October 2010 Test Prep Forum

[hotdog123]

Does anyone know whether its better to order the exams from LSAC or Amazon? Which one would come in less time?

I bought them from Amazon, personally. I know I heard of at least one person who ordered them form LSAC and they never arrived, but I'm not sure if that's typical or an isolated case.

thanks for the response. I also think its better i get them from Amazon.

One thing to remember about Amazon is that order fulfillment is not guaranteed.

I ordered 10 PTs from them, and I only got 4... the rest of them went unfulfilled after a month of waiting and I was issued a refund.

[am060459]

Does anyone know whether its better to order the exams from LSAC or Amazon? Which one would come in less time?

I bought them from Amazon, personally. I know I heard of at least one person who ordered them form LSAC and they never arrived, but I'm not sure if that's typical or an isolated case.

thanks for the response. I also think its better i get them from Amazon.

i ordered PT 43 - PT 59 from LSAC and recieved them in about a week and a half. if you dont need them asap then LSAC is fine.

[UFmark]

I got mine from Powerscore when I ordered my bibles. They were 8$ a piece and came in like 3-4 days.

[abbas123]

amazon sells the single ones for 4 for the price of 3, averages out to $6 per exam.

[The ASSET]

Im also taking the october test, I can finally contribute to the site!

[DreamLaw]

I ordered around 14 preptests and the superprep from LSAC today. I'm in Canada so it will take 6 weeks for them to arrive, as long as I get them though I'll be happy!

[Gemini]

SO..

since it IS April, and therefore still early in the game, I want to know how LONG do you study? Are you guys doing it crazy with 4-5 hours a day every day? Maybe 2-3 hours a day, 3-4 times a week? Or even a couple of hours, once a week?

Currently, I'm doing about 3-4 hours a day, about 2 times a week. Just want to compare myself to others...

[newlaw77]

I am retaking also...

Looking to jump from 164 in September to 170's by October

I'm going to take a PT test tonight and start studying. I'm nervous because I haven't seen this stuff since before my last test.

My plan is to start slow as to avoid burnout. After my PT tonight I won't touch anything until Sunday. Unless I bomb, in that case I will probably panic and start studying everyday.

[au bon pain]

I have all of my material, and I'll probably organize it this weekend and begin studying once school is out. As far as time...I'll probably start putting in no less than three hours at a time to make sure that I'm getting the concepts down and then switch to drilling individual sections/question types - and then taking full exams.

This probably sounds nerdy but I'm actually looking forward to the challenge.

[xqhp82]

This probably sounds nerdy but I'm actually looking forward to the challenge.

I know EXACTLY what you mean! I have the same feeling, except I can't physically start challenging myself yet because of finals very frustrating indeed

[Sandro]

I had been set on June 2010 for a while now... but I just started a full time 7 day a week job this week - I think I might take in June but aim for October. I will have tons of free time after the end of June when my job is over. Should I try for June/Oct or Oct/Dec?

[newlaw77]

Feeling good after first PT in months

164 same score as test day, not bad for finishing the test at 1:15 AM and being up for 17 hours.

I was worried I would have to start somewhere lower which would have been discouraging. Now I'm even more motivated to reach my goal.

[Olive]

Retakers: when are you all planning to begin studying? Doing anything different this time around?

[akili]

Retakers: when are you all planning to begin studying? Doing anything different this time around?

I am going to start studying as soon as I graduate from college. My parents want me home this summer (last hoorah, I guess) and I won't be working, so LSAT studying will be my job.

As for different things, I think I will try to take a legit prep course instead the sketchy (but cheap!) one I took last time. I might try one of the online one or individual tutoring. If I can raise my score 4 points (to 164) I'm looking at significant scholarships so it's worth the money. I will also get on a better schedule of studying in the mornings post-running. That's the plan.

[luxxe]

Retakers: when are you all planning to begin studying? Doing anything different this time around?

I am going to start studying as soon as I graduate from college. My parents want me home this summer (last hoorah, I guess) and I won't be working, so LSAT studying will be my job.

As for different things, I think I will try to take a legit prep course instead the sketchy (but cheap!) one I took last time. I might try one of the online one or individual tutoring. If I can raise my score 4 points (to 164) I'm looking at significant scholarships so it's worth the money. I will also get on a better schedule of studying in the mornings post-running. That's the plan.

post-stalking-your-lsn: you should aim higher than 164! with your gpa, you could get in pretty much ANYWHERE if you can get your lsat up high enough!! don't sell youself (& that amazing gpa) short. did you study a lot prior to taking the test before?

[akili]

Retakers: when are you all planning to begin studying? Doing anything different this time around?

I am going to start studying as soon as I graduate from college. My parents want me home this summer (last hoorah, I guess) and I won't be working, so LSAT studying will be my job.

