Anyone studying NOW for next Octobers LSAT? Forum

[Easy-E]

I am currently in the middle of the lsat blog 7 month schedule (i paid for the day by day, which i would recommend) and i think it is a great system so far. i've raised my diagnostic 10 points thus far (158-168), and definitely feel like the schedule has helped. personally, i like having what needs to be done spelled out, and the guide is very good at making sure you don't get burned out (the early months aren't the most time consuming i found), and if you want to take a week off for w/e reason it is very easy to get caught up, and if you're so inclined you can throw in a PT here or there. at the same time, however, it is very thorough, and i found some of his articles to be extremely helpful. so i'd recommend it thus far, but will be able to say more in june. hope this helps, if you have any other questions about the guide i'd be happy to answer them

Like I said, I plan on doing the six month plan, with some extra PTs thrown in early on like you said. I was somewhat interested in the day-by-day plan to accompany the free one. I like how despite being a fairly extended prep schedule, it still ends with an intense month of near constant full-length testing.

What does the day-by-day plan offer in addition to the monthly plan? I'm not asking for any of the paid information obviously, but does it offer more explanations or just elaborations on the weekly plans? I'm still confused on the whole idea of repeating past problems.

How do you find his articles cooperating with the stuff from the LG/LR Bibles and SuperPrep? Is the info generally compatable, or are you finding yourself choosing between things like diagramming methods?

That was alot of questions, sorry

[maxpower430]

I am currently in the middle of the lsat blog 7 month schedule (i paid for the day by day, which i would recommend) and i think it is a great system so far. i've raised my diagnostic 10 points thus far (158-168), and definitely feel like the schedule has helped. personally, i like having what needs to be done spelled out, and the guide is very good at making sure you don't get burned out (the early months aren't the most time consuming i found), and if you want to take a week off for w/e reason it is very easy to get caught up, and if you're so inclined you can throw in a PT here or there. at the same time, however, it is very thorough, and i found some of his articles to be extremely helpful. so i'd recommend it thus far, but will be able to say more in june. hope this helps, if you have any other questions about the guide i'd be happy to answer them

Like I said, I plan on doing the six month plan, with some extra PTs thrown in early on like you said. I was somewhat interested in the day-by-day plan to accompany the free one. I like how despite being a fairly extended prep schedule, it still ends with an intense month of near constant full-length testing.

What does the day-by-day plan offer in addition to the monthly plan? I'm not asking for any of the paid information obviously, but does it offer more explanations or just elaborations on the weekly plans? I'm still confused on the whole idea of repeating past problems.

How do you find his articles cooperating with the stuff from the LG/LR Bibles and SuperPrep? Is the info generally compatable, or are you finding yourself choosing between things like diagramming methods?

That was alot of questions, sorry

not a problem at all, anyone with a gob tar is alright in my book.

from what i remember of the free plan, he essentially advocates, for example, doing all games of a relevant type and using the bible for those types as well. the day by day plan is just more detailed, i.e. if it is the week to do grouping games, he'd say do these games, located from these tests and the specific page number. it's the same for the LR, in that one week you're supposed to do say, weaken questions, so you'd read the bible and then he'd give you the specific location of 13 weaken questions, which you then do and review. i found this to be very helpful, since it is relatively exhaustive, and i think it's a good way to conserve the preptests (you only draw questions from roughly 5 for LR) and b/c it just makes it a little easier to get to studying.

i believe the idea behind repeating past problems is that you want to master the concepts and also get a feel for the types of questions that you'd encounter in new games. it also helps with diagramming, b/c you'll often see new inferences that you may not have the first time and to get more comfortable in general.

hmm well as far as logical reasoning goes, his guide is completely compatible with the bible since he only has a few articles of his own on the subject, and generally advocates reading the chapter for w/e problem type you are on. as for games, he agrees with some of the bible, but not for grouping/sequencing if i remember right. i actually found his methods to be a lot more intuitive for those games, but he by no means forces you to do it that way. i'd just check out his methods, compare with the bibles and then go with whichever you feel more comfortable with, esp since after the beginning it's more just drilling the games and review. hope this helps.

