Struggling

Comments

• 3 Likes

  sarahblair Core Member

  April 2021 604 karma

  JY's explanation of fool proofing logic games would give you a lot of improvement and you have the time to do so. If you haven't gone through the CC I would finish the majority of that (I didn't do every reading passage or every logic game before moving on to strictly PTing). After the CC I would suggest moving on to PT's, depending on when you begin doing them make sure they're spread out enough to last you until test day, whether that means doing 4 per week or 2, etc. I would study for 3-4 hours per day, every day- maybe one off day on Friday/Saturday or something. On the days you aren't PTing, review the PT you took the day before/a couple days ago and understand why you got the questions wrong you did, redo the LGs and make sure you can do them accurately and in a timely manner. Also do timed sets of problems you frequently get wrong on LR. Read some passages if you struggle with RC. I'm currently doing this and planning to write in June. It works for me- I'm aiming for 165 as well and currently PT around 160-165. Best of luck and let me know if you have specific questions!! I know planning can be hard and overwhelming but once you find a groove your score will reflect that!
• galactic Yearly Member

  April 2021 edited April 2021 690 karma

  Hey cynthiaabreu.ca. I think it's great that you've already figured out about how much time you have to study each day and identified a goal score. Have you finished the CC? My recommendation is to generate a sched via the study schedule tool (I'd say you can def skip around a little bit more than the generated schedule allots for you, as long as you're meeting the time wickets each week - at the very least, get through the logic curriculum before going to the games), with 1 twist that is not openly advertised in the CC - take timing out of your studying completely. My scoring history as of now is about the same range as yours, and a recurring theme I'm hearing is, given that fact of what my score currently is, to disregard timing while I'm still in the CC. Get through the CC untimed and then find yourself on the other side in the PT phase where you can really hone in on that aspect of your test taking.

  I haven't gotten to the PT phase yet, so I don't want to speak in error, but I like what sarahblair said above. You can also learn a TON about this stage of your studies by listening to the 7Sage podcast (episodes with past 7Sagers who had great score increases and episodes specifically about how to take prep-tests are all there).

  As for the logic games, my recommendation when going through the CC for the first time and have a diagnostic score in/around your and my current range, is once again conduct the foolproof method on each game in the CC with the 1 twist of excluding time. Foolproof the games until each game becomes intuitive - no part or aspect of the game or any of the questions holds you up in any regard. You can then incorporate meeting time bounds in the games when BRing LG on the PTs you take later.

  Something I additionally started doing to keep myself accountable in my daily studies (1 off-day/week) is to keep a LSAT journal where I lay out the day's plan and also establish my study timeline for the day. If you can hold yourself accountable to the 5-6hrs/day that you have, I fully believe in you getting a 165+ by November. Don't hesitate to reach out if I can clarify anything further or if you have any other questions.
• Cynthia-2 Member

  April 2021 498 karma

  @"john ryan" said:
  Hey cynthiaabreu.ca. I think it's great that you've already figured out about how much time you have to study each day and identified a goal score. Have you finished the CC? My recommendation is to generate a sched via the study schedule tool (I'd say you can def skip around a little bit more than the generated schedule allots for you, as long as you're meeting the time wickets each week - at the very least, get through the logic curriculum before going to the games), with 1 twist that is not openly advertised in the CC - take timing out of your studying completely. My scoring history as of now is about the same range as yours, and a recurring theme I'm hearing is, given that fact of what my score currently is, to disregard timing while I'm still in the CC. Get through the CC untimed and then find yourself on the other side in the PT phase where you can really hone in on that aspect of your test taking.

  I haven't gotten to the PT phase yet, so I don't want to speak in error, but I like what sarahblair said above. You can also learn a TON about this stage of your studies by listening to the 7Sage podcast (episodes with past 7Sagers who had great score increases and episodes specifically about how to take prep-tests are all there).

  As for the logic games, my recommendation when going through the CC for the first time and have a diagnostic score in/around your and my current range, is once again conduct the foolproof method on each game in the CC with the 1 twist of excluding time. Foolproof the games until each game becomes intuitive - no part or aspect of the game or any of the questions holds you up in any regard. You can then incorporate meeting time bounds in the games when BRing LG on the PTs you take later.

  Something I additionally started doing to keep myself accountable in my daily studies (1 off-day/week) is to keep a LSAT journal where I lay out the day's plan and also establish my study timeline for the day. If you can hold yourself accountable to the 5-6hrs/day that you have, I fully believe in you getting a 165+ by November. Don't hesitate to reach out if I can clarify anything further or if you have any other questions.

