Best Study Schedule/Split for a Complete Beginner

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• 1 Like

  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  January 19 28109 karma

  The core curriculum is laid out very optimally to work straight through in sequence. The most important thing to remember is that you don't get any credit for just completing the lessons and checking the boxes. You really have to learn it for it to have any value. There are parts that will go fairly quickly. For me, question types like Resolve-Reconcile-Explain came very intuitively. Set and subset theory, conditional logic, and causation required slowing WAY down.

  So I recommend working in sequence. But if things are progressing really smoothly, that's actually a bad sign for most students. If you never find yourself stopped dead in your tracks, stuck on some module or other for days if not weeks, you aren't picking up on critical fundamentals with the level of mastery that is required.

  To some extent, this depends on your target score. If you're aiming for a 160, you're starting off pretty close to where you want to be, and I'd adopt a more aggressive posture. Go through the LR, skip the RC, and see if that gets you across the finish line. But for target scores in the mid 160's+, it's a long hard journey even from a 155 diagnostic.
• Fletchov Live Member

  January 19 edited January 19 6 karma

  @"Cant Get Right" Thank you so much for your response, those are amazing tips! After watching the tutorial videos, I noticed that they also mentioned the "core curriculum" and that there was a section under the syllabus tab that was titled just that in the videos. However, when I enter the syllabus it just lists foundations, logical reasoning, reading comp, etc. I would love to follow your suggestion of following the core curriculum, but i'm just unsure as to what that means. Would it be following the above outlined sections in that same order?

  Thank you for the tips about slowing down and prioritizing understanding over completion, that helps me feel grounded and not as though I'm failing if I take a long time on a certain topic.

  Just to address your last parargraph, I am aiming for a 170+ which means a long road ahead haha. I actually found myself struggling with the reading comp significantly more than with the LR during my diagnostic. I pretty much completed all of my LR questions (I ran out of time and guessed on the last 3-4 question in every LR section), but with reading comp I was only able to complete 2 out of 4 passages before using the last 30 seconds to randomly bubble in the rest of the unanwered questions. Would you still suggest to prioritize LR over reading comp? If not, would you by any chance have any tips related to improving at reading comp?
• 1 Like

  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  January 19 28109 karma

  @Fletchov said:
  @"Cant Get Right" Thank you so much for your response, those are amazing tips! After watching the tutorial videos, I noticed that they also mentioned the "core curriculum" and that there was a section under the syllabus tab that was titled just that in the videos. However, when I enter the syllabus it just lists foundations, logical reasoning, reading comp, etc. I would love to follow your suggestion of following the core curriculum, but i'm just unsure as to what that means. Would it be following the above outlined sections in that same order?

  Oh good point! The core curriculum is just all the material under Syllabus. Not sure when the terminologies changed on that, lol, but anytime you see core curriculum, that's what that means.

  Just to address your last parargraph, I am aiming for a 170+ which means a long road ahead haha. I actually found myself struggling with the reading comp significantly more than with the LR during my diagnostic. I pretty much completed all of my LR questions (I ran out of time and guessed on the last 3-4 question in every LR section), but with reading comp I was only able to complete 2 out of 4 passages before using the last 30 seconds to randomly bubble in the rest of the unanwered questions. Would you still suggest to prioritize LR over reading comp? If not, would you by any chance have any tips related to improving at reading comp?

  For 170+ everything is a priority, so you can't really push anything to the side.

  Time management strategy on RC is actually very simple compared to LR exactly because it is so intensive. In LR, you have options and flexibility to exercise discretion. RC has a tendency to force the aggressive option. So it's easier because we just don't have much of a choice. It's way more uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean it isn't simple. I'll give you my RC breakdown to demonstrate:

  On average, it takes me 4 minutes to read a passage. So that's 4 minutes times 4 passages: 16 minutes. 35 minutes total for the section minus 16 minutes gives me 19 minutes per question. 19 minutes divided by 27 questions is about 42 seconds per question.

  I typically find that for most people, 3:30-4:00 average passage read time ends up being optimal. (A 3:30 average passage read time will give you about 46 seconds per question.)

  So look at your numbers to see where you're bleeding the clock. Adjust to try and distribute your time somewhere along these lines. But as a general principle, you want to invest in your read so that you can answer the questions aggressively. It is, afterall, literally a test of how well you comprehended the thing you just read. If you have strong comprehension of the reading, then you should perform reasonably well on a fair test of your comprehension. Say whatever else you will about the LSAT, it is a fair test. And don't be afraid to answer on comprehension without confirmation. It's Reading Comprehension, not Passage Citation, so take the test they're giving you, not the one you might otherwise prefer.
• natemanwell1 Core Member

  January 19 314 karma

  Don't. Learn all the question and answer types and all the strategies, then use the course for what you have specific problems on. that way you can get the most out of the course by keeping it targeted and have your studying be a lot more efficient