Re-take in December with limited time?

[Runlikea]

So, I took the February course to prepare for a re-take (several years after the original administration), and decided to aim for the June exam. Which I missed, for reasons that were out of my hands, and now it doesn't look like I'll be ready for October either, since I am scoring lower than I originally did years ago.

Which is ludicrous. I've done so much more prep, know so much more about the exam, am overall far more confident in my answers to each question, and have far more testing endurance. Still, I figure it's a terrible idea to take the exam now, when I just think I would do worse.

And while I know for certain that I can do better, I also know that, approaching the December exam, I won't have as much time to study. I will have a full-time job, am applying for joint degree programs and need to take the GRE. By now I've gone through the coursebooks 2-3 times, plus the Games Bible and a ton of practice tests, and I am really worried that this will all just be a waste.

So, first, looking here for some general study advice on pulling off the December exam, and then I'm posting what I think is the big issue in the Games forum.

Question #1: Limited time
Most importantly, how do I not only keep studying, but actually improve, with limited time each day, for the December exam? Practically speaking, I would guess I'll have about 2 hours per weekday and most of the weekend. With seeing so marginal an improvement in test scores over the past month, while studying at 5-6 hours/day, I guess I don't see how I'd improve in what comes down to a relatively few total study hours between now and December, and not too many big chunks of study time.

Question #2: Re-using material
By now, at some point, I've covered most of my available material, between the Powerscore class books, the Bibles, and practice tests. While I don't remember the exact particulars of LR or Reading questions, and they're still good for review, I generally get the feeling that my familiarity with them makes them a little easier to comprehend and engage with (especially Reading). I think I only have four unused exams left. How do I continue to improve and get better at answering the new unseen questions that will be on the actuak test, when I'm basically practicing exclusively with material I've seen before?

Question #3: Analysis v. Drilling v. Tests
What's the best breakdown between close analysis of questions, drilling complete sections, and practice tests? I feel like one of the things I might have done wrong was not enough drilling - i.e., just going from straight in-depth question analysis on the homeworks to testing, with nothing in-between, and so not enough practice getting the concepts from analysis into workable, dependable, test skills.

Advice? And, if you actually read that far, thanks for doing so.

[Nikki Siclunov]

My biggest concern about your post is the training pattern you have established since February: plowing through a ton of tests, getting close to your goal, then deciding for whatever reason that you aren't ready yet. This is incredibly inefficient. You need to break out of this cycle, and part of the solution will invariably require analyzing your practice tests very, very carefully. Where do your losses come from? What does that mean? How do you fix it? These are not easy questions to answer, and there is always tutoring if you need help. But you won't make any progress unless you attack your weaknesses head on, and start doing something about them.

Second, what you refer to as "drilling" is actually the homework sections for each of the 12 lessons in our course. If you haven't done enough of that, it's definitely a good idea to do so now. Part of the benefit stems from the repeated application of the same exact principles and methods, which is foundational to making any progress. It sounds as if you've been going for quantity over quality, and if your scores aren't improving, chances are you are making the same mistakes over and over.

Re-do all of your homework from the course and make sure to analyze our online explanations to each and every question you missed. It is a good idea to even double-check our approach to the questions you got right as well: maybe there was a more efficient way to get to the right answer? And no, I wouldn't worry about re-using the same material: it is highly unlikely that your recollection of the questions includes the reasoning analysis behind them or their answers. And if you do remember all of it, you should probably be pursuing a career path that takes advantage of your photographic memory

Also, consider repeating the full-length LSAT course. I know you've gone through the coursebooks at least twice, but you will get a new set of books, and have an instructor to guide you through the material one last time. It is not easy to do all this by yourself, and a course will keep you on your toes. Also, if you can find someone who is also preparing for the December test, you can both benefit from explaining questions to each other in the hopes of developing a more complete mastery of the techniques you're using. Lastly, you might want to check out our advanced Virtual courses, which cover more advanced concepts in Games and Logical Reasoning:

http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/advanced ... _index.cfm

They won't overlap with your coursebooks, and will likely prove incredibly helpful to someone who has extensive experience with the LSAT.

Remember: the amount of you spend studying does correlate with your level of improvement, but only to a degree. After that, it's a matter of how you study. I wouldn't worry as much about having limited time for the December exam. 2 hrs/weekday and most of the weekend is more than enough, provided you allocate it appropriately and start identifying the areas you need improvement with.

Hope this is helpful... let me know if you have any other questions!

[Runlikea]

Nikki,

Thanks so much for reading my post and writing such a detailed response.

Some of that is actually quite reassuring, and not only because you said December is possible on limited prep and that I can reuse material. I actually felt that I've just been going too slow, and focusing too much time on analyzing questions. So it's good to know that approach does work. Perhaps the issue was more that I was spending too much time on things I was already comfortable with.

