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Related Discussions
Mastered LG, struggling with LR & RC
LSATBREAKER
Alum Member
OKAY, I have been almost mastered my LG skills and have been getting the 100% with untimed pts (under 1 hour ). And most of the time, the wrong answers were from my small mistakes. HOWEVER, I am completely lost with LR & RC. Yes, maybe it is because my reading skills are sucks to comprehend or to make an inference from the passage? I can admit that I was never a reader, never really enjoyed reading, but what can I do ? I have no choice since I want to go to the law school and become a lawyer. I have been studying for almost 2 months, 5 days a week, almost 10 hours a day at the library, but LR and RC are killing me.... It's really painful to see myself just staring at the passages and not even understanding or cant even comprehend with the questions or answer choices.... I really believed that I have been studying so hard but I don't see any improvement on those two sections..
Any advice to save my poor life : (
Comments
Your life is over...just kidding. Ok, so to get better at LR means you need to do a ton of LR problems. After you finish a problem or problem set since you're an Ultimate + member, and make sure you're doing the problems un-timed, sit down and find out what the premises are and what is the conclusion. Understand what the argument core is trying to say, and if it is flawed (hint- they usually are). If you don't understand, write out what the argument was trying to do, and write out what the answer choices do to the argument.
You're also spending 10 hours a day. It sounds like your brain is overloading and on the verge of shutting down. A complete shut down of the brain is bad as you will need to reboot your brain with a new operating system. I suggest Windows 10 or OS High Sierra. But in all seriousness, you are killing yourself studying this much. You need to now take a 3 week vacation away from the LSAT and find a good book to read that is salacious and requires minimal amounts of thinking or reasoning.
I know @"Alex Divine" says that studying for the LSAT requires a ton of hours, but you cannot go from playing HORSE to the NBA. By putting thousands of hours into HORSE, you only get good at playing HORSE. Now, you just need to learn your jump shot.
Take a vacation from the LSAT for a while. The test is not going anywhere. Law school is not going anywhere. Your dreams are not going anywhere. So don't fret, give yourself a break, then come back with a plan to tackle LR and RC, and studying at most, 4 hours a day.
@Alohalena
Couldn't agree more with @"Adam Hawks" !
I think you're probably burning out, especially if you're doing 10 hours a day. I think 10 hours a day is actually fine for some people, but I don't think it's sustainable long term, or even for 5 days a week. I've personally found that studying between 4-6 hours is when I'm most productive. I also work best when I break my study sessions up into 1 or 2 hour chunks.
I also highly suggest taking a break. Even if it's just for a couple of days, you'd be surprised what a little time away from the test can do for you. It's funny, but most of my major improvements and breakthroughs have come after breaks I've taken... and I've taken lots of them over the course of my study.
What exactly are you having issues with regarding LR and RC? Is it the language itself that you're having a bit of a hard time understanding? Or would you say it's more of the questions themselves/the tasks you're being asked to do?
It is much better to spread your prep out over a long period of time than try to do it swiftly at an unsustainable pace. Think about how classes are scheduled. People take several classes at once, but they are stretched out for at least a semester. We choose this instead of doing each class for a month because you need time inbetween to learn.
I have nothing against a ten hour LSAT day, if that ten hours lets you take a break for the next day. But, doing that to yourself every day of the week can't work, last, or help.
FYI you haven't mastered LG. If it's taking you over 35 minutes then you're not an expert with LG. With an hour, most can bruteforce to the right answer.
Please don't make titles with all caps. I'm sensitive and don't like to be yelled at.
Great! The little mistakes that you do make under time will stop with the right form. Seems like you are on the right track.
I think a good question to ask is do you want to be a lawyer? Lawyers do a lot of reading and although you don't have to have the best time reading things you don't want it to be feeling awful either. I think life is too short to have a profession that you are not going to be happy doing.
One thing that recently @"Daniel.Sieradzki" told me was how he looked at each passage as an opportunity to learn. This actually made RC much more enjoyable to him. At the end of each passage you can always ask yourself - what did this passage teach me?
Well it does take time. I think RC strategies are a bit easier than LR, just because LR can have so many argument forms. But keep at it.
For RC start with untimed passages. After reading each paragraph write down your low resolution summaries, at the end see if you can write down based on memory all the low resolution summaries. Then for each question write down what each question is asking from you and why each answer choice is wrong vs right. Compare it to JY's video and see how you can improve on the next passage.
For LR, do the same. Write down a summary of the argument, what the questions is asking you to do and why each answer choice is right vs wrong. Compare it again with JY's video explanations.
Doing it this way is tedious. But at least initially where people have a lot to learn it can have huge payoffs.
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Thank you Adam for your advice !
I did study again for another 10 hours today 8AM-5PM struggling with those LR and RC and another hour in this evening with LG. But I clearly see that doing so is not so efficient since I haven't really figured out to understand those difficult readings. Do you know any hmmm maybe easier books you would recommend while that could help me develop my reading skills??
Your question hit me so hard.. so bad.. all day I have thought about it, but yes I do want to be a lawyer, it didn't change my mind.. but the cruel thing is that... like you said.. lawyers do a lot of reading............. : ( Thank you Sami, for your great advice ! I wont give up until I make it there !!
You were right, I haven't mastered LG yet!! Just took another prep set and got 6 wrong in 50 min. Feeling more discouraged.....
Sorry ! I wont do it again
Thank you! I appreciate your advice ! I think I'm even getting used to this studying pattern since i have been doing it for these past months... I can tolerate the long hours of sitting down on a chair for 10 hours, but it is absolutely not okay about me not picking up those LR and RC sections... this process is really devastating...
Hey ALEX,
Yes good questions.. only issue that i could think of was that i haven't really read books in my entire life... but I know that I really want to make it through and be prepare myself to be a lawyer.. that is my goal.. and I want to believe that it is doable... : (
Lol @"Dillon A. Wright"
Hug. If it didn't change your mind then a great Lawyer you will be
.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Would be happy to help.
The problem with studying 10 hrs a day everyday is that you can burn out...!! We CAN'T burn out because LSAT will take a long time to conquer. Same as you, I've put in a lot of hours in the beginning close to 10 hours, and studied 6 days a week. I had the mindset that I need to put in as many hour as I can so that I can get it over with quickly. But I realized after couple months that this is not conquerable in a couple months. So I made up my mind and decided to think of this as a long-term goal. What that means is that we have to make a study plan that we can maintain for a long time. We can't treat LSAT like studying for a final exam, and hope to be done with it soon and have a "normal" life afterwards. LSAT needs to be included in the normal life. With this mindset, I've been having more realistic plans for myself and more peace of mind, too. Please don't burn out... !!
It is doable! Just have to learn each skill step by step. Trust the core curriculum, it won't let you down!
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@Alohalena I hear that Michael Wolff's new bestseller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is pretty salacious. But basically you just want to find a book that will not force you to think too much. Just relax, watch some TV, and then when you're ready to come back, send me or @"Alex Divine" a message and we will get you motivated.
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Hahaha I'm game!
Great book, that one.