HELP

[piercefreddie3]

Hey there,

I am currently in an online LSAT class for the Nov 17 Exam, and we just finished lesson 6. My instructor said that this weekend we should take a practice test, and I just finished and scored my test. I spent yesterday watching the video reviewing L1-4 with Jon Denning and did some practice problems but I still didn't feel very confident in my abilities. I had not really done a lot of 5/6 HW yet, however. As a result, I was not expecting my RC score to be anywhere amazing.

So my second practice test went down by 4 points from my diagnostic, and I was more or less all over the place in term of accuracy of all sections. RC was more to be expected because I hadn't really practiced the mapping very much, but I have spent the majority of time with LR and it still isn't clicking. I definitely need more practice with Logic Games, but I am doing the homework and attending every class and seem to have a solid grasp of most of the material we go over.

I try and do the critical homework and more if I can but I work full time so it is hard to do a lot. The class is 8-11 as I am on the East Coast, but I can still stay awake. However, my real question is: What do you guys recommend. I don't feel particularly strong with anything yet and don't have an effective way of studying, clearly. I feel lost. I don't want to fall behind in class homework but I don't have enough time to do everything and practice problems. Beyond just the normal advice, does anyone have any tips in terms of ways of studying in which they saw improvement? When I have an effective way of studying, I normally do pretty well at things I attempt, and I just need a way of attack for this test.

Anything helps at this point. I'm doing my best not to freak out but I'm working really hard and struggling over here.

[James Finch]

Hi Freddie,

The first thing to realize is that this test is different than most. It isn't a knowledge-based test, but a skills-based one. This means that you have to build up the skills that are being tested, rather than simply a knowledge base (although knowledge of what the LSAT is testing is important to building up your skill-set). With that in mind, there is a reason that the material in PowerScore courses is ordered in the way that it is; you have to first acquire certain basic skills in order to move forward, as more advanced skills build upon the more basic ones. So if, for example, conditional reasoning is still difficult for any reason (perhaps it's still hard to quickly identify conditional language, or to identify which is the sufficient and which is the necessary condition), you have to go back and master that material before you'll be able to deal well with, in this case, grouping games and Assumption/Justify questions, among others.

Just don't beat yourself up or feel hopeless about understanding the LSAT. You have the material, as well as all the provided resources; make sure that whenever there is something you don't understand, use everything at hand to gain that understanding before moving forward. Don't feel bad about going back and reviewing previous lessons and homework, as each review will grant you more information and a better overall understanding of how the LSAT works. You have to be patient with yourself during this process as well, as understanding of the logic that the LSAT is testing tends to come in fits and starts--one thing just suddenly makes sense to you, and now you see it everytime it's present on a question. You will hit plateaus in understanding, and that will be frustrating, but if you're patient and try and look deeper as to what you're missing, you'll have epiphanies and begin to see the test questions in a new light.

The toughest thing for you will probably being fitting in time to study and having the mental energy to to focus and understand the test. It's best to try and do this everyday, but make sure that you're not over-doing it and becoming mentally fatigued. You need to be sharp to understand LSAT logic, so try and study in chunks and understand one question or game type before moving on to another. And of course, utilize all the resources available, including the forum, Homework Hotline and supplemental material.

Hope this helps!