The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

pittsburghpirates · Post by **pittsburghpirates** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:41 pm

Post removed.

Zel · Post by **Zel** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:31 pm

pittsburghpirates wrote:
Op_Diom wrote:
pittsburghpirates wrote:I'm starting to hit a wall in my PTing a little bit. Most of my study time recently has been spent simply doing PTs. Is this lull in scores something lots of people have seen? Would I be better served taking down my number of PTs/week and starting to do more drilling with Cambridge packets? Any advice at all would be much appreciated, but I'm definitely a little bummed out after the couple PTs I took this weekend...
Yeah if you took a couple this weekend, then it's safe to say you are taking too many. Take two or three at most a week. Review difficult or hard questions, and constantly review the chapters dealing with your weaknesses in the guide books. I have spent more time just sitting around thinking about my wrong/difficult questions, and taking a more relaxed approach. It has really helped, so that's would I would suggest.
This sounds like great advice and I'm definitely going to implement it. Can feel myself starting to stress a bit and that is definitely not the way to get the most out of the prep work i am doing. Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciate. Definitely feel better to here that I'm not the only one who has experienced something like this

Yeah, I've been studying the LSAT everyday for ~3-8 hrs per day for the last month and a half now. Yesterday I started to get really tired, but pushed through and drilled a bunch of adv. lin games. Did NOT go well. I know I can do better, so I'm going to to take a day off from games. I think it should help. I don't think it's reflective of my potential/progress (though it was still pretty discouraging).

I read in a book (relating to creative processes, but I think it still generally applies) that the brain needs two things to master subjects: periods of intense study, and then downtime for internalization into subconscious processes (this is totally paraphrasing but I think that's the gist). I'm finding that while it's difficult to take time away from studying, the relationship between drilling/PTing and PT jumps may not be wholly linear (i.e. taking a bit of down time instead of getting that extra PT in might be good).

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:11 pm

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Zel · Post by **Zel** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:29 pm

theugg wrote:
Zel wrote:
Yeah, I've been studying the LSAT everyday for ~3-8 hrs per day for the last month and a half now. Yesterday I started to get really tired, but pushed through and drilled a bunch of adv. lin games. Did NOT go well. I know I can do better, so I'm going to to take a day off from games. I think it should help. I don't think it's reflective of my potential/progress (though it was still pretty discouraging).

I read in a book (relating to creative processes, but I think it still generally applies) that the brain needs two things to master subjects: periods of intense study, and then downtime for internalization into subconscious processes (this is totally paraphrasing but I think that's the gist). I'm finding that while it's difficult to take time away from studying, the relationship between drilling/PTing and PT jumps may not be wholly linear (i.e. taking a bit of down time instead of getting that extra PT in might be good).
There's a reason why you're burning out. With more than 3 months to go, anything over 3 hours EVERY day is nuts.

Meh, it's not too bad. I spend ~3 hours commuting everyday so I study on the train, and on the weekends I generally study whenever I have free time. Since deciding to apply to law, I've just studied LSAT in my free time instead of writing/watching TV/playing my PS4. I actually find it quite fun! Perhaps I am nuts...

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:41 pm

Post removed.

MrBalloons · Post by **MrBalloons** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:49 pm

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in the often cited 4ish new games + 4ish review games + a sections worth of LR daily dosage.

It makes sense in terms of rationing your material, but it's enough to make improvements.

Op_Diom · Post by **Op_Diom** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:55 pm

Zel wrote:
pittsburghpirates wrote:
Op_Diom wrote:
pittsburghpirates wrote:I'm starting to hit a wall in my PTing a little bit. Most of my study time recently has been spent simply doing PTs. Is this lull in scores something lots of people have seen? Would I be better served taking down my number of PTs/week and starting to do more drilling with Cambridge packets? Any advice at all would be much appreciated, but I'm definitely a little bummed out after the couple PTs I took this weekend...
Yeah if you took a couple this weekend, then it's safe to say you are taking too many. Take two or three at most a week. Review difficult or hard questions, and constantly review the chapters dealing with your weaknesses in the guide books. I have spent more time just sitting around thinking about my wrong/difficult questions, and taking a more relaxed approach. It has really helped, so that's would I would suggest.
This sounds like great advice and I'm definitely going to implement it. Can feel myself starting to stress a bit and that is definitely not the way to get the most out of the prep work i am doing. Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciate. Definitely feel better to here that I'm not the only one who has experienced something like this
Yeah, I've been studying the LSAT everyday for ~3-8 hrs per day for the last month and a half now. Yesterday I started to get really tired, but pushed through and drilled a bunch of adv. lin games. Did NOT go well. I know I can do better, so I'm going to to take a day off from games. I think it should help. I don't think it's reflective of my potential/progress (though it was still pretty discouraging).

