Advice on Prep Forum

[pbutta123]

I've taken the LSAT twice so this is my last attempt. I hit 160's before and I, not only want, but must have 175+!
Here's where I'm at... I plan to take the test again June 2011.
January: I bought the Powerscore Bible for LG, LR and RC and did every question and read every page during the month. Roughly a book a week supplemented by practicing on the appropriate test sections.
February I started taking untimed test 2-3 times a week and scoring 170-180 (pretty easy without time obviously)
Now it is March. I'm taking tests every Tuesday and Thursday TIMED. MWF Ill review my powerscore books for stuff I'm messing up on.
I've noticed that my LG is basically perfect now (before I used to miss 10-12 now its 0-2).
My LR fluctuates. I miss all the way from 6-0!!! I notice I never miss the first 14-15 questions but question 20-26 I really suffer for time and answer. SUGGESTIONS?
For RC I miss 0-3. I think the only thing that holds me back a lot are the science ones somehow confuse me everytime. Im a classics major...maybe that's why. That and sometimes I need more time. SUGGESTIONS?

I plan to continue taking 2-3 tests a week until the test. Is that sufficient?
I only do four sections now but start April I plan to increase to five to emulate the experimental. Should I do more than that just to raise my mental endurance?
Any help is appreciated. I know this is a longer post, with possibly extraneous info.

BTW, what do you people think about taking the same LSAT practice test twice since they are only so many printed and distributed...?

[Kurst]

LR tips: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4#p3377198
RC: Try the Atlas/Manhattan LSAT RC guide, it's reviewed more favorably on TLS than the RC bible (the latter is garbage). RC tips: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p3370904

StanleyOttoSwift recommended taking each preptest twice: once timed, and thereafter untimed, without reviewing the answers until the untimed test is complete.

2-3 tests a week (especially if you're doing them twice each) is plenty. For endurance, adding not only a fifth section but also a sixth may make this June's five-section test seem easy by comparison. TLS1776 even recommends taking two 4-section tests consecutively:

Taking Two PTs back-to-back - Several high scorers recommended this, so I tried it when I was retaking PTs at the very end of my prep. I definitely think it helped; after taking 8 sections with a 20 minute break, the real test felt like a breeze. I definitely never felt fatigued, which is something others complain about.

[bhan87]

Regarding taking tests back to back, I found it helpful to make a test I've already done as the second test. This allows you to build stamina, but doesn't force you to use up another test to do so. For those wanting to score high, redoing LSAT problems is an absolute must, so why not retake one right after taking a full test?

[Nyx]

I'm not sure how much I can help but I will give it a shot. My original diagnostic was an (untimed, took me at least 3.5 hours) 158 and I was able to improve to a 174 on test day. If you are able to get high scores untimed I feel that you are definitely capable of doing so under time constraints

For your LR I would recommend trying the 15 in 15 rule that I originally read about somewhere on this forum. Try to get through the first 15 questions in 15 minutes every time. If you make a habit of this, you will have the last 20 minutes to work on the hardest 10 or 11 questions and then go back and review if you have time. Learning to do this helped me immensely and I was able to finish early enough on test day to review the questions I had marked as unsure and change the answers for some of them that I had answered wrong. The other thing I would really stress is to review all LR questions after you write practice tests and for any you got wrong and/or marked as unsure, examine the question until you understand why the right answer is right and the wrong answer is wrong and write a little note about it in the margin.

As for adding extra sections to preptests, I would recommend adding a 5th section of whatever you tend to be weakest at (I added LG sections every time, even ones that I had done previously, and I feel that this still helped). Try to review your prep tests in full and find some way of reviewing your mistakes and weaknesses periodically, for me what worked was highlighting questions I answered wrong (along with the credited response) and marking questions I was unsure about with red pen, and then every once and a while I would review these questions from old prep tests.

I wish I had good advice for RC but I found this to be a difficult section to master and it sounds like you are doing quite well in it already.

Lastly, this might sound silly, but try to set up a strict sleeping schedule, eat healthy, and generally take extra good care of yourself and see if this helps with your scores and general mood etc, you might be surprised.

Best of luck!

[Jeffort]

I'm not sure how much I can help but I will give it a shot. My original diagnostic was an (untimed, took me at least 3.5 hours) 158 and I was able to improve to a 174 on test day. If you are able to get high scores untimed I feel that you are definitely capable of doing so under time constraints

For your LR I would recommend trying the 15 in 15 rule that I originally read about somewhere on this forum. Try to get through the first 15 questions in 15 minutes every time. If you make a habit of this, you will have the last 20 minutes to work on the hardest 10 or 11 questions and then go back and review if you have time. Learning to do this helped me immensely and I was able to finish early enough on test day to review the questions I had marked as unsure and change the answers for some of them that I had answered wrong. The other thing I would really stress is to review all LR questions after you write practice tests and for any you got wrong and/or marked as unsure, examine the question until you understand why the right answer is right and the wrong answer is wrong and write a little note about it in the margin.

As for adding extra sections to preptests, I would recommend adding a 5th section of whatever you tend to be weakest at (I added LG sections every time, even ones that I had done previously, and I feel that this still helped). Try to review your prep tests in full and find some way of reviewing your mistakes and weaknesses periodically, for me what worked was highlighting questions I answered wrong (along with the credited response) and marking questions I was unsure about with red pen, and then every once and a while I would review these questions from old prep tests.

I wish I had good advice for RC but I found this to be a difficult section to master and it sounds like you are doing quite well in it already.

Lastly, this might sound silly, but try to set up a strict sleeping schedule, eat healthy, and generally take extra good care of yourself and see if this helps with your scores and general mood etc, you might be surprised.

Best of luck!

for the most part. This has lots of good advice about important things that influence ultimate performance on test day.

However, remain a bit flexible about the do the first 15 LR questions in 15 minutes suggestion. In LR sections on all released tests there are several high difficulty rated problems within that range, typically with one or two really hard ones (meaning that a low percentage of test takers select the credited answer) in the ~#9 to #13 range.

I'm not a fan of strict 'one size fits all' general rules for timing, but if forced to choose between two options I would say go with the first 10 in 10 rule over the first 15 in 15 rule since there is always at least one really hard show stopper LR question, sometimes two for a tag team ambush, between #9 and #13.

[Nyx]

for the most part. This has lots of good advice about important things that influence ultimate performance on test day.

However, remain a bit flexible about the do the first 15 LR questions in 15 minutes suggestion. In LR sections on all released tests there are several high difficulty rated problems within that range, typically with one or two really hard ones (meaning that a low percentage of test takers select the credited answer) in the ~#9 to #13 range.

I'm not a fan of strict 'one size fits all' general rules for timing, but if forced to choose between two options I would say go with the first 10 in 10 rule over the first 15 in 15 rule since there is always at least one really hard show stopper LR question, sometimes two for a tag team ambush, between #9 and #13.

This is definitely great advice. I didn't follow the rule "strictly", rather tried to use it as a guide (so if I was a little behind I would try to push myself to catch up). When hard questions come up in the first 15 I think that knowing you answered them right will usually help more than having them done quickly. The first 10 in 10 sounds like it might be a better way to go, I never thought of that