Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT... Forum

[OnceLost]

1) 174
2) 10 Next Actual, Official LSATs, Logic Games book
3) None
4) For about two months before the Dec. LSAT, I took one full, timed LSAT every weekend. As the test moved closer, I took several tests during the week. I also spent some extra time working out of the logic games book during the week.
5) At least 8
6) Slow down a little bit. I am a very fast reader and finished each of the sections with several minutes to spare. I should have done a better job of marking questions that I had difficulty with so I could go back and review them.
7) Be confident and talk yourself up. Mutter smack talk to your test while the proctor is giving the instructions. It helped boost the "attack the test" mentality for me. Definitely, definitely practice the way you want to play. Use the same analog wrist watch, take the same bathroom break, and (if possible) practice your tests at the same time as the actual test. You want as little to be different when you sit down for real as possible.

[Lilith]

1) 174
2) 10 Next Actual, Official LSATs, Logic Games book
3) None
4) For about two months before the Dec. LSAT, I took one full, timed LSAT every weekend. As the test moved closer, I took several tests during the week. I also spent some extra time working out of the logic games book during the week.
5) At least 8
6) Slow down a little bit. I am a very fast reader and finished each of the sections with several minutes to spare. I should have done a better job of marking questions that I had difficulty with so I could go back and review them.
7) Be confident and talk yourself up. Mutter smack talk to your test while the proctor is giving the instructions. It helped boost the "attack the test" mentality for me. Definitely, definitely practice the way you want to play. Use the same analog wrist watch, take the same bathroom break, and (if possible) practice your tests at the same time as the actual test. You want as little to be different when you sit down for real as possible.

Will you take my test for me?

[spanktheduck]

1) What score did you get?
canceled the first time (Oct), second time 170 (Dec)

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Powerscroe, LRB and LGB

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
Prior to my canceled test probably about a month, maybe a month and a half, mainly during school. Tried to do at least fifteen hours a week. Also did a lot fair amount of test sections during class (outside of the 15 hours). For my retake I only took 2 preptests prior to the test.

5) How many preptests did you do?
Around 30/35

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
I would study for longer prior to my first test and not stress out about it as much on test day.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
Do anything you need to relax prior to test day, take the week off, hang out with friends (soberly), etc... Do not freak out it will hurt you. I canceled my test because I was stressed out. My second test I was relaxed and did awesome. Also in case some are wondering my cold test at the beginning was 161.

[stavand]

I scored a 172

My Kaplan diagnostic, which i took without any prep whatsoever and for free, scored at a 159.

I used a private tutor, who while expensive, had a very intense approach to taking the LSAT

He used problems from other standardized tests, like GRE, to get me in the mindset of the LSAT games. He did this so i didn't waste my initial prep on actual LSAT questions

After that, I took every prep test since 1991. I studied from April until October, when I took my first test. I scored a 180 or 179 in all the 1991 tests, but as they got harder, my scores went down. My lowest score ever on a practice lsat, other than the kaplan, was a 167. My highest score on the modern era of LSAT was a 177

When I took the October test, I cancelled mid test because I knew I had missed a rule on one of the games, and that if I had done such, I knew I wouldn't score as high as I could.

I then took a 2 month study break from the LSAT, before studying again with some supplemental material. I took the December test, got a 172, and kept the score.

[erpguy]

1) What score did you get?
176

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Kaplan comprehensive LSAT, Kaplan LSAT 180
I used the first book to get used to the test initially (and take the full length tests included). The second book was bought on a whim as a confidence booster. Hey, it has a catchy name. Ultimately I didn't find the second book that useful, because the problems they made up for it were too complex and twisted on purpose and did not match up very well to the difficulty and style of the actual test problems.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
I was originally going to take the June 2007 LSAT and I barely studied for that one.. maybe blasted through half of the first Kaplan book haphazardly. Then a family emergency forced me to reschedule and delay till September. The silver lining in that cloud was that I somehow felt responsible for making the most of a chance handed to me by fate, so I found myself studying with renewed vigor and intensity.

I went ahead and purchased preptests 46-51 (which should be Feb 2007 if I'm not mistaken) for my final practice, and also got the most recent 10 preptest compilation, "The Next 10 Actual Official LSAT PrepTests".

Starting a month before the test, I started doing the problems in the books on a daily basis. When it was about 20 days before the test, I began my preptest-a-day practice. I took all the preptests in a big chunk of time as if it was the actual test. Since I work full time, I had to take them at night except for on weekends when I could take them in the morning. I saved the most recent ones for the last, since I figured it would be most similar to the actual one. Since I had 16 tests to do and 20 days, this gave me a little bit of breathing room for the few days before the test. I took my final practice, 51, two days before the actual test, and then did nothing of any use whatsoever the day right before just to relax and refocus..

