Online class study timeline in relation to LSAT Date

[rhjones2691]

Hello,

I am currently enrolled in the online LSAT prep class, working my way through the course at the pace of about a lesson per week. As I write this (April 8, 2018), I am currently on Lesson 8 which will likely conclude later this week. At my current pace, I will complete the course around the second week of May. I will be taking the June 2018 LSAT. Am I currently on a good pace for my preparation, or do I need to slow down so that the conclusion of the online course coincides with a closer date to my LSAT date? My plan is to finish the course and use the final month prior to the LSAT to complete the Advanced LG/LR sections, to review the material learned in class, and to take multiple LSATs per week in order to fine tune the skills I have learned in class. Is this a good course of action or would an alternative approach be more effective? I have been completing all of the written homework, but I am a little behind on some of the videos in the supplemental sections. Thank you in advance for your response. The online class has been great so far!

[Shannon Parker]

Hi there,

I would recommend staying on your current pace. That way when you have completed the course, you will have time to go back and review, and brush up on areas that you may be struggling with.

Keep up the good work,
Shannon

[rhjones2691]

Great! Thank you very much for the response!

[rhjones2691]

Hello,
I have somewhat of a follow-up question to my previous post. I have finished the online course, and there is about a month until the June 2018 LSAT. Is there a recommended number of practice LSATs per week to take? I am currently planning about 2 per week until the LSAT with review and additional individual timed sections on certain days for continued practice. Is that sufficient, or should I be really taking about 3 full-length exams per week? Also, since preparation time is now a factor, is there a major benefit in doing the Advanced LSAT courses, or would time be better spent with the practice tests to ensure I am fully understanding the concepts and reasons for missed problems that occur during the preparation time? Thanks again in advance for the help and advice!

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Rhjones!

A lot of advice on how to prepare in the next month will depend on an individual's own availability and their goals for the exam. I think that two tests per week is a solid study plan! If you are working full time and have obligations that eat up your schedule, this may be too much for you to manage. Similarly, if you are happy with the score that you are getting on practice exams right now, you may only want to take a test every six or seven days.

If your schedule is completely open for the next month and you are determined to get a big increase in your score, then you might want to do more. While it's always better to study more than it is to study less, you have to recognize that there are some factors limiting how much you should attempt.

Firstly, the LSAT is a brutal exam that leads to a lot of burnout. I took a practice test over three times per week leading up to my first LSAT, and I basically quit studying a few days leading up to the exam because of how exhausted I was. Even though I started studying with a lot of energy and optimism, I began to really resent the exam in the days leading up to the official date, and I scored a few points lower than I expected. A month after getting my score back I retook the exam, after a study schedule of one test every 8 or 9 days and scored four points higher, largely because of how relaxed I was going into that second test.

Secondly, you need to give yourself a lot of time to review the questions. If you are taking practice tests just to see your score, you aren't getting as much out of the practice as you are able to. Depending on how many answers you miss you should probably be spending about one to five hours reviewing your test after you take it.

For a great guide on how to review your practice test, check out this article by Dave Killoran: The Best Way to Review LSAT Practice Tests. Some additional great advice about evaluating any possible underperformances can be found in this article by Nikki Siclunov: Good News! You Just Bombed Your LSAT Practice Test

Finally, don't be too inflexible with your plan. Instead, remember to always reflect on how valuable your studying is. If you feel like you can get more out of rereading concepts and doing drills for five days than taking another test, then don't take two tests that week. A lot of people blindly follow a set study guide and are unwilling to things up.


The Advanced Courses are very valuable for many people. However, I am not familiar with your individual difficulties on the exam or what your goals are for the June test, so I don't want to tell you anything definitive now. Let us know what you think about what you need to work on, and we can help you out a bit more with this one!

[rhjones2691]

Hello Francis,

Thank you very much for the reply. I read over the links you have given me, and I plan to apply them, especially the review of practice tests. This is something I have not been doing, and I think applying some of those methods will help increase my score.

