Lack of Experimental Section on Practice Tests

[Dave Killoran]

You say that I should take the test one section at a time, constantly adding onto that as I improve my focus. I know that you're the pro on this, but I would have to disagree with that. Wouldn't it be better to just take full tests, and push myself each time, and get used to taking it that way?

Hey Moshe,

Let me jump in for a second here. I think you may have missed Jon's point about taking sections. What he as saying is that if you don't have the individual components down tight, then by taking a full test you just end repeating the same mistakes over and over, thus losing the utility of the full test. Let's say you took two full tests, and were less than optimal in your approaches during each LR section. Basically, you are just going to make the same type of mistakes for each of the four sections. But, if you pull those four sections aside individually, and really clean up and tighten your approach, by the time you do that fourth section you should be seeing an improvement. That then carries on as you add more sections in, etc. This is one reason that in the courses we don't flood people with a bunch of practice tests early on--they don't have the best foundation yet, and it would be frustrating. Thus, we wait until later to pour on the questions and tests.

You, of course, are not at the beginning of the process. But, you are to an extent working to refine your approaches, and there is benefit in isolating individual sections and then doing an "instant replay" to see how things went (this is why we have a Challenge Review in certain courses near the end of the class).

All that said, at the end of the day it doesn't matter what we say--you have to go with what you think works best for you

Also, will learning how to notate quicker, improve my speeds of reading passages from 4.5-5 mins to 2.5-3 mins??

Notations are just tools--this is true for LR, but even more so for RC. Do not over-rely on them! In our books and courses we teach people the fundamentals of notating and diagramming, but not everything needs to be notated (you just want to know how to do it when you really need it). Better notating will give you a marginal improvement (and will improve your question answering times), but it alone won't take you from 4.5 minutes down to 2.5 minutes for reading a passage. I will say that the faster readers tend to be the better readers, and they are also the ones who need notating less (this is a positive reinforcement spiral that you often find at high score levels). Focus on the understanding of what you read, notate to remind/reinforce certain elements you think will be tested or are useful, and try to read as fast possible while still retaining general understanding.

Another point you made that I really need to absorb, and is one that I've been hearing from a lot of people and reading all over the place, is that I need to buckle down and really just put everything into the test. That's what I need to do the most, as I've always been one of those lazy last second successful crammers throughout school. This isn't a test where that works, and I need to be my own drill sergeant.

Normally, cramming at the last minute works (that's how I got through college!). But, this test is probably one of the more anti-cramming tests out there, because it is about process and concept identification (and not factual retention). Thus, you need time--and a lot of it--to absorb the ideas and refine your approaches. So, if you want a maximal result on this test, you typically need to put in maximal effort. I think you recognize that, and now you know what you have to do.

Thanks and good luck!

[moshei24]

Thank you.

So with taking tests section by section and then going over my mistakes, should I use the much older tests for that and save the newer ones for full tests? Should I still take full tests this and next week, or should I push that off?


And do you by any chance know any tips to improve reading speed, besides for just doing more and more RC passages?

I've started to go over how to approach the passages in terms of notating and creating structure today, as I never really focused on that before today.

What's a good magazine or newspaper to read and practice just reading passages quickly, while understanding them without notating them or having questions coming after them?

[Dave Killoran]

Hey Moshe,

Use the older tests for sections, and reserve the newer tests for full exams.

Reading speed is the result of years of learning and reading; it's not something that will appreciably change in the short-term (and speed reading doesn't work on the LSAT--the material is too dense and detailed). What you can improve is what you look for and see in the passages, that is, what formations will generate questions, as well as the common construction tricks they use. That will allow you to go faster inside the questions. Learning those is a matter of working through the entire catalog of RC passages, and slowly beginning to see the patterns therein.

As for good Reading Comprehension source material, we put together an article on that in our Free Help Area: http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/rcrl.cfm. Check it out!

And, it's never too late. 71 days is a long time given that you don't have to learn the basics of things like conditional reasoning and Linear games.

Thanks!

[moshei24]

Thanks for the help, Dave. I really appreciate it!