When I said I have so little material left, it's not because I have done nearly all of those Practice Tests; I apologize, I shouldn't have given that impression. I meant that, between the Bibles, the coursebooks, and practice tests combined, whenever I take an older test (that isn't one of the Powerscore exams), I recognize at least some of it from the prep material. Some of the LR questions are familiar, sometimes a Reading passage is familiar, and by now, a good chunk of the games are as well.

The first time I went through the books, I read all the explanations for each question (missed or not), including for each of the answer choices. This time around, I did that only for the questions on which I was uncertain, were tough, unusual, or which seemed to take up extra time, since the original approach seemed super inefficient and was taking too much time away from things that were weaker, like other more difficult / time-consuming LR questions (for me, generally Parallel Reasoning or Formal Logic) or Games. And yes, sometimes I do disagree with some of the PS explanations and think there is a more efficient or logical way to get to the answer.

So yes, I've drilled the homeworks. I started out doing them entirely untimed, but now generally do a chunk of them timed (4-5 LR questions, or a Reading passage), and then go back and work through them untimed to get as much as possible out of the material.

I'm usually pretty good on LR, averaging minus 0-2 on each section. I do keep a running log of tough/incorrect questions. Incorrect questions seem to be sort of across the board - usually once or twice a test it is something I didn't even realize at the time, like a language shift. Questions that just take longer lately have been Parallel Reasoning, Justify, and Formal Logic. Reading is the section I have done the least work on, and while have to stay very focused and aware, also average minus 0-2. Usually, the issue there is getting bogged down in details while reading the passage, and either missing something because of it, or feeling too rushed during the questions to stringently verify information.

Games is all over the board, and definitely the biggest weakness (about which I've posted in the games section).

I agree that the trend is troubling, hence the post. Definitely looking to find the "how" and not the "how much." Unfortunately, re-taking the full-length course isn't possible (besides, I like my beat-up old coursebooks, which now have "character"); I'll consider the virtual courses. But, I will go back through the coursebooks, and the bibles, I guess really trying to find and focus in on anything I am weak on. And find a study buddy.

I guess that leads me to:
- In going through the books, should I concentrate more on the later lessons? I felt in Feb like I spent a ton of time on the easier question types, and never got to spend as much as I wanted on the more difficult types, and on the kind of 'quick and efficient application' that is necessary on the actual exam.
- Since Games are my weakness, should I just spend the bulk of my time on those? Maybe 50% games, 25% LR, 25% Reading?
- How should I practice test, considering I've only got a few unseen ones left? Should I save those for closer to the actual exam, and try using some of the the older Powerscore exams before then? In the run-up to December, is one per week enough?

Thanks again,
Runlikea

[Nikki Siclunov]

I'll try my best to answer your questions. First, using any practice tests that aren't part of the Powerscore list is likely to result in duplicating some questions, games or passages, as your homework content is drawn from past exams. That said, it's not a "waste" to do such tests, as long as you realize that your scores may be artificially inflated.

Second, I agree that 50% games, 25% LR, 25% Reading is the way to go. Your accuracy in LR is exceptionally high, and as long as you can maintain it under timed conditions you'll be fine. I'd definitely focus on games, redoing all the games from the homework while comparing my set-ups to the diagrams at the end of each lesson. I would also re-do every single LG section from the ones proctored in class, the explanations for which you can find online.

When taking new practice tests, always use a LG section as your "experimental". You can draw it from an older test, preferably one you've already taken. Make sure you get feedback on any game you get stuck on, and then return to that game a few weeks later. You should aim to do every LG in existence at least a few times, and I'm sure you'll often find an even more optimal or efficient way to approach them the second (or the third) time around.

In terms of courses, I'd consider the Advanced Logic Games on-demand course: it's full of useful advice and will definitely shed some light on how to approach some of the more difficult games on the test.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to post LG-related questions on this Forum

[moshei24]

I saw the you mentioned something about FL slowing you down?

It used to slow me down, too. Then I read through the FL section on PowerScore's website. Read it, and then did most of the drills after it. If you understand the FL, questions that take 2-3 mins because you're trying to piece it together in your head will take 30 seconds when you know how to diagram it and make the inferences.

For Justify questions, one thing I realized is that the question often has extraneous information that isn't necessary to answer the question. Focus in on the conclusion and what is supporting it in the question. Find where the gap is and ignore any fluff in the question. Once you locate that gap, fill it. Don't fall for the trap of focusing on the fluff.

For Parallel Reasoning, I think that recognizing the abstractness of the question is usually the quickest way for answering the question. It's the fifth method PowerScore gives, but for most of those questions, I feel it's the quickest. Matching the conclusion and premises usually helps for SN, but when you could read the argument and know what it's saying right away, it's much easier to match it up abstractly as opposed to matching up each part one by one.

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks!