Help with Studying Plan

[garc2409]

I am writing my LSAT this September 23, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. I took nearly four months off to study - I won't be starting full time till after I finish my first LSAT. While prepping, I have read all the PowerScore Bibles, and PowerScore Workbooks and I have done the Khan Academy free LSAT prep too - I only did the videos to improve on my LR and RC. I have done around 13-15 PTs including the diagnostic test, however completely untimed because I read that you should master the concepts before putting the time element. It's almost August now, I am getting a lot of anxiety in terms of where I should be and how to get where I want to be by September.

Of all the untimed PTs I've done, I get an average of 159-162. I score nearly perfect on the LG with LR being second best yet RC being the lowest. I was hopping the score around a 164-166 before I begin timed tests but I believe I won't have enough time to ensure that I am well prepared for September if I do so. I know once I begin timed tests, my score will drop dramatically (pressure of time will cause more mistakes and missed questions). I am not sure what to do going forward....

I don't know if I should review all my PTs throughly to see where I went wrong (I usually checked all my answers and analyzed each question to see where I went wrong) but not an overall comprehensive review especially with RC OR if I should start doing timed PTs while simultaneously reading LR/RC content to improve and PT reviews... I'm getting really bad anxiety about how to prepare for this last 1.5 months as I don't feel like I have enough time and would love some tips!

[Dave Killoran]

I am writing my LSAT this September 23, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. I took nearly four months off to study - I won't be starting full time till after I finish my first LSAT. While prepping, I have read all the PowerScore Bibles, and PowerScore Workbooks and I have done the Khan Academy free LSAT prep too - I only did the videos to improve on my LR and RC. I have done around 13-15 PTs including the diagnostic test, however completely untimed because I read that you should master the concepts before putting the time element. It's almost August now, I am getting a lot of anxiety in terms of where I should be and how to get where I want to be by September.

Of all the untimed PTs I've done, I get an average of 159-162. I score nearly perfect on the LG with LR being second best yet RC being the lowest. I was hopping the score around a 164-166 before I begin timed tests but I believe I won't have enough time to ensure that I am well prepared for September if I do so. I know once I begin timed tests, my score will drop dramatically (pressure of time will cause more mistakes and missed questions). I am not sure what to do going forward....

I don't know if I should review all my PTs throughly to see where I went wrong (I usually checked all my answers and analyzed each question to see where I went wrong) but not an overall comprehensive review especially with RC OR if I should start doing timed PTs while simultaneously reading LR/RC content to improve and PT reviews... I'm getting really bad anxiety about how to prepare for this last 1.5 months as I don't feel like I have enough time and would love some tips!

Hi Garc,

Thanks for the message! A few thoughts for you:

• 1. Start taking timed tests immediately. Time pressure is a huge part of the test, and the more time you have to get to acclimated to that, the better. while I ascribe to the theory of starting your studies largely untimed, at a certain point you have to go all in on timing yourself. For you, that time is right now
  
  2. If you've done 13-15 tests, you have more than enough info to know where your strengths and weaknesses are. Start attacking those, either by doing focused problem sets on those types, or by reviewing the hardest of those problems. I assume you've used an analytics program of some sort (like the one we have at https://studentcenter.powerscore.com/self-study)? That should give you a huge amount of data on your performance across questions and reasoning types.
  
  3. Khan Academy is great for the free practice, but the prep is weak and the explanations are not all that great in my opinion. You've read the Bibles, which is great, but how do you feel your absorption of the ideas was? If I quizzed you on various concepts, would you be comfortable or would you be a bit shaky. If you are shaky—and most people are!—go back in and learn that material until you could teach it to me without a hitch.
  
  A quick, easy example: name the standard ways to weaken a causal argument. you should be able to name them off immediately and without delay, and name them all. Can you?

There's still time to get to where you want to be, but you need to get started with timing yourself, and you also need to make sure you have a clear picture of what you are good at, and what is still troubling you.

I hope that helps you get going. Good luck!