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Hi All,
(have asked some of you about this and want to crowdsource to maximize feedback)
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on whether it's a good idea to foolproof LG and drill LR/RC at the same time?
I'm a strong believer in Foolproofing. It definitely works. However, I've read that many people devote 1 - 2 months to exclusively working on Foolproofing during the process. It seems counterintuitive to me to leave LR/RC to the side, especially if one plans to take the test in June.
I'm thinking of FP-ing LG sections in the mornings and taking 1 full timed LR or RC sections plus Blind Review in the evening each day. Obviously, I could also spread out the sections and not religiously stick to 1 per day. Anyway, this is just an idea to make sure I don't lose touch with the other 2 sections while working on Foolproofing
Does anyone have any insight to offer about why I should/shouldn't do this? Or advice for study-schedule planning, methods, etc?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
I used to do LG for 3-5 days, then LR for 3-5 days, then RC for 3-5 days, etc. Admittedly, there were some longer stretches (10 days+) when all I did was a single section type. I really enjoyed learning the LSAT this way.
Wow that's a cool strategy. Sounds like you can really go all in for specific sections and then return fresh. Did you feel like the time spent away from each section was helpful for letting the things you reviewed sink in?
Yeah, definitely. I'm a huge advocate of breaks from study when you need them, too. I think this sort of preparation gave me an edge.
when you did LG for 3-5 days, how many sections of games would you aim to do per day?
It changed over time. In the beginning I would try for 8 LG untimed. Towards the end, I would reliably complete 5-6 timed LG sections per day. So from 8 LG in the beginning to 20-24 in the end.
whoa!! Thank you I am going to try a similar approach and do 3-5 days of studying a section.
Which PTs did you do untimed up until?
1-38 via the Cambridge packets. I did a lot of untimed work throughout 39-70, but I used those tests mostly for timed sections.
Could you give us an idea of how you organized your study? For example, over the course of those 5 days, did you just take timed section after timed section, plus BR in between? Revisit later? Were you also still Foolproofing games from the 39-70 sets?
In the beginning, it was almost exclusively untimed work so no need for BR. As I became more confident in my abilities, I would keep 'running time' as I did my LG. If I was dissatisfied with the time it took me to complete an LG, I would immediately repeat that LG once, maybe twice, and then continue on to the next LG in the lineup.
Towards the end, I would do 5-6 timed LG sections a day and then BR immediately after. Often times I wouldn't BR if I felt I had only missed 2 or 3 questions. At that point, I was confident enough in my abilities to simply take a picture of the stimuli I missed to review them afterwards. I had a gallery of missed LG/LR stimuli in my phone that I would regularly review/think through whenever the mood struck.
I think the gallery Idea is fantastic! Wish I thought of that. > @goingfor99th said:
@goingfor99th One last question, I promise
So you focused primarily on untimed work during most of your prep, doing all the Cambridge packs untimed. You also said you studied for about 9 months, so at what point (how many months in) did you begin doing timed LG+LR sections? Would you do 5-6 LR/RC sections per day as well on those 3-5 day stretches as well?
Thanks again
I began to heavily invest in timed work about 3-4 months before my test. I would do about 4-5 LR/RC sections a day towards the end. My endurance on RC was never quite what it was with LR/LG, but I still made a concerted effort to improve on RC as well.
you're the best 99!
Thank you!
Had a question for both of you guys or whoever wants to answer because I'm also just foolproofing now and am going to try the 3-5 day studying method.
Are you guys using the Cambridge packet for drilling LR and RC too? Or are you using 39 and over?
If you are drilling with the Cambridge packet, did you find that they were relevant LR and RC sections in comparison to the most recent PT's?
Thanks!
Cambridge only did LR and LG. I would consider myself a specialist in tests 1-38 and only saw materials up to PT 70 before test day. I sat for PT 81 and the only thing I regret is not doing more timed RC sections and comparative passages.
RC has always been the least enjoyable for me, though.
NICE! So you were able to drill 1-70 in 9 months? Or am I reading that wrong.
Also did you do any PT's when you were studying to see where you were at or did you just drill up until the test?
I'm asking because PT'ing for me isn't working as much as I thought. And I'm trying your method out so far and its been less taxing, so I'm gonna try that way out for a while.
btw, I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I figured that I'd share:
Based on 99th's 3-5 day method, I figured the best way for me to study LR and foolproof LG concurrently is a 3-day span for each/week:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: LG
weds: Break
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: LR
I'm hoping to do timed and untimed BRs for all to eventually work my way up to PTing in the weeks before June, or if not, leading up to September
@goingfor99th Did you do PTs LG 1-38 as type only, or as sections too? Also how many weeks/months did it take you to do all the cambridge LG and LR untimed?
Yeah, I encountered all PTs 1-70 but spent the majority of my preparation working through 1-38. 39-70 were used mostly for timed sections or quick drills.
On average, I would sit for one 4-5 section timed PT every month or so, but really it was much less consistent than that. I found that timed PTs aren't necessary to perform well on the LSAT and so I used timed sections more often than PTs to gauge my progress.
I did LG/LR from 1-38 by type concurrently and then I worked through LG again as timed sections. There were some games from PTs 1-38 that I saw 3-4 times.
When I put together my LG journal, it took me about 2 months to work through all the LG from 1-70 as timed sections. This was towards the end of my preparation. During this time, I also worked through timed LR sections from PTs 39-70.
If anyone wants to see my LG journal, feel free to PM me.
Are you planning on drilling RC in between those days?
Hey man, I think I’m just gonna focus on LR and LG while foolproofing. After FP, I’ll work in RC too!
Ah ok gotcha. Well good luck mate!
This is not a bad idea. Unless you are getting like minus 2 or 3 on RC and LR and your LG scores are -7, you should focus on improving all aspects of your LSAT performance. You don't want to leave any points on the table and you don't want to get off guard with an LSAT that tests heavily on your weak sections.