1 00:00:19,859 --> 00:00:24,400 You sit down, you do a set of twenty Flaw questions in a row, 2 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,299 and you get, um, eighteen of them right. 3 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:28,760 Ninety percent. 4 00:00:29,539 --> 00:00:30,920 You feel like a genius, right? 5 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,920 But then, two weeks later, you take a full thirty five minute Logical Reasoning 6 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,639 section and the whole thing just collapses. 7 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:47,039 Ninety percent on that block, and then on the actual section you hit a wall. 8 00:00:47,759 --> 00:00:50,920 I, I remember doing that exact thing on PrepTest 89. 9 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:53,960 I knocked out thirty Strengthen questions in a study session, 10 00:00:54,199 --> 00:00:59,139 felt unstoppable, and then on eighty nine, I hit a Parallel Flaw, 11 00:00:59,459 --> 00:01:03,600 immediately followed by a Weaken, sandwiched right before a Principle question. 12 00:01:04,299 --> 00:01:06,379 My brain just froze. 13 00:01:08,961 --> 00:01:13,821 PrepTest eighty nine is a notorious section for that exact reason. 14 00:01:14,561 --> 00:01:18,821 What you experienced, Nora, is the classic illusion of competence. 15 00:01:19,502 --> 00:01:24,542 When you do twenty identical question types, your brain completely skips the most 16 00:01:24,701 --> 00:01:28,401 difficult step in Logical Reasoning, which is diagnosis. 17 00:01:29,161 --> 00:01:33,061 You already know it is a Flaw question before you even read the prompt, 18 00:01:33,621 --> 00:01:36,841 so you never practice identifying the gap on your own. 19 00:01:37,664 --> 00:01:41,625 Right, you are skipping the discrimination step entirely! 20 00:01:42,065 --> 00:01:44,004 You are just executing a routine. 21 00:01:44,605 --> 00:01:49,305 It is like practicing tennis where someone only serves to your forehand for two 22 00:01:49,404 --> 00:01:53,684 hours, and then on match day, suddenly they hit to your backhand. 23 00:01:54,382 --> 00:01:55,102 Precisely. 24 00:01:55,782 --> 00:02:01,702 In cognitive science, this is known as blocked practice versus interleaved practice. 25 00:02:02,482 --> 00:02:07,402 There was a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology where researchers tested 26 00:02:07,482 --> 00:02:12,162 students using mixed practice on math problems versus blocked practice. 27 00:02:12,923 --> 00:02:18,362 The students using mixed practice scored forty three percent higher on tests taken a 28 00:02:18,423 --> 00:02:19,042 month later. 29 00:02:20,392 --> 00:02:22,652 Forty three percent higher? 30 00:02:23,172 --> 00:02:24,532 A full month later? 31 00:02:25,052 --> 00:02:29,532 That is a massive difference for just changing the sequence of how you study. 32 00:02:30,174 --> 00:02:31,634 It is enormous. 33 00:02:32,234 --> 00:02:34,914 But here is the catch that trips everyone up. 34 00:02:35,795 --> 00:02:40,734 During the actual practice sessions, the students doing blocked practice felt like 35 00:02:40,795 --> 00:02:43,875 they were learning faster and making fewer mistakes. 36 00:02:44,694 --> 00:02:48,754 The interleaved group felt slow, clunky, and frustrated. 37 00:02:49,774 --> 00:02:54,135 But when it came to long term retention and actual test day performance, 38 00:02:54,894 --> 00:02:57,254 the interleaved group destroyed them. 39 00:02:57,882 --> 00:03:02,122 Because the blocked group was relying on short term working memory, 40 00:03:02,702 --> 00:03:06,583 while the interleaved group was actually forcing their brains to build 41 00:03:06,742 --> 00:03:07,883 discrimination learning. 42 00:03:08,423 --> 00:03:11,963 They had to constantly ask, wait, what kind of problem is this, 43 00:03:12,122 --> 00:03:14,702 and what tool do I need to pull out of my toolbox right now? 44 00:03:15,442 --> 00:03:16,102 Exactly. 45 00:03:16,762 --> 00:03:20,962 So how do we translate this into an actionable LSAT study plan? 46 00:03:21,682 --> 00:03:24,662 We use what I call the twenty to eighty rule. 47 00:03:25,423 --> 00:03:29,942 You limit blocked practice to just twenty percent of your initial concept exposure. 48 00:03:30,583 --> 00:03:35,062 You learn what a Necessary Assumption is, you do five or ten of them to understand 49 00:03:35,103 --> 00:03:37,142 the mechanics, and then you stop. 50 00:03:37,899 --> 00:03:41,960 So only twenty percent of your time on single question type drills. 51 00:03:42,639 --> 00:03:44,399 What does the other eighty percent look like? 52 00:03:45,191 --> 00:03:50,212 The other eighty percent of your drilling must be mixed, randomized sets. 53 00:03:51,011 --> 00:03:55,932 On LawHub, for instance, you build a set of twelve questions drawn randomly from 54 00:03:56,011 --> 00:03:58,651 across all Logical Reasoning types. 55 00:03:58,712 --> 00:04:01,991 And you aim for an eighty five second per question target. 56 00:04:02,632 --> 00:04:07,532 Twelve questions, mixed types, eighty five seconds per question. 57 00:04:08,352 --> 00:04:10,472 Why twelve questions specifically? 58 00:04:11,192 --> 00:04:16,172 Twelve questions is short enough that you can review every single answer explanation 59 00:04:16,372 --> 00:04:21,673 deeply in one sitting, but long enough to force your brain through twelve rapid 60 00:04:21,793 --> 00:04:23,372 executive context switches. 61 00:04:24,072 --> 00:04:27,692 Question one is a Strengthen, question two is a Main Point, 62 00:04:28,253 --> 00:04:29,853 question three is a Flaw. 63 00:04:30,532 --> 00:04:35,172 Your brain is forced to reset its diagnostic radar every single time. 64 00:04:35,837 --> 00:04:39,037 That executive context switch is everything. 65 00:04:39,637 --> 00:04:43,497 When I started mixing up my sets, my score initially dropped, 66 00:04:43,577 --> 00:04:45,277 and I got so frustrated. 67 00:04:45,997 --> 00:04:51,117 But looking back, that friction was the exact signal that my brain was finally 68 00:04:51,237 --> 00:04:51,657 working. 69 00:04:52,237 --> 00:04:55,657 It was that desirable difficulty reframe you always talk about. 70 00:04:56,238 --> 00:05:01,577 If it feels easy while you are drilling, you are probably wasting your time. 71 00:05:01,637 --> 00:05:06,838 That awkward, clumsy feeling of having to stop and re orient yourself on every 72 00:05:06,878 --> 00:05:11,918 question stem is the actual feeling of long term memory traces being built. 73 00:05:12,751 --> 00:05:13,671 I love that. 74 00:05:14,251 --> 00:05:19,111 So instead of chasing ninety percent accuracy on easy single type blocks, 75 00:05:19,591 --> 00:05:23,672 embrace the messy twelve question mixed set. 76 00:05:23,752 --> 00:05:26,751 That is how you actually survive PrepTest eighty nine. 77 00:05:28,345 --> 00:05:28,884 Well said. 78 00:05:29,464 --> 00:05:31,605 Alright, good chatting, talk soon.