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Sorry for grammar mistakes in advance...it's late and i'm tired....My story: I started studying for the LSAT in late march of this year. My diagnostic was a miserable 146. A took a prep course and score a 158 on the June exam....5 points below what I was averaging the weekend before (not happy about that). I started studying for the October exam in July and on my good days I can score 165 and my bad days I score 160. However I have not been able to get higher than 165 on a timed PT. I have exausted my materials from my prep course and I have taken atleast 20 PT's and alot of them were the more recent ones. I tend to do the best on LR. RC is all over the place. And I tend to do terribly on the older games and much better on the newer game ( like 40's and 50's)...which I am excited about. Even with that being said,, I still dont have a relaibale games score I can count on- like atleast -2 on games.

I know I need to master that more recent PT's because the more accuratley reflect what I will be facing in October. The problem is, I have taken most them, And if I havent taken a more recent PT I have still seen much material from those tests.... Would it be advisable to re-take exams?

This is a long rant. Does anyone have any tips or advice. My goal is to be praticing in the low 170's and score 170 or just south of that in October. I know it can be done, but I can't help but feel trapped at the 160-165 range. I feel like If I can get all of my sections to come together, I can do what I need to do. A major problem is that if I do great on one section...another section seems to be messed up and so on and so forth.

I purchased the bibles and have been working through them...but alot of it seems like revirew. I have started doing a PT every 3 days recently. Before then it was more sporadic and seemingly more intense. I also take longer to go over mistakes as well. I understand my mistakes and it all seems like it is just a matter of everything coming together.


Advice, comments,

stories?

Go to bed.

Seriously. The tone of this post makes me think that you are trying so hard that you are stressing out. This will effect your performance badly. You are taking the test in October. Take a couple days off. Then jump back into it. You will find yourself renewed mentally, and perhaps performing better.

All of what I said is even more applicable because of your comment that its just not coming together. This is the thing that a break, not more studying, will solve.

In terms of strategy. Only do real LSAT questions. I went from a 161 to a 167 by switching from fake questions to real questions. Seriously. Fake Questions suck! The bibles are good because they use real questions. If they use real questions, they will state it on the cover, because they paid a LOT for those questions and the right to publish them. Always practice with real questions.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You already improved 12 points. What prep course did you do?

You've maxed out your potential. I'm sorry, but we are not all equal beings. You may go to law school and you may someday be a great lawyer. But if you have expended that amount of time and effort and aren't making more progress, odds are you aren't going to. Relax, and focus on doing the best with what you have. You've already achieved more than most by improving from 146 to 158.

If you're stubborn, at least take a week or so off and let it all settle. There's a reason people take vacations.

Read the Powerscore Bibles and check out some of the guides here. The consensus seems to be that prep courses and their materials are quite overrated, so don't stop there.

Thanks for the replies. I took a Princeton Review course. It was helpful. A lot of people seem to bash them but my experience was fine. You can only expect so much from a course and/or instructor; YOU've got to put in the work. I realized that I need to relax for starters. I am in a much better state of mind.

As for me being maxed out- just call me stubborn ! I refuse to believe that there is such a thing with LSAT prep. While I am half-way joking, I am also somewhat serious. The 170 mark doesn't seem impossible from where I am standing. I can "see it" if it makes sense. Even if I dont get there on test day, I see no reason why I can't improve to the point where I take a PT and score that. I gave the impression that I studied all of July, which after some re-evaluation I maybe studied for 2 weeks in July and I took a week off in August and I didnt touch LSAT prep in June after the exam. So I haven't eat, breathed and live LSAT prep since March. I know of people who put much more time into studying. I've taken a mix recent and really old tests lately which differ alot in the games and LR. That might cause some flucutaion in results between my sections. I've decided that I need to focus on more recent tests. My question is though, If Ive gotten (-4) on LR, (-0) on games and (-3) on RC before, why cant I do it again all at once? These section were all on different tests. I guess my avaerage LR is (-8), RC can be anywhere from (-3 to like -11) and Games can be (-0 to -6). I just seem to lack consistency. Has anyone had this problem?
What should I do?

Maybe I should just stop worrying. I am also addicted to TLS...which doesn't help

Overrated =/= useless. The review course might have been helpful, but there are plenty of other (and arguably better) things you could be doing to supplement your studying. Of course, you'd have no idea if they're better or not because you've only taken a PR course and used their materials.

You came here looking for advice, so here it is:

1) Read the Powerscore LG and LR Bibles ASAP.
2) Make copies of LG game sections and do 2 sections a day along with your regular studying until you're consistently missing no more than 1-2. LG are very learnable, you just need to practice practice practice (and Powerscore will help).
3) Peruse some of the guides on this site with an open mind. Many of the people that knock Princeton Review have tried it, put in the work like you have, and still found that there are much better materials out there. If you're serious about improving, you may want to listen to them.
4) Avoid the "I'll be happy with a score of X" mindset. Just focus on continually improving.

Good luck.

I will keep a more open mind. It can't hurt. Thanks for the advice!