Note-taking while reviewing a chapter for the first time

[m156f544]

Hello!

I'm fairly new to the "LSAT world," and studying for the test in general. I'm planning on taking the June LSAT, and honestly, I haven't taken a standardized exam since the ACT back in 2013... So I'm struggling with identifying the best way to go about studying--efficiently. I know how I personally study best, and I've laid out a study plan accordingly: 1 chapter/section a week (for 12 weeks) and focus on the content-specifics of that chapter during the week...

I'm not the type of student that can spend 1-2 hours a day studying each week; I'm more of the 3-4 hours 4x a week type of student, but that's because I typically take notes while I'm reviewing the chapter for the first time, but I'm just wondering if it would be better to solely focus on the content and lessons in the chapter first--without taking notes--and then go back and take notes over the chapter? I guess, overall, I'm just worried that I'm spending too much time focusing on grasping the concepts/lessons of each chapter, when I could perhaps be better allocating my time to say, random practice questions, etc.

Any (and all) advice on a healthy balance between content from the book and the best method for reinforcing those concepts??

Thanks!

[ohthatpatrick]

According to the learning science stuff we've read, you should probably shake up your plan some.

Shorter blocks of studying are better
If you're thinking of devoting 3-4 hours per day to studying, you need to cleverly cobble together that much time in smaller 30-45 minute increments.

Your brain needs rests to process what it's just imbibed, just like our stomachs do after we eat a huge meal.

Try to vary the topics you're working on / the settings in which you're studying

Roughly evenly divide your time doing these four different forms of studying:
mixed timed practice (answer them all under timed constraints, but then "finish" them untimed before you've seen answers)
topic-focused practice (don't time yourself / focus on process / check answers after every problem or game if you'd like)
exposure to new strategies (reading chapters)
testing, and thus deepening, your retention (quizzing yourself using flashcards ... doing games, RC passages, or LR questions for a 2nd or 3rd time.)

Apparently, the best way to learn a bunch of content is to take several laps through it, in a mainly mixed way, slowly going from
FIRST EXPOSURE -> SHALLOW FAMILIARITY -> PARTIAL LEARNING / PARTIAL ACCESS -> COMFORT -> MASTERY/FLEXIBILITY

So I would recommend that you make this first installment of reading the books a swift, breezy high level Impressionist feel.

Don't take notes. Try to get lost in the experience. Supplement your reading with doing, constantly. Your brain needs to have experienced a lot of LSAT problems in order to have the mental context necessary to really understand what we're saying in books/lessons.

Meaning: we might say helpful stuff that your brain couldn't possibly internalize, unless you already had an LSAT brain state in which to incorporate that advice.

So you constantly do problems on the side, in order to give the books that you're reading life and context.

Once you have made it through your FIRST lap of all the chapters, you should have done at least a few hundred LR questions, 75 games and 50 RC passages.

When you read the chapters for the second time, you'll already know more about the subject matter, and at THAT point you can decide on what, if anything, seems like a noteworthy strategy worth writing down or experimenting with.