Does anyone do puzzles or games in their free time to help with studying?

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• 2 Likes

  The 180 Bro_OVO Alum Inactive ⭐

  April 2017 1392 karma

  I'm sure it couldn't hurt. Though, I've yet to hear of anyone finding success. I think just doing a ton of LG is the best way to improve LG and all the sections really. Lots of practice and thorough BR.

  However, many, including JY say that reading The Economist in an active manner does help with RC.
• Bevs ScooterMinion Alum Member

  April 2017 edited April 2017 1018 karma

  I suck at sudoku. I could never get into it for some reason, but my dad loved them. I do love crossword puzzles though.
  I purchased a subscription to a "hard" logic puzzles magazine, but find I enjoy LG games more. Weird. (I still giggle when I use "enjoy" with LG games. ) So I agree with Bro_OVO above.

  Especially for RC, I've been using Spreeder to increase my reading speed (only because I'm a slower than average reader as my undergrad work can be very complex). Spreeder is free and you can upload your current ebooks to it to help you pick up some time and comprehension. Someone in 7Sage recommended it months ago, I'm sorry I forgot exactly whom it was--- Lauren, I think.
  Spreeder helped me almost immediately double my reading speed to get through LSAT's convoluted sentences (which made parsing a bit easier) to pick up some time in several places.
  There are many schools of thought about increasing one's reading speed, especially in these discussions. You just have to find what works for you. Increasing my reading speed is something I wanted to do, so I tried it. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, and I can appreciate that.

  In addition to history, feminist, and philosophy papers and texts, I also read Psychology Today, The Economist, and Scientific American magazines. Actually, I do a lot of reading covering all sorts of genres and topics. Politics seems to be a good twisty---turny topic these days. lol

  If you want a subject that consists of VERY complex reading, philosophy will ceertainly do the trick (but pick a topic that interests you----there are many, i.e., feminist philosophy, philo of fiction, metaphysics, metametaphysics, epistemology, law, ethics, etc.)
  I would go for journal articles or white papers as books can be expensive. Sam Harris is also a good choice, but I don't know that he publishes much for free.
  There are free white papers websites, I thought a good one was hosted by Google, but I cannot locate it at the moment. I've heard Tech Republic recommended before, and a good source for non---techy people, like myself.

  If you'd like some philosophy author recommendations, PM me. I can give you some names that I've studied that aren't as pompous or arrogant, but don't dumb it down too much so that it becomes too easy to read and comprehend. For instance, Alyssa Ney's Intro to Metaphysics is superb. It is a textbook for Philosophy majors, but not too "out there" so a non-philo major cannot follow it.

  Did I read in another thread that you studied the LSAT Trainer too? It just occurred to me, that I found that book sometimes harder to follow than my more complex philosophy papers and texts. I'd say it was 100% my issue. I'm not knocking his system---Mike is a very nice, intelligent guy and I have the utmost respect for him, I just couldn't follow his system as well as I can JY's (I think JY is a genius).

  I hope this helps! Sorry it's so long!
• 2 Likes

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

  April 2017 27900 karma

  I think Sudoku type puzzles are great and exercise a lot of the same mental muscles as LGs. You have to treat them like outside reading though. They're great extras, just don't treat it as study time.
• Sami Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 7Sage Tutor

  April 2017 edited April 2017 10806 karma

  I remember reading at one time on the top law school forum, so I can't verify the authenticity of this, that one person who score really high attributed his success in games to partly doing outside games like Sudoku. I think in general games like these can make you more strict with your procedures and maybe outside games in general could help change your mind to be more open-thinking when it comes to weird games. But like everyone says, the best way to still practice for LG is still to do games that are in PT's and fool proof the standard games. But I think these outside games can be a great way to de-stress and do something different from LSAT.
• 1 Like

  tringo335 Alum Member ⭐

  April 2017 3679 karma

  I hope this helps! Sorry it's so long!

  @ScooterMinion this was very helpful thank you! I have downloaded the Economist app so will peruse that when I have down time from LSAT studying. I'll also take a look at the other articles you suggested. And yes! Please feel free to PM me the author recommendations they sound perfect. I have been looking for content that is complex, but not arrogant
• 1 Like

  tringo335 Alum Member ⭐

  April 2017 edited April 2017 3679 karma

  @"Cant Get Right" @Sami

  Oh absolutely. Nothing can beat the real thing; but for times when you want some down time, I figured some other puzzles or reading would come more handy than my Facebook app lol! Thanks for your input
• 1 Like

  Shireen Bhatia-1 Alum Member

  April 2017 261 karma

  Sodku and riddles are a personal favorite.
• 2 Likes

  Bevs ScooterMinion Alum Member

  April 2017 1018 karma

  @tringo335 --I'll definitely PM you with more info. I'll post some basic info here, so that others may benefit too.

  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, plato.stanford.edu, is a GREAT place to start for reading long, dense articles, but not too intimidating for the beginning philosopher.

  Type in any word or author's name in the search bar and you'll have tons of hits, then just jump in--there are many links within every article for deeper research.

  Of interest to LSAT studiers might be Martha Nussbaum and Ronald Dworkin (two of my personal faves). They are philosophers of law. Constitutionalism is really fun! Yeah, I'm a philosophy nerd!

  Enjoy!