Quality over Quantity?

[mattm]

Hello,

Do you think a quality over quantity approach is best for the LSAT as it is not a memorization test but rather a skills based test?

Im currently at a very high 160's low 170 mark and my approach has been quality based

Two things of the things I do is blind review on all questions afterwards before looking at the answers and also writing down in a notebook my own explanations as to why four answers were wrong and why the correct choice was credited...I like this approach as it forces me to think very critically afterwards as In doing this method I force myself to think "why did i eliminate this answer"

But in doing all this I will probably have done less full length PT's than many on here because of the lengthy way it takes for me to review

I still believe a quality approach is best but let me know if any thoughts

[Elizabeth Mulkey]

Hi Matt,

It looks like you have an effective system in place. While practice and repeated exposure to different types of questions/game setups is necessary, carefully reviewing why you made certain decisions is key to improving your score. You do need to be taking tests under timed conditions as your test date approaches, but a focused approach may be more valuable in the earlier stages of your preparation.

Jon Denning wrote a helpful blog post on this topic - I'd suggest reading his advice on how to review your work. http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/lsat-yo ... le-here... .

His blog post references another post by Nikki Siclunov - you might also find it useful.
http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/153 ... tice-tests

Hope this helps!

- Elizabeth

[mattm]

could you resend me the link to Jon's article? the link was broken.

And yes I forgot to mention that key caveat about this being my study plan until a month before the exam....I will take more full length PT for endurance reasons...either 2 or 3 a week.

Is a quality based approach the best prior to about a month before the test ? in the method i use now I mostly use individual sections to study from....The only real advantage a full length PT has over an individual section is that you build stamina and I don't see an urgent need for that until a month or so before the exam

[Dave Killoran]

Hey Matt,

I fixed the link above—it was a really odd error. It was turning the ellipsis in the blog title into a single period, hence the 404. Should be good now!

I completely agree that quality is more important than quantity. Just doing hundreds or thousands of questions is of minimal help if you never learn from them. Better to do fewer questions but to squeeze all the learning from them Then, as you say, as the test approaches, begin to build stamina. I'd probably spend a bit more than a month working on stamina (in the same way you'd spend more than a month working on stamina if you were to run a marathon), but it doesn't have to be intensive when you first start working on it, just maybe a full test each week or two and then start doing more in that last month.

Please let me know if that helps. thanks!