I Don’t Know How to Group Study for the LSAT!
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Note: If you haven’t yet read Allison Bell’s post on LSAT motivation, I highly recommend you check it out here. This post is inspired by both a comment from my lovely wife and that post.
At the end of Allison’s post, she mentions finding a study partner (or partners, plural—small group or paired study is very, very effective). I’m hoping to follow up on that post with some ideas on how to make these group study sessions more efficient.
You’re the Teacher!
Each person in the group chooses 3 LR problems, one RC passage, or one LG that she wants to teach in advance. Up to you whether you want to inform the other people what problems you’ll teach before you meet.
If you do, ask them to look at the problem and answer before the study session. Then they can “play dumb”: act as though they don’t know the answer, and make you convince them why a wrong choice is wrong.
If you don’t tell them in advance, give them the problem with a set amount of time to attempt to choose the correct answer. Once finished, discuss what the challenges were. Then try to lead them to the clues that led to the correct answer in a short period of time.
The most important aspect of “I’m the Teacher” is the ability to guide the other people in your group to one or two large takeaways from the problem. One phrase I give my classes is “when I see __________, I think ____________.” This is just a framework to establish your takeaway from the problem, and it’s something you can use for every problem. You should always have a lesson from each problem!
It’s a Race!
This one is probably best in small groups. Each person sets up the stopwatch function on her phone. You start a small problem set (5 LR questions, one passage, or one game) and start the stopwatch. Hit the “lap” button after you finish each problem. At the end, score your performance. Each person gets one point for each correct answer, and subtracts a point for each 5 or 10 second interval she finished behind the fastest finish time. (You’ll need to experiment with the negative points balance for not finishing first inside your group.)
Establish rewards for the person with the most points!
Just be aware that the race is only the beginning: at the end of the race, it’s time to study. The lap function will allow each person to see which problems were fastest and slowest. Are there differences in the group as to which problems were fast and slow? Find out what allowed some people to finish your slow problems quickly. If your fast problem was someone else’s slow problem, what can you teach that person about your approach to the problem? If there was a universally slow problem, is there a signal that this problem should potentially be a “guess and come back” problem?
You’re the Test Writer!
You craft a prompt: an LR argument, an RC passage, or an LG rules set. The other people build questions and answers off your prompt. Try to model everything off a question you’ve done recently. So your prompt should be modeled from a question, game, or passage you completed in a previous study session. Take turns providing to the rest of the group the question each member created. While probably the most challenging of these exercises, this can also be the most rewarding, since it can allow the group to begin building pattern recognition across multiple problems.
Once the group has created and attempted your problem(s), have each person reveal the problem that was her inspiration. Since they probably did not come from the same problem, what are the connections across these questions?
Alternatively, split into two subgroups: each subgroup creates a problem, and then you trade! Attempt the problems, and then teach the problem you created.
That’s all for right now. Hopefully these three group study methods will allow you to make your group study more dynamic! ?
Do you have any special tactics for making group study more effective? Tell us in the comments!
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C
hris Gentry is a Manhattan Prep LSAT, GMAT, and GRE instructor who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Chris received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Clemson and JD from Emory University School of Law before realizing that he genuinely enjoys the challenge of standardized tests, and his true passion is teaching. Chris’ dual-pronged approach to understanding each test question has helped countless of his students to achieve their goal scores. What are you waiting for? Check out Chris’ upcoming LSAT courses here.