. Forum

[10052014]

.

[OVOXO]

Backload them. Focus the first month on making games automatic (I mean this literally. See a new game, and be able to recognize the pattern), internalize the process for every single different LR type, and know your strategy for RC.

The purpose of the PT is to simulate the actual test experience and to take a snapshot of where you stand. Doing 2/3 PTs a week now would be pointless if you haven’t fully internalized all the strategies.

Personally for me, I did a total of 24 PTs — by the last 2-3 weeks, I was doing one every one or two days. I use all the other PTs and drilling material or a 5th/6th section. (my highest PT was 177, t-day was 171 and someone pulled the fire alarm during the test. So make sure you’re ok with distractions)

[Christine (MLSAT)]

There are a few things I think it's beneficial to keep in mind in the review of a PT (the first two apply to reviewing drills too, but are worth mentioning anyway):

1) Review your correct questions as well as your incorrect ones - at least in the beginning. You want to ask yourself not only whether you got it right, but whether you got it right for the right reasons and whether you did it efficiently (used good process). Only shortcut this step when you reach a point where a glance at the question will confirm that you did.

2) Make sure you flag debated/struggled/guessed questions for thorough review regardless of whether the outcome was correct or not.

3) Analyze your section timing strategy: Did you waste 5 minutes on a crazy hard problem that you were likely going to miss anyway, and thereby shortchange your ability to process the next 5 questions because you knew you were behind? Or did you judiciously skip a problem and circle back to it at the end?

4) Do you notice any trends that you have: Do you take a while to get 'warmed up' in the first section? Do you start missing more at the end of sections because you are rushed? Do you miss more in your fifth section (yes, fifth - when you get closer to the exam, sixth) because you're mentally exhausted?

5) As an overall check: do you throw process out the window (even a little) when the timer is going and the pressure is on?


Be prepared to spend a long time on review in the beginning. If you were to review every question on an exam for a mere 3 minutes a piece, that would take you 5 hours. Most of us need a lot more than 3 minutes of review per question to learn much. :p

[10052014]

.

[BPlaura]

Christine's post is great and should be required reading for anyone who is starting to study for the LSAT. W/r/t your question #3, I'd add that you should definitely be doing some drilling in between your practice tests. PTs are great, but you also need to take some time to focus on your specific weaknesses. The general pattern (assuming that you have MASTERED the techniques) should be:

1) PT
2) Review PT
3) Drill weaknesses that you found while reviewing
4) Repeat.

This means you'll probably need a little longer between PTs at first - do not rush the review/drilling stages for any reason! Grinding out PT after PT is useless if you're not actually learning things to take forward. But hopefully, as you get closer to the test, you'll need less time to review/drill because you'll be getting fewer things wrong. So, as OVOXO said, plan on backloading the tests.

[zhenders]

I'm going to agree with all of the above, but I will say this: while it is definitely a poor idea to just burn through PT's, I do strongly believe there is inherent value in doing this somewhat -- but only once you have your methodology on lockdown in the ways outlined above.

Perhaps it is different for some people, but I find that even the act of testing itself is a groove which can be greased; in the same way that games should be mechanical, your entire approach to the test should be, too. Ideally, when you sit down to test on exam day, it should feel as close to a normal day in your life as possible -- which I believe is best-achieved by increasing the number of PT's you do leading up to test day.

This may not be something that works for everyone, but for me personally, my testing efficiency improves significantly the more tests I do back-to-back. To re-emphasize, this isn't to be done until you've solidified your methodology -- otherwise you are wasting tests -- but perhaps my take-away suggestion is to plan your PT schedule so that you can bump up the number of PTs you take approaching test day.

[ScottRiqui]

The ideal PT/drilling ratio really varies from person to person. If you don't suffer from test anxiety and can stay "mentally strong" for three hours straight, I don't think full, timed PTs are good for much more than progress checks, especially if you're doing well on them; frankly, you'll spend a lot of time doing questions that aren't challenging you. Over the course of prepping for two LSATs, I think I did a total of maybe a dozen full, timed PTs. I used the rest of my material for drilling questions by type, especially in Games.

[10052014]

.

[zhenders]

I'm going to agree with all of the above, but I will say this: while it is definitely a poor idea to just burn through PT's, I do strongly believe there is inherent value in doing this somewhat -- but only once you have your methodology on lockdown in the ways outlined above.

Perhaps it is different for some people, but I find that even the act of testing itself is a groove which can be greased; in the same way that games should be mechanical, your entire approach to the test should be, too. Ideally, when you sit down to test on exam day, it should feel as close to a normal day in your life as possible -- which I believe is best-achieved by increasing the number of PT's you do leading up to test day.

This may not be something that works for everyone, but for me personally, my testing efficiency improves significantly the more tests I do back-to-back. To re-emphasize, this isn't to be done until you've solidified your methodology -- otherwise you are wasting tests -- but perhaps my take-away suggestion is to plan your PT schedule so that you can bump up the number of PTs you take approaching test day.

I have spent a substantial amount of hours solidifying my methods for the past few months, so I think PTing will be beneficial.

Cool. I would still make sure to back-load your PTing, especially if you feel like you're on lock-down now; if you're scoring consistently where you want to be and your methods are strong and very consistent, then it's even more important not to burn through them too early; a couple a week to maintain a maintenance level of efficiency, and then a sharp increase approaching test day seems to be a good use of time and resources, imo.

[10052014]

.

[zhenders]

Everyone's different, mate; you'll have to feel that out. For me, I can't imagine taking a day off right before the exam -- I'm most comfortable with consistency.

There are many who advocate taking a day or two off before exam, but I don't know of anyone who suggests a full week off beforehand that seems counterintuitive to me.

My advice is, leave yourself the most recent 12 exams 4 weeks out. You can make a decision about how you'd like to distribute them at that point