[sch6les]

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[Easy-E]

not a problem at all, anyone with a gob tar is alright in my book.

from what i remember of the free plan, he essentially advocates, for example, doing all games of a relevant type and using the bible for those types as well. the day by day plan is just more detailed, i.e. if it is the week to do grouping games, he'd say do these games, located from these tests and the specific page number. it's the same for the LR, in that one week you're supposed to do say, weaken questions, so you'd read the bible and then he'd give you the specific location of 13 weaken questions, which you then do and review. i found this to be very helpful, since it is relatively exhaustive, and i think it's a good way to conserve the preptests (you only draw questions from roughly 5 for LR) and b/c it just makes it a little easier to get to studying.

i believe the idea behind repeating past problems is that you want to master the concepts and also get a feel for the types of questions that you'd encounter in new games. it also helps with diagramming, b/c you'll often see new inferences that you may not have the first time and to get more comfortable in general.

hmm well as far as logical reasoning goes, his guide is completely compatible with the bible since he only has a few articles of his own on the subject, and generally advocates reading the chapter for w/e problem type you are on. as for games, he agrees with some of the bible, but not for grouping/sequencing if i remember right. i actually found his methods to be a lot more intuitive for those games, but he by no means forces you to do it that way. i'd just check out his methods, compare with the bibles and then go with whichever you feel more comfortable with, esp since after the beginning it's more just drilling the games and review. hope this helps.

Haha always good to see gob appreciation.

I think the idea of him pointing out the exact problems is a pretty big selling point for me. I was thinking that browsing through the games to categorize them would someone spoil them to some degree, in the sense that you're looking at them prior to starting on them. Plus, the amount of information he offers for free in addition to the extras makes it well worth the price tag. I think I might invest in the day-by-day schedule, thanks for the info!

oh, can I ask what your materials list is like, aside from the LR and LG bibles of course

[polevaulter]

I am currently in the middle of the lsat blog 7 month schedule (i paid for the day by day, which i would recommend) and i think it is a great system so far. i've raised my diagnostic 10 points thus far (158-168), and definitely feel like the schedule has helped. personally, i like having what needs to be done spelled out, and the guide is very good at making sure you don't get burned out (the early months aren't the most time consuming i found), and if you want to take a week off for w/e reason it is very easy to get caught up, and if you're so inclined you can throw in a PT here or there. at the same time, however, it is very thorough, and i found some of his articles to be extremely helpful. so i'd recommend it thus far, but will be able to say more in june. hope this helps, if you have any other questions about the guide i'd be happy to answer them

I bought the 4 month day-by-schedule myself. It definitely is VERY, VERY detailed...are you following it to a tee? I basically want to just utilize the Powerscore Bibles, all my of PT's and the SuperPrep. Do you really need to sit there and do all that extra stuff (ie. his blog readings, his other posts and links, etc.)?

FYI: my diagnostic was 165.

[maxpower430]

my materials are the bibles, superprep, the 3 "10 lsat" series books (i believe you can get away with not using the first one, but i had already bought it and i just use it as additional tests to take when the sched is lighter), and i'm in the process of acquiring all of the preptests after 38 and i believe that's it.

i am pretty much following it to a tee, though when i was printing out everything i accidentally skipped over a few of them. i wouldn't say they're totally necessary, esp if your diagnostic is that high, tho it couldn't hurt if they have to do with any of your weak points. also they're generally pretty short, don't think they'd take more than 15 minutes to read any one and usually they're shorter. as i said before, i'd recommend the articles on grouping/sequencing b/c i like his way of diagramming but that's just personal preference. i'm not familiar with the 4 month one, but i wouldn't think you'd need to do the games he wrote, i thought he put them in as much b/c there's a limited supply of games and over the course of 7 months you wouldnt want to run out. if you wanted to just focus on the bibles/drilling/pts i think you'd be fine however, esp if you're feeling pressed for time.