As per your other points, I am working full time, so I do have limited study time each weeknight (generally about 2-3 hours per weeknight, max, with weekends mostly free). As it stands now, I have taken three of the practice exams included in the online course and three additional preptests. My past 4 exams have been 164, 163, 162, and 163, so I am kind of sitting around that score right now. It has been frustrating at times, but I am very motivated still to increase my score. My goal is a 170. I realize that will be a lot of work, but I honestly believe I am capable of doing so. I have done a perfect Logical Reasoning section under timed practice conditions, and I believe I am very close to being able to do a perfect Logic Games section (generally miss 3-4 per section often with careless mistakes). Reading Comprehension has caused me some problems and is my weakest section, but I have been recently focusing on that area to try and increase my skills.

However, inconsistency, as of now, seems to be my issue, and, I suspect, timing is as well. I am able to complete all the sections within the allotted 35 minute time frame, but my score has not been as consistently good under those timed conditions. For example, when practicing Logical Reasoning in the homework, I am generally able to get 85%-90% of the answers correct. However, in my timed practice exams, my LR score is around 70% to 85%. This pattern is similar with the other two sections, with Reading Comprehension having the greater scoring difference in timed vs untimed conditions. If I were to rank the sections in terms of strength, I think it would be LG, LR, and then RC.

With regards to burnout, this is also a concern of mine, but as of now, I feel more motivation to get better than fatigue of the exam and practice. Stress has been manageable as well so far.

Thank you very much for the reply, and I am interested to hear your thoughts on this. I can provide more information if necessary (as in specific areas of LR, RC, and/or LG).

[Alex Bodaken]

rhjones,

Hey there, not Francis but I hope it's okay if I respond I would start by saying that it is really great that you have spent time thinking about your strengths and weaknesses...a lot of students take a bunch of practice tests but don't really analyze where they are doing well or not so well, which makes it really hard to improve.

Given what you said in your response to Francis, I'd like to add a couple pieces of advice:

1.) I think that timing is really tricky for a lot of students. One thing that can help is to practice under "test-like" conditions as much as possible. That means: timing yourself every time, using an analog watch instead of a phone, actually printing out a sheet to bubble in the answers instead of circling them in the test. Of course, there may be times where this isn't possible, but whenever it is, try and do it. Everyone has anxiety when they go to the test center for their first LSAT; what you want to avoid are unexpected sources of it. Doing as much as possible when you practice to simulate the real thing will help make a lot of what happens on test day feel familiar, which in turn will reduce the likelihood of having any panic during the test, which is often what leads to timing issues for students.

2.) Burnout vs. more studying is a question that everyone has to consider for themselves. One thing to note is that if you have 2-3 hours a day to study, you really don't have time to do a full, 5-section exam - which is totally fine. I would try and do 1-2 sections a day (under timed conditions), reviewing them when complete, and then try and find one day a week (maybe a weekend day?) to do a full test. Taking individual sections and full tests are valuable in different ways; individual sections allow your brain to kind of "sprint" fully engaged on one skill (LR or RC or LG) for 35 minutes, while full tests help prepare you for the mental grind of the full LSAT. But I would stop doing anything untimed (except review of course) as it seems like getting used to that 35 minute window is a key for you.

I hope that helps, and good luck with your prep!
Alex

[rhjones2691]

Hello Alex,

Thank you for the reply. I believe that doing individual sections under timed conditions will aid in my preparation, and I have already implemented them into my study plan. Upon review of my most recent full-length exam (163), of the incorrect responses, I was able to correctly identify both the correct answer and why my selected answer was wrong without prior knowledge of the correct answer for 19 of the 22 problems I missed. To me, this further demonstrates that one of the main issues is timing and not a misunderstanding of the concepts. I am able to see the logic clearly under untimed conditions, whereas, under timed conditions, I occasionally miss the structure or word choice that would allow me to select the correct answer. Hopefully, getting a lot of practice with timed sections in these final three weeks will help me to improve my score.