  Hi John,

  Thank you so much for your input . I will definitely apply what you said, I will start by writing down the day's , that's a good idea! I personally like to study and at the end of each study schedule take a set of logic reasoning questions and a game and then review each when I am done. Do you think this is an effective way of doing this?
• Cynthia-2 Member

  April 2021 498 karma

  @sarahblair said:
  JY's explanation of fool proofing logic games would give you a lot of improvement and you have the time to do so. If you haven't gone through the CC I would finish the majority of that (I didn't do every reading passage or every logic game before moving on to strictly PTing). After the CC I would suggest moving on to PT's, depending on when you begin doing them make sure they're spread out enough to last you until test day, whether that means doing 4 per week or 2, etc. I would study for 3-4 hours per day, every day- maybe one off day on Friday/Saturday or something. On the days you aren't PTing, review the PT you took the day before/a couple days ago and understand why you got the questions wrong you did, redo the LGs and make sure you can do them accurately and in a timely manner. Also do timed sets of problems you frequently get wrong on LR. Read some passages if you struggle with RC. I'm currently doing this and planning to write in June. It works for me- I'm aiming for 165 as well and currently PT around 160-165. Best of luck and let me know if you have specific questions!! I know planning can be hard and overwhelming but once you find a groove your score will reflect that!

  Thanks for the input, I will definitely start by focusing on the core more, and will apply the proofing logic games. What was your start score? How long do you study a day and what does that look like for you? What do you do daily?
• galactic Yearly Member

  April 2021 690 karma

  @"cynthiaabreu.ca" said:

  @"john ryan" said:
  Hey cynthiaabreu.ca. I think it's great that you've already figured out about how much time you have to study each day and identified a goal score. Have you finished the CC? My recommendation is to generate a sched via the study schedule tool (I'd say you can def skip around a little bit more than the generated schedule allots for you, as long as you're meeting the time wickets each week - at the very least, get through the logic curriculum before going to the games), with 1 twist that is not openly advertised in the CC - take timing out of your studying completely. My scoring history as of now is about the same range as yours, and a recurring theme I'm hearing is, given that fact of what my score currently is, to disregard timing while I'm still in the CC. Get through the CC untimed and then find yourself on the other side in the PT phase where you can really hone in on that aspect of your test taking.

  I haven't gotten to the PT phase yet, so I don't want to speak in error, but I like what sarahblair said above. You can also learn a TON about this stage of your studies by listening to the 7Sage podcast (episodes with past 7Sagers who had great score increases and episodes specifically about how to take prep-tests are all there).

  As for the logic games, my recommendation when going through the CC for the first time and have a diagnostic score in/around your and my current range, is once again conduct the foolproof method on each game in the CC with the 1 twist of excluding time. Foolproof the games until each game becomes intuitive - no part or aspect of the game or any of the questions holds you up in any regard. You can then incorporate meeting time bounds in the games when BRing LG on the PTs you take later.

  Something I additionally started doing to keep myself accountable in my daily studies (1 off-day/week) is to keep a LSAT journal where I lay out the day's plan and also establish my study timeline for the day. If you can hold yourself accountable to the 5-6hrs/day that you have, I fully believe in you getting a 165+ by November. Don't hesitate to reach out if I can clarify anything further or if you have any other questions.

  Hi John,

  Thank you so much for your input . I will definitely apply what you said, I will start by writing down the day's , that's a good idea! I personally like to study and at the end of each study schedule take a set of logic reasoning questions and a game and then review each when I am done. Do you think this is an effective way of doing this?

  Sounds like a good plan to me. I'd say this for the LR sets you do at the end of the day: Doing something like 2-3 LR questions and really BRing the hell out of them... like truly deep diving on each question and understanding every aspect about the stimulus, the structure, how the argument (if present) is constructed, and understanding each answer choice and being able to articulate exactly why the 4 wrong ones are wrong and the 1 right one is right, is WAY more effective than doing 5+ questions and just blithely reviewing them afterward. Does that make sense?
• sarahblair Core Member

  April 2021 604 karma

  @"cynthiaabreu.ca" said:

  @sarahblair said:
  JY's explanation of fool proofing logic games would give you a lot of improvement and you have the time to do so. If you haven't gone through the CC I would finish the majority of that (I didn't do every reading passage or every logic game before moving on to strictly PTing). After the CC I would suggest moving on to PT's, depending on when you begin doing them make sure they're spread out enough to last you until test day, whether that means doing 4 per week or 2, etc. I would study for 3-4 hours per day, every day- maybe one off day on Friday/Saturday or something. On the days you aren't PTing, review the PT you took the day before/a couple days ago and understand why you got the questions wrong you did, redo the LGs and make sure you can do them accurately and in a timely manner. Also do timed sets of problems you frequently get wrong on LR. Read some passages if you struggle with RC. I'm currently doing this and planning to write in June. It works for me- I'm aiming for 165 as well and currently PT around 160-165. Best of luck and let me know if you have specific questions!! I know planning can be hard and overwhelming but once you find a groove your score will reflect that!

