Studying Help

[Kra211]

I’ve been studying full time (I’m currently not working) for about 6 weeks now, about 6-8 hours a day at least 5 days a week in order to try and improve my score and have done 7 or 8 weeks of the 12 week self study program (so all of the reading in each of the Bible’s and about half of the work books at this point) so far and for some reason over the past two weeks my practice tests results have dropped with each test I’ve taken. Upon starting the study program my score initially jumped up by 5 points with each test I did, and now has gradually made its way back down to almost where I had started with my initial practice test 6 weeks ago. I’m suddenly finding myself with less time to complete sections that I previously had time to complete and then review answers and answering less questions correctly even though I’m taking more time to answer them.

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or why I’m continuously moving backwards with each practice test all of the sudden, rather than continuing to improve and it’s incredibly discouraging especially after my initial improvements.

Tutoring isn’t an option at this point, which is why I’ve opted for the self study route, but is there anything else that I can do that would help me turn this downward spiral around? Or were those initial jumps just a fluke and this is what my score is now?

[Adam Tyson]

There are a few red flags in your post, Kra211, that may have something to do with your recent downturn:

I’ve been studying full time (I’m currently not working) for about 6 weeks now, about 6-8 hours a day at least 5 days a week in order to try and improve my score and have done 7 or 8 weeks of the 12 week self study program

That, in my opinion, is too much. The fact that you are about two weeks ahead of where you should be means you are moving too fast and doing too much. You need to take breaks, and slow down. Cap your study day at no more than 5 hours, and sometimes less, and be sure to spread them out over the day. I like to compare LSAT studying to physical exercise, where overdoing it can do more harm than good. You need to let your brain rest, just like your muscles, and allow the new pathways you're building to form and heal. Preparing for the LSAT, like going through law school, really involves changing the way you think and see the world. It is, in a sense, tearing your brain down to build it back up, just like physical exercise, and that requires periods of recovery.

over the past two weeks my practice tests results have dropped with each test I’ve taken

It sounds to me like you are probably taking too many practice tests, rather than spending enough time between tests reviewing the results, identifying your problem areas, and then going back to the foundation to fix those problems. Untimed reading, working on theories and concepts, studying wrong answers to understand why the authors wrote them and how they were expecting to trick some students with them - these are things you cannot get from just knocking out test after test, and they are the path to a deeper understanding of the material. So for now, no more tests - work on the concepts and strategies and getting familiar with the common patters on the test, for both right answers and wrong ones.

Or were those initial jumps just a fluke and this is what my score is now?

They were not a fluke! Just like on the real test, your highest score indicates your ability. Your lower scores lately don't mean that you somehow got lucky before, but that you are wearing yourself out and have fallen into some bad habits, and probably some mental (and perhaps physical and emotional) exhaustion. Rest, recover, then resume at a slower, more methodical pace, and you will see that pattern reverse itself.

Take a breather, slow your pace, get back to building a good foundation and good habits (like prephrasing, sorting answers into losers and contenders, and using certain question strategies like Assumption Negation and conditional diagramming), and you'll find yourself back on the right path in no time. Good luck!