High LSAT Scorers (170+) How did you Prep? Forum

[VapidP]

If you can shell out the money, shell out for a private tutor. It makes a ton of difference, but they definitely have to be a good one, so look for recommendations from friends, or from college students in the area. I studied for 6 months or so.

I went from a 160 cold to a 175.

[BlackWillHunting]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

[laqueredup]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

I think the main thing to realize is you only have a certain number of practice tests, so limit the amount you take early while just figuring things out so you can use them to fine tune your timing, endurance, and speed later once you have the basic skills and good habits down.

[BlackWillHunting]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

I think the main thing to realize is you only have a certain number of practice tests, so limit the amount you take early while just figuring things out so you can use them to fine tune your timing, endurance, and speed later once you have the basic skills and good habits down.

I'm just planning on using Cambridge Packets and PTs 1-35 for drilling/learning. Then I'm planning on following the 7Sage curriculum and taking 36-80 as full PTs.

[laqueredup]

Good plan, and I'd suggest revisiting the early games for drills when you get towards the 60s and 70s since some of them are more like the new "wierd games"

[BlackWillHunting]

Good plan, and I'd suggest revisiting the early games for drills when you get towards the 60s and 70s since some of them are more like the new "wierd games"

Thanks! I certainly will!

[albanach]

Remember that accuracy should come before speed. Don't worry if you're not finishing in time if you're getting close to perfect on each section.

Once you can get almost everything correct then you can work on speeding up. This goes for every section - once you've mastered LG, speed it up, even if you're still at 40 minutes a section for LR.

[appind]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

your diag is not low. i went from about 130 diag to low 170s on the final real test after a lot of prep. it may take longer for some than others but it can be done.

[20170322]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

your diag is not low. i went from about 130 diag to low 170s on the final real test after a lot of prep. it may take longer for some than others but it can be done.

Holy shit man, props to you.

[BlackWillHunting]

Remember that accuracy should come before speed. Don't worry if you're not finishing in time if you're getting close to perfect on each section.

Once you can get almost everything correct then you can work on speeding up. This goes for every section - once you've mastered LG, speed it up, even if you're still at 40 minutes a section for LR.

Thank you! I will keep that in mind as I begin drilling

[BlackWillHunting]

Love all the advice and inspiring stories.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

It's looking like if I set a realistic test date (June 17' or Sept 17') I should have enough time to get my score where I need it to be. If it takes longer, so be it; though, it seems like most people, on average, take around 9 months to get to the 170s from the 150s.

your diag is not low. i went from about 130 diag to low 170s on the final real test after a lot of prep. it may take longer for some than others but it can be done.

Holy shit man, props to you.

Yes, this is every inspirational. Thank you and congrats!

[Kinch08]

My diagnostic was a 168, only scored a 170 on my first "real" test for a whopping 2 point improvement (I choked), dunno what I got on the December yet but I was PT'ing in around 176-178.

I used the Powerscore games bible to figure out the whole games thing, and other than that I just took a bunch of timed PT's (15 before the first time I took, another 13 before December) and added fifth sections from older tests. Almost all of my improvement has come from getting consistent on LG.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who can improve on LR, and especially for anyone who can seriously improve on RC. It's always seemed to me that it's basically a matter of you have it or you don't, once you figure out how not to make a couple types of dumb mistake.

[Facelessgod]

My diagnostic was a 168, only scored a 170 on my first "real" test for a whopping 2 point improvement (I choked), dunno what I got on the December yet but I was PT'ing in around 176-178.

I used the Powerscore games bible to figure out the whole games thing, and other than that I just took a bunch of timed PT's (15 before the first time I took, another 13 before December) and added fifth sections from older tests. Almost all of my improvement has come from getting consistent on LG.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who can improve on LR, and especially for anyone who can seriously improve on RC. It's always seemed to me that it's basically a matter of you have it or you don't, once you figure out how not to make a couple types of dumb mistake.

Something interesting about RC is I think my college courses really boosted my RC. I'm a Political science major and back when I first started looking at the LSAT during Sophomore year, I was awful at RC. I had trouble focusing on reading the text and often I would read a paragraph and realize I took nothing away from it.

