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My prep history looks a bit like this:

March 2012 - June 2012: Maybe 5-7 hours per week.
July 2012 - August 2012: Took a course that was ~16 hours per week. Did ~5 hours per week outside of class.
September 2012: Maybe 5-10 hours per week.
October 2012: Nothing.
November 2012: Have been trying to do ~2 hours per day since mid-November.

I scored 157 on my first test before any prep. I went through the Logic Game Bible and Logical Reasoning Bible a while ago and briefly scanned the Manhattan Reading Comprehension Guide. I went through the first six chapters of the Manhattan Logical Reasoning Guide recently but didn't really find it helpful. Other than that, I have been using practice tests.

I'm consistently practicing between 166-169, with the odd 165.

I'm registered to take the February 2013 test.

I'm consistently -0 or -1 (rare) in LG, with ~7-8 minutes left per section. With LR, it's generally between -2 and -4 per section, with ~3 minutes left per section. With RC, it's more like -7 to -9 per section, with hardly any time left per section.

I want to make the most of the time I have left. So:

1) Do you think it's possible to be PTing 170+ before February. I'd like a minimum of 165 on my first try and I know that means I'll probably need to be PTing 170+ prior to test day.

2) How should I prep from now until February? I am on exchange so I only have one "exam" in December. Before the Christmas break, I have to write and essay and study for an exam. I don't really have any other major school commitments until the February test.

All advice is really appreciated. Thanks a lot!

1) Yes

2) How are you approaching RC? Some pretty simple tweaks can really get you some points there. For LR, is there a pattern in the questions you miss? For example, do you seem to grind to a halt every time you see parallel reasoning, or is it spread out over a bunch of different types of games?

ncc5 wrote:1) Yes

2) How are you approaching RC? Some pretty simple tweaks can really get you some points there. For LR, is there a pattern in the questions you miss? For example, do you seem to grind to a halt every time you see parallel reasoning, or is it spread out over a bunch of different types of games?

For LR, usually I just don't read a question/answer choices properly and kick myself during my review of the test.

For RC, I have a lot of trouble with the main point questions (sad, I know). I also have trouble with the attitude/tone questions...and the inference questions, haha. I don't know what it is about RC but sometimes, many of the answer choices look appealing. Often, I can't differentiate between the answer choices for the main point question - they all look to be correct!

Ok, so for LR you need to slow down. I would say at least 10 questions per LR section have choices that could be correct, but one of them misuses a single word in the stem. So for LR I would make sure that you are consciously checking the conclusion of each question (that will pretty much force you to slow down) and you need to start really focusing when a question and answer choices uses words like "most" "some" "all" "not all". Try that out.

For RC, I would recommend getting Manhattan LSAT's RC guide. It's short, only $9.99 if you buy it through amazon (electronic version) and it will give you a game plan when you are reading the passage. If you want to see big improvements, that is where. For now, always try to know what the author thinks, what the purpose of each paragraph of the passage is, and don't put down an answer you are unsure of. The last point will be more helpful when you get a bit faster, but I assure you if you hold to that rule your numer of misses will drop.