I REALLY NEED ADVICE (STUDYING FOR ALMOST A YEAR)

[alusik33]

Hello guys,

I am glad to be posting on this forum as I plan to join the Powerscore community and be more at ease with the LSAT preparation. Lets begin... I have a quite a long story. I began studying for the lsat last july and I started off with Testmasters, the first time around the material didnt really click and I found myself having issues all around. Then I decided to take Testmasters again at a different location and I thought it would help but it did not get me to a competitive score I started with a 132 and only got as high as a 146. I am trying to figure out if the issue is the courses or my major lack of confidence in myself (which is really at a low point at this point) because after hours of prepping and and private tutoring I have lost hope. I am a bit of a strange case Id like to point out... I have noticed when it comes time to take the exams after learning all the material... i dont end up doing them all... after like taking 5 or 6 of them and not seeing any type of score increase i get so discouraged especially since i have been doing this for so long, and I feel like I am obviously doing the wrong things during the review process and thats probably also why I dont improve.... Sorry for all these tangential points this is me just ranting out my problems at once so I can get a clear cut explanation of what I should do. When you talk to me after a year of studying of course you can see that I have a pretty good fundamental background in the material, but when I sit down to take a timed exam all the wheels fall off, I panic, and I forget my objective and lose concentration. At this point Im not sure if a prep course would help although I am a person who needs structure and I have absolutely none at this point, and I feel like thats the only way I can study, and be motivated, I have lost all motivation at this point. Here I am a month and a half out before the course begins and I dont know what to do. Should I start from scratch and relearn the fundamentals all over again? Or should I use older practice exams and do them untimed until I can get my accuracy up to at least 85-90 percent untimed for each section? Is it better to see a mix of problems constantly which is something i have not been doing, maybe time to try something new? I am trying to figure out what my issue is, because I have drilled tons of individual types of games, lr questions, and rc passages but I feel like the biggest issue with test prep companies is they throw all the material at you and then a few weeks out make you take exams which for most people isnt nearly enough time to become assimilated with test taking, from what I have read on countless forums is that you need a solid 25-30 PTs under your belt to feel that way. So after two courses... I have gone and relearned the fundmentals now for the third time with a private tutor (not powerscore tutor) for like a month straight drilling hundreds of questions multiple multiple times (feleing so burnt out at this point as I was told I needed to study like 8 hours a day which I did 6 days a week), and when I hit 6-7 weeks before the exam I was told by the tutor to take 5 exams a week for 6 weeks straight so thats (30 total) and review them the same day for like 6 weeks straight and it overwhelmed me so much that I couldnt even focus during the exams and my studying just went down the drain, and now its couple weeks out and I have to cancel my lsat exam for the 3rd time. I feel like I just blow through exams with no purpose and I feel like my fundamentals and methodologies just maybe arent solid enough still I feel like comprehension is a BIG BIG issue probably the biggest, just not being able to retain, or even understand the vocabulary a lot of the times which really throws me off because i need to constantly reread stimuli, I dont know how to sharpen my skills at this point, I dont know if its timing? Maybe I need to do more individual timed sections to get the hang of the timing? I dont know at this point. Heres the just of it I guess, my lack of confidence, test anxiety, not being able to do it timed, (but for the most part can do the problems untimed), not having assurance that what I am doing is right or wrong, and thats pretty much it. What should i do a month out before the July course begins? Should I take untimed old exams, and then ease myself into timed sections maybe giving myself like 45 min then 40 minutes (cut the time gradually) as opposed to 35 min right away? I have been studying for way too long I dont know at this point, sorry for the rant. Maybe I should just approach it fresh on a clean slate again and relearn the fundamentals hoping that the third time I take a course is the charm, maybe I have just built really bad habits and that is why I am not seeing improvement, maybe I need to look through a new lense. I am tired and exhausted, but I dont want to do nothing for a month before the course starts. Any suggestions or similar situations?

