LSAT HELP!!!!!!!!!!

[nneamakaeze]

I took the December LSAT and totally bombed it with a disgusting score of 149. I plan to retake in June but i am faced with a dilemma. To take a prep class or not? The main reason why I bombed the previous LSAT was because of my time. I ended up not doing a whopping 25 questions between the logic games and reading comprehension sections. I have always been good with time so for some inane reason, I never practiced with time. I just felt that i would be ok in that aspect on the D day. Needless to say, that was stupid of me. Although I rarely apply myself, I am a pretty smart person. I just hate being stuck in a class and apparently, you dont learn anything the books dont tell you. I just want to know other people's opinions. Did you take a class or not? What was your score? What was your study regimen like? How long did you study for till the actual day? What are the best books to use? Are prep classes worth the $$$? I am shooting for a 170. So far, Logical Reasoning seems to be my strongest point(barely). I accurately answered 40 out of 50 of them on the actual LSAT. Still looking for a significant improvement in all 3 areas though.

P.S. Already posted this somewhere else and since i wasnt getting enought replies, i decided to post it on here!(I know i know my desperation reeks!)

[tomwatts]

Whew, 149 to 170. Bear in mind that's a BIG jump. It may require a LOT of work.

You seem like a decent candidate for a class. The "you only learn what they talk about in their books" is usually a complaint about Powerscore, not about test prep in general. (The company I work for, Princeton Review, usually gets the opposite complaint: "Why isn't all this great stuff from the class in any of the books that you publish?")

The reason I say that you're a decent candidate for a class is the following. To score a 149, no matter what your pacing is like, you have to be screwing up a significant percentage of the questions that you're attempting. Even if you didn't do 25 questions, guessing on those would get you ~5 points, and you still have to get another 20-25 questions wrong out of the 75 you're attempting to get a 149. A roughly 2/3 accuracy rate is not good (figure that you need roughly 90% accuracy to get a 170, AND you need to answer every question), especially if you've got time problems. So it sounds as though you have to do some learning about the test before you can pick up the pace, and classes will do that.

It's also possible that you could figure this stuff out on your own with a book or two to guide you. You didn't say here how much studying you did previously, so it's a little hard to gauge where you stand as far as studying on your own.