Self Study - Which Guide is Best?

[nodummy]

Pithypike's looks good. The 5-Month Study schedule is also appealing. Am I missing something from Zenof180's guide to taking the June test? They recommend 2 PT's per week for the next 2 months. It seems like a waste of time and material taking these PT's without really knowing the areas in which you're struggling. But maybe I'm wrong.

Anyhow, what's the best self study plan in your opinion and why? I've pretty much ruled out taking a class and have 5 months until the June test...any pointers/tips on which plan to follow would be great.

[am060459]

have you taken a PT already and if so whats your breakdown.

i would go with Pithypike's.

[Sauer Grapes]

....

[ram jam]

Powerscore + as many ptests as you can get your hands on. The only kaplan book worth the money is the mastery practice. Start studying using older tests and work forwards to the newer ones... reserve the newest tests to study in the weeks leading up to the test. Reserve some newer tests in case you have to retake.

[nodummy]

PowerScore is a great set of books.

I've taken a few PT's (was originally studying for Dec) and my major problems are with LR (MBT and MP) and RC.

I know the PS Bibles are great...read them both but plan on rereading them again for this study period.

I'm trying to determine which schedule is best, not so much the material to use...I have all of that.

[am060459]

http://www.cambridgelsat.com/category/lsat/by_Type/8

i cannot tell you how vital the powerscore books and the mastery are. if you can get both then your on the road to improvement. if you cannot get the kaplan mastery try the site above. it provides an organized way of tackling sections and questions by question types. good luck.

[nodummy]

Also...

Has anyone bought the study guides off of the Cambridge LSAT website? They supposedly break the LR and LG questions for all the earlier tests into seperate categories (similar to the hard to find Kaplan Mastery). I'm wondering if this is worth the money? Did you have any problems with the PDF's?

What timeline schedule are you using for the June test? I'm a neat freak and need an exact schedule to follow and don't want to second-guess the schedule (wondering if I'm not spending enough time on a certain section) after starting. Any ideas would be great.

[am060459]

Also...

Has anyone bought the study guides off of the Cambridge LSAT website? They supposedly break the LR and LG questions for all the earlier tests into seperate categories (similar to the hard to find Kaplan Mastery). I'm wondering if this is worth the money? Did you have any problems with the PDF's?

What timeline schedule are you using for the June test? I'm a neat freak and need an exact schedule to follow and don't want to second-guess the schedule (wondering if I'm not spending enough time on a certain section) after starting. Any ideas would be great.

this varies person to person. LR is a weakness for you, like me, so you should spend 1-2 months on the question types and do timed sections towards the end. focus on accuracy. remember quality not quantity. if you can only get to 20 in a timed sections thats fine just make sure your nailing those.

as for cambridge lsat i plan on purchasing some material too so i would also like to know.

[chewdak]

Also...

Has anyone bought the study guides off of the Cambridge LSAT website? They supposedly break the LR and LG questions for all the earlier tests into seperate categories (similar to the hard to find Kaplan Mastery). I'm wondering if this is worth the money? Did you have any problems with the PDF's?

What timeline schedule are you using for the June test? I'm a neat freak and need an exact schedule to follow and don't want to second-guess the schedule (wondering if I'm not spending enough time on a certain section) after starting. Any ideas would be great.

Very worthwhile.
I finally bought several things I could not find elsewhere and am very happy.
Make sure you can print from their site: print some of their free items first.
Also, they can not supply PDFs per LSAC policy, after you buy an item you can access it for viewing and printing 3 times.
In practical terms, do not buy more than you can print.

[abbas123]

they dont actually let u download the pdfs

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33535

[nodummy]

What's the general consensus on Zen of 180's study schedule?

http://www.zenof180.blogspot.com

Does it make sense to spend the first two months doing PT's? Before even learning the material...

[keg411]

What's the general consensus on Zen of 180's study schedule?

http://www.zenof180.blogspot.com

Does it make sense to spend the first two months doing PT's? Before even learning the material...

PT's are worthless before you know the material. Otherwise you're just answering questions and have no idea what you do wrong or where your weaknesses are. If you want to work on timing before you know what you're doing, timed sections >>>> full PT's. That said, you should still do plenty of PT's, just not right away.

[abbas123]

I prefer pithypike and the lsat blog 5 month schedule to zenof180

pithypike
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41657

lsat blog
http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ls ... edule.html

[nodummy]

I prefer pithypike and the lsat blog 5 month schedule to zenof180

pithypike
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41657

lsat blog
http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ls ... edule.html

Me too but what are your reasons?

[abbas123]

because they have you work on individual parts of the exam first and then work on full length exams later after you've learned everything. it just makes more sense.

[JohnnyTrojan08]

because they have you work on individual parts of the exam first and then work on full length exams later after you've learned everything. it just makes more sense.

he advises you take 10 test before you go back and correct yourself. Seems a little odd.

I understand the intuition behind studying the LSAT in isolation, but you have to keep in mind two things that people on this forum seem to forget:

1) The Zen system suggests taking the two free sample LSATs and watching the explanations for everything before diving into 2 PrepTests a week. Hopefully you can already answer most question types--almost always the case, except for LG, which has a steep learning curve, anyway--before you start the diagnosing phase. If you're scoring below 140 on the samples, it's time to start thinking about something more than self-prep.

2) The whole point of the Zen system, and what sets it apart from most other programs, is that it accurately predicts what your score will be and what question types you need to work on most in order to improve. Taking LSATs under conditions that differ from the actual test do not further the goal of making accurate test-day predictions.

On another thread, people were misunderstanding the diagnosing phase, as well, thinking that you just take PrepTests and don't review the missed questions. That would be silly indeed: reviewing the missed questions by question type and then finding explanations is a key component to improving at the beginning of self-prep.

The more thoughtful process of self-correcting is where you take what you learned from the diagnosing phase and really drill down into the why you're missing so many of "this type" and what your plan of attack to address that weakness should be. We've found that in order to really find out what your weaknesses are, it takes a larger sample size than people usually gather.

So, in short: the Zen system does not advocate just taking 10 tests over 5 weeks without thinking about them. We just expect you to do what people normally do--look over the ones you missed and/or found difficult--and then start collecting them into a meaningful system so you can be ready for the more unique parts of the Zen LSAT self-prep calendar.

[Kurst]

18-month necro to plug your site? Faux pas, sir.

[JohnnyTrojan08]

18-month necro to plug your site? Faux pas, sir.

Lolz... almost certainly true, but some of us don't have time to police the interwebs all the time for misleading info.