LSAT Journal Forum

[jason8821]

I am wondering if anyone has tried to keep a journal and reflect after studying. I am going to try by looking at all wrong/shady right answers, what made me pick them, why the right answer is better, how I felt going into the section/test etc. I know people have done the excel spreadsheet. I guess this would be a little more detailed version, while at the same time therapeutic.

[Knock]

I am wondering if anyone has tried to keep a journal and reflect after studying. I am going to try by looking at all wrong/shady right answers, what made me pick them, why the right answer is better, how I felt going into the section/test etc. I know people have done the excel spreadsheet. I guess this would be a little more detailed version, while at the same time therapeutic.

Kind of similar, I review all my PT's, which involves writing out why the incorrect answer was wrong, and why the correct answer was correct, and for the LR questions, writing out stimulus and question stem.

I'd say go for it, time spent critically thinking about the LSAT can only help your score out! and i'm sure the therapeutic effect could be helpful as well, depending if that fits your personality.

[jason8821]

Thanks for the response. I already feel like it's helping. I have noticed for me the Lsat is sort of like a chinese finger trap. It's when I get real confident, and think I have such a grip on the material that I see my worst scores, it's often times because I forget the fundamentals, read through the stimulus to fast/disregard answers etc. However, I feel like this is already helping especially in logic games where I seem to have gone away from the basics.

[hemm]

I do the same; on LR questions I miss I rewrite the conclusion/premises in the stem and why each answer choice is right/wrong. I also try to write out why I missed the question and try to recognize any patterns. I have noticed, for example, that I've missed some principle questions because I felt the correct answer was too broad - but of course a principle answer should be broad (as opposed to must supported answers and the like, where I tend to give more credence to the narrower answer choice).

I'm sure a journal would help you.

[jason8821]

I do the same; on LR questions I miss I rewrite the conclusion/premises in the stem and why each answer choice is right/wrong. I also try to write out why I missed the question and try to recognize any patterns. I have noticed, for example, that I've missed some principle questions because I felt the correct answer was too broad - but of course a principle answer should be broad (as opposed to must supported answers and the like, where I tend to give more credence to the narrower answer choice).

I'm sure a journal would help you.

Has this helped you out alot?

[snodell]

how much time do you spend on your journal? 1 hour/week? 1 hour/day?

[jason8821]

Just started this a few days ago because I have been dropping consistently on PT's probably burn out, but figure i'm just gonna work through it at this point. since I am less than four weeks away. Also went backed to untimed fore a week or two because of some really careless mistakes. That said. Schedule is 4 games, 25-50 LR or a RC passage each night working toward getting them all right. The next day I dissect each and every thing about the problems I had any trouble with, If it's 4 games/25 questions or so I usually end up writing about 3-4 pages in a notebook or about 1.5 hours/day then I do the sections later. I think it's helping me approach the problems with a little more prudence (especially LG games).