Drilling Versus Taking Sections or Tests Again

Drilling versus taking sections or tests again. I want to emphasize that this test terrifies students, and understandably so. In America, we are not accustomed to a rigorous, unforgiving standardized test like this. We have the SAT, but it is not as important as the LSAT for university decisions. There are also political factors that I will not get into. The point is that standardized tests are not as significant here as they are in other parts of the world, such as Italy, China and France, where standardized testing carries enormous weight and is a core part of the education system.

All of that aside, this process is frightening, frustrating and brutal. I want to offer some tips about practice in this post because once students are scared or paranoid, they latch onto consensus. That is understandable. When you are in a bind, you look for what the group might tell you. In this case, the group is Reddit, or one of the two big test prep companies. They give their own advice, so I want to give you my two cents as well.

Any practice beats no practice

Any practice beats no practice. If you are more comfortable drilling question types, I want you to do that. If you are more comfortable doing sections, I want you to do that. However, I do not see the point in timing yourself.

Practicing is very important because most of these questions, and I say most for those who know what most means, test your understanding of fundamental skills: negating, contraposing and conditional reasoning. Do you understand what "not most" means? Do you understand what negation is? Do you understand the rules of magic words such as "if and only if"?

Even deeper than that, the questions ask you to consider whether one phrase is synonymous with another, or whether one way of reading a sentence is the right way to read it. This is the fundamental understanding being tested, and it is a very specific way of reading that is particular to the LSAT.

So as long as you are drilling practice questions from the LSAC library, which includes PrepTests 101 through 159, PrepTests 1 through 18, 21 and 23, PrepTest F1997 and PrepTest A, you are fine. You are golden. Just do not waste those materials by rushing. Rushing a PrepTest, a section or a question is a waste, especially for students who are very new, or even at a medium level. I would go as far as to say that advanced students should not be timing themselves yet.

When to start timing yourself

You should start timing yourself when it becomes a problem. If you are already scoring close to your range and time anxiety is getting to you, that is when I do recommend it. You are sacrificing points when you focus on timing, so it is a trade-off. But it is a fair trade-off if you are already scoring high and the only thing stopping you is timing. In that case, of course, you need to start timing yourself.

This does not describe most students. Most students simply do not understand the fundamentals. I could write a great many posts about the topics I have discussed here, and I probably will if you like this way of teaching. I am going to make some videos and find more ways to explain the kinds of fundamental misunderstandings students have, but this is just a start.

You can email me or fill out the form on my website. If you get in touch, we can have a quick call, and I can give you more tailored advice if you would like that. Thank you for reading to the end of this post.