The 160s Club! Join all ye 170 hopefuls! Forum

[LawToMe]

I am beginning to think I am royally screwed for the 26th. I started prepping on earlier PTs and havent been able to start on the newer ones until recently (medical stuff).

I have been owned by both the newer LR and RC. In the 20's PTs i averaged around -4 LR and -2/3 RC, before i really did a lot of my prep stuff.

PT 47 I missed -8 and -6 LR. RC i went -3
PT 55 i just took cause it was laying out - 1st LR -10, RC -7.

Would taking more recent PT's help me get better acquainted? Its really frustrating to be at a place where I thought i could make small improvements to my LR and be getting towards 170... then switch to new PT's and miss 17 question on 1 LR and 1 RC section alone.

First, NEVER start your thoughts with, "I am beginning to think I am royally screwed..."

This test is primarily about your ability to break down and/or assimilate complex information quickly and secondarily (but almost as important) about your ability to control yourself under pressure (thankfully for law schools they can test all of this - as well as your commitment to studying - on one wonderful test).

The language on the LSAT has evolved a bit but the questions aren't testing anything different in the 20's than they are in the 50's. Don't psych yourself out.

Also, don't burn out...could be that you're missing important details on questions because you feel overly familiar with the style. Take a few days off so the questions look new to you again. I've found that I gain as much insight during my days off as I do on my hard study days.

Finally, don't listen to all the meaningless discussion board banter. The difference between a 165 and a 170 is a couple stupid mistakes...the kid in front of you farted...you farted...who cares... If you're capable of a 165 on any given day, you're capable of a 170 on that day.

[ruleser]

June 2005 (pt 46):

RC -2
LR1 -0
LR2 -1
LG -0

Total -3/178

At last broke the 175 barrier. Still have never gone -0 on rc, so that is my mission this next week. I'm shooting for at least a pt 180 now. Hope this is a new level to stay...

[blurbz]

PT 45

170.

This is my first time breaking 170 after starting, two months ago, with a 164 cold diagnostic. I was beginning to think that I couldn't do it and I couldn't be happier about the timing. This score will definitely motivate me over these last two weeks.

Good luck to everyone!

[missvik218]

PT 55 and I were not friends ... strangely I missed 0 on the Chinese talk-story which seemed to have thrown some people. This test was really hard for me though, I could feel myself not being able to focus and I almost ran out of time on every section (except LG, I <3 LG).

PT 55 - October 2008
LG -0 (Experimental)
LR -6 (OUCH, wtf?)
RC -3
LR -2
LG -1

Raw +88
Scaled 167

I really want to be consistently above 170 right now, and strangely it's LR which is throwing me off. I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

[Kulax22]

Did a LR for practice last night, got -5... I need to not practice at all when I'm tired or I feel awful about it

Anyone here especially recommend PT57? Meaning: I could try to order, but probably won't get around to doing all my recent PTs (without rushing some in the evening vs. weekends). Is PT57 "enlightening" in a way others aren't?

[missvik218]

Did a LR for practice last night, got -5... I need to not practice at all when I'm tired or I feel awful about it

Anyone here especially recommend PT57? Meaning: I could try to order, but probably won't get around to doing all my recent PTs (without rushing some in the evening vs. weekends). Is PT57 "enlightening" in a way others aren't?

Well it does have the Dinos game on it which could be a new trend in LG, throwing back to the rare game types on older tests. Other than that I haven't read anything that would make it more valuable for your studying than any other exam mid-40s and beyond.

[insidethetwenty]

Did a LR for practice last night, got -5... I need to not practice at all when I'm tired or I feel awful about it

This. If you are sick/tired/fatigued or otherwise not at the top of your game, you are going to hurt your confidence, because even missing one extra question on all four sections can be the difference between 170 and 167.

[missvik218]

Did a LR for practice last night, got -5... I need to not practice at all when I'm tired or I feel awful about it

This. If you are sick/tired/fatigued or otherwise not at the top of your game, you are going to hurt your confidence, because even missing one extra question on all four sections can be the difference between 170 and 167.

I'm thinking this may have been part of what brought me down on PT 55, I was exhausted and really didn't want to do it but I tried to force it. My reasoning was, what if you aren't "feeling it" on test day though, you're going to need to be conditioned to be able to battle through.

[Bustang]

PT 49
Games: -3(god damnit)
LR1: -3
RC: -2(The Maize and I actually became great friends. I missed the MP question (stupid) but I got all of the others right.) I finished this section 8 minutes early.
LR2: -5 (ugh).

Raw 87, scaled 167.

These LRs are getting tougher for sure. I'm going to start drilling them everyday so I can get the "language" down on these ones. Three of them (#8 ,#10, #24 on Sec4 ) were simply reading errors on my part. Oh well, I'm glad I scored 85+ on a test again. Btw, keep up the great work everyone!

