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Study Schedule Advice
I was hoping to get other people's opinion regarding your study plan for 7sage.
I started studying in July intensively mainly with Powerscore and Kaplan.I finished all of the Powerscore books and I took the Kaplan diagnostic as well as the midterm exam. But I realized that the curriculum wasn't solving the core fundamental problems that I had. I started 7Sage around August/September and realized that my failure to grasp the concepts went a lot deeper. But by that time school started and I started falling back on the core curriculum study schedule. I finished the core curriculum problems, but I don't feel ready to start PTing. I was PTing in the summer with Powerscore and Kaplan and just did not see a good enough improvement to feel that I should waste the exams when I still don't have a full grasp on the key concepts for games and logical reasoning. I have printed out about 10 times each game from the core curriculum of the logic games and have just been doing them throughout the week. While doing logical reasoning and Critical Reading on the side with time, but also BR after.
I was wondering if anyone else is sticking to the concepts of Logic Games and just hardcore drilling or if after the core curriculum you went straight to PTing.
I'm sure there are multiple ways to study and everyone studies depending on how fast they get the concepts, but I'm truly interested to know whats your study technique and where you feel you are at your weakest.
I know my biggest problem is concentrating on the material enough to actually absorb it and remember it specifically when its the hard passages. I tend to read a paragraph or passage or anything and it just doesn't seem to stick. Whether its logic games, logical reasoning, or critical thinking, I realized I am such a passive reader, that I don't challenge the material whatsoever and because I seem to just take the words for what they are it takes me a while to really retain and tackle the topic when it becomes more challenging. I realized before I can even tackle answering the question, I need to be truly conscientious and focus on remembering and understanding what is going on.
I started studying in July intensively mainly with Powerscore and Kaplan.I finished all of the Powerscore books and I took the Kaplan diagnostic as well as the midterm exam. But I realized that the curriculum wasn't solving the core fundamental problems that I had. I started 7Sage around August/September and realized that my failure to grasp the concepts went a lot deeper. But by that time school started and I started falling back on the core curriculum study schedule. I finished the core curriculum problems, but I don't feel ready to start PTing. I was PTing in the summer with Powerscore and Kaplan and just did not see a good enough improvement to feel that I should waste the exams when I still don't have a full grasp on the key concepts for games and logical reasoning. I have printed out about 10 times each game from the core curriculum of the logic games and have just been doing them throughout the week. While doing logical reasoning and Critical Reading on the side with time, but also BR after.
I was wondering if anyone else is sticking to the concepts of Logic Games and just hardcore drilling or if after the core curriculum you went straight to PTing.
I'm sure there are multiple ways to study and everyone studies depending on how fast they get the concepts, but I'm truly interested to know whats your study technique and where you feel you are at your weakest.
I know my biggest problem is concentrating on the material enough to actually absorb it and remember it specifically when its the hard passages. I tend to read a paragraph or passage or anything and it just doesn't seem to stick. Whether its logic games, logical reasoning, or critical thinking, I realized I am such a passive reader, that I don't challenge the material whatsoever and because I seem to just take the words for what they are it takes me a while to really retain and tackle the topic when it becomes more challenging. I realized before I can even tackle answering the question, I need to be truly conscientious and focus on remembering and understanding what is going on.
Comments
So if you are done with core-curriculum I highly suggest you do start PTing. I know you feel like you don't have a good grasp of concepts but that's going to be the case for a while. LSAT is one of those things where we are constantly learning and its probably never going to end.
What will help you grasp the concepts better is to actually start doing the practice test, blind reviewing it and seeing from there where exactly you are lacking in understanding. If there is a particular type of question or type of argumentation you miss, then do go back to the curriculum to review. But definitely do not feel like you need to have a solid understanding before you start taking the test. In my opinion, the best way to learn about LSAT is to actually do these questions timed first and then try to figure out answers by yourself before you even take a look at what the videos are saying.
I don't actually think you should worry about running out of PT's. There are 80 of them! I initially used PT 1-10 to drill sections, then when I gained enough courage and stamina I started PTing with PT 20-35 timed. This was actually plenty for me. I know if you used the older PT's you are bound to come across some of the questions you have already done, but you are not working on your score here but more on learning the concepts and how to take the tests.
So I would say at least start off with PTing a bit, but review it fully and analyze your results and try to drill things you can improve upon. For example at one point I realized logic games were my weakness, so I stopped PTing and for one month just fool proofed the game. Then I started PTing again, and from those PT's I realized Necessary Assumptions were my weakness. So I used to drill them. The point is that you want to use your PT's as a gauge for what your weaknesses are.
As far as your weaknesses goes, my biggest recommendation is that you should only work on 1 weakness at a time. If its RC you want to improve upon, then work on that first. PT and see how you are doing. After that focus on your next weakness.
As far as concepts not sticking, it will happen eventually with time and practicing with good habits. For example for RC, are you pausing and summarizing after reading each paragraph. If not, then drill only with that habit in mind first. Another way you can figure out where you are going wrong is by following JY's videos and noticing where exactly you deviated when you were reading the passage - were you pushing back the ideas to previous paragraphs, were you focusing too much on the details? If you have bad habits then write down how it should have been read and then practice the next passage with that in mind.
Same goes for Logic games. Focus on learning inferences but also on developing good habits that JY talks about in those videos.
Well at least that's what I did. I hope this helped.
I have done at least 25 PT's since summer and I think I 'm going to take your advice and redrill those problems. Specifically for Logic Games. I'm just printing out the games and redoing them to really figure out if I am truly understanding it or it was just a matter of luck. I also make sure that I'm timing myself. Not to stop at the time of 10 min, but to understand how long it takes me to do a question and what I need to work on to get it under. At the end of the day, I'm in the mentality that you can't fit the time with the wrong technique. You need to master the technique before you get to the right time. I don't think I'll be doing any new PT's, but just going back on the PT's that I've done and making sure that I get the concepts down. Mainly for logic games. Logic games is really a matter of concept I realized. If you can't understand it fully on one game don't bother attempting the next one with out fully understanding it. Even if that means doing the game 20 times spread out throughout the week or month. I have definitely seen an improvement in reading comprehension from getting 8 wrong to getting 3 wrong with the 7sage technique.
Thanks for the advice. I'm sure once I go over the Practice Test that I've already taken and fully understand what I did wrong I'll start taking more tests.
Also I'm going to review the Core Curriculum from the beginning since I took a month break to study for my classes.