Please Critique My Study Plan

I would appreciate any feedback on my study plan from the Sages and also really anyone else who has been studying for a while and feels like they have a good grasp on what they are doing here.

Goal Score: 174

Cold Diagnostic: 166 (Aug ‘19) (disclaimer, this is not a totally fair point of comparison as I did not do an adequate job of precisely simulating test day conditions - e.g. gave myself more time in between sections).

LG (-9)

LR (-8)

RC (-3)

Studying so far: I technically started studying for the LSAT last summer but I had no idea what I was doing. Initially, I worked my way through a Princeton Review Prep book from the library and was devoting probably 4hr/week to studies with no set schedule; then based on the advice of a friend, I went through the PowerScore LR Bible but studying was still haphazard.

The same friend told me that what I really needed to focus on was taking timed practice tests. Through no fault of my friend, I somehow got it in my head that if I just took enough practice tests, my score would improve. I then blazed through 9 PTs without any BR (I have since learned my lesson and have turned those old PTs into drilling material so not a total waste). To illustrate how bad it got, at one point I took a PT on 8/28 (163), then 8/30 (164), then 8/31 (163), then 9/2 (160) and then 9/4 (158). (In case you’re curious, during this period my LG and RC scores were very inconsistent but LR was relatively stable at around -8-14). I would take these tests, exhausted, at 4:00am and then (because of a somewhat toxic situation at my full-time job), would job hunt late into the evening. Obviously the lack of improvement was disheartening (although, looking back it is almost laughable that I expected ANY improvement in between these tests).

When I started my new job, I put LSAT training on hold (partially because I was exhausted) and partially because this new job was a lot more intense. Anyways, I quit that job back in late February and have been studying full-time (so approximately ~5 weeks) ever since (6 days a week for 8-10 hours a day). I joined 7Sage shortly after and I finally feel that I am studying the right way. For the remainder of February and first half of March, I worked intensely on drilling LR (2-3 sections/day with intense BR) and full-proofing LG. When I was ready, I took another PT as a check-in and scored a 169 (BR 170) with -1 LG, -9 LR and -3 RC; I was calm for most of the exam but felt as if my nerves still probably got the better of me in both the LR sections. Anyways, one week later, the Coronavirus is in full swing and I took another PT from home in the absolute worst of conditions (jerry-rigged setup in my closet with my dresser set up as a desk) where I was hunched over and could not give 100% to the exam; ultimately, I think my nerves really got the best of me, scoring a 159 (-9 LG, -9 LR and -9 RC).

What I took away from this is that I do not have a reliable and repeatable process; I’m falling back on my intuition, which works fine when a test somehow aligns with my strengths but not so much when this isn’t the case (feel free to disagree with my diagnosis). After my 159, I went through the Core Curriculum in earnest (previously, had just hopped around focusing on Formal Logic and other perceived problem areas).

All this to say, that I am now going to be starting a new PT/BR schedule and would like feedback on my tentative plan. I had originally planned (and am registered for the April exam) but expect this to be canceled and feel that June/July is probably more feasible anyways.

Logic Games:

Plan is to continue to full-proof 10-20 Game/night: Grouping games and in-and-out games are my weakest although I’ve recently started to improve quite a bit in regards to the former (every other night, I focus strictly on grouping games and in-and-out games). The ultimate goal is to turn a somewhat consistent -3 into a -0/-1.

Sometimes miscellaneous games throw me for a loop (not sure how to practice these since I feel the largest hurdle for me is just figuring out how to “play” the game, once I see the first 30 seconds of the game board setup in the explanation video, I can usually go -0 within the suggested time)

My biggest hurdle when doing NEW Logic Games is mistranslating a rule (or occasionally even missing a rule entirely). To obviate this, I have started to tick off each rule after I transcribe it and this has pretty much eliminated the latter problem. I am going to attack the former issue by adopting the strategy of answering the acceptable situation question while transcribing the rules (has anyone had any success with this, I’ve heard of this primarily deployed as a timing strategy).

Logical Reasoning:

Based on the suggestion of another 7Sager, I have built a physical LR journal (previously used an Excel sheet but I think this approach will be more helpful). The goal here is to be able to ultimately internalize the similarities among the question types and become hyper-attuned to the logical structure of the stimulus through repeatedly coming back to arguments that made me scratch my head

When I was intensely drilling in mid-March I was able to consistently go in between -1-4/section but on the my two PTs I have not been able to replicate this success (not sure if this is fatigue or nerves or just statistical variation; possibly all three)

Until about a week ago, a huge mystery for me was why I seemed to struggle immensely with one of the first 5 ‘easy’ questions; it was super relieving to hear that other people on the forum struggle with this. Anyways, I am going to adopt the strategy of having a ‘second round’ with around 5 questions left. I imagine that it will take some time to feel 100% comfortable with this new approach and I am probably going to do some drilled sections, focusing on this specifically, in between PTs. I have not yet started to film myself but I know that I am getting stuck for 3+ minutes on some questions, so I think making an intentional effort to save these questions for the next round will help; especially when, for whatever reason, I am glancing over a key phrase in the stimulus (i.e. “most” or another key referential phrase that makes the answer choice immediately apparent when I review in BR a day later)

My biggest problem areas in LR are Must be True, Most Strongly Supported and Sufficient Assumption questions (and basically anything that employs formal Logic). To this end, I have started each day with a ~30 minute warmup of drills in Lawgic with the translation flashcards, the sufficient assumption quizzes, etc.

Reading Comprehension:

Not sure what to do for this honestly. I feel as if the low hanging coconuts are to be had in LR and LG before turning my attention here. Occasionally, I spend 30 minutes on Scientific American and or The New York Review of Books (but if, I'm being honest with myself, I am not consistent about this) since science and art passages are the ones with which I feel the most uncomfortable.

Apologies for the somewhat rambling post but appreciate in advance any feedback.

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Please Critique My Study Plan

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