I read in a book (relating to creative processes, but I think it still generally applies) that the brain needs two things to master subjects: periods of intense study, and then downtime for internalization into subconscious processes (this is totally paraphrasing but I think that's the gist). I'm finding that while it's difficult to take time away from studying, the relationship between drilling/PTing and PT jumps may not be wholly linear (i.e. taking a bit of down time instead of getting that extra PT in might be good).

I would go almost as far as saying that a schedule which included alternating ~2-3 weeks of intense prep with ~1 week off would be optimal for absorbing all the material. There is definitely something to that period of downtime one needs for incorporating a newfound skill into their arsenal. And yes my scores suffered from burnout too, which ultimately cost me a higher real LSAT score. Came back 3 weeks later and blew the first PT I took out of the water.

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:58 pm

Post removed.

tskela · Post by **tskela** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:24 pm

Tried to do logic games at the beach yesterday lmao. I think my brain was rebelling or something because my scores were a hot mess.

Decided to take today off as a result

Also, I'm officially through 80% of the available logic games with 2.5 months still left to go

179orBust · Post by **179orBust** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:56 pm

Had to go in to work yesterday so was barely able to get some studying done. Really sucked to lose a Sunday since I usually get a good amount of LSAT work done on the weekend.
Anyway, drilled 30 parallel flaw questions and got 28/30. I timed myself while doing this and took around 1:45-2 min per question. Is that too long for these questions? Also, I found these questions to be pretty easy, even the level 4. The flaws stand out, and it's just a matching game. Only problem is that they're time consuming.

Also, I'd really like to start taking some practice tests during the week. It's tough for me to set aside 3.5 hours straight on weekdays so I was wondering if it's a bad idea to do some exams over a two day span--- two sections one day and two/three sections the next. Is this a bad idea? Does anyone here do this?

ltowns1 · Post by **ltowns1** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:03 pm

tskela wrote:Tried to do logic games at the beach yesterday lmao. I think my brain was rebelling or something because my scores were a hot mess.

Decided to take today off as a result

Also, I'm officially through 80% of the available logic games with 2.5 months still left to go

Do all of them again lol

nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:27 pm

Slowly getting back into the groove of studying again. Woke up at 5:40am for no particular reason so I'm sort of drained by now.

Drilled:
-25 LR questions (Principle Identify)
-5 Simple Ordering Games
-4 Humanities Passages

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:29 pm

179orBust wrote:Also, I'd really like to start taking some practice tests during the week. It's tough for me to set aside 3.5 hours straight on weekdays so I was wondering if it's a bad idea to do some exams over a two day span--- two sections one day and two/three sections the next. Is this a bad idea? Does anyone here do this?

It won't develop your mental endurance as much or give as you as accurate of a score, but it's certainly better than not doing them at all.

Today was more LG drilling. Tomorrow, more LG drilling. The day after that, more LG drilling.....

I should probably take some PTs timed to see where I'm at, but it's so much easier to just sit down and do a bunch of logic games instead of dedicating hours to a full PT.

tskela · Post by **tskela** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:32 pm

ltowns1 wrote:
tskela wrote:Tried to do logic games at the beach yesterday lmao. I think my brain was rebelling or something because my scores were a hot mess.

Decided to take today off as a result

Also, I'm officially through 80% of the available logic games with 2.5 months still left to go
Do all of them again lol

Such an exciting prospect! lol

ltowns1 · Post by **ltowns1** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:42 pm

tskela wrote:
ltowns1 wrote:
tskela wrote:Tried to do logic games at the beach yesterday lmao. I think my brain was rebelling or something because my scores were a hot mess.

Decided to take today off as a result

Also, I'm officially through 80% of the available logic games with 2.5 months still left to go
Do all of them again lol
Such an exciting prospect! lol

Extremely! If it helps...I'm doin the same lol

Cochran · Post by **Cochran** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:19 pm

I'm going to start ramping up my PTing this week and wanted some advice. I've heard that fully simulated PTs are the best way to practice, but can I get just as much utility by doing them as timed sections? I've plan to continue doing full-timed sections at work, and will start taking 1 full timed 5-sec. PT every Saturday morning in addition to 1 additional PT every other Wednesday up until the test. This would equal 2-3 PTs a week in total, but only 1-2 fully simulated PTs a week. Will taking these tests as sections at work help, or are they wasted if not simulating a real lsat?

PatriotP74 · Post by **PatriotP74** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:21 pm

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bigv · Post by **bigv** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:03 pm

Is the consensus around here to not time drilling from the Cambridge packets and try to get timing down through actual practice tests?

I'm finding myself going through around 50-80 LR/day, 4-5 games, 4-5 RC passages, and I try to review anything that was missed from a few days back.

I'm just scared I'll find myself uncomfortable with my timing with the test close by. Suggestions? Worry about this later? Worry about it at all?

somethingElse · Post by **somethingElse** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:23 pm

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jeech · Post by **jeech** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 7:57 am

PatriotP74 wrote:Is anyone else here studying more than once a day?

