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Hey Everyone!

First, I would like to thank all of you who have offered guidance over the past few weeks. All of you steered me in the right direction. I do have some additional questions:

1) For those of you who self-studied and took a course, how did you approach your prep? What did you focus on more? I purchased the Powerscore bibles, and LSAT Trainer, and I am taking Testmasters. My goal is to follow the TM syllabus, but I am lost when it comes to studying from the books. I took a PT yesterday and did terrible. I know my weaknesses now...pretty much every section! Should I focus on first reading from the LR bible, then the LR section in the Trainer? Or is there some type of schedule that I can follow. Powerscore offers a set schedule, but it is only applicable if you are using all of their books, and only their books.

2) As I said, yesterday's PT threw me for a loop. I am still motivated to take the LSAT and improve my score significantly, but after seeing my PT score (138) I am concerned. Here is what I did on the PT: I only answered the questions that I either knew, or the ones where I could narrow down the answer choices to 1 or 2 candidates. I made sure to skip, and never guess on the questions that I was not sure of. I did this so I can find out what my worst case scenario would be. I ended up answering only half of the questions in each LR and RC section, and probably only 10 questions in the LG section.
A) LG: I was only certain about the first question (arrangement question), the rest threw me off. When I tried drawing diagrams, I got flustered and felt that there was too much information to keep track of.
B) LR: I was able to answer half the questions. Again, like in every section I started losing focus. It got to the point where I was feeling lethargic. Many of the answers to a single question looked correct. I was having a tough time distinguishing between the conclusions and premises, even though I was able to do so prior, on drills.
C) RC: Absolutely hated it. The passages were dull, and I found myself losing focus after every paragraph. When reading the questions, I realized that there was a lot of information that I did not retain from the passage. It was in the passage, I read it...I guess it didn't stick.

Overall, I found myself rereading almost every stimulus, in every section.

Did anyone else feel this way? Or score this low on their first PT? I did some not-so-serious studying for the 2 weeks leading into my PT. I understood the information that I studied, I guess I just couldn't apply it.

I am now forcing myself to get in anywhere from 5-8 hours of study a day, 6 days a week. Considering how poorly I did on the PT, I don't know how much that will help.

3) When self-studying, do you actually take notes on a separate sheet of paper? I find that it wastes a fair amount of time since I can aways refer back to the books.. However, if it is worth it, I will continue to do it.

Any help is appreciated. As always, thank you.

Isn't Abraham Lincoln University an unaccredited online school? Why give LSAT advice if you never had to sit it?
Come on spam bot.

Bump. Any advice is appreciated

First off, don't be super discouraged by your first PT score! The smartest people I know all worked extraordinarily hard to get to where they are today. I'm sure you'll be able to get your ideal score with enough grit.

Personally, I self-studied using the PowerScore bibles and a ton of practice tests. I usually didn't take notes on a separate sheet of paper, but I did sticky the pages I found particularly helpful.

For LG, I'd recommend checking out 7sage's free logic games explanations online (http://7sage.com/logic-game-explanations/). They were incredibly helpful in understanding not only how to solve logic games, but also how to solve them as quickly as possible.

For LR, I read Manhattan's explanations in their forums: https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/forums/

As for RC... I think you need to change your mindset and grow to love reading the passages. When you enjoy doing something, you'll get better, and vice versa. The #1 tip I'd give at this stage is to go back to the passage and highlight the VERY LINE that supports your answer each time you choose an answer. (You better be able to find a line to support your choice.)

Finally, I bolded this on top of a tips sheet I wrote to myself: out of the five answer choices, one is 100% correct and the other four are 100% wrong. If you don't see this, you are doing it wrong. When reviewing, make sure you see this!

In other words, make sure you not only know why the correct answer is correct, but why the incorrect answers are incorrect. When you get a question wrong, you're making two mistakes; you're actively not choosing the right answer and instead falling for the wrong answer!

Good luck with your LSAT prep. Above all, don't give up until you're satisfied with your score.

salander wrote: As for RC... I think you need to change your mindset and grow to love reading the passages. When you enjoy doing something, you'll get better, and vice versa. The #1 tip I'd give at this stage is to go back to the passage and highlight the VERY LINE that supports your answer each time you choose an answer. (You better be able to find a line to support your choice.)

This 1000%.

