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Finished the CC
I just finished the last RC lesson and it just hit me that it's time to kick start PTing, drilling, BRing intensely, and FPing. Idk why but I have such a strange feeling I can't explain?? I've really centered my entire life around this test where on my days off I feel guilty and even in moments where I'm relaxing I feel terrible! Just wondering how you guys cope with all these feelings of excitement, anxiety, and moments of disappointment during the process? Side note, I'm on vacation visiting an uncle in NY and he called me a weirdo for skipping a day of exploring to study for the LSAT. No joke.
Comments
Congrats on finishing the CC!
As for the anxiety, I totally get the trap of becoming fixated on this test, but I try and remember that there are things that I want my life to include -- things other than just the LSAT or my future career as a lawyer. I'd like to have good relationships with friends and family; I want to play the violin well; and I want to run long distances without passing out. And, of course, I want to do well on the LSAT. Trying to reflect on these things while meditating in the morning has really helped to assuage the anxiety and allow me to benefit from the breaks and rests that I MUST take.
Hope that helps!
Congrats on finally finishing the CC! Haha laughing at the fact that I totally understand skipping a day of exploring to study. Seriously I get it lol. I have a vacation coming up and as someone who has serious wanderlust, I am really considering doing a staycation, turning off my phone and spending most of my time studying. But I will say NY is high on my list of places to visit soon once I am past the test.
As far as your question about coping with everything I would say focus on the excitement the most. I do not recommend jumping into your first PT post CC expecting anything. I had such a low diagnostic score that after I finished the CC I really thought I was going to do so much better. I was severely disappointed when I only increased my score by 4 points. Since then I have taken 2 more PTs and my scores haven't increased. However, I now realize my biggest mistake is focusing on the scores. I have seen 7sagers talk about not focusing on the score over and over and I never really understood why until now. My scores are not where I want but my BR scores are increasing and that's my focus. Hold tight to the excitement that you finished the CC because it is a great feeling! Just steer clear of any expectations. This could be said for life in general that setting expectations leads to disappointment but I would say even more so in relation to the LSAT. The moment you begin to self-doubt, worry, stress, you are creating a negative atmosphere for yourself. Focus on the small things like when you get halfway done with foolproofing, or when you finish 10 in 10. Whatever you accomplish no matter how small is no doubt an accomplishment so reward yourself with positive thoughts.
Also don't feel terrible taking time for yourself and taking time to relax. I currently struggle with this as well and I understand why you feel this way. Every webinar I've listened to on here from top scorers they talk about self-care being number 1. Mentally thinking positive, reducing stress, caring about your health are all just as important as studying. In fact more so if you really think about it. You can make a 170+ on 5 PTs in a row and if on the 6th PT you take it on 4 hours of sleep, the likelihood of you scoring the same is greatly reduced. Even the simple fact that you have use the restroom really bad in the middle of a section can throw you off. These things help put into perspective that I am allowed to take a night off after work sometimes if I really need it
The disappointment is hard. The frustrating thing about this test is that you can finish something like the CC, feel really good about yourself, and take a PT to find less progress than you hoped for. It's important that during the process we are honest with ourselves about the progress we have truly made based on the work that we have actually done. Perhaps you breezed through parallel method of reasoning questions, or you skipped grouping games. Whatever it is, you'll need to be really honest to yourself about what your strengths and weaknesses are coming out of the CC. It's more of a text book that can be referenced again and again than a worksheet that is filled out once and then handed in. Don't be afraid to go back to the CC again if you're struggling with any part of this test.
I have lately started to think that above all, this test is designed to gauge our individual ability to self-discipline and long-term planning. It's more than likely that someone who is a genius who picks the test up for the first time will do poorly compared to a student with above average, but not genius, intelligence who has diligently and regularly studied for a year. That second student has the ability to persevere through disappointment and keep their goals in mind for a long period of time without burning out. I have to say I wish that I could be the second student on a regular basis but it's really hard to be.
Celebrate that you're finished with the CC. Maybe listen to the post-CC webinar. Also the AMAs on YouTube tend to focus on post-CC work.
Post CC is such an odd feeling.
I think a lot of us can agree that post CC we expected our PT to be higher and it ended up being lower. Mainly because we need time to just allow the info to just solidify in our minds, and that certain aspects of the cc need to be reviewed more then once depending on the individual.
LSAT studying requires lots of sacrifices for some people ( time , money ect ) but the LSAT is not all there is to life, we just need to keep that in the back of our mind otherwise we can get super frustrated any time anything goes wrong when prepping. Good luck
THIS ALL OF THIS ...
All that anxiety and whatever is your brains way of telling you that you will feel even worse on test day, if you don't study hard enough. So use it as a motivator.
I agree with the principle here. Be sure to have a positive goal in mind but also envision the worst-case scenario. You'll find that the potentially negative outcomes can often be more motivating than the positive ones.
