Studying Approach

[torontohopeful]

Hello!

I am currently enrolled in the live online course.
I am a 3rd year university student currently on a co-op term, so I am working full-time currently until May when I return to school.
I am hoping to write the LSATs for the first time in June.

Unfortunately, I have been falling behind in the course since it has began. Just recently I have caught up as the 5th lesson will be this week. I will also be doing my first practice test before the class this week so that I have a cold score. I am determined to stay caught up with the course and will be putting in extra study hours on the weekends.

I was wondering if I could get some tips or advice on effective methods of approaching studying/practicing.

To catch up I have been going over the lesson again and then attacking the homework section in the book, putting more emphasis on area that I find more difficult. I feel that I am still taking much longer on questions than should be and do not always get the correct answer. However, I am determined to prepare myself well and usually perform well in situations when prepared.

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Toronto!

Definitely talk to your instructor about this as they know more about your unique situation than I do. I can speak in general and hope that you can take away some tips, since a lot of people experience this while taking the course. There are four main points that helped me keep up with studying when I prepared for the exam and I try to tell all my students.

1. Set a regular time aside everyday to get away from distractions.
It's really easy to do a little here and a little here, not adding up to a lot. One way around this is to treat studying like a course. Set maybe two hours aside in the morning (when possible) and again in the afternoon or evening to go to a library, a cafe, or another effective study place for you. A change in environment is likely to help you shift into study mode and get engaged in the material more quickly and more fully. Additionally, treating studying like making an appointment will help keep you studying more consistently.

2. Work on understanding the material, not getting through the material.
If your goal is to get caught up with everyone else it may be self-defeating. Rather than aiming to complete everything depending on when the next class is, continue to work at the important concepts until you get it. Don't always move on to the next set of drills until you understand the explanations for the ones you have done already. Progress should be measured in how much you absorb, not how many pages you write on. If you are taking a lot of time on certain questions, then continue to take

3. Master the fundamentals
The course will give you a detailed look at every single question type. However, you shouldn't give equal time to every type. If there are 10 times as many Flaw questions on the exam than there are Reconcile questions, you ought to put a lot more effort into mastering the former. Similarly the exam constantly requires you to quickly identify conclusions and understand conditional relationships. Mastering these concepts will pay off in a much higher score than mastering circular linear games (that occur on less than 2% of all tests).

4. Practice Exams benefit you more if you put time into analyzing your mistakes and your misunderstandings.
The course analyzes the questions from the tests that you take, but you should also be proactive and work on your own issues instead of waiting for the group to address your questions. Take more tests than is required whenever possible so that you can quickly identify strengths and weaknesses, and better target your practice.

Additionally, check out this forum post with lots of helpful studying tips from David Boyle and Nikki Siclunov, lsat/viewtopic.php?t=11931
And this post about keeping a schedule by Adam Tyson, lsat/viewtopic.php?t=11717