For example with my current work schedule i am leaving to go to work around 545-6, I'm working on changing my sleep schedule to where instead of getting up at 530 I'm getting up at 430-5 and getting a 20-30 minute study session in, my goal is to open up around 40-45 minutes and start doing a full 35 minute section each morning before work, I'm wanting to train my brain essentially to be able to go into LSAT mode at any time of the day even right after waking up.

Also is anyone else driving an hour each way to work every day or is that just me?

I usually get up at 4am but since I cannot have caffeine I check emails and read NYT online as I drink my herbal tea just to try and wake up. Then I study from 5am to 8am before heading to work (my commute is much shorter than yours though)
I am going to try and study after work from 5pm to 7pm just to add in some more study time after work.

pittsburghpirates · Post by **pittsburghpirates** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:08 am

Post removed.

Zel · Post by **Zel** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:02 am

Op_Diom wrote:
Zel wrote:
pittsburghpirates wrote:
Op_Diom wrote:
pittsburghpirates wrote:I would go almost as far as saying that a schedule which included alternating ~2-3 weeks of intense prep with ~1 week off would be optimal for absorbing all the material. There is definitely something to that period of downtime one needs for incorporating a newfound skill into their arsenal. And yes my scores suffered from burnout too, which ultimately cost me a higher real LSAT score. Came back 3 weeks later and blew the first PT I took out of the water.

I very much agree. If I had started studying LSAT earlier, I would definitely do this. But I really want to write in Oct...so I'm just going with my current strat, which is work hard for July/August and then slow down a little, working on most recent PTs and aiming for perfection in Sept. We'll see how it goes.

Congrats on the uptick in PT score! I saw that in an earlier post, that's amazing.

Zel · Post by **Zel** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:18 am

Cochran wrote:I'm going to start ramping up my PTing this week and wanted some advice. I've heard that fully simulated PTs are the best way to practice, but can I get just as much utility by doing them as timed sections? I've plan to continue doing full-timed sections at work, and will start taking 1 full timed 5-sec. PT every Saturday morning in addition to 1 additional PT every other Wednesday up until the test. This would equal 2-3 PTs a week in total, but only 1-2 fully simulated PTs a week. Will taking these tests as sections at work help, or are they wasted if not simulating a real lsat?

I don't think it's a waste, as sections hone your skills. PTs obviously give you the best judge of performance, though, so I would do something like this: If your scores on your timed sections outdo scores on full PTs, then you probably need to work on endurance, in which case try to increase PT frequency. If they're pretty comparable and close to your target score, then I would say you're probably ok.

I might save some of the more recent PTs to do in full a few weeks before the test in slightly higher frequency.

I also work, so this actually sounds like a strategy I might adopt. Thanks!

Cochran · Post by **Cochran** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:25 pm

Zel wrote:
Cochran wrote:I'm going to start ramping up my PTing this week and wanted some advice. I've heard that fully simulated PTs are the best way to practice, but can I get just as much utility by doing them as timed sections? I've plan to continue doing full-timed sections at work, and will start taking 1 full timed 5-sec. PT every Saturday morning in addition to 1 additional PT every other Wednesday up until the test. This would equal 2-3 PTs a week in total, but only 1-2 fully simulated PTs a week. Will taking these tests as sections at work help, or are they wasted if not simulating a real lsat?
I don't think it's a waste, as sections hone your skills. PTs obviously give you the best judge of performance, though, so I would do something like this: If your scores on your timed sections outdo scores on full PTs, then you probably need to work on endurance, in which case try to increase PT frequency. If they're pretty comparable and close to your target score, then I would say you're probably ok.

I might save some of the more recent PTs to do in full a few weeks before the test in slightly higher frequency.

I also work, so this actually sounds like a strategy I might adopt. Thanks!

No problem, and I appreciate the advice! I do think the lunch sections will likely help, and plan to continue unless I see otherwise.

I'm planning on taking full 5-section PTs 64-75 every Saturday up until the test (PT 75 will be week of). I have 4-section PTs 43 - 49 & 5-section PTs 55 - 63 that will be taken throughout lunch breaks and on weekdays (used up 5-section PTs 50/51/52/54 a few months ago, taking 53's sections during lunch breaks now). I feel like this plan will help me avoid burnout too, taking 28 total tests, but with only 1 & 2 full PTs on alternating weeks (may take more in late September).

I'm also planning on purchasing either the 1-20, 21-40, or 1-38 drilling packets from Cambridge, to use in between tests/blind reviewing to fix my weaknesses. Hopefully all of this will help me get over the hump and become more consistent with my desired scores.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:29 pm

If law doesn't work out, I'll get a gig as a professional factory inspection scheduler.