[polevaulter]

my materials are the bibles, superprep, the 3 "10 lsat" series books (i believe you can get away with not using the first one, but i had already bought it and i just use it as additional tests to take when the sched is lighter), and i'm in the process of acquiring all of the preptests after 38 and i believe that's it.

i am pretty much following it to a tee, though when i was printing out everything i accidentally skipped over a few of them. i wouldn't say they're totally necessary, esp if your diagnostic is that high, tho it couldn't hurt if they have to do with any of your weak points. also they're generally pretty short, don't think they'd take more than 15 minutes to read any one and usually they're shorter. as i said before, i'd recommend the articles on grouping/sequencing b/c i like his way of diagramming but that's just personal preference. i'm not familiar with the 4 month one, but i wouldn't think you'd need to do the games he wrote, i thought he put them in as much b/c there's a limited supply of games and over the course of 7 months you wouldnt want to run out. if you wanted to just focus on the bibles/drilling/pts i think you'd be fine however, esp if you're feeling pressed for time.

Okay...that sounds good and thanks for the reply I did forget to mention in my previous post that I did buy 2 of the books of 10: prep tests 19-28 and prep tests 29-38.

[Easy-E]

my materials are the bibles, superprep, the 3 "10 lsat" series books (i believe you can get away with not using the first one, but i had already bought it and i just use it as additional tests to take when the sched is lighter), and i'm in the process of acquiring all of the preptests after 38 and i believe that's it.

i am pretty much following it to a tee, though when i was printing out everything i accidentally skipped over a few of them. i wouldn't say they're totally necessary, esp if your diagnostic is that high, tho it couldn't hurt if they have to do with any of your weak points. also they're generally pretty short, don't think they'd take more than 15 minutes to read any one and usually they're shorter. as i said before, i'd recommend the articles on grouping/sequencing b/c i like his way of diagramming but that's just personal preference. i'm not familiar with the 4 month one, but i wouldn't think you'd need to do the games he wrote, i thought he put them in as much b/c there's a limited supply of games and over the course of 7 months you wouldnt want to run out. if you wanted to just focus on the bibles/drilling/pts i think you'd be fine however, esp if you're feeling pressed for time.

Yeah I already bought the first one not realizing it wasn't necessary, but with a longer prep period I doubt I'll have trouble putting it to use. I like your idea of just throwing some full exams in the towards the beginning. Aren't alot of the problem types for the earliest exams no longer in use? Or this inaccurate

[maxpower430]

just from browsing the forum, the general consensus is that logic games were a little harder on the earlier ones, got easier and are getting harder again. anecdotally, i've encountered a few logic games types on the earlier exams that i don't think really get repeated, but other than that they're generally similar and good practice if you have the time. also, i believe that the reading comp from older exams is regarded as easier (newer RCs have comparative sections, and i think are a little more detail oriented, but i haven't done any of the newer ones yet so i'm just going off what i read on tls). as for LR, i haven't read anything one way or another but i think they have the same types of questions, i mean when i did an earlier exam there weren't any questions types that i hadn't encountered before, for what that's worth, but if anyone else could chime in i'd be interested to know how LR has changed over the years.

[Easy-E]

just from browsing the forum, the general consensus is that logic games were a little harder on the earlier ones, got easier and are getting harder again. anecdotally, i've encountered a few logic games types on the earlier exams that i don't think really get repeated, but other than that they're generally similar and good practice if you have the time. also, i believe that the reading comp from older exams is regarded as easier (newer RCs have comparative sections, and i think are a little more detail oriented, but i haven't done any of the newer ones yet so i'm just going off what i read on tls). as for LR, i haven't read anything one way or another but i think they have the same types of questions, i mean when i did an earlier exam there weren't any questions types that i hadn't encountered before, for what that's worth, but if anyone else could chime in i'd be interested to know how LR has changed over the years.

