I'm just curious and trying to gauge how long other people take because sometimes I feel like I'm taking forever. I also clean copy BR
After I take the LSAT, I usually BR the RC and half of a LR Section. This takes about 2-3 hours so my total time for that day plus LSAT is 5-6 hours. At this point, my brain is drained and I don't think I'm doing myself any favors by continuing.
The next day, I BR the other half of the LR and the other LR. This can about 2-3 hours. Then. It takes me about 3-4 hours to throughly review the questions I missed. I type out my reasoning after watching JYs explanation.
Then I review the RC, which takes about an hour to 1.5 hours.
Then I do the games/watch explanations and re-do them. About 2-2.5 hours.
All in all, I usually can't even finish in 2 days. It takes me about 12+ hours to throughly finish. Am I hitting diminishing returns? Thanks.
Comments
That being said, how far along in your prep are you? And how many questions are you circling? Once you're into 20+ PTs or are in the 165+ range you really need to lower that bar of 100% certainty to 90% or so in order to develop more confidence and circle fewer questions. If your method is working for you, then by all means continue. But if you're spinning your wheels when it comes to improving, then I would suggest mixing it up a bit whether that means reviewing some curriculum, drilling your weaknesses a bit more, or consulting with a tutor. If you're still circling 5-10+ questions per section after 20+ PTs you really need to cut that number down and get more efficient with your prep.
So I really appreciate the advice you guys gave here in this post. I'm really happy I discovered this now instead of like 20+ PT into my studies. I just have on question: Due to some timing issues, I typically don't use POE for like the first 10 questions if I don't have to. If I see an answer I like I just go with it. Today, I took a PT and didn't circle these questions since I was fairly confident I had the right answer. Should I review these during BR since I didn't really go through the remaining answer choices or should I just mark them right away since I have to see if my intuition is accurate? I feel like if I just do the former I'd be repeating the same thing I did before and I obviously want to avoid that. Thanks guys and sorry if this post is a bit incoherent, in a huge rush!
On the one hand, the correct answer for many MSS questions is so general that the best (if not only) way to find that answer is to eliminate the 4 wrong answer choices without really having a stronger reasoning than “well, that’s an easy sentence to support". I think in that instance, I’d feel confident answering that question without circling the question for review.
On the other hand, if it were a subtle descriptive flaw question in which the correct answer is something the argument failed to consider and I got to an answer by eliminating 4 descriptively inaccurate statements, I would circle for review (because I don’t really see the actual flaw). I only know that the other answers are wrong.
The other thing you want to consider when it comes to circling a question is the mindset that “were I to finish this section with 10 minutes to spare (I can dream!), which questions do I need to go back to review or to modify?” That is probably the best criteria with which to decide “Do I want to review this question?"