Finished Prep Course... Don't Feel Ready...

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• 3 Likes

  leelisee Alum Member

  December 2014 edited December 2014 92 karma

  Hey,
  
  No need to feel screwed. I was in a similar situation as you after I finished my Blueprint course a year ago (biggest financial mistake of my life yet, don't do it). To be frank, I didn't even go to the classes or watch most of the videos because they dumbed the LSAT down so much, so the fact that you even finished a prep course says something about your willingness and drive!
  
  When are you planning to take the LSAT? I empathize with your concern that you don't have many PTs to work with. I was there too! I studied carelessly and without a set plan for about 6 months, so by the time I began to take things seriously (5 months ago), I had maybe 10 PTs left (biggest study mistake of my life, don't do it). But you know what the great part about having so little PTs is? You get to review ALL of them THOROUGHLY without fear of spoiling a question! Plus, since you've seen all of the different types of questions the LSAT can throw at you, all you need to do now is to develop breadth and depth. Yes, you may remember the answers (I did too), but most likely, you didn't go through them in as much detail as the LSAC would have if they were to give you an explanation for each of the answer choices. Look at the super prep books (did you know there were super preps!?) and see how much effort the LSAC puts into each and every question - make that your standard. Pretend you're teaching the LSAT to someone else and go through every answer choice to spell out precisely why one is right, and the others are wrong. In doing so, you'll find yourself connecting dots you didn't know were there, and that you didn't know you knew. I legitimately looked like a crazy lady in the library talking to myself as I explained the answer choices to my invisible student - but it helped me improve. Channel your inner JY ("So what?!" "No, just no.").
  
  Simply burning through PTs will not help you improve your time. Return to the basics and really, really understand each question type be it a LR, RC or LG question. This way, as soon as you read a question, or read a keyword in the stimulus, you see the general structure of what you're supposed to do for that question. What really helped me was to read my notes from 7Sage lessons/PowerScore/Manhattan books from time to time so I could see how the lessons' content applied to the questions I had difficulty with.
  
  Also, don't feel the need to oil your full-PT performance by taking a PT every week. It is much better to thoroughly review for like 2 weeks, and THEN take a PT to see if your new methods have been working. Change can't happen overnight so give yourself time to improve. The LSAT writers probably take at least a week or two to complete an entire test and they've been doing this for years, so don't be so hard on yourself if you don't improve quickly.
  
  For reference, I'm taking the December LSAT and have been averaging in the high 60s, low 70s. I ran out of PTs so I haven't been able to measure my improvement, but I'm still reviewing and learning new things. Hope this helps some
• jdawg113 Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2014 2654 karma

  so yeah, you can still take PT's you have seen questions from, you may recognize some questions but that isnt a bad thing, it wont be a 100% indication of where you are but dont write them off, especially since its random questions from them, save a chunk of newer & fresh PT's for closer to game time. I wouldnt say you need 2 weeks to BR but take your PT and go over it slowly, before looking at the answers, understand why what you picked/change to is right and everything else is wrong, then grade... then repeat w/ whatever you got wrong. drill maybe question types that you struggled with, if LG is killing you, drill that, it is the easiest to improve on. a 163 BR score says your scoring is more than a timing issue but also a fundamental issue somewhere. you want to be in the 170's before you know you are relatively sound on fundamentals (180 is when you know you have it really down obviously)
• 1 Like

  ddakjiking Inactive ⭐

  December 2014 2116 karma

  It's okay to feel like this. I'm finishing up a course this week right before the Dec test and had to postpone because I wasn't feeling ready. The previous two posters have some good advice for ya.
• 1 Like

  naveedhalavi Alum Member

  December 2014 124 karma

  Thanks for the advice guys. i withdrew from the december LSAT and enrolled in the february one. I plan on going through and drilling the questions based on group/category that i'm getting wrong on LR sections in Blind Review so i can improve my accuracy, and plan on printing out practice tests that i've already done to practice timed sections. I'm gonna do a mix of both each week, and do a full practice test every 2 weeks to measure my progress. After implementing blind review i feel like i'm learning muuuuch muuuch more than i have in the past 2 months with the prep course i was taking. I never realized how essential it was to the learning process until now.
• harrismegan Member

  December 2014 2074 karma

  Good for you Good luck! You WILL rock is come Feb!