Best Strategies? Need help.

Omed_OvO

Hey folks!

I've spent the last couple of months (since February) studying and working full-time. I'm nearing the end of my curriculum. In fact, I've arranged an opportunity to be able to take about 2.5 months off of work to study full-time before the September exam. I'm really looking for some advice on what/how to study + drill over those months. Any success stories with points/knowledge gains over the BR portion of studying? Any advice before I begin will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks:)

MrSamIam

First off, congrats on nearly finishing the curriculum and managing to get time off work.
Start by taking a PT. I like to call the first post-curriculum PT "Diagnostic #2." BR the PT as per the instructions here. Figure out what your weaknesses are, and drill those.
Some advice:
1) Try to resist the temptation of grading prior to BRing. If you absolutely must see your score, run your numbers and ONLY look at the score (don't look at the sections break down, etc.).

2) Don't freak out if one or two or your PT scores deviate/fall below what will soon become your average. It happens, we all have off days.

3) Focus on closing the gap between your BR and PT score. I won't go over this in detail, as there is plenty of advice floating around the discussions board.

stepharizona

In addition to what @MrSamIam has said

4) Focus on timing and using BR to design your personal skipping technique. To move quickly and efficiently, you need to train yourself to skip questions that "are not for you"

5) Do not burn out. Its easy when you have time off to go all LSAT all the time, but this is not productive. Take breaks, take days off, workout and eat right. All of those things will make a difference on test day.

6) Be sure to write out explanations for, at a minimum, the questions that really stump you.

Huge gains can happen from now to test day with good discipline. Learn what works for you, create your test day strategies and practice until they are second nature.

I am sure others will have some tips to add too.

Omed_OvO

Thank you both for all your help! This is great!

Seriousbird

what do you do with your BR once you have written out all your explanations? I haven't begun PTing yet, but I'm curious if you keep a log of all your BR PT's and review those or if you only BR once and hope you learned your lesson from individual BR.

runiggyrun

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but in the BR pay really close attention to the "small words" that make an otherwise attractive answer choice an obviously wrong one. Getting really good at spotting those will save you a lot of time on the test because it will allow you to eliminate wrong answers quickly and with confidence.
I'm talking about words like "any/all" in an answer when the stimulus mentions "most" or a specific example, "could" that sneakily turn into "should/will" and so on.
This works for both LR and RC, and especially for the newer tests - just off the top of my head, two of of the questions in the June exam that people mentioned as "tricky" (one in RC and one in LR) hinged on noticing a sneaky "any".