If you can't find anything interesting about an RC passage, you have to trick yourself into it. For me, it was fighting with the author or making fun of the ridiculous topic.

Also, I like trying to spot the exact little phrase when I'm reading where the author shows their attitude subtly for the first time. This is a really important aspect of RC, since the author's view (if present) is really the main event, and helps keep me engaged like it's a mystery or something.
good luck!

salander wrote:First off, don't be super discouraged by your first PT score! The smartest people I know all worked extraordinarily hard to get to where they are today. I'm sure you'll be able to get your ideal score with enough grit.

Personally, I self-studied using the PowerScore bibles and a ton of practice tests. I usually didn't take notes on a separate sheet of paper, but I did sticky the pages I found particularly helpful.

For LG, I'd recommend checking out 7sage's free logic games explanations online (http://7sage.com/logic-game-explanations/). They were incredibly helpful in understanding not only how to solve logic games, but also how to solve them as quickly as possible.

For LR, I read Manhattan's explanations in their forums: https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/forums/

As for RC... I think you need to change your mindset and grow to love reading the passages. When you enjoy doing something, you'll get better, and vice versa. The #1 tip I'd give at this stage is to go back to the passage and highlight the VERY LINE that supports your answer each time you choose an answer. (You better be able to find a line to support your choice.)

Finally, I bolded this on top of a tips sheet I wrote to myself: out of the five answer choices, one is 100% correct and the other four are 100% wrong. If you don't see this, you are doing it wrong. When reviewing, make sure you see this!

In other words, make sure you not only know why the correct answer is correct, but why the incorrect answers are incorrect. When you get a question wrong, you're making two mistakes; you're actively not choosing the right answer and instead falling for the wrong answer!

Good luck with your LSAT prep. Above all, don't give up until you're satisfied with your score.

Thanks so much! I truly appreciate the advice. I just discovered 7Sage's explanations, and you are correct, they are extremely helpful. I'm starting to understand LG, and can do them. My 2 big issues are: 1) Time, and 2) Getting the diagrams right 100% of the time. If I have the diagrams, I can finish most of the simple games in 5-7 minutes. Those grouping games can get mind boggling.
I think my biggest weakness is now LR. Maybe its the stress from knowing that they comprise 50% of the final score, or the fact that there are tons of different questions.
I am actually starting to enjoy RC. My instructor provided us with some amazing tips, which have been helpful. Again, time is not on my side when it comes to RC.
Again, thank you, this advice is very helpful!

BlueprintJason wrote:

salander wrote: As for RC... I think you need to change your mindset and grow to love reading the passages. When you enjoy doing something, you'll get better, and vice versa. The #1 tip I'd give at this stage is to go back to the passage and highlight the VERY LINE that supports your answer each time you choose an answer. (You better be able to find a line to support your choice.)

This 1000%.

If you can't find anything interesting about an RC passage, you have to trick yourself into it. For me, it was fighting with the author or making fun of the ridiculous topic.

Also, I like trying to spot the exact little phrase when I'm reading where the author shows their attitude subtly for the first time. This is a really important aspect of RC, since the author's view (if present) is really the main event, and helps keep me engaged like it's a mystery or something.
good luck!

Thanks, Jason! You are certainly correct. Thus far, I have done relatively well on RC passages that I actually enjoyed reading. I suppose being able to maintain focus on a relatively dull topic is half the battle. I'll have to try your methods, thank you!

Post removed.

MrSam wrote:

BlueprintJason wrote:

salander wrote: As for RC... I think you need to change your mindset and grow to love reading the passages. When you enjoy doing something, you'll get better, and vice versa. The #1 tip I'd give at this stage is to go back to the passage and highlight the VERY LINE that supports your answer each time you choose an answer. (You better be able to find a line to support your choice.)

This 1000%.

If you can't find anything interesting about an RC passage, you have to trick yourself into it. For me, it was fighting with the author or making fun of the ridiculous topic.

Also, I like trying to spot the exact little phrase when I'm reading where the author shows their attitude subtly for the first time. This is a really important aspect of RC, since the author's view (if present) is really the main event, and helps keep me engaged like it's a mystery or something.
good luck!

Thanks, Jason! You are certainly correct. Thus far, I have done relatively well on RC passages that I actually enjoyed reading. I suppose being able to maintain focus on a relatively dull topic is half the battle. I'll have to try your methods, thank you!

Hope it is profitable, and good luck defeating RC!