5) How many preptests did you do?
about 19 if you include the full tests included in the book I used. I think there was one overlap at some point but I had forgotten the answers to those questions by the time I redid them anyway.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
Amusingly enough, I would have practiced writing by hand more often. That statement that you have to write before you take the actual test made my hand cramp up because I am a software developer and have been typing exclusively for upwards of ten years. I blame at least a few of my mistakes on the lasting mental duress caused by using a pencil to construct letters and words manually. In cursive, no less.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
When you are taking preptests, set a timer so you know what the real test speed needs to be. It's important to go back and understand each question and answer after the fact, but during the actual practice, it's also very valuable to understand how to pace yourself. I actually started doing sections on a 30 minute timer rather than 35 minutes just to get my speed up. It definitely helps during the real test, because you don't have to rush if you're accustomed to finishing more than five minutes in advance, and small timing gaffs on the part of the proctors / other test day mishaps won't trip you up.

[Tex_Mex13]

That statement that you have to write before you take the actual test

WHAT STATEMENT!?!?

[erpguy]

Sorry, didn't mean to cause alarm. It's a paragraph that says you are who you are and you're not going to cheat on the LSAT. You're just supposed to copy it by hand, that's all. Sadly, it was really enough to tire out my hand. And yes, the actual written part of the LSAT at the end was complete torture.

Luckily they don't grade on penmanship.

[Lyrrad]

Sorry, didn't mean to cause alarm. It's a paragraph that says you are who you are and you're not going to cheat on the LSAT. You're just supposed to copy it by hand, that's all. Sadly, it was really enough to tire out my hand. And yes, the actual written part of the LSAT at the end was complete torture.

Luckily they don't grade on penmanship.

Heh, the writing sample was the most tiring and draining part of my test too

[lawz]

Some advice to add about the games section:
I started off with terrible games scores and ended up scoring pretty much perfect every time.

The Secret: I would make 5 or more copies of a games section.. do it once in the 35 minutes.. bomb it...review it.. put it aside... watch TV.. go back to a clean copy of the SAME section. Do it again. bomb it.. review it.. look at new ways to do the diagrams.. analyze all the questions.. why did I get this right.. why did I get this wrong and how do I get the right answer (notice I say HOW do I get the right answer not What is the right answer).. put is aside.. watch TV...come back and do another clean copy of the section (always under actual time constraints).. then review it again.. and keep doing this until I aced that section. Make sure you are not just memorizing that (c) is the right answer for question 10. even if you remember what the answer is do the question.. draw the diagram etc... once you have done this so you can Ace 5 or 6 or 20 games sections you will have pretty much mastered the LSAT games section. There are only so many types of games on the test and once you master them you're set. They can change the Apples to Oranges or Fish but you still know the basic structure and techniques.

Once caveat.. courses and text books can help you to get the right techniques and diagrams for this...but use them as a supplement to this method and you might see your games score improve dramatically.

[rmyoun06]

1) What score did you get? 171

2) What books did you use? None, just copies of old LSAT tests.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? While working as a substitute teacher

5) How many preptests did you do? MANY. My studying just consisted of taking endless prep tests.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again? I'm not sure.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions. My method may not have been perfect. The first time I sat down to study, I just took a test cold, and my score was 169. Two points seems like a crappy gain (although I did raise my average score on the practice tests significantly). Maybe those "Princeton" strategies and whatnot really work.

NOTE: MAKE SURE you bubble in your answers correctly. I missed some questions that I should have gotten correct because they couldn't tell what I had bubbled in.

[twinkletoes]

1) What score did you get?
173

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Testmasters

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
Testmasters, full length

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
Studied for two months - December and January - before the Feb test. Most studying done for 4 weeks over winter break, last two weeks of studying overlapped with the beginning of the semester.

5) How many preptests did you do?
about 12?

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
I might not take the february test - the timing worked out great since I had winter break to study, and now I have it out of the way - however, not knowing what I missed (feb tests are never disclosed), is really bugging me. Also, if I had felt I needed a retake it would have been frustrating to not know what I got wrong. I also feel like I may be out of luck for a lot of the fee waivers offered to june and sept test takers.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
If you start out scoring pretty high, which I did (high 160s), I don't know how much a course is worth it. I liked that testmasters offered diagnostic tests that simulated real testing environments, including a fifth section, and I also liked all the resources they provided us - the way the books were organized, the additional online resources, etc. However, I don't know how much their techniques actually helped - you may be able to find the same in the power score bibles. The most important thing is PRACTICE...it took me awhile to get over the 170 hump, and there's really nothing you can do but keep doing problems. I saved most of my full length LSATs for the last 3 weeks of studying, aside from the proctored testmasters diagnostics. That way I fully had my technique down, and was able to focus on problem areas before seeing how I would actually do on tests.

one other thing, i don't know if this is controllable - but don't freak out on test day or the night before! just believe in yourself and know that you're ready.

