Drilling

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• 1 Like

  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  May 2016 edited May 2016 27900 karma

  Sacrifice PTs 1-36 for drilling and save the rest for PT/BR. I have no idea why that is the division, but that is typically what I see people doing. Personally, I don't like drilling by question type. Identifying the question type is a foundational skill, and you lose that practice by drilling types. So what I did is held off on drilling until I finished the curriculum and could drill whole sections.
• 2 Likes

  danielznelson Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 edited May 2016 4181 karma

  I'm with @"Cant Get Right" on this on. Though you should certainly be going through the problem sets, I would save drilling until after you've completed the curriculum and believe you have a solid understanding of what was taught. In this way, you avoid wasting too much material in your early stages of learning. Finish the curriculum with a good understanding of all of what it teaches, start taking some PTs, and see where your weaknesses, by question type, are from there.
  
  I'm not sure there is anything comparable to those precious packets, aside from self-made (and arduously so) packets.
  
  Upgrading my 7Sage package has always been most beneficial for going over full PTs, not so much for more early practice material, though the two arguably coincide. Regardless, if you can, upgrading is almost always the way to go, since doing so opens the door to more PTs as stated along with explanations to tougher questions.
  
  In the interest of saving money, you may want to go through the curriculum with the lowest package you feel satisfied with. I wouldn't, for example, purchase the Ultimate+ package right away, though I can understand arguments to the contrary. But you may decide to take more time to study for the LSAT or realize that the cost adds up more quickly than you thought it would (even though 7Sage is beyond reasonable). That said, upgrading to at least Ultimate feels practically necessary in order to excel in PTs and BRs, along with tougher drilling by question type. I'm glad I waited to get Ultimate+, but man am I glad I purchased it.
• GSU Hopeful Core ⭐

  May 2016 1644 karma

  As I went through the curriculum, I drilled at the end of each section via the problem sets. However, I only did a set or two at the max in order to acclimated to the question type. I would save the rest for drilling between PTs to shore up any weaknesses that test analytics indicate that you have. When I drilled LG, I made sure to do so in full sections. Much like LR, the initial battle you will face is game type recognition. If you drill the same type of game repeatedly, you lose that practice. Hope it all goes well. I'll reiterate what was stated above... if you can swing it, upgrading to Ultimate+ is not a decision you will regret.
• hlsat180 Free Trial Member

  May 2016 362 karma

  Whatever you do, please do NOT drill with PrepTest 52 and later. These 26 "modern LSATs" all contain Comparative Reading and provide about 2.5 months worth of Practice Test material (assuming 1 PT every 3 days):
  
  PT 52-61 (book of 10)
  PT 62-71 (book of 10)
  PT 72-77 (6 individual booklets)
  
  This is how LSAC sells their official tests. To make 5 section tests, add a fifth section of choice (I prefer LG) from an earlier test. Hope this helps everyone.
• 3 Likes

  allison.gill.sanford Alum Inactive Sage

  May 2016 1128 karma

  This is all solid advice, but I wouldn't recommend drilling other materials until you're done with the core curriculum (inclusive of the problem sets, that will give you drilling practice you need, so don't skip those), done with memorizing the aspects of the curriculum that call for memorization (such as valid and invalid argument forms), and done with the LG bundle (which is entirely drilling in and of itself). After that, take a PT or two, BR thoroughly and get some data on how to tackle your weaknesses with more drilling if necessary.
• CJF_2180 Alum Member

  May 2016 106 karma

  Thank you everyone for the input. I will eventually upgrade my account and try to take everyone's advice. I feel like I need all of the practice that I can get. I'll keep on working through the course.
• tanes256 Alum Member

  May 2016 2573 karma

  @McBeck418 there are a few sites out there that provide the PT and each question just as Cambridge provided. Well, maybe not exactly but I do recall studying with someone before I got the official packages and I noticed that my list of PT and questions was identical to their package. I think the only difference I noticed on those sites was that maybe my #2 was #6 or something for my partner. The question types and the level of difficulty for the questions were the same. I'm sure someone just copied the PT and question # from the bottom of the Cambridge packets and created those sites. Why reinvent the wheel? I had the links saved somewhere some time ago. If I find them I'll post them. I knew some people that just kept the link bookmarked so that they could pull certain tests for whatever question type they were drilling. To prevent wasting so much paper they kept that page after completing the question for drilling and returned it to a binder because they only needed one question from that page. They could possibly pull that same page for drilling another question type down the road. I know others that took the time to create their own Cambridge packages. That was some hard work but it was beneficial. Of course they had pdfs or some access to all of the PTs to do this. If you don't have them you can always buy the "10 next..." books and make photocopies. Still tedious though but I hope this helps with trying to create drilling packages.
• MrSamIam Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 2086 karma

  @"Cant Get Right" pretty much covered it. Oh, and most people use PTs 1-36 for drilling since 7Sage uses questions only from those PTs in the curiculum (that way you won't run into questions that you were previously exposed to when you take your times PTs).
  For drilling, I do the following:
  
  LR: Just drill a random section from PTs 1-36. Give yourself 35 minutes to do it. If you notice that you have extra time, next time PT with only 33 minutes. If you're not finishing on time, give yourself an extra 5 minutes, and reduce that time gradually. You MUST eventually be able to drill in under 35 minutes.
  
  RC: Same as LR
  
  LG: You can drill the same way you did for LR and RC. Or, if you don't feel comfortable with a certain type of game (e.g. In/Out), find 4 random games of that type, and drill them. Then, fool proof.
• Darth Jurist Member

  May 2016 453 karma

  @allison.gill.sanford said:
  This is all solid advice, but I wouldn't recommend drilling other materials until you're done with the core curriculum (inclusive of the problem sets, that will give you drilling practice you need, so don't skip those)
  

  Wait, so we are supposed to finish all of the problem sets before we start doing PTs?
• twssmith Alum ⭐

  May 2016 5120 karma

  @"Darth Jurist" No no no - not drill all the problem sets! Op has the starter package and should drill a couple of the beginning practice sets to make sure comfortable with each lesson's concepts. For anyone with the higher tiered packages, as recommended above, save the additional practice sets for drilling as needed during the PT phase.
• Darth Jurist Member

  May 2016 453 karma

  @twssmith Got it!! Thank you for clarifying.
• allison.gill.sanford Alum Inactive Sage

  May 2016 1128 karma

  Yup, basic CC drilling is in the starter pack and introduces all the types of problems, but if you have a more expansive set, the extra material can be used simultaneously with the PT phase of prep.