  Thanks for the input, I will definitely start by focusing on the core more, and will apply the proofing logic games. What was your start score? How long do you study a day and what does that look like for you? What do you do daily?

  My first ever score was a 147 before I did any studying for the LSAT. Sometimes I will dip into the high 150's still on PT's. I study every day with a few exceptions for 3-4 hours. On Mon, Wed, and Fri I do practice exams. The rest of the days I review those PT's and redo the logic games from them. Sometimes I make up problem sets from frequently missed LR questions as well. Hope this helps!
• 1 Like

  This_is_Hard Alum Member

  April 2021 815 karma

  Hey, you sound a lot like me. I studied on and off for 2 years. Would burn out after going hard for a month or so. Felt like I didn't get certain things, progress was slow and/or eventually got distracted with life events.

  I started seeing improvement when I did more PTing. I didn't manage to finish any of my prep materials including the CC. But I didn't want to delay another year so I just jumped into doing the PT phase. I started with 1 a week, followed by BRing the questions I flagged (skipped BRing RC cause I didn't have time). I would than grade the exam and review all the questions I got wrong - look at the question and watch the explaination video.

  I would than check the analytics for the exam and pinpoint the top 2 or 3 question types I got wrong and go back to those modules in the CC and review the lessons. When reviewing, I redid the drills at the end.

  I saw improvement on my next PT. I then cranked it up to 2 PTs a week and at one point I was doing 3 PTs a week.

  Over about 1.5 months, I saw an increase of about 10 to 15 points depending on the PT I took.

  On test day, I outperformed my PT average by about 5 points.

  Not the best way to do it, imo. Follow at your own risk.

  Looking back, I think I would have went with a traditional prep company that had classroom/tutoring to guide me through the lessons and keep me accountable. I think if I had done this, instead of 2 years of on and off studying, it'd have probably been 6 months, 8 months max.
• 1 Like

  Cynthia-2 Member

  April 2021 498 karma

  @"galactic law" said:

  @"cynthiaabreu.ca" said:

  @"john ryan" said:
  Hey cynthiaabreu.ca. I think it's great that you've already figured out about how much time you have to study each day and identified a goal score. Have you finished the CC? My recommendation is to generate a sched via the study schedule tool (I'd say you can def skip around a little bit more than the generated schedule allots for you, as long as you're meeting the time wickets each week - at the very least, get through the logic curriculum before going to the games), with 1 twist that is not openly advertised in the CC - take timing out of your studying completely. My scoring history as of now is about the same range as yours, and a recurring theme I'm hearing is, given that fact of what my score currently is, to disregard timing while I'm still in the CC. Get through the CC untimed and then find yourself on the other side in the PT phase where you can really hone in on that aspect of your test taking.

  I haven't gotten to the PT phase yet, so I don't want to speak in error, but I like what sarahblair said above. You can also learn a TON about this stage of your studies by listening to the 7Sage podcast (episodes with past 7Sagers who had great score increases and episodes specifically about how to take prep-tests are all there).

  As for the logic games, my recommendation when going through the CC for the first time and have a diagnostic score in/around your and my current range, is once again conduct the foolproof method on each game in the CC with the 1 twist of excluding time. Foolproof the games until each game becomes intuitive - no part or aspect of the game or any of the questions holds you up in any regard. You can then incorporate meeting time bounds in the games when BRing LG on the PTs you take later.

  Something I additionally started doing to keep myself accountable in my daily studies (1 off-day/week) is to keep a LSAT journal where I lay out the day's plan and also establish my study timeline for the day. If you can hold yourself accountable to the 5-6hrs/day that you have, I fully believe in you getting a 165+ by November. Don't hesitate to reach out if I can clarify anything further or if you have any other questions.

  Hi John,

  Thank you so much for your input . I will definitely apply what you said, I will start by writing down the day's , that's a good idea! I personally like to study and at the end of each study schedule take a set of logic reasoning questions and a game and then review each when I am done. Do you think this is an effective way of doing this?

  Sounds like a good plan to me. I'd say this for the LR sets you do at the end of the day: Doing something like 2-3 LR questions and really BRing the hell out of them... like truly deep diving on each question and understanding every aspect about the stimulus, the structure, how the argument (if present) is constructed, and understanding each answer choice and being able to articulate exactly why the 4 wrong ones are wrong and the 1 right one is right, is WAY more effective than doing 5+ questions and just blithely reviewing them afterward. Does that make sense?

  Yes, thank you so much !