Thank you! What a bittersweet feeling it is. I completely agree with you! I always remind myself about this too but it really is difficult to allow myself to take breaks. I'm worried with every break I'll lose my motivation but I think it's all about mindset!
Ahhh NY is beautiful but a little too hustle and bustle for me. This was my third time visiting because I have family here and I try to enjoy the city then hide away in the suburbs lol! Thank you for the advice. I did my first timed drill of LR (it's my weakest section) and omg.. I was shocked. I did AWFUL. I was disappointed but like you said, it was because I had expectations of killing the section post CC. I tried to be optimistic and tell myself "well, it shows you that there's spots you need to work on and focus on where you made mistakes".
I find that my main issue is picking the wrong answer when I'm stuck between two contenders. One of the answers is ALWAYS the correct answer which frustrates me because it proves to me I know what I need to do but I just have to push myself to figure out how to pick the correct answer with confidence and move on. Which is another thing I struggle with, I try to find the 100% correct answer choice. I read somewhere that a fellow 7Sager did away with that mindset. Finding reasons to pick an answer choice based on 100% certainty makes you doubt and ponder. Rather, pick an answer choice that falls in the 80-90% certainty where you can give yourself room to be flexible but also recognize why the other choice is "more" wrong than the other. Celebrating the little things for me, comes in small doses of success on problem sets or when I mastered my first full game set in PT1. I'm in the process of FPing PT 2 (once I return home), BRing some drilled sections, and I plan to take PT 36 before I go away again in 2 weeks.
This was such an amazing response! It made me feel so much better. I feel this way too about this test where I find myself full of emotions that I know not many people can relate. It sucks. You face disappointment often and with that, comes the ability to pick yourself back up and try again. I'll be honest, I was always a stellar student in school and facing the LSAT has really humbled me. It taught me how to face failure, what failure is, and how to cope with disappointment.
I had my first section of LR drilling (it's my weak point) and it was awful. I was upset at myself but then I realized that this was something that could help me. It can show me where I'm messing up, what my weaknesses are, and what my strengths are. So far, I've realized that NA are the worst for me lol. I'm also noticed that I can get a trap answer and the correct answer narrowed down as contenders. I debate between the two and panic before selecting the trap answer. It proved to me that I DO have the capacity to recognize what the correct answer is, I just have to push myself to hone down on what trips me up and pick the correct answer with confidence.
Thanks
Do you have a link to the post-CC webinar?
YES LOL. That's exactly what it is! For me, I'm the type of person who learns based on memory. I have to see things more than once before I can really delve deeper beyond the surface. I like to write my notes out, look at them again, look at them again and figure out what it means, try examples, and repeat until it becomes second-nature to me. Not just by memory, but through a deeper understanding. It's a tough reality to realize that the LSAT IS important but it shouldn't overtake lives. I'm still learning that. Best of luck to you too
I imagine that @lsatplaylist is referring to this webinar:
https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/
Awesome, I had it tabbed already. Thanks!
Hey Ashleigh,
Congrats on finishing CC make sure to celebrate before you jump into that post-CC grind! You'll probably have to revisit the CC while you drill to address your weaknesses so don't say goodbye to it yet
What helps me with the anxiety is a good thorough BR process. Doing a good thorough BR is really good for alleviating anxiety because it gives you more data points and reflects your theoretical maximum potential. You just have to translate that into timing. It's not easy but I think it's easier to increase your timed score when your fundamentals are solid. Try to do untimed drills too.
Also, based on one of your replies, this webinar helpd me out a lot when it comes to eliminating attractive answer choices: https://7sage.com/webinar/eliminating-attractor-answer-choices/
Remember that it's a process and you're just starting out and you've got a whole community of people here to be your personal cheerleaders and provide meaningful advice
Hi again Keets!
Thank you for your meaningful and helpful replies. I was always skeptical of untimed drills because I used to do them a lot and someone shut me down for it?! They told me it was a bad approach because it prevented me from incorporating the timing component. But after viewing the post CC webinar, I learned that timing comes later. Accuracy trumps timing and timing can be managed later.
I will definitely check out that webinar! It's something I struggle with a lot especially for LR. I'm slowly beginning to lose that feeling in RC by telling myself to trust my gut instinct. For me, I always struggled with that doubt on standardized tests. I remember I ALWAYS used to do have that issue when I was practicing for the SAT.
@AshleighK omg I love untimed drills. It really helps you see where your weaknesses are. Of course you shouldn't neglect timed stuff but if you're not going to get something untimed or it takes you hours to understand (say super tough MSS questions) then you know when it's timed that you shouldn't even attempt it.
Exactly! I think it really helps too because it gives me a confidence boost on what I'm capable of. Once I master accuracy I figure that timing will come afterwards. One thing I will admit though, is I get exhausted after untimed drills because you're forcing yourself to dissect everything with no time restrictions. I also BR the questions I'm unsure of (even under untimed questions) because it also shows me where my weaknesses are, just like you said in regards to the MSS example.