Finished all three Power Score books

[Levkant]

Hello,

For two months I studied LR, RC, and AR books from Powerscore. With a time averaging around four minutes per question I'm able to maintain an 83-90 % accuracy on a complete LSAT exam. However my percentage drops significantly when I force a faster pace. My score comes in around 144-145 while I'm unable to even read majority of the questions.

I'd appreciate any thoughts some of you might have that could help me improve. Ill be taking the October 6th exam and my strategy for the next month is to speed practice at least 40-50 questions 3-5 days a week while studying more thoroughly on my weaknesses.

Have any of you been in a similar situation after studying with Powerscore and how did you overcome these or similar challenges?

Look forwar to hearing from you!

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Levkant,

Thanks for the message. The good news here is that with enough time you achieve a very high degree of accuracy. This is critical because without accuracy, it doesn't matter how fast you can do the questions

Given that your accuracy can be that good, a question I have relates to your reading speed. Are you generally a fast reader, or is it the physical act of reading that takes the majority of the time (the time spent on solving a question traces back to reading time, analysis or processing time, and decision-making time)? My question is attempting to see where the bulk of the four minutes is going, so any info you have there would be enlightening.

As far as moving faster, here are two main areas where time can be gained:

1. Decreasing the time it takes to recognize the reasoning structures present (including premises, conclusions, reasoning types, flaws, etc). This relates to analysis and processing time, and is a matter of being familiar enough with the concepts to see them as quickly as possible. Knowing the concepts cold is the first step, and then practicing relentlessly is the second step.

2. Decreasing the time it takes to apply solution strategies. This is again about concept recognition and knowing the proper methods, and then practicing with them so you see the wide variety of presentations used by LSAC.

There are other areas as well (reducing distractions and wasted time spent thinking of non-question related things, for example), but often I find that the two parts above have a big impact. Most people think they have the concepts down cold, but in practice they actually don't (quick--ask yourself the different ways to weaken a causal argument. If you delayed even a microsecond, there's room for improvement ).

I like the speed practice, but do you feel like you know the contents of the three books well enough so that there's no delays in using and applying the ideas?

Thanks!

[Levkant]

Hello Dave Killoran,

Thanks for your response.

I saw some improvements today so this has helped me regain some confidence. What's happening is when I force myself to read faster I have to frequently re-read the stimulus; this makes me more nervous during the exam, and I start to sweat.

I found the books very helpful and -with room for improvement- I can quickly identify every question type in all three sections. Still I'm unable to apply the processes for each question stem as quickly as I'm able to identify them. I expect I'll improve at this with practice.

I'm typically not a very fast reader so it has been a challenge for me to adjust. When I'm forced to read quickly I confuse some elements of the stimulus. I struggle mainly with Assumptions, Justify as well as Parallel's. The bulk of my time is spent on understanding what some of the harder stimuli are actually saying. Sometimes I have a hard time determining the useful from useless information and then I get stuck. Again this is not that great of an issue when I'm not compressed on time. Today I went over these three sections again and this helped me out alot. As you pointed out: I was actually comfortable with the ideas in abstract form but applying them in a variety of situations is much more challenging.

I don't know the contents of the book well enough, but well enough to start practicing exams and figuring out my further weaknesses. I think if I take a few practice exams a week and continuously recap my weaknesses I should get closer to my desired score.

Do you think I should add anything or any further material to my strategy? I appreciate your feedback very much.

Thank you!