[nvoight911]

1) What score did you get? 160

2) What books did you use? LG Bible, LR Bible, Ultimate Setups Guide, LSAT Superprep

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? About three months, while attending school

5) How many preptests did you do? 25

6) What would you change if you were to do it again? Take even more preptests

[joonbug]

What score did you get? 175.

Advice? Believe in yourself.

[00TREX00]

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[ajoyce1985]

...

[crossedfingers]

1) What score did you get? 176

2) What books did you use? outdated Kaplan, some LG book by hi-scoring HLS students, 10 real LSATS, next 10 real LSATS

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? 2.5 weeks, working full-time

5) How many preptests did you do? 3 full, at least 10 LG sections

6) What would you change if you were to do it again? Get a current Kaplan book. The actual LSAT was the first time I had seen the new Reading Comp with the comparative passages. Not a welcomed surprise.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions. Focus on weak points; do at least 2 tests under real conditions; good sleep/nutrition; don't give up points b/c of exhaustion; develop a pacing strategy that works for you; don't freak out when you get stumped on a game...do the other ones first and return to it with a clear head; if you're competitive think of the process as a contest against everyone else taking the test (which it is). Good luck!

[goose22j]

1) What score did you get?
173

2) What books did you use? Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, and very briefly used a couple Kaplan books

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)?
None, but I did do two hours of tutoring with a Princeton review genius (who is on his way to Harvard) to polish up on Logic Game techniques. VERY HELPFUL!!

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions?
working full time, probably 5 hours/week

5) How many preptests did you do? about 20

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
wouldn't have bought the Kaplan books

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
None

[bmphelps]

I just took the my first LSAT exam cold at Kaplan testing center. I scored a 157, and the proctor (salesman) at Kaplan told me that he thought I could score in at least the 85th - 90th percentile by either prepping really well or (surprise) taking a Kaplan course.

He also told us all that by scoring high, we could be offered full scholarships or partial scholarships in schools of our choice. In essence, I think what he was getting at was that spending the 1300 bucks was a good investment, if thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars of tuition would be waived.

I've just read posts from numerous people on this forum, who have all scored in the top 95 - 99th percentile. Were any of you offered full scholarships to good schools?

I am married and work full time. I just finished graduate school. My plan is not to go to Yale, but to continue my education in a field of study in which I know I would excel. I have a Master's degree in HR and would love to have a private practice some day in employment/labor law. Or, to work for a large corporation in their legal dept - I have no designs whatsoever on becoming a trial lawyer or some such.

Hence, why my VERY first step in possibly applying to law school was to spend 4 hours taking an LSAT prep test with no prep whatsoever.

However, the whole point of this post (sorry for the length) is to find out if in fact I could get my tuition paid for by scoring in the top 95th percentile. For that, I would buy some books and take as many prep tests as I can before the actual test in June.

Otherwise, I will find some free info online, improve my score a couple of points to be "adequate", take my undergraduate and graduate GPA (I've already been told they'd ensure my place as a priority candidate) to the local night law school in the San Joaquin Valley and move on. But, if I could get a free education, I would do whatever it took to make that happen...

[Gators08]

I got a 174 which was good for full at Vandy, WashU St. Louis, and George Washington with over half at Duke. Don't think I'm going to any of those schools, but it's certainly reasonable to think you could get significant money.

And I also have friends with lower numbers (but still 90+ percentile, 168ish) who have full at WashU and GW with significant money at Vandy.

[bruinbear]

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
Amusingly enough, I would have practiced writing by hand more often. That statement that you have to write before you take the actual test made my hand cramp up because I am a software developer and have been typing exclusively for upwards of ten years. I blame at least a few of my mistakes on the lasting mental duress caused by using a pencil to construct letters and words manually. In cursive, no less.

that was the hardest part of the test! i hadnt written in cursive since elementary... was not cool trying to remember how to write some captial letters in cursive :/

[breanne2011]

I just took the my first LSAT exam cold at Kaplan testing center. I scored a 157, and the proctor (salesman) at Kaplan told me that he thought I could score in at least the 85th - 90th percentile by either prepping really well or (surprise) taking a Kaplan course.