I didn't really focus on the LSAT much until this year (current senior), and without any practicing, RC went so much smoother. Back during sophomore year I was getting around 7-10 wrong per RC section. When I came back to the LSAT my senior year, right from the get go I was consistently only getting 2-4 wrong per section. I definitely think that reading a lot of dense material and building up my mental stamina through my reading intensive courses helped me out.

[Kinch08]

My diagnostic was a 168, only scored a 170 on my first "real" test for a whopping 2 point improvement (I choked), dunno what I got on the December yet but I was PT'ing in around 176-178.

I used the Powerscore games bible to figure out the whole games thing, and other than that I just took a bunch of timed PT's (15 before the first time I took, another 13 before December) and added fifth sections from older tests. Almost all of my improvement has come from getting consistent on LG.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who can improve on LR, and especially for anyone who can seriously improve on RC. It's always seemed to me that it's basically a matter of you have it or you don't, once you figure out how not to make a couple types of dumb mistake.

Something interesting about RC is I think my college courses really boosted my RC. I'm a Political science major and back when I first started looking at the LSAT during Sophomore year, I was awful at RC. I had trouble focusing on reading the text and often I would read a paragraph and realize I took nothing away from it.

I didn't really focus on the LSAT much until this year (current senior), and without any practicing, RC went so much smoother. Back during sophomore year I was getting around 7-10 wrong per RC section. When I came back to the LSAT my senior year, right from the get go I was consistently only getting 2-4 wrong per section. I definitely think that reading a lot of dense material and building up my mental stamina through my reading intensive courses helped me out.

Part of it was probably classes, part of it was probably you're older and more intellectually mature now. My college courses definitely helped me too, but I wouldn't really say they helped me on the LSAT RC section specifically; what they actually did was make me a better reader, and as a better reader I was able to do better on RC. Four years of being a full-time student can definitely make you a better reader--but that's not something you can replicate in 3 or 6 months as part of a test prep program.

I guess one strategy would be to read a bunch of novels and a bunch of dense nonfiction (pop sci stuff/lit crit lite/other stuff that's like the stuff they give you in RC) and write papers on it or whatever independently, to try to get some of that same effect. That sounds intense, but maybe it would be worth a try for someone who was struggling with RC and was really really determined to improve.

[PrezRand]

My diagnostic was a 168, only scored a 170 on my first "real" test for a whopping 2 point improvement (I choked), dunno what I got on the December yet but I was PT'ing in around 176-178.

I used the Powerscore games bible to figure out the whole games thing, and other than that I just took a bunch of timed PT's (15 before the first time I took, another 13 before December) and added fifth sections from older tests. Almost all of my improvement has come from getting consistent on LG.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who can improve on LR, and especially for anyone who can seriously improve on RC. It's always seemed to me that it's basically a matter of you have it or you don't, once you figure out how not to make a couple types of dumb mistake.

I hope this is just your case because you had such a high diagnostic score

[Kinch08]

My diagnostic was a 168, only scored a 170 on my first "real" test for a whopping 2 point improvement (I choked), dunno what I got on the December yet but I was PT'ing in around 176-178.

I used the Powerscore games bible to figure out the whole games thing, and other than that I just took a bunch of timed PT's (15 before the first time I took, another 13 before December) and added fifth sections from older tests. Almost all of my improvement has come from getting consistent on LG.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who can improve on LR, and especially for anyone who can seriously improve on RC. It's always seemed to me that it's basically a matter of you have it or you don't, once you figure out how not to make a couple types of dumb mistake.

I hope this is just your case because you had such a high diagnostic score

It may well be. Also, I'm exaggerating a bit--on LR especially, I definitely improved as I studied. My point, I guess, is that a lot of the low-hanging fruit for me has been figuring out how not to make mistakes, rather than how to get questions that I "legitimately" missed. When I "study" an RC question that I missed, my reaction is usually either "oh, duh," or "Well, that's bullshit. Terrible question."