Anything I've heard agrees with what you said. LG changed, then changed again, and RC is harder now. Never heard anything about LR, I can't imagine how much it could change really.


On another note, I just purchased the day-by-day study plans from LSAT Blog. I actually contacted Steve with some questions and concerns and he was very quick to answer, he seems like he's very attentive to the site and its users. He also explained that the premium plans elaborate on uses for the older PTs, which is good because I wasn't exactly sure how to include them effectively.

[lawandi]

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[transcendlimits]

I'm taking the October LSAT
Will start studying in March. I have the Powerscore Logic Reasoning & Games bibles. I will either enroll in Testmasters or Powerscore. Blueprint is too far from me, though I would have enrolled in it if it was closer. The one hour commute to Berkeley or SF is difficult and parking isn't easy to find either.

[ldo5014]

I was curious if anyone is else is preparing this far in advanced. Alot of the study guides I see seem to be geared towards the ~3 month prep period, although the LSAT Blog has 6 and 7 month plans outlined. If you're also prepping now for a relatively far off test, whats your approach, or at least your plan? What materials are you utilizing, what improvements do you hope to make from whatever diagnostic you might have, etc. Part of me is concerned that I'm going to run out of PT's too early on!

I'm in a similar boat. I just did my ran my first test and obtained a diagnostic of 162. I don't know whether this puts me in good shape or not to score 172+, but I have time. I'm just trying to figure out how to most effectively use my time.

From what I've been reading on here, Powerscore LG and LR bibles are the way to go. Couple that with the LSAC Superprep and as many PT as you can find. That's my current plan, but tell me if you have a more well thought out one! I feel like these 50+ PT are going to be the end of me.

[Easy-E]

I was curious if anyone is else is preparing this far in advanced. Alot of the study guides I see seem to be geared towards the ~3 month prep period, although the LSAT Blog has 6 and 7 month plans outlined. If you're also prepping now for a relatively far off test, whats your approach, or at least your plan? What materials are you utilizing, what improvements do you hope to make from whatever diagnostic you might have, etc. Part of me is concerned that I'm going to run out of PT's too early on!

I'm in a similar boat. I just did my ran my first test and obtained a diagnostic of 162. I don't know whether this puts me in good shape or not to score 172+, but I have time. I'm just trying to figure out how to most effectively use my time.

From what I've been reading on here, Powerscore LG and LR bibles are the way to go. Couple that with the LSAC Superprep and as many PT as you can find. That's my current plan, but tell me if you have a more well thought out one! I feel like these 50+ PT are going to be the end of me.

I feel like I've been plugging it alot, but its a great resource, so check out the lsatblog.blogspot for some great study schedules. Theirs also another extensive one by PithyPike stickied on this board, both have been highly recommended from what I can tell.

I'm starting to agree with some people who are strongly against taking a cold diagnostic. I suppose if you took one and score say, 150+ at least you know you grasp the basics, but the thing is the LSAT isn't really a test of material you already know. Everyone responds from some exposure to the test materials, I guess how much you respond is just a function of how hard you work at it.

[legalmo]

I see you guys are planning on studying a few months in advance, but how early is too early? I was thinking of starting this summer and ending when I take the LSAT my junior year (so about a year and a half or so if I take it in June). Is that ridiculous? I'm asking because after reading this thread I realized there are only so many PTs to study from, probably not a year's worth.

After reading so much about time = higher scores I figured there was no way to score below 170 on the real thing.

[Easy-E]

I see you guys are planning on studying a few months in advance, but how early is too early? I was thinking of starting this summer and ending when I take the LSAT my junior year (so about a year and a half or so if I take it in June). Is that ridiculous? I'm asking because after reading this thread I realized there are only so many PTs to study from, probably not a year's worth.

After reading so much about time = higher scores I figured there was no way to score below 170 on the real thing.

