Study Plan Question – RC Drill Passages vs. Full RC Sections (Final 4 Weeks Before August LSAT)

[cs176513]

Hi PowerScore team,

I'm working through your 6-month self-study plan and currently in week 17. I’ve completed all of the textbook-based content and the Logical Reasoning drill questions included in the plan. The only items I haven’t completed are the Reading Comprehension drills from Diversity I, II, & III, Law-related RCs, Regulation RCs, Social Science RCs, and Hard Science RCs—some of which are scheduled for week 20.

Unfortunately, I lost my workbooks during a move, so I don’t plan to complete the workbook-specific questions. I'm not too worried about that, though.

Looking ahead, I plan to take both the August and September LSATs, which gives me about four weeks until the August test. From now until then, I’m planning to:

Take 1 full practice LSAT per week, and

Do 2 timed sections on non-test days, which could include 1 LR section, 1 RC section, or 4 RC drill passages.

My question:
Should I focus on completing the RC drill passages outlined in the study plan, or prioritize doing full RC sections instead?

Pros and cons I'm considering:
If I focus on RC sections, I can maintain a more proportional LR/RC study split (roughly 2/3 LR and 1/3 RC), which better reflects the test. However, I probably won’t complete all the RC drill passages before the August LSAT.

If I focus on the RC drill passages, I’d finish them around July 29, but I’d be devoting more time to RC than is proportional to the test.

Performance context:
I'm currently scoring in the mid-160s and trending up — my most recent test was a 166 under normal timed conditions. If my best section had counted instead of my worst, I likely would have landed around 171–172.

LR has improved significantly — I’ve gone from ~65% accuracy to ~82%, and even hit 96% on an experimental section recently.

RC has been fairly strong, with recent section scores at 78% and 96%.

Goal:
Writing this out, it seems like keeping a proportional split between LR and RC makes the most sense, but that would push completing the RC drills until sometime after the August LSAT.

Given that, what would you recommend as the most effective way to work on RC in these final weeks? Should I focus on completing the RC drill passages, stick with full sections, or use a combination of both? And if a combination is best, how would you suggest I split my time between the two?

Thanks so much in advance!

[Dana D]

Hey cs,

I think a better measure of how to allocate study time is to reflect on what you are still struggling with test-wise. If the pacing and retention of RC is challenging to you, then drilling full length RC test sections would be the best way to address that. Especially if there's certain types of RC that consistenly get you - like where there are dual passages or if the topic is a hard science, etc.

In comparison, if you are missing MBT questions across the board in both LR and RC, drilling itself will not necessarily address that - you need to identify what is causing you to miss those MBT questions. RC generally asks you the same type of questions that LR does, just in a longer format, so if the length and retention of RC aren't tripping you up, then you can focus on the underlying issue of MBT questions through LR drilling just the same as you could through RC drilling.

If you have the data already, look back at the question types or common themes that are tripping you up in your practice tests. If there's commonality in terms of question type, I would focus on drilling and re-learning that concept first in addition to taking weekly PTs. Make sure you're really thoroughly reviewing your results from PTs too - keep a wrong answer journal and make yourself go through each question you are unsure of. Reviewing PTs is just as important, if not more important, than taking a PT.

Let me know if that helps, happy to answer any follow up questions you have. Good luck studying!