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Need some serious help on my study habits to get the score I want

dantenerokgdantenerokg Free Trial Member
in General 11 karma

Okay I plan to take the test on September 21 and want to get at least 167. I'm using Khan Acadmey guide to the LSAT. I took the diagnostic test and got 159. I've taken three practice test since then but my score has gotten lower with each test going to 155, to 151 and 149. This is really frustrating me and stressing me out as now I'm doubting my skills to do good on the test. Whenever I practice with their practice questions I'm doing worse on them as today I took about 4 different sections focusing on Logical reasoning with regards to strengthening/weakening the argument each with 6 questions and only got at most 2/6 right and 1/6 at worst which further ruins my confidence in my ability to get the score that I want. I try to practice an hour each day by doing these practice sections and I've been doing it since around April but so far there's been no improvement. I'm really getting annoyed, stressed out, and angry at this and fear I won't get the score I need on the actual test. I'm especially having trouble with all aspects of logic games in analytical reasoning, assumptions, flaws and strengthen/weaken with regards to logical reasoning as well as humanities sciences passages with regards to reading comprehension. What can I do to improve my score, and my confidence in taking the test?

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Comments

  • AudaciousRedAudaciousRed Alum Member
    2689 karma
    1. You'll need more than an hour a day.
    2. It looks like you're psyching yourself out. Stressed out and angry = picking the wrong answer almost every time. Relax. We ALL screw up on this journey. My first diagnostic, I got almost no LG right at all. We learn. It's okay. Use those problems and dissect them. Do you know why you got them wrong? If you aren't 100% sure you know why the right answer is right and the wrong ones are wrong, study that question. Use the help hashtag and ask until someone explains it in a way that you understand.

    3. Use the CC here. Go through it two or three times if you need to until a lesson sticks.
      3.5 - If there is something that isn't clicking, try the Powerscore books. The LSAT trainer. Whatever resources you can until it sticks. Sometimes, we just need someone to say it in a way we understand. 7sage is great for me on many things. On some things, other ways have clicked better for me. The LSAT trainer gave me some insight into one thing that kept tripping me up. It's okay. Nothing is perfect for all learners. Use as much as you can.

    4. Put lessons into words YOU understand and in ways you can remember. I remember some U2 lyrics "With or without you" and use that to remind myself when to negate the sufficient in a statement. Ex: "With or without u" Or, Without, and the U's (unless, until) all mean negate sufficient.
      I have also taught philosophy students my trick for contrapositive using Missy Elliot's "Work It." "I put my thing down (A->B), flip it (flip the letters: B->A), and reverse it (reverse the meaning: ~B->~A)." I've had people laugh at it, but you never forget it if it's funny, and it helped them as much as it did me.
      Make up easy ways to remember lessons, in a way that you will remember it come test day.

    5. Do things untimed until there is full understanding. This also takes away some of the stress. If it takes you 10 minutes to work on that one problem, do it. Do it until you understand it. I promise you, once you fully understand a problem, they become easier to spot and faster to work on. But without understanding it, it will always be a crap shoot of just picking an answer that looks good. Once you understand it, then work on time. This feels like it takes forever, but it's like playing an instrument, I've found. If you breeze by the fundamentals, you're not going to do well come recital. You may have to practice that C# a hundred times, but once you have it, it wont trip you up later.

    6. Postpone until you're really coming along with your studies. It sucks waiting. Omg, does it ever. But that scholarship money is worth it.

  • dantenerokgdantenerokg Free Trial Member
    11 karma

    How long should I study a day?

  • jmarmaduke96jmarmaduke96 Member Sage ⭐
    2891 karma

    I generally try to study 2-3 hours a day at least. Ideally I would like to do more, but like many here on 7sage I have work and school that keep me occupied. I think that a total of 12-15 hours during the week and then another 8 on the weekend for a total of about 21/22 hours a week is working reasonably well for me, but I am not taking the test until next year. If you want to take the test in September you are going to have to put in probably 3 hours a day as a minimum. As was said above, be sure that you understand the fundamentals in the CC both in theory and practice before moving on, and then once you get to your PTs just be rigorous with your blind review!

  • drbrown2drbrown2 Alum Member
    2227 karma

    There is no magic number of hours to study. Just give this test the respect it demands and don't settle. No regrets. Put in the work and realize your potential. I recommend supplementing your Khan Academy studies with a book or a course like 7sage. I never used Khan Academy so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of their instruction, but this test is a beast and there is a lot to learn. The 7sage core curriculum is a couple hundred hours of work. Add 20+ PTs, blind review, and drills on top of that and you can see how so many of the serious students out there are studying 15-20+ hours a week for a full year.

  • AudaciousRedAudaciousRed Alum Member
    2689 karma

    As many as you can reasonably spare. How much time do you spend studying for a really hard college course you don't understand? I imagine it's at least a few hours a week, right? Same thing. But your answer depends on your circumstances and if you feel you have proper time without stretching yourself too thin.
    But whatever you do, live in moderation. If your friends invite you out to the movies, go. It's two hours. Take a walk. Take an off day or a weekend camping trip. All that is okay. Burn out is a real thing. Come back to it refreshed after periodic breaks. It will do a lot for you to just let your brain rest. And for the love of spaghetti, keep up with your water and your sleep. Your brain needs sleep and rest to process things correctly. If you are studying so much that you aren't sleeping, then you are stretched too thin. Time to reevaluate some things.
    If you have the time, though, use it and use it well. Just like the gym, if you don't put in the time and effort, you won't see any progress. There are ways such as digital flashcards and all sorts of methods you can use to study while waiting in lines, sitting on a bus, etc. It doesn't make up for focused study and PT's, but all of that time throughout the day helps and adds up. I once did a PT at a car dealership while waiting on repairs! :smiley: You just find ways to sneak it in the best you can.

  • pgv2013pgv2013 Alum Member
    59 karma

    Hi, guys. Recently purchased the Ultimate+ and really am loving the wide range of problem sets available for improving. My question is this: if through my first run (in this case a MSS problem set) of a problem set I finish each question in good time with confidence, clarity, and correctness; is it worth my extra time to go back through this problem set immediately after with the videos and blind review, even if I felt 100% certain throughout? I'm making my way through the CC now.

    Also want to say I love the camaraderie on 7sage. I'm very happy to be here. Writing in November for my first time!

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