How long should we take reading the guides?

[AleksanderD731]

Hey Manhattan community,

I just had a couple questions. Last week I purchased the trilogy and I'm currently forming a study schedule. Planning on taking the test in February. I have to recommend these guides to anyone self-studying. The books go into all the nuances that many of the other companies books I've skimmed seem to have missed.

Questions:

Approximately how long should we take reading the LR/RC guides? Do you think trying to get through both in a month will be too much?
Should we drill while going through them, or wait until we're done with the guides?
Should we drill by question type or do entire sections? Both?

I took ohthatpatrick's advice and bought tests 52-82 and I'm wondering how to utilize/break up 52-61 as drilling materials? Should I do timed worked or untimed and should I drill by question type or section?

Thanks in advance

[ohthatpatrick]

My advice is actually this:
Plan to take two passes through (most of) the strategy guides.

The reason?
It's really hard to absorb things the first time we see them, and we aren't the stickiest receptacle for learning, when we haven't actually experienced a ton of LSAT problems.

So I would try to make that first read-through rather swift. Focus on getting first impressions.

Go book to book to book, 25-45 mins at a time. Learning science says the variety is good for us.

Try to cultivate short study sessions that have GREAT mental focus. Set a 30 minute timer, put your phone into airplane mode, and be fully immersed in the book until the timer runs out (then just bookmark that page).

Take at least a few mins of a break and then start another 30 minute session from one of the other books (or try 30 mins of doing problems).

BONUS POINTS:
If a page / section seems really hard or confusing, put a "redo appointment" on your calendar for 3-5 days later
(you should use this same technique with tough games, tough LR, tough RC passages)

The learning process works best when you expose yourself to something, take a break from it (your brain doesn't take a break .. it just uses that gap to encode/process what it's learned), and then return to it later.

I have a couple handy documents that break down some of the 52-61 and 62-71 books by game type and by LR argument type. If you email me at ptyrrell@manhattanprep.com, I can send them to you.

In general, when you're doing practice sets, "all of the above" would be smart:
- sometimes you just do a 35 minute section
- sometimes you "search and destroy" specific game or question types

Variety helps.