He also told us all that by scoring high, we could be offered full scholarships or partial scholarships in schools of our choice. In essence, I think what he was getting at was that spending the 1300 bucks was a good investment, if thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars of tuition would be waived.

I've just read posts from numerous people on this forum, who have all scored in the top 95 - 99th percentile. Were any of you offered full scholarships to good schools?

I am married and work full time. I just finished graduate school. My plan is not to go to Yale, but to continue my education in a field of study in which I know I would excel. I have a Master's degree in HR and would love to have a private practice some day in employment/labor law. Or, to work for a large corporation in their legal dept - I have no designs whatsoever on becoming a trial lawyer or some such.

Hence, why my VERY first step in possibly applying to law school was to spend 4 hours taking an LSAT prep test with no prep whatsoever.

However, the whole point of this post (sorry for the length) is to find out if in fact I could get my tuition paid for by scoring in the top 95th percentile. For that, I would buy some books and take as many prep tests as I can before the actual test in June.

Otherwise, I will find some free info online, improve my score a couple of points to be "adequate", take my undergraduate and graduate GPA (I've already been told they'd ensure my place as a priority candidate) to the local night law school in the San Joaquin Valley and move on. But, if I could get a free education, I would do whatever it took to make that happen...

If you're in the 95-99th%, you will absolutely get a good amount of $$ somewhere. How much and at how good a school depends on 1) where you fall in that % range, and 2) your GPA.

If you crack 170 and you have above a 3.0, it is almost certain that you will get a free ride somewhere (at least for your first year--some scholarships are contingent on you remaining in the top 1/3, 1/2, etc. of the class). Check out http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com if you haven't already. It'll give you a better idea of what you can expect at certain schools.

[180Splitter]

1) What score did you get?

180.

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

I started with Kaplan Complete (very incomplete, but simple and a decent introduction to the lsat) and the Kaplan logic games book (an OK book). I then studied the Kaplan 180 book (the logical reasoning section is a total waste but the games are good practice and the reading comp is OK). After that, I took ~25 practice tests and reviewed every problem I missed at *great* length but my score was fluctuating wildly all over the 170's so I buckled down and took Blueprint. Blueprint helped me by giving me methods to more quickly answer questions I was already getting right so I had lots of time for hard questions. It also helped me focus and kept me doing a lot of practice problems.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

Blueprint full length.

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

I studied during the summer on my own and then took blueprint full time, doing most of the homework.

5) How many preptests did you do?

Around 30 total, ~25 on my own and ~5 with Blueprint.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

I would have taken blueprint from the beginning and added a fake experimental section before every practice test to replicate real conditions. I only did that occasionally. On some practice tests, I checked my answers after every section (giving myself a small break). Not surprisingly, I did better than average on those! Practice tests really ought to resemble the real thing in every way.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Preparing for the LSAT tests not just your intelligence, but your character. Do you have the integrity to never, ever stop reviewing every question you missed until you understand why you missed it and will never miss a similar question again? Will you be honest with yourself and take practice tests under realistic conditions, with three sections in a row, followed by a short break and two sections? Do you take the time to bubble in the answers as part of your 35 minutes per section? You aren't giving yourself extra time, right? Right!

The week before the test, I got up at the same time I would on test day and ate breakfast.

The day before the test, I drove the route to the testing center as if it were the day of the test. I went to a room at the center and sat down in a chair, and thought about coming in the next day and getting a 180.

I don't drink caffeine and didn't before the test. I did pack a survival kit with many pencils, sharpeners, Powerade, and Snickers marathon bars.

You too can do well on the LSAT. Take it seriously, as your best score will get you into a better school than your mediocre score or get you scholarships where you were already planning on going.

[lsatnotes.com]

wow.. test prep companies really have a great marketing team.

[180Splitter]

wow.. test prep companies really have a great marketing team.

I don't work for Blueprint. I can tell you I have heard good things about testmasters, from whom Blueprint allegedly stole their program. For the extremely self-motivated, there are the massive powerscore bibles but I wouldn't have done as well with those since it would have been too much for me on my own.

I hope people can take my experience for what its worth.

[jgarr]

(5) Cut every single problem you miss on your daily test out of the LSAT book and save it. Review these missed problems often. Analyze the missed problems for trends. Refer back to the PowerScore books on problem types you have issue with. You must find where your mistakes are and correct them.

174...I think this is really good advice. I didn't do it, but the only way to improve once you get scores around 170, is to figure out exactly what is tripping you up on certain problems and correct it. And I also agree that Prenceton Review and other courses (I took testmasters, but it was really only an expensive way to get examples for me) are useless if you are scoring 165+ early on.