PowerScore student Marvin Dike blogs about his comprehensive study regimen so that our readers can learn from his experience. Make sure you read Part I, Part II, and Part III.
For the last piece of the breakdown of my study regimen, I will take you into what I do every single day, along with some tips about how I handle the pressure and anxiety and my mindset. Before we get into it, you should know that my allows for more flexibility than most. I normally work 4-5 hours a day if I feel like it and I usually work in the evenings.
Morning
As you know, I have a set of logic games that I do every day. I’m a morning person so I wake up at 6am, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and take a shot of apple cider vinegar. I don’t drink coffee and the ACV helps my energy and focus. Once I’m up and ready for the day, I grab my stack of 8-10 logic games and do each one.
You know my LG routine from my 2nd blog post. I almost never miss questions because I’ve been at it for so long. I like doing logic games first because they’re fun and get my brain going. It’s the stimulation that gets my mind in the right mode for studying. Typically it takes about 90 minutes to complete my LG routine. You may take more time, especially if you’re just starting the routine, and you may need to do the same game(s) on the same day.
After I do LG, I do the entire LR sections of 1-2 LSATs, so about 100 questions. Sometimes I time myself doing an LR section in the 35-minute window. Other times, I’ll do it untimed and take my good, sweet time. Whenever I come to a question I get wrong or get right without confidence, I log it after looking up the explanations. I highly recommend that you do most of your studying in LR as an entire section from an LSAT instead of randomly. The reason? When you do random problem sets, it’s harder to find the explanations because they’re coming from different LSATs. My overall feel for how an LR section ebbs and flows is so much better because I’m consistently doing LR questions as entire sections. I can plug my answers into a grader and see the difficulty of each question.
The process takes about 2 and a half to three hours. When I first started doing this, it took longer because so many questions were over my head.
Afternoon/Evening
After a grueling morning, I’ll go work out. By noon, I’m home and take my time to shower, eat, and wind down for a bit. Then I’ll get right back to work.
After my break, I get right back to work and do anywhere from 4-8 reading comp passages and questions. I mix up implementing the memory method doing a section the same way I would on an LSAT. I still do my reading comprehension passages as entire sections. Don’t just pick and choose random passages for the same reason you wouldn’t for LR. You’ll have a better feel for how the sections move along. On rare occasions I won’t time myself on reading comp. I do this so I can pinpoint each right and wrong answer. In RC, every answer is either explicitly stated or strongly implied. This process takes about 2 hours, depending on how many passages I do. Then, I will go to work.
After I get home from work, I eat and relax before jumping back into studying. Once I’m ready to study, I focus on 4-6 logic games I haven’t seen before.
Test Day Routine
On days I plan to take a full PT, I eat the same exact breakfast and take the test at a time my real LSAT will be. Fore me, this is 8:30AM. I usually start the test between 8:45 and 9:00am. Obviously since I’m trying to emulate test day, the PT I do is timed. Always take the 15-minute break after 3 sections. On the real LSAT, you have to take that break, so you need to condition your mind to be able to go for 3 sections, stop, and go right back to work. I also eat the same snack during that 15-minute break. Try to gauge what does and doesn’t upset your stomach. Same goes for breakfast. I know what my body does and doesn’t react to well, so that’s why I stay consistent with my food choices almost every day and definitely on the morning of PTs.
Practice Test Methodology
This next part is probably the single most important thing I do. If you’ve read nothing else, you have to keep this one thing with you. When you take a practice LSAT and immediately put it in the grader to check your score, you’ve fundamentally wasted that test. You haven’t given yourself the opportunity to truly learn from it. Instead of jumping right to grading it, do a blind review. Whenever you come across a problem during the test you’re unsure about, make note of it. If you’re 100%, leave it alone. To be 100%, you have to know the right answer is right and the other 4 are wrong. If you can’t do either, tag it. You’re doing this while taking the test, so it takes no time. Don’t make excuses that you’re wasting time flagging a question.
After you take the test, take a break. Then come back to the test. Do all the questions you made note of untimed. Take as long as you need to find the right answer. This is where true learning happens. Take the time to re-enter your scores with the new answers. Your first score is your actual score and your second score is your theoretical high score.
Analyzing a PT
Once you have both scores, here’s how to analyze your results.
- Unmarked questions you get right: Awesome, you were rightly confident in that answer and don’t need to review it.
- Unmarked questions you get wrong: This is a massive red flag. You were so smug about this that you didn’t even realize it. The only thing worse than not knowing is not knowing that you don’t know. That’s true danger. You either fell for a trap or just didn’t understand. This is now a question you need to log and get the explanation for.
