A new lesson plan for 6 weeks/more study strategies?

[jbenaro3]

I'm an aspiring law student from Binghamton University, about to be attending my senior year. I'm also a political science major with a minor in business management. I'm reaching out because I bought the self-study package last January and since that point I've been doing my best to follow the week by week plan (having to take some weeks off due to midterms, finals, projects etc), but I have been relatively consistent this summer putting in about 6 hours worth of work each week. At the moment, the only things for me to do seem to be practicing more reading comprehension passages and taking a practice test each week.

At the moment, I believe I have taken 9 practice tests (2 of which were untimed)
The untimed scores were completed back in late spring where I achieved a 167 and 168. The next 7 practice tests have been consistent scores of 158-160. I've performed exceptionally well in Logic Games, but my performance is hindered by my struggles with time on Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. I am scheduled to take the LSAT on September 24 and I am concerned that my score isn't going up as high as I would like it to. I have a 4.0 GPA and am going to be applying to law schools such as Columbia, NYU, Fordham, Brooklyn and Cardozo after I receive my test scores and I have a goal of getting back to that 168 range and even higher. I was confident that with the help of the books I could reach my goal on my own, but the little to no improvement I have seen has been discouraging. I'm sure this is a common problem for most students who also do self-study. Thus, I'm reaching out to see what you might recommend as tips to help me reach my goal.

Prephrasing and making sure I understand everything in the stimulus has helped me with my performance on Logical Reasoning, but I simply feel as if time is getting away from me on these practice tests and that on reading comp and logical reasoning I spend too much time looking at answers. I would love to hear what you would recommend, and maybe a possible new study plan to follow that with dedicated practice and my work ethic would a more significant improvement in my score. Thank you so much for your help and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

[David Boyle]

I'm an aspiring law student from Binghamton University, about to be attending my senior year. I'm also a political science major with a minor in business management. I'm reaching out because I bought the self-study package last January and since that point I've been doing my best to follow the week by week plan (having to take some weeks off due to midterms, finals, projects etc), but I have been relatively consistent this summer putting in about 6 hours worth of work each week. At the moment, the only things for me to do seem to be practicing more reading comprehension passages and taking a practice test each week.

At the moment, I believe I have taken 9 practice tests (2 of which were untimed)
The untimed scores were completed back in late spring where I achieved a 167 and 168. The next 7 practice tests have been consistent scores of 158-160. I've performed exceptionally well in Logic Games, but my performance is hindered by my struggles with time on Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. I am scheduled to take the LSAT on September 24 and I am concerned that my score isn't going up as high as I would like it to. I have a 4.0 GPA and am going to be applying to law schools such as Columbia, NYU, Fordham, Brooklyn and Cardozo after I receive my test scores and I have a goal of getting back to that 168 range and even higher. I was confident that with the help of the books I could reach my goal on my own, but the little to no improvement I have seen has been discouraging. I'm sure this is a common problem for most students who also do self-study. Thus, I'm reaching out to see what you might recommend as tips to help me reach my goal.

Prephrasing and making sure I understand everything in the stimulus has helped me with my performance on Logical Reasoning, but I simply feel as if time is getting away from me on these practice tests and that on reading comp and logical reasoning I spend too much time looking at answers. I would love to hear what you would recommend, and maybe a possible new study plan to follow that with dedicated practice and my work ethic would a more significant improvement in my score. Thank you so much for your help and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Hello jbenaro3,

I was going to ask if maybe you were burning out, but you said you studied 6 hours a week, and there may be people who study 6 hours a day. (Just for the sake of argument)
There's no magic trick that can guarantee a better score, but one thing you may want to do is to work on your timing. Say, allot 10 minutes, no more, to answering the first 10 questions on logical reasoning, and then save the remaining 25 minutes to do the rest and to look over your answers. Also time yourself on reading comprehension and make sure that the time doesn't run away with you.
...Getting back to the burnout issue: make sure that there are few other sources of stress in your life as possible, if you can. You hardly need more burdens when you're getting ready for the LSAT.
So, without giving you a new "recommended plan": you may want to study more (as long as it doesn't burn you out), review and make sure you know all the theory, track your timing, and be reasonably stress-free. All those factors are often very helpful.

Hope this helps,
David

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi jbenaro3,

Thanks for your question, and welcome to the Forum!

Let me echo David's comment above: simply putting in 6 hours/week of prep time is not enough. I recognize there are competing obligations, like schoolwork, but I really wonder if you're thoroughly completing all of the weekly assignments in the self-study plan. Don't take this the wrong way: judging from your post, you're clearly motivated to do well. However, many students are content to just check the boxes for each "task" in order to consider the task complete, without thoroughly reviewing their work and learning from their mistakes.