It seems like you might run out of materials studying that long. Prior to actually starting to study specifically for the LSAT, I suppose you could take a class on logic and reasoning, read some books on the topic, do Sudoku, but I'm not so sure about over a year of actual prep. I'm can't say it won't work out for sure, but it seems shaky. I'm sure someone will give a better answer than me.

[legalmo]

I see you guys are planning on studying a few months in advance, but how early is too early? I was thinking of starting this summer and ending when I take the LSAT my junior year (so about a year and a half or so if I take it in June). Is that ridiculous? I'm asking because after reading this thread I realized there are only so many PTs to study from, probably not a year's worth.

After reading so much about time = higher scores I figured there was no way to score below 170 on the real thing.

It seems like you might run out of materials studying that long. Prior to actually starting to study specifically for the LSAT, I suppose you could take a class on logic and reasoning, read some books on the topic, do Sudoku, but I'm not so sure about over a year of actual prep. I'm can't say it won't work out for sure, but it seems shaky. I'm sure someone will give a better answer than me.

Yeah I wouldn't want to get burned out either. I'll be starting a philosophy minor next semester, so that should help. Also, since you mentioned Sudoku, though I'm terrible at it (and other puzzles/brainteasers) I am surprisingly good at LG from the random sections I've taken (which its supposed to help with, right?). Usually no more than -5 with no prep, somewhat decent.

[Easy-E]

Question: Does anyone know how much taking the October LSAT will limit the number of schools one can apply for? Or is it a non-issue?

[ldo5014]

Question: Does anyone know how much taking the October LSAT will limit the number of schools one can apply for? Or is it a non-issue?

I've been told it's a non-issue, even if one plants on applying ED. Just be sure to have all of your apps complete and ready to be sent off!

[aspire2more]

I see you guys are planning on studying a few months in advance, but how early is too early? I was thinking of starting this summer and ending when I take the LSAT my junior year (so about a year and a half or so if I take it in June). Is that ridiculous? I'm asking because after reading this thread I realized there are only so many PTs to study from, probably not a year's worth.

After reading so much about time = higher scores I figured there was no way to score below 170 on the real thing.

Yes. Enjoy your summer. FWIW, I started studying in August 2010 and got a 170 on the December 2010 LSAT.

[aspire2more]

I may take the June test as a possible warm-up.

My advice: Don't take any LSAT as a "warm-up". Only take the test if you feel prepared.

+1. If you want a "warm up" Kaplan and Princeton Review both do free test administrations that are proctored similarly to the actual LSAT except without the writing portion. At least in 2010, both companies used different tests, so I took advantage of both of them.

[legalmo]

I see you guys are planning on studying a few months in advance, but how early is too early? I was thinking of starting this summer and ending when I take the LSAT my junior year (so about a year and a half or so if I take it in June). Is that ridiculous? I'm asking because after reading this thread I realized there are only so many PTs to study from, probably not a year's worth.

After reading so much about time = higher scores I figured there was no way to score below 170 on the real thing.

Yes. Enjoy your summer. FWIW, I started studying in August 2010 and got a 170 on the December 2010 LSAT.

Thanks for the hope. I think I'm trying to compensate for not studying for these kinds of tests in high school. What was your diagnostic if you don't mind me asking?

[KevinP]

Count me in. I won't actually do any studying until at least after this quarter for school ends.

[Easy-E]

Count me in. I won't actually do any studying until at least after this quarter for school ends.

Yepp, I'm delaying until my hardest month (March) is over. No sense in neglecting your GPA for LSAT prep. But its close

[ldo5014]

Count me in. I won't actually do any studying until at least after this quarter for school ends.

Yepp, I'm delaying until my hardest month (March) is over. No sense in neglecting your GPA for LSAT prep. But its close

Do you guys think completing just the Superprep before May and studying intensely from May until October will be enough? I'm getting hammered with my senior research and senior design courses.