As for different things, I think I will try to take a legit prep course instead the sketchy (but cheap!) one I took last time. I might try one of the online one or individual tutoring. If I can raise my score 4 points (to 164) I'm looking at significant scholarships so it's worth the money. I will also get on a better schedule of studying in the mornings post-running. That's the plan.

post-stalking-your-lsn: you should aim higher than 164! with your gpa, you could get in pretty much ANYWHERE if you can get your lsat up high enough!! don't sell youself (& that amazing gpa) short. did you study a lot prior to taking the test before?

I took a pretty shoddy prep class. Basically all it did was give me some accountability to take prep tests. The instructor had never taken the LSAT. Seriously.

I was scoring in the 165-166 range on most of the preptests I took but I think nerves on test day un-did my efforts. I think it will be way better to study when I'm not already in school. I think I'm pretty decent at standardized tests (31 ACT, 2100 SAT), but I've never cared this much before. Honestly, Duke, Notre Dame, UT-Austin, or UWash would all be dream schools for me. Hopefully with the accountability of this site I can get there this time!

[hotdog123]

I just took a practice test for the first time in over 14 months.

I scored lower than I did on my first diagnostic ever, which was over 19 months ago.

I am not encouraged by this.

[Sandro]

Officially joined the Oct 10 club. That is unless some miracle happens and I get my LG down to a reasonable level from its -10/11 heights then I'll try to knock it out in June AND October.

[TUP]

Officially joined the Oct 10 club. That is unless some miracle happens and I get my LG down to a reasonable level from its -10/11 heights then I'll try to knock it out in June AND October.

I might be doing the same. My LG skills are worthless at this point and I'd rather just take it once feeling 100% ready.

[Sandro]

Officially joined the Oct 10 club. That is unless some miracle happens and I get my LG down to a reasonable level from its -10/11 heights then I'll try to knock it out in June AND October.

I might be doing the same. My LG skills are worthless at this point and I'd rather just take it once feeling 100% ready.

Right now I'm scoring in the low/mid 160's with missing almost half the LG section. Usually LG accounts for more than half of my wrong answers on a 100/101 question test. It really makes no sense to waste an official attempt with my LR down in the -3's, RC averaging around 3 or 4, and LG spazzing out at -11.

[khanvalescent]

Fellow Octoberites, Powerscore books arrive either today or tomorrow. Goals are to consistently practice in mid 170s; I'm about 10 points shy of this. This may be intellectually untenable (thanks, Treme) but as a pastor once told me, "It is better to shoot for the moon and miss than aim at a skunk and hit it."

[noelleF]

:)And I wouldn't recommend buying mastery. You can use one or two books from the "10 more..." LSAT series and divide each question into types. It is a lot of work but you save money, too! (You can use the last book for speed practice and PTs 40-59 for endurance practice).

because i'm ocd about books with other people's writing in them, i'm using this http://www.amazon.com/GROUPED-Question- ... 584&sr=8-1 instead of mastery. if i finish it and still need more practice by question type then i'll go through one of the "10 books" with this http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/ls ... sheet.html. hopefully i won't need to because i started out trying to break up the 10 book and it IS a lot of work--i just gave up. i feel like my time is better spent studying than looking up question types.

Do they give good advice for each type of the LR questions? There are a lot of types and I feel that LR is the most important with two sections scored, so I'm going to invest a lot of time during the summer on this section.

So sorry for the late response socalstudent! I just saw your question now. No they don't give any advice for each q type... it's just a workbook of practice sets. You're going to need to get the lrb too.

[abbas123]

I just took a practice test for the first time in over 14 months.

I scored lower than I did on my first diagnostic ever, which was over 19 months ago.

I am not encouraged by this.

youre prob just rusty, dont worry youll get it back. keep at it!

[jr1886]

Retakers: when are you all planning to begin studying? Doing anything different this time around?

The only thing different this time is i'm seriously committed to studying. First take, I had 3 months to study but
was working 30hrs weekly and going to school full time. I only did 3-4 full pts before the Test. This time around, I started studying since March 22nd, 4hrs every day except sunday (1hr)=25 hrs weekly. I finished the Bible and feeling good about Games and now working on LR Bible and practicing with the Kaplan Mastery big book. I plan to start taking PT's June 1rst and take Testmasters class in July. Good luck everyone!
I have kept a weekly post here http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... &sk=t&sd=a about what i'm doing to prepare for the October test so visit me there and post comments.

[hotdog123]

My gameplan:

Powerscore bibles -- one chapter per night -- should have them finished by the end of June

After that it's one PT a week for the next 15 weeks, with nightly review of the errors I made on that week's PT all the way up until test day.