The September 2016 LSAT is right around the corner. If you have been following our recommended course calendar, you have finished our full course and you are now turning to “Practice & Review.”
But what does “Practice & Review” actually mean? This is the time to practice everything you have learned under time pressure and hone your skills. But do not make the mistake of thinking that the only way to study is by doing more and more practice LSAT questions. Reviewing questions you have already done is just as, if not more, valuable.
Here is how we recommend approaching the “Practice & Review” portion of your calendar to achieve the highest LSAT score:
Practice and Review Study Guide
- Take one full-length, five-section practice LSATs per week, ideally on Saturday at the same time your actual LSAT will be administered. You want your mind to associate Saturday mornings with the LSAT.
- After taking this practice LSAT under simulated exam conditions, we would not recommend doing any more LSAT prep that day. Take a break. Hang out with your friends and/or family.
- On Sunday, before you score your LSAT, we recommend taking the same LSAT again, but this time without the time pressure.
- Are you selecting the same answer as the day before? If not, why not? What are you seeing differently this time around without the time pressure?
- Ask yourself, what makes the correct answer choice correct? What makes the incorrect answer choices incorrect?
This review process will not only allow you to realize how the test-makers will try to trick you, but you will also notice the tendency of the time pressure to cause you to break from the strategies that will ultimately make you successful.
For example, students love rushing through the stimuli on Logical Reasoning. This strategy, however, is counterproductive—find out why here. The key for Logical Reasoning is making sure that you understand the argument.
The rest of the week, to avoid burning yourself out, we recommend taking individual sections under time pressure. This way, you will still be practicing under time pressure, but you will avoid the mental drain of full-length LSATs.
Lastly, make sure you take full advantage of LSATMax’s analytics by inputting your answers into the app. These analytics will highlight your strengths and weaknesses, which will allow you to maximize your prep time by focusing in on your problem areas. We recommend re-watching our strategy videos for any question types that are still giving you trouble.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time via email or at 855.483.7862 (Monday-Friday 9am-6pm PST).
*To create a full-length, five-section test, take an LSAT PrepTest and add one section from a different PrepTest to it.