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi alusik33,

Thanks for the post. To sum up, you've been studying for a year, mostly with TestMasters. You've taken as many as 30 practice tests, along with two full-length LSAT courses, which - assuming you've done all the homework in each course - should have exposed you to the vast majority of licensed LSAT material out there. That was not enough, so you hired a tutor to help you understand the fundamentals for a third time. Despite all this work, your score never exceeded 146.

Test anxiety clearly plays a role in your subpar performance, but I doubt it is the only issue. If it were, then an untimed test should result in a much, much higher score. After all, being timed is one of the major stressors associated with standardized testing, and the LSAT in particular is a speeded exam. You never mentioned if you took any untimed tests, but if you haven't, perhaps it is time to do that. What you need to do is diagnose, with as much precision as possible, how many of your mistakes are due to (1) conceptual misunderstanding of the material, (2) rushing, i.e. not reading carefully enough, and (3) stress. These issues are obviously related, but if your assumption that you understand the material is correct, I would expect that untimed tests and question type-specific problem sets would result in close to 100% accuracy.

If they don't, then you need to return to the fundamentals. Here's how to do that:

You mentioned enrolling in a Summer LSAT course with us. This will certainly help a lot (if you let it). Before the course begins, however, I'd like you to begin from scratch: on your own, without a tutor. All you need is a few well-written books to read at your own pace and absorb the material - take your time, and don't rush them! Studying on your own before classes begin—if done right—can help quite a bit. You will pick up the material faster. Your homework will probably not take as long, because you’ll be familiar with at least some of the conceptual material covered in it. You will feel more confident in class. You cannot predict how quickly your score will improve, so the earlier you start preparing, the better prepared—and more relaxed—you will feel in the end.

It is absolutely imperative to avoid learning poor techniques or inefficient approaches, which you may have inadvertently done in tutoring or with TestMasters. Their conceptual framework is not bad, but the quality of instruction obviously varies a lot; a bad instructor can unfortunately do a lot of damage. This is ultimately an avoidable mistake provided you stay within the PowerScore's LSAT “ecosystem”: The Logic Games Bible, The Logical Reasoning Bible, The Reading Comprehension Bible, as well as the corresponding workbooks. These materials present the same approach to the test and its various sections as your course books will, so there will be no conflict between what you learn on your own and what you will learn in class. In fact, the Bibles provide an in-depth look at our methodology, and are particularly helpful as a starting point (or, in your case, a re-starting point).

By their very nature, the Bibles are pedagogically “static”: you can read about our approach to, say, Assumption questions and understand the Assumption Negation Technique, but you cannot interact with the material in the same way you can in class. This is why studying on your own will not render your classroom experience over the Summer monotonous or useless: on the contrary, students who are familiar with our techniques tend to stay more engaged in class, and benefit even more from reinforcing the knowledge they already have. Although there is indeed some overlap between the Bibles and the course materials, this is primarily due to the fact that we try to keep our approach consistent. Rest assured, however, that your course books will have significantly more problem sets than any of our publications, and each of the thousand or so problems in your homework will be explained on-line in our Student Center.

Depending on how much time you have between now and the beginning of your course, you may want to follow one of our Self-Study Plans, which you can find here. The 6-week study plan may be just what you need to get you going.

With all that said, I'm afraid that prepping, even with us, will not give you the results you need unless you are also able to address some of the underlying issues of stress and anxiety you seem to be dealing with. Having a positive mental outlook is absolutely critical, and it's something you need to cultivate in order to reach your potential - whatever it may be. Psychologists and stress counselors can be an invaluable resource in this respect, but if a professional isn't an option in your case, at least check out some of the blogs we've written on the topic:

LSAT Anxiety and the Power of Positive Thinking
The Ultimate Test Mentality Resource List

Let me conclude with an assurance, as well as a warning: having done LSAT test prep and course development for 10+ years, I have come across thousands of students, many of whom have been in the same exact predicament as yours. Both the methodological content of our publications, and the quality of instruction you'll receive from us, are second to none. However, I have never met a student who was able to improve without a firm belief that they can, in fact, improve. The feeling of self-defeat may be understandable in your case, but it is not justifiable. It never is. You absolutely need to snap out of it in order to obtain the maximum benefit from your test prep. Otherwise, you'd be wasting your time (and money).