I don't know precisely which Self-Study Plan you're following, but since you bought the study package in January, I assume it's probably the 6-month Study Plan. A critical element of this plan is the completion of the Bible Workbooks, along with the Question Type, Game Type, and Passage Type Training volumes, which contain question collections grouped by type. Have you completed all of these assignments, in addition to with the ones in the LSAT Bible Trilogy?

Assuming you're at the Practice Test stage of the plan, 6 hours a week is barely enough time to take and review a single practice test. Personally, I used to spend an hour or so reviewing as few as 10 mistakes on any given practice test. Most students in your position are likely putting in at least 15 hrs/week, including practice tests, reviews, and targeted problem sets. Have you taken any steps towards identifying specific conceptual areas you need to improve on? For instance, is your accuracy on questions containing Conditional Reasoning lower than usual? What about Undefined Grouping Games? Etc. Can you easily pinpoint not only which section is costing you the most points, but also which specific question subtypes and reasoning paradigms you seem to be struggling with?

I'm sure you realize this, but it's worth repeating: score improvement does not happen merely because you read the books on how to improve your score. You need to put these skills into practice, by repeatedly testing yourself with both question-specific sets as well as timed practice tests. This may require a more concerted effort on your part, both in terms of the amount of time you dedicate to your studies and also in terms of what you do during that time.

You're welcome to check out a few blog posts we've written on this topic:

• Is My Target LSAT Score Realistic?
  Jumping from 165 to 173: The Last Mile is Always the Hardest
  My LSAT Score Just Dropped. Now What?
  LSAT Score Plateau? Focus on Process

We're happy to offer more specific guidance in order to help you develop a more rigorous study plan for the next 6 weeks, so please let us know which materials you have at your disposal, which self-study plan you're currently following, and where your weaknesses lie. The more specific you are, the better!

Thanks,

[jbenaro3]

Thanks for the helpful responses guys. I have thoroughly completed the Bibles and reviewed my practice tests either immediately after I finish them or the day after to clear my mind and absorb why I, in fact, got the answers wrong. I definitely know I need to put in more time and will be spending more of my time with practice tests and I think I should also go back to the Question Type Training books and complete a series of questions that are the type I tend to struggle with. I end my internships next week, so I will begin dedicating a more appropriate number of hours to studying, somewhere in the 15-20 hour range per week over the next 6 weeks. I have gotten a lot better at Assumption and Method of Reasoning which were two types I struggled with because I practiced them more after I realized they were my weak points. In addition, my Reading Comprehension is slowly getting better as well.

I guess my question to ask you guys is, should I set aside time and review some of the Bible Chapters to get a more firm grip on everything and then put it into practice by doing 2 practice tests a week. I feel that if I start doing 3 practice tests a week, I might begin to burnout, but I am open to hearing all of your guys' solutions.

[Adam Tyson]

Two tests a week sounds good to me, three sounds a little excessive if you want to avoid burning out. Time them all, strictly, and be sure to add a fifth section to each test to simulate the experimental section and build your stamina for a five-section test. Stick that extra section in early, so that you are most fatigued and frustrated on a section that counts in your score (because that's what you should expect will be the case on the actual test). Use a wood pencil and a manual sharpener and an analog timer, and take it somewhere that isn't comfortable and familiar like your bedroom or office. Instead, go to a library or a coffee shop or a classroom somewhere that has minor distractions that you must tune out - again, like the real thing.

The key is going to be how you go about learning from the tests you take. It's not enough to just review the ones you got wrong and figure out why you got them right. What about the ones you struggled with but got right - why did you struggle? How could you have improved your prephrase, done a better job of sorting losers and contenders, more quickly and efficiently selected the best answer from among the contenders? Was there a technique you could have applied but did not? Did you recognize the type of reasoning and apply what you know about that type?

Also, when I review I also look at the ones that I got right. I want to learn from those, too, so I can be sure to repeat those successes. Was I just lucky? Did I really understand? Could I have gotten it right a little faster if I had diagrammed or prephrased or done something else different?

Use the Bible series books, and whatever other resources you have, to find explanations, concepts, strategies, and practice questions and sections and problem sets. Switch things up frequently, don't get into a rut.

You mentioned spending too much time looking at answers. On your first pass through the answer choices, you should spend no more than a couple seconds on each answer to decide whether it is clearly a loser, never to be looked at again, or it's not that clear, in which case it's a contender. You should not spend time looking at answers until you have completed that process and have more than one contender still standing, and at that point it's about deciding which of those contenders is better than the others. Don't let confusion or lack of understanding deter you - if there are four answers that you hate and one you don't understand, pick that one and move on!

Glad to hear you are ramping up the study time - I agree wholeheartedly with David and Nikki here, you weren't doing enough. If you can find even two hours a day to devote to your work, plus an occasional 4-hour block in which to take a full timed test, you'll be much better off and more likely to break through your plateau. Good luck, keep it up!