Using Flashcards in LSAT prep? Forum

[Sandro]

I picked up 500 flash cards last night. I figure I can use them on LR to help get down pat some of the strategies to attack certain types of problems. I'm at around -3 a section on LR right now so I'm trying to cut my silly mistakes down to 0.

Does anyone have any experience using flashcards? I figured I would just use the LR Bible as a guide for writing them.

[Shrimps]

That's a curious concept. What's on them?

[Sandro]

I'm not really sure. But I'd imagine on the front you could have a question type, and then on the back have the strategies to solve that type. For example assumptions, using the PS method of new conclusion info/stimulus info and then negation.

Or maybe just to drill questions like except, have a sample question stem and on the back what the 4 incorrect answers will be and what will make the one answer correct?

[tomwatts]

Not a bad idea. The LSAT is not terribly memorization-heavy, but there are certain things you should know without thinking about, and Q-types and such are among them.

[Shrimps]

Uh. If you're down to only 3 mistakes per section, are you sure your problems are with certain TYPES of questions?

For some reason I get the feeling that other types of drills (being able to um.. 'abstractize' any reasoning (for Flaw, Method, and Parallel questions), immediately isolate the conclusion (for most Q's) and so on) would be more important, and such drills do not lend themselves to flash cards: they're um.. dynamic cognitive processes, not sets of facts to be memorized.

EDIT: hm. Actually, this could be pretty good practice. Go over the old LR sections and abstractize and conclusionize the heck out of them, out of every single question.

[Sandro]

The end of the PS chapters have information that lends itself to being put on a flashcard. For example at the end of Method of Reasoning it has 5 common incorrect answer types. Other chapters have similar ones.

I'm missing on average 3 right now - I've been tracking them with a spreadsheet and over 25% of my misses are assumption questions, followed by flaws and resolve paradox. I figure drilling those question types until it becomes automatic will help me in some way.

[angiej]

Powerscore makes pre-made flashcards, may save you some time if you follow the powerscore method anyway. Just a thought.

[sapp]

Powerscore makes pre-made flashcards, may save you some time if you follow the powerscore method anyway. Just a thought.

^

I used both the LR set and the LG set.

I found the LG set to be more useful for prep in both the LR and LG sections than the LR set was. Mostly because the LR set felt more remedial and the LG set seemed to have more examples. Obviously there are a lot of more thorough ways to prep for the LSAT than these cards but I found them useful as an on-the-go study aid. I'd grab a bunch and throw them in my purse. After a day or two I'd switch out which cards I carried around with me. (I also mixed up the two sets so I had one mega deck.)

[jelizabeth88]

If anyone wants either of these sets of flash cards, I have them and would love to give them away for the price of S&H. Just PM me.