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How do YOU know you're ready to move from CC to PT's?
Hey Everyone,
I'm nearly finished with the core curriculum. I started my initial PT in 2017 and I think it was 141(ish). My PT's now are low 150's. I've taken 4. Granted, I have a toddler, so after testing a section I will spend about 10 min to make sure he is set up and doing well with his activities (so it may not be a completely true score).
My question is, how do you know you are ready to move past the CC and into the PT's? Do you have any indicators that I can go by? I have been on 7sage 3 years. The first year I went through it, then had a year off due to having a baby, and then have spent the past 8 months on the CC. Anyway from 30 minutes to 2-3 hours per day.
I am wondering if I need to go back through it, or keep pushing through PT's and just working with the blind review.
Thanks!! And thank you for taking the time to read this!
Lindsey
Comments
I think having gone through it once should be enough. And 'doing pt's' in their entirety, while it seems intuitively like the thing to do isn't exactly the best way to progress from the CC. I actually recommend doing sections and intensely reviewing your performance afterwards (LR and RC) and fullproofing the logic games as individual sections before doing full PT's.
The individual sections will tell you which parts of the CC you may need to review while the fullproofing of the games is going to get you comfortable with doing the games under time.
Once you are comfortable with the timing, you may want to consider doing full pts. And that should be closer to your final lsat date.
Trying to study for the lsat with a little guy to take care of must be tough, doing individual sections may work better for your schedule too! I admire the dedication to chasing the dream!
This is great, thank you @Michael.Cinco
Lindsey, I truly admire your persistence. I am also going through such a similar situation with you, so I wanted to share my story in hoping that we can cheer each other up! I started 7 Sage back in 2017 December, with the initial self testing score of 142. Since then, I've been on and off studying LSAT with my full time job. I also have a young daughter who still needs much of my care and time. However, with the on/off study of CC and some PTs, I encountered the same question you have raised. It was how would I know when to transit into the next step whether it'd be the untimed test or the full timed test. For me, what has been more effective is, instead of going back to CC to try to fully understand the foundation of the question type, I do untimed 1 PT/ week. It's been almost 2 months now, and I started to realizing my strengths and weaknesses by analyzing and reviewing my correct/incorrect questions (BR). From there, you may need to go back to CC section for your weakness question types. Although I have not seen the super increase on my scores, at least, I understand my current ability and be able to set my realistic goals to moving forward. My realistic goal is to take the LSAT in November and striving for 2021 admission. I think that as long as we persist and continue study to achieve our set goals, we should be able to find ways to make it there.
Best wishes to you, Lindsey!
I think at that rate is too slow, I dont think you need to do every single problem set from the CC. I think a PT at LEAST once every 2 weeks is a must, whether your in CC or not. Honestly even one a week is fine, there are so many released practice tests.
Thank you @LSATBREAKER - that is very very helpful. Good luck to you too!! Thank you @Lexxx745!
I am in a similar situation (without the baby!). I have been on 7 Sage for over two years, also on and off. When I returned this last time, I went through the CC again but very quickly. I found that very helpful, because returning to the foundations after sometime away helped me cement some of the concepts. (For example, I thought I understood premise and conclusion, but I was mistaken!)
I'm still kind of between the CC and PTs. I refer to this webinar often to determine how to proceed: https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/
It breaks the post-CC approach into three stages.
Best of luck!
Hi Lindsay,
I have a four year old and have been studying for the LSAT off and on since she was about 2. It does get easier to study as they get older but I have slowly accepted the fact that studying and trying to achieve the score I am looking for is going to be a slow process.
I wouldn’t go back through the entire CC if I were you. I have tried that and found myself losing concentration and focus. That being said I have gone back into the CC multiple times and will sure I will continue to do so. In particular, I have reviewed the formal logic videos multiple times, as well as causation theory and flaw videos. For me it is important not just to vaguely know or have seen the valid forms but to be able to recall them immediately. This is the same with flaw questions. If I see a flaw question that is a common flaw and I can’t answer it in less than a minute it goes into flashcards to study later
I often have to take PT in sections as well and that is okay if it gets you consistently doing them and on a more regular schedule.
I just joined the June LSAT study group which I hope will keep me focused on completing weekly PT’s. In a couple weeks I am also going to plan to start doing practice tests with a proctor. This will mean getting a babysitter and driving to Panera bread or Starbucks and working through the entire test with additional section with timed pressure. I have test anxiety so now I feel like instead of putting such a hard date on when I am going to be ready I am not signing up for the LSAT again until I am consistently hitting above my target score in a pressured environment.
I would also like to give you a little advice based on my experience that may help.
This process is going to be much slower than for people who are studying full time or don’t have some of the responsibilities that we have.
When you do feel like you are ready to take a real LSAT sign up for one early in the cycle because you never know what might happen. I have had to cancel more than one LSAT because I over estimated my study time or had a sick child or was sick myself.
I am not sure if financial aid or going to a top ranked law school is important to you but if so really
invest the time in the LSAT it is the best opportunity for those things to happen.
Hey,
DM - would love to chat....
Have a toddler at home as well and would love to share how I am progressing.
Cheers
G'luck!
