How to study the last month before the LSAT

Comments

• imharris Alum Member

  May 2017 466 karma

  hey @LSAT2017123 ...

  congrats on getting so close to your target score. i'm also taking the june 12th lsat. this month is going to be great!

  i hit a wall with my score a few weeks ago and know how demoralizing that can be. before we jump to study suggestions for the last month, here a few thoughts about your lsat wall.

  1. i don't really believe in walls on the lsat. i generally believe that this test is not designed to determine how smart you are, but rather to determine how well you can study. it's been said that the lsat is the best determination of how well you will do during your first year of law school. doing well in law school requires studying well. with that in mind, try to shift your focus away from hitting a specific score and instead focus on executing your study plan well.

  2. blind review is so important when it comes to improving your lsat score. when i hit my wall i shifted my focus to my blind review score. i was told that you should expect your timed test score to be about ten points lower than your blind review score. with that in mind i improved my blind review method and shifted my entire emotional weight to my blind review score.
     a. my blind review is now done a blank copy of the test to avoid arguing with my ego.
     b. i take my time with each question rather than rushing through to see what my score was on the timed test.
     c. if i am struggling with a question on blind review i write out my best possible explanation and mark the question on my answer sheet. after i score the test i will go back and review that type of question in the core curriculum. i do this even i got the question right in blind review. my struggle during blind review clearly revealed that i had not yet mastered that type of question.

  3. sure enough as i saw my blind review score improve so too did my timed test score. trust the blind review. take the time to make it worthwhile.

  regarding studying for the last month leading up to the test, i'm adopting the following per 7Sage advice:

  1. lots of rest and sleep. no booze. regular exercise.
  2. 1 to 2 prep tests a week from the 60's and 70's. i'll do 2 if i have time to completely and properly blind review them. if i don't get to 2 i don't feel bad because i am taking the time to actually learn and improve from the 1 i do take. again, focusing more on the blind review part.
  3. the week before the test i plan on retaking a preptest and blind reviewing it. at that point i'll have been studying for six months. one fresh preptest isn't going to help me too much. doing a retake and feeling confident will help immensely on test day.
  4. also during the test week: i'm treating it like i have to run a marathon on test day. good sleep and food throughout the week, lots of hydration, drilling games for a few minutes every day (just to keep them fresh, but not so much as to wear me out), and trying to relax the night before with a dumb lawyer movie.

  good luck!

  ian
• Sami Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 7Sage Tutor

  May 2017 10806 karma

  @LSAT2017123 said:
  Hi everyone!

  The June LSAT is about a month away, and I was wondering if you guys had any advice.

  To give you a little context, based off of my time PTs, I am still about 2-3 points away from my target score. When I do BR, I generally hit my target score or somewhat exceed it. I'm a little afraid that I have hit my LSAT score "wall." My score hasn't changed much over the past few weeks. Do you guys think it's possible to boost up my score those 2-3 points, and, do you guys have any advice on how to best study to gain a better and more confident grasp on this test? Recently, I've been a little lost as to how to best utilize my remaining time.

  Thanks ahead of time!

  I think to increase your current score to your target score your BR score has to exceed that at least by 5 points if not more, depending on where you are scoring. Have you tried figuring out why your BR score only somewhat exceeds your target score? The reason is we will always perform below our full capability under time. Our full capability is our BR score. So in order to hit your target score under time, your BR score should be way above it.

  What really helps get over that wall is figuring out trends in your mistake during your Blind Review. Are you getting a particular question type wrong? Were you not familiar with all the concepts? What threw you off during time? What questions are stopping you from getting 180 during Blind Review. The answer to those questions, which only you have currently, can help figure out what's holding you back.
• StrangerThanFiction175 Free Trial Member

  May 2017 edited May 2017 99 karma

  I'm somewhat skeptical of the BR strategy, but then again I haven't really tried it. My thought would just be that you want to simulate test conditions, and you aren't going to have unlimited time to go back and review your answers during the test. On the other hand, I absolutely agree you should go back and review your answers, but I wouldn't include those in your "score". That is unless you really appreciated the fact your BR score could be miles off of your real score.

  Anyways, I'm taking the June LSAT as well and I'm really approaching it from a simple cost/benefit analysis perspective. I've determined the area I hands down struggle the most with (logic games...), and I'm spending most of my time doing games. Since this is the area I can still improve the most on, I figure my time will be most valuable spent here. I just started the 7Sage "foolproof" method of really reviewing the videos and repeating the setups to get familiar with the types of inferences that the test uses and the setups that work the best for me. I would highly recommend it if you are like me and snuggle the most on the logic games. Best of luck!
• JustDoIt Alum Member ⭐

  May 2017 3112 karma

  I'll also add deep dives into questions. By cutting out all questions that I got wrong after BR. I spend as long as I need (about 20 minutes) on each question. There's so much to learn on such questions and I want to make sure I get it before moving on. Yes, this is extremely time consuming, but I would say it is time well spent because all concepts on the test are replicable and this will help you to avoid making the same mistakes twice. Also, you'll see trends and your weaknesses.

  Hope this helps!