- Marked questions you kept the same and get right on the second try: This is good! Your intuition while taking the test was right, but there was something missing that didn’t allow you to have the utmost confidence. What was it? It’s much easier to see why when you give yourself a chance to answer those questions untimed.
- Marked questions you change your correct answer on the second try and get wrong or were wrong both tries: Either way, this isn’t good. But, at least you knew from the jump that you didn’t know. You at least knew that something made you unsure. This question definitely needs to get logged and you need to look up the explanation.
This method of review has been one of the biggest things for allowing me to make my jump. On average, my original score is between 165-169. My blind review theoretical score that’s untimed should ideally be in the mid 170s.
Let’s say that was LSAT 55 I just took. That night or the next day I will re-do the entire LR sections from that LSAT. I’ve obviously already gotten my score and I’ve gone over my wrong answers. So, why am I doing it again so soon? I want to better embed that information into my head. This process takes 30-40 minutes for both sections. Some of the answers I barely even need to analyze because I have them from memory. But, it’s become a habit. I will also print out 3-4 copies of the entire LG section from that test and put them in a stack to be done a week later. Then, I’ll time myself and log my times just like I do all other games.
Don’t Forget to Take a Breather
Someone recently asked me how long I study each day and whether I take a day off. Breaks are important, so here’s what I do. After studying about 2 hours straight, I’ll watch a few random videos on YouTube, dribble my basketball, anything. I take breaks at random. My studies aren’t 8-10 hours nonstop. Not at all. In fact, when I was originally doing that, I found it was counter-productive. I make sure I have one light day a week. Normally, it’s on Sunday. Saturday is almost always a test day.
I took a week-long break a few weeks ago where every day was a light day and it’s helped refresh me so much! This test isn’t just a test of facts and memory. It’s not something you can “figure out.” It’s a test that needs you to develop a way of thinking. You need to develop a way to approach things that are different than our everyday interactions and assumptions. For this to cultivate, it needs time and practice. But you also need time away. You need time for this stuff to marinate and become second nature.
Honestly, sometimes I close my eyes and all I see is conditional logic arrows, contrapositives, bad arguments, and LG rules. Even when I talk to people, I’m like “wow that’s a terrible method of reasoning. You’d be quickly shown the door if you came into the law world with that logic.” I’m constantly making analogies or abstracting everyday things I see and hear because I’ve developed that frame of mind. It’s a habit. To me, it’s a big part of why I’ve been able to have success with this material. It’s a philosophical way to critically think and analyze.
Long story short, I absolutely recommend time off. The length of it varies of course because if you’re only giving yourself 5 months, your window for time off is smaller than someone studying for 10 (like me). You have to listen to your mind when it’s telling you it’s had enough or when you’re not able to focus. For those of you with heavier obligations during the week, dedicate Saturday as your heaviest day of the week. Prep for 10-12 if you can stand it. Let Sunday be your light day of maybe 2 hours. Do a stack of 5 LG and an LR section and call it a day.
Recap
So folks, there you have it. This is what I do every single day. You have what I did during my class and what I did to drill after the class. You know how I take practice LSATs and how to properly review them. We all know the implications that this test has and how big of a factor it is. This 3 digit score is the difference between your dream school and just not wanting to go to law school at all. Factors like scholarship opportunities are there for the taking. So yes, tens of thousands of dollars are on the line with this test. I don’t see that as a burden, I see it as an opportunity.
Just so you know, there’s nothing inherently special about me in regards to any conditioned skills coming into this prep. I wasn’t a habitual reader growing up, I dind’t spend all my time doing puzzles as a kid, I never took philosophy courses. In fact, I didn’t start considering law until 2 years after I graduated from college. The point I’m making is that I didn’t walk into this LSAT with anything beyond your typical college graduate. I was a health science major looking to get into hospital administration or pharmaceutical sales. Please, don’t think there’s some kind of golden blood in my veins. It’s been a journey of diligence, patience, and finally grasping what the hell’s going on.
The one factor I don’t have to face is anxiety. This is an issue for many. My life was filled playing high-level sports. I was robbed at gun-point with a pistol pointed at my head thinking I was going to die. I’ve been fired from almost every job I’ve ever had. Wondering where your next meal is coming from is real pressure. The LSAT? It’s just a test. No one is holding your family hostage while you’re doing a logic game. While the test matters, don’t make it bigger than it is. When I walk into my official test day, I will have done everything I could. All I can do is trust my training and do my best. That’s good enough for me. Find ways to protect your peace at all costs.
I’m not wishing any of you good luck because we don’t want luck to be a factor in our success on this test. We want our hard-earned skills to be on display.
Happy studies,
Marvin Dike
More from this series: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V
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