@FindingSage thanks!! That was very helpful. I love the idea of going to Panera, though I am not quite there yet. I have cancelled 3 LSATs due to various reasons.I agree on not scheduling until you are ready, esp. now because the exams have increased to $200!
Thanks again for the great comment.
Lindsey
Hi, Lindsey!
Thank you for your post, I haven't realized there are a lot of people in here that are in the same boat as me. I was very discouraged and frustrated at first but now I see I'm not alone.
I've been here on 7sage for two years now, I have a 4-year old son and 1-year old daughter. A week ago I had to cancel my February test and just eat $200. Moreover, English is my second language, so I sometimes misread or misinterpret QS or answers to the questions too.
Recently, I subscribed to the Economist in order better understand RC sections, I've gone through 72% of CC and still not doing as well I hoped I would.
Anyways, I'm glad to meet people here that share similar situations, you guys are very encouraging and give me hope that one day I will kill that LSAT test, lol.
@avoro002 Hey there! I actually paid for it too, and I have been on the fence back and forth on whether to even take it. I get test anxiety too at times, so I decided I am going to show up and take it, well aware that I will be scoring in the low 150's. That way, I've at least gone through the process once, and I feel comfortable enough explaining it on an addendum that "hey, I get anxiety, so I wanted to be sure and take it once just to get familiar with the process". That, and since we are likely older candidate's - I think the admissions committees will be well rounded about it.
I also just purchased the April exam. I feel like having a deadline is pushing me in the right direction, esp. because I do not plan on blowing through another $200 !! It used to be $150 when I registered for it.
Just curious, what is your first language? That is awesome that you are doing this ESL. My hat is off to you for sure, because I am not sure I could even do that! I've thought about the Economist too, but decided to just put all of my effort into 7sage. Blind reviewing takes me DAYS. D.A.Y.S.
@LindseyDC my first language is Ukrainian, I've been living in the United States for almost 12 years now. Never imagined I could have gotten my bachelor's degree in here and would be working towards getting into a law school. You know what I realized when I started studying for the LSAT, that I have never done anything this hard in my entire life, haha. I'm busting my brain muscles when studying for the test. And sometimes I feel I'm doing a good job and I see some progress, other times I'm just getting every question wrong. LSAT is no joke!
I'm feeling a lot of anxiety too just thinking about the real test itself, however, I'm trying to put my mind at ease and think that I would do well if I'm prepared for it, haha.
I was supposed to take Feb test this coming weekend and just couldn't go and do it because I didn't feel I would get a good score on it. Had to withdraw and loose $200. Oh, well, lesson learned.
But I like an idea of having the test day scheduled, you are motivated as never before and can't have any excuses.
I'm really hoping to get into a law school in 2021, but if not I'll go towards my Master's degree in smth.
Hey all- I just wanted to say how inspiring this thread is and that y’all are superheroes. Thanks for making my day better.
I too score in the 150s, and I'm probably confident about 5/26 questions in LR and 4/26 in RC. It's been difficult for me to learn anything doing blind review. It feels like I need to just relearn everything in CC. I really enjoy hearing that I'm not the only one taking my time studying for the LSAT. Someone mentioned the economist. I found helping my sibling with their law school h.w. by briefing some cases helped me quite a bit to really start thinking like a lawyer, and spotting the important stuff in the readings. Plus my law vocabulary is increasing
I’ve got four kids under 8 yrs of age in my house (wife’s amazing!); love em all but yeah super hard to study consistently. “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” is what someone said on a movie (can’t recall) but its intuitively true!
@billymadison @avoro002 I am so sorry for my late reply! I don't get these notifications (checking that now).. I had come across a book in this discussion forum a while ago, called the loophole in Logical reasoning by Ellen Cassidy. I thought "what the heck" and got it. I've also gone through this core curriculum, with the same feeling of geez, I need to to this again to retain it all. I am on chapter 8 of that book, about a month in, and let me tell you - it really makes you feel you are in the drivers seat and in control.. but I would NOT have felt like that having not gone through the 7sage core curriculum first. My game plan is to go through this book and then through my 7sage notes on the CC and then to go back to the prep tests one by one on here. I think these two things together make you feel like, OK.. I've got this. I just wanted to share that in case you get to the "oh rut row, I'm stuck point" because that is where I've been recently.
I am also hoping for 2021 entrance. I am aiming for the August of October exams. Good luck!!!
That's awesome! thanks for sharing that book. I am googling it rn. Good luck with the test. Keep posting in this thread, I like communicating with people in my age group
@LindseyDC no worries, I myself found your reply by accident, didn't see the notifications. Let me tell you this, everything I've read you are doing I'm going through too, what a coincidence. I bought The loophole back in Feb or so and I'm now on chapter 11. As for the CC, I've completed 82% of it and before the Loophole I thought I was stuck and wasn't making any progress either.
So I came across this book in the discussions here and started from the very beginning. And OMG, it was so enlightening to me, just like you said "feeling like in a driver's seat and in control." All of a sudden, everything started to make sense to me. I felt like this book was talking to me in a different language that CC.
So what I've been doing is going through every chapter of the book and using the "new" knowledge with CC again. I'm not going over through every lesson just the problems and problem sets. Once I'm done with the book, I'll start going through the PTs too.
Thank you for your reply, really makes me happy to see that someone is doing the same thing as me, haha.