[02082010]

PT 55 and I were not friends ... strangely I missed 0 on the Chinese talk-story which seemed to have thrown some people. This test was really hard for me though, I could feel myself not being able to focus and I almost ran out of time on every section (except LG, I <3 LG).

PT 55 - October 2008
LG -0 (Experimental)
LR -6 (OUCH, wtf?)
RC -3
LR -2
LG -1

Raw +88
Scaled 167

I really want to be consistently above 170 right now, and strangely it's LR which is throwing me off. I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

This was when I really took the test and I got a 168. -1LR -7RC -2LR -1LG(forgot to bubble in the answer). I was averaging -3RC going into this test and my epic fail on the section was what prevented me from getting my 170+.

[jlnoa0915]

PT 35 171, after sitting at 167-168 the last 5 PTs finally broke it, hopefully keeping the upward trend till test day

[dakatz]

PT 35 171, after sitting at 167-168 the last 5 PTs finally broke it, hopefully keeping the upward trend till test day

Awesome job. Hoping to join you in the 170 range. PT's all falling between 167 and 169. (Fingers tightly crossed)

[02082010]

PT 52
-0LR, -2LG, -2LR, -0RC
Raw: 95
Scaled: 177


This was a really weird PT though. I was sweating for time on LG... literally went until the bell sounded which I haven't done in a long time. I'm guessing I just missed some deductions, but I will wait to go over it until tomorrow morning before football. Anyway, I'm finally where I want to be in RC and although my LR could get a little better I am very content. Just need to make sure my LG is -0 on test day and I think everything else will fall into place. If I can get one of CCN, there will be tears of joy and bottles of champagne on my end.

[sayan]

PT 55 and I were not friends ... strangely I missed 0 on the Chinese talk-story which seemed to have thrown some people. This test was really hard for me though, I could feel myself not being able to focus and I almost ran out of time on every section (except LG, I <3 LG).

PT 55 - October 2008
LG -0 (Experimental)
LR -6 (OUCH, wtf?)
RC -3
LR -2
LG -1

Raw +88
Scaled 167

I really want to be consistently above 170 right now, and strangely it's LR which is throwing me off. I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

This was when I really took the test and I got a 168. -1LR -7RC -2LR -1LG(forgot to bubble in the answer). I was averaging -3RC going into this test and my epic fail on the section was what prevented me from getting my 170+.

Fuckkk... this is the worst outcome imaginable and why I hate RC with a passion. I do well on one RC section then can sometimes bomb another randomly.

[dakatz]

PT 55 and I were not friends ... strangely I missed 0 on the Chinese talk-story which seemed to have thrown some people. This test was really hard for me though, I could feel myself not being able to focus and I almost ran out of time on every section (except LG, I <3 LG).

PT 55 - October 2008
LG -0 (Experimental)
LR -6 (OUCH, wtf?)
RC -3
LR -2
LG -1

Raw +88
Scaled 167

I really want to be consistently above 170 right now, and strangely it's LR which is throwing me off. I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

This was when I really took the test and I got a 168. -1LR -7RC -2LR -1LG(forgot to bubble in the answer). I was averaging -3RC going into this test and my epic fail on the section was what prevented me from getting my 170+.

Fuckkk... this is the worst outcome imaginable and why I hate RC with a passion. I do well on one RC section then can sometimes bomb another randomly.

Yeah, I'm really starting to worry about it, because I keep scoring in the high 160's on tests I should be in the low 170's on. I can almost always manage -0 or -1 on LG. I have cut LR down to about at most 3 or 4 wrong in a section. Yet my RC is always something like -5 or -6. Hell, if I could get it down to -3 or -4 I'd be beyond ecstatic because then I'd certainly be above 170 a majority of the time. So I'm pretty much 3 questions away from where I want to be, and its killing me because I know those 3 points will be the difference makers come admissions time. I don't care if I have URM status, or anything else that might help me out, because I want to be able to say I earned my admission spot on my own merits. Any RC tips from anyone who is really good at it?

[02082010]

PrepTest 55 (October 2008), Passage 3 - Maxine Kingston and the Chinese talk-story = taking this test late next week

So that's why I got -7 last Oct.

[nyyankees]

PT 55 and I were not friends ... strangely I missed 0 on the Chinese talk-story which seemed to have thrown some people. This test was really hard for me though, I could feel myself not being able to focus and I almost ran out of time on every section (except LG, I <3 LG).

PT 55 - October 2008
LG -0 (Experimental)
LR -6 (OUCH, wtf?)
RC -3
LR -2
LG -1

Raw +88
Scaled 167

I really want to be consistently above 170 right now, and strangely it's LR which is throwing me off. I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

This was when I really took the test and I got a 168. -1LR -7RC -2LR -1LG(forgot to bubble in the answer). I was averaging -3RC going into this test and my epic fail on the section was what prevented me from getting my 170+.

