressors. Give yourself leeway in your schedule for breaks when you experience fatigue. It won’t hurt. You won’t forget everything with a few days or a week away. My scores always improved after a break.
Best of luck to everyone! Bring two watches and lots of pencils on test day, because I had a watch die in the middle of a PT, but had it been the test I would have been lost. I'm sorry if there are any errors, this grew longer than I expected. Oops.
Comments
Biggest takeaways for me was reinforcing the idea of a nice sleep schedule and meditation. Definitely going to be practicing those over the next month going into December.
Kudos--and for the non-magical members of the community, KEEP. PUSHING. I scored a full 15 points lower than OP on my diagnostic and you, too can make a 20+ point improvement with hard work, self-reflection, and refusal to quit until your three takes are up.
It's not magic. It's skill. And spirit.
Also—ideas for kiddo costumes??
i've been hearing from so many people--don't push any more when you're feeling fatigued. rest. exercise. take time away from the test. i'm actively incorporating this into my LSAT prep, and focusing on the process and not the result
Thanks for sharing your process with us. Best of luck.
But let's say you're using the best materials and are always super motivated so all your hours are awesome study hours. Well 6, 9, 12 or 18 months of those hours looks a lot different to people depending on their situation. Let's pretend that 1,000 hours is in fact that magic number. Some people might be able to do 1,000 hours in 6 months because they have literally nothing else to do, they love prepping and have excellent stress management so they never burn out. But then some people might not be able to squeeze that into 18 months because they go to school, work full-time, have a family, or any other number of crazy obligations.
So I think people just need to keep in mind in the beginning and throughout their prep that their journey will be unique due to their own brain chemistry and life circumstances, and yet similar in that there is pretty much always a need to study a given number of hours with the right materials. If you read advice like this and think it will work for you exactly as it is laid out you will more than likely be proven wrong. The key is figuring out what your needs are and what will best help to get you there so you can read things like this and decide what parts to incorporate into your own process, and if that takes 6 months that's awesome and if it takes 2 years that is okay too. Most people will never see a 180 because nobody really needs one and they can just stop when they get to a target score that meets their needs. There is no panacea for a high score across all test takers because even hard work may only take you so far.
Most important takeaway here. We're dealing with a unicorn situation. For non-unicorns (99% of LSAT'ers I know, and I know a lot of 'em), take this kind of write-up with a nice lick of salt. Plenty of good points that anyone can incorporate, but the vast majority of us don't start with a 167 diagnostic and therefore a 13 point improvement (such as OP experienced) is typically not enough to get us to our goals. And while a lot of folks can improve 13 points over their diagnostic in 8-9 months, well, we might have ANOTHER 13 points by which we need to improve to reach our goals. So. KEEP. PUSHING. Play the long game.
AMEN. Amen.
I was scoring in the low 160's 8-9 months into study. It took me a year to get into 170-land. And guess what ... It was worth it. I found it to be SUPER discouraging to have people say "oh yeah u only gotta study 4 months" because I was like ... Damn ... What's wrong with me ...
Hearing that PLENTY (!!!!) of super-successful LSAT'ers require well over a year to get to their goal is, IMO, much more relevant to the majority of folks. That kind of thing has encouraged me greatly. Hearing the magical stories of people who took way less time than me was just not as encouraging for me, personally.