How many sections did you do a day? Especially the month prior to the test? Forum

[dontsaywhatyoumean]

Hi,

How many sections did you do a day, and how many in the month prior to the test?

I just took a few days off after burning out and came back and am doing much better, definitely within the range I want, and am wondering how much I should study.

I previously wasn't taking any days off, or only 1 day off a week, but only studying for 3 hours a day (all just one section though).

Does 4 sections a day sound like too much? Do you think it might be more manageable (mentally) if the 4 sections a day are spread out across the 3 unique sections, rather than 4 sections of the same type (4 sections of games for example)?

[ponderingmeerkat]

Dude, everyone is different. No one knows you better than you know you.

Some people are diesel trucks who can grind for 8 hours a day 6 days a week and still see progress. The fact you're asking this question sounds like you're not one of those people. Watch the data and be responsive to what it's telling you. If you're seeing a major drop off in scores that rebounds when you take a break, you're probably overdoing it.

If you're in your range, go into maintenance mode. Do one full-up PT this week, another next week, and on off-days, do a section of LG and an RC sections to stay loose. Other than that, read a book, watch some trash TV go catch a show with the significant other and chill. It's not likely you're going to have a "bolt of understanding" strike you in the next week or two that'll completely revamp your LSAT outcome. So, take care of yourself...

[lobstermash]

personal opinion, but, I found a more intelligent way to handle studying was by doing continuous questions/games/reading passages that focused on my weak spots, as opposed to doing entire sections with the LSAC's distribution of question types. If you're using a prep company that can isolate the question types that you're struggling with, this should already be fairly obvious. Anyways, the idea is that every time you do say, a full logical reasoning section, you're encountering probably, roughly, 50% easy questions (which you aren't 'getting better' from practicing since you were going to get them right anyways), 30% medium, 20% hard (these percentages are just a rough guess) - if you're mostly inclined towards getting the hard ones wrong and some mediums it would be a better use of your time to practice almost exclusively hard and medium questions (or sufficient/necessary questions, or whatever exactly you're bad at). This can be in a format of say, 40 mediums a day, 30 hards a day, or whatever you want. Another point to be aware of is that every time you time a full section or test it serves as an excellent 'diagnostic', in that it tells you exactly where you are and what you're scoring at, but it doesn't 'make you better.' Usually becoming better is based on repetition slowly enough to actually be accurate - once you become better at being accurate your speed will naturally increase.

[RamTitan]

personal opinion, but, I found a more intelligent way to handle studying was by doing continuous questions/games/reading passages that focused on my weak spots, as opposed to doing entire sections with the LSAC's distribution of question types. If you're using a prep company that can isolate the question types that you're struggling with, this should already be fairly obvious. Anyways, the idea is that every time you do say, a full logical reasoning section, you're encountering probably, roughly, 50% easy questions (which you aren't 'getting better' from practicing since you were going to get them right anyways), 30% medium, 20% hard (these percentages are just a rough guess) - if you're mostly inclined towards getting the hard ones wrong and some mediums it would be a better use of your time to practice almost exclusively hard and medium questions (or sufficient/necessary questions, or whatever exactly you're bad at). This can be in a format of say, 40 mediums a day, 30 hards a day, or whatever you want. Another point to be aware of is that every time you time a full section or test it serves as an excellent 'diagnostic', in that it tells you exactly where you are and what you're scoring at, but it doesn't 'make you better.' Usually becoming better is based on repetition slowly enough to actually be accurate - once you become better at being accurate your speed will naturally increase.

This is generally good advice, but if someone is near the beginning of their prep, I advise doing full sections. I think drilling by type and isolating weaknesses is better for fine-tuning.

With that said, OP, this all depends on when you've registered to take the test. If it's next year, you can probably slow your pace and do one section a day and thoroughly review it. If it's in December, then I'd suggest doing 2-3 sections a day. If it's in September, you shouldn't be asking this question at this point and probably need to consider postponing your exam.