Fuckkk... this is the worst outcome imaginable and why I hate RC with a passion. I do well on one RC section then can sometimes bomb another randomly.

Yeah, I'm really starting to worry about it, because I keep scoring in the high 160's on tests I should be in the low 170's on. I can almost always manage -0 or -1 on LG. I have cut LR down to about at most 3 or 4 wrong in a section. Yet my RC is always something like -5 or -6. Hell, if I could get it down to -3 or -4 I'd be beyond ecstatic because then I'd certainly be above 170 a majority of the time. So I'm pretty much 3 questions away from where I want to be, and its killing me because I know those 3 points will be the difference makers come admissions time. I don't care if I have URM status, or anything else that might help me out, because I want to be able to say I earned my admission spot on my own merits. Any RC tips from anyone who is really good at it?

this is sort of ridiculous, if you are a URM then you will get into a better school than if you are not, if you choose not to go to a better school and instead go to a school that you would have gotten into if you were not a URM, then you will get more money than non-URMs. Either way, its a silly thing to say, but i applaud your intentions.

[nyyankees]

Did a LR for practice last night, got -5... I need to not practice at all when I'm tired or I feel awful about it

This. If you are sick/tired/fatigued or otherwise not at the top of your game, you are going to hurt your confidence, because even missing one extra question on all four sections can be the difference between 170 and 167.

I'm thinking this may have been part of what brought me down on PT 55, I was exhausted and really didn't want to do it but I tried to force it. My reasoning was, what if you aren't "feeling it" on test day though, you're going to need to be conditioned to be able to battle through.

I have been feeling like this for a week now, not sure what to do about it. I was scoring in the low 170s and now im dropping into the high 160s. Every morning I wake up and do a PT and I dont really feel like I want to, but I know I should so i push through and sort of hate myself the entire way. I miss a lot of stupid shit. I feel like im in autopilot for to much of it. Any advice?

[02082010]

I'm missing EARLY questions in the sections, not even the difficult ones. In my second LR section on this exam I missed numbers 5 and 10 At this point, do you guys think it's still worth going back through the LR Bible to refresh some things for myself? I mean I guess it can't hurt right? I'm starting to get frustrated and freaked out, 15 days feels like NOTHING.

I recently hit the mid way point of my 10PTs in 30 days schedule and after number 5 (averaged 170 over the 5) I went over all LR (bc strangely I was messing up there when I had been golden when doing individual timed sections) and found I was disproportionately missing parallel reasoning and weaken questions. So I went to the LRB and went over those sections. As I said, 177 on my 6th and 7th PTs (I've decided to cut it down to 9 instead of 10).

[mountaintime]

I got my highest raw score, 94, and my first -0 RC today. It was PT 48, so my scaled score was only 171. I dont know how I got perfect RC and LG, but missed 7 LR problems.... LR is usually a very strong section for me. I swear, if I pull off a 170 or better on the real deal, I will flip out.

[Kulax22]

Dont want to ignite a firestorm of conflicting opinions... but...

Out of PTs 52-57 (I have up to 56 at the moment) are any overly strange? I.e. should I make sure to do one over another, other things being equal and I can't do them all?

[02082010]

Dont want to ignite a firestorm of conflicting opinions... but...

Out of PTs 52-57 (I have up to 56 at the moment) are any overly strange? I.e. should I make sure to do one over another, other things being equal and I can't do them all?

55 has a notoriously hard RC passage and 57 has the dino game which people bitched about.

[Bustang]

The dino game really isn't that hard. It's a advanced grouping game with an uneven ratio. Half of the questions are easily solved by one simple inference due to the color rules. The only PT in that range that seriously "owned" me was the first LR of PT51. I've heard some grumblings about it being tough around here.

[Tangerine Gleam]

PT 55 - Raw: 94 (-6) Scaled: 174

RC: -3
LR: -1
LG: -2

I am happy with the score itself but a little disappointed in my performance, if that makes any sense. I got 2 LG's wrong, which pisses me off -- I also took WAY too long on one of the games...must have been 10+ minutes. It bothers me to know that these things still can happen so late into the game.

[brose002]

I took the December 07 test today. I got a 173 with a 92 raw score. I am very happy with how it went, but I still need to work on my reading comp speed.

LR1:-2(Both stupid mistakes)
LG:-0
LR2:-0
RC:-6( I ran out of time on the last passage, and missed three of my six questions because of it)

I am trying incredibly hard to get the timing down on my reading comp. I feel that if I can get that down then a -2 or -3 on it will be attainable, and subsequently so will a score in the high 170s.