Best of luck!!

[alusik33]

Thank you so much for your help. You have gotten everything correct but I have not taken 30 exams! What happens is every time I learn the material from scratch and then it comes to take exams I'll take like 5-7 of them and my scores will not increase or they will even go down and I stop taking exams and then I'm forced to take another class or try another tutor, but I was now guided towards Powerscore and hopefully I will get the proper tools and build good habits and drop the bad ones. And yes anxiety is a big part, but I feel like my anxiety stems from lacking the knowledge to fully do well even on an untimed exam. I can drill individual question types and usually get like 75-80 percent correct sometimes even 90... but when I hit an exam and it's a mix of questions my accuracy and speed definitely goes down and anxiety definitely just shoots through the roof. You are probably right that I just haven't maybe had the proper tools to expand my fundamentals, but I feel really worried I don't know. How many times can I relearn this stuff and it just doesn't click. I'm so frustrated, I just don't see the repetitive patterns , I think I'll take your advice and I'll start with the logic games bible and the logical reasoning bible. My class starts July 11th I was going to take a break until June 1st and study for like a month and a half before class starts because as of now I'm really burnt out and stressed out. I hope to finally learn the proper methodologies and get over that hump of just not understanding certain concepts. I think Powerscore will be good because I heard from the course that there's explanations for every single question administered in the homework and I think that's really important in terms of learning from mistakes, and that's something Testmasters did not provide. Which could be why I didn't improve because I just wasn't learning from my mistakes, and also I do believe I had some half ass professors who scored 170+ but taught in an advanced way that only worked for them, but I felt that it was these certain subjects that I didn't understand... Which could've been more simplified and explained better. Well in any case,Powerscore it is! Let's do it! In combination with the bibles I will maybe start doing some untimed older exams like 2-3 weeks before the class starts just to refresh my memory with all the question types so I don't forget anything, but I'm sure I won't forget anything I've been doing this for too long lol.

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey alusik33,

Thanks for your response. A few things to keep in mind:

• 1. You cannot expect your scores to increase in a linear fashion, even after mastering the fundamentals. It's one thing to "know" how to weaken a causal argument, another to do it repeatedly in various contexts whose subtleties often affect the nature of the correct response. That's why your homework - for at least the first few lessons - will consist primarily of question collections identified by type (Must Be True, Assumption, etc.) and method of reasoning (causal, conditional, etc.). I realize you've covered these concepts before, but - as I said earlier - "knowing" is not the same as "doing." Reviewing well-written explanations to the questions you miss is one of the hallmarks of an elite LSAT training program: it takes a lot of time and effort at our end to explain each of several thousand questions (not to mention the 5 answer choices in each question). Would we do this if we didn't think it's an absolutely invaluable resource for students such as yourself? Definitely not
  
  2. Mix early and often. Don't rely on question-type training alone to improve your score. The ability to switch gears is paramount to optimal performance in any section, particularly LR. Since test anxiety appears to be a major concern, start doing untimed LR sections from older exams. Even if they take 45 mins or more, the focus should be on accuracy, not timing. This will also train you to quickly recall the various strategies you claim to have learned, to the point where ultimately they become an almost instinctual response to the stimulus at hand. On the real test, you don't want to be "thinking" about the optimal way to solve a Justify question. You should be applying the Justify Formula (almost) mechanistically. This will take time and practice. Lots of time. And lots of practice.

Have fun with it, and let us know how the course goes!! If you have any other questions, by all means - don't hesitate to post them on the forum.

Thanks,