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How soon after did you break into the 160's?

Here's my story. I wrote a very very half-hearted diagnostic in June 2009 and got a 143. This is pretty much what I was expecting, I wasn't even getting to all of the questions or understanding the stimuluses. I did this again after just looking at a few questions and got a 143 again.

Then, I studied a little, did some individual timed sections and learned the basic linears, wrote June 2007 and got a 153. My comprehension improved vastly and I did pretty well on the games section (-5 from the original -16).

So then, from December til Feb, I did the PS bibles. I kind of half-heartedly followed pithypikes method and reviewed each chapter once, then did about 10-15 questions of the easiest types except for strengthen and weaken questions which I kind of sucked at. Anything I had immeadiate success at (parrallel and flaw) I just looked past.

Now, last night I wrote preptest 7 (I think it's test 1 from the first "10 actual" series) and got a 155 (64 raw). I'm not really disapointed since it was only my fourth real PT but I thought I was going to crack 160 since a 160 is only a 72 on that test. I didn't miss a question in the games section at all except in the DATALOG voting game (which I thought I had actually aced at the time and said to my friend "this is going to be a great night or a rude awakening") where I missed 6 and thus got a -6. I also finnished this section w/ 10 minutes to go. Yes, I should have gone over the datalog game but I had thought I aced it and must have made a very wrong inference somewhere. Worst yet, I figured out how to set it up while laying in bed late last night, lol. I got 15 on the subsequent sections.

I'm wondering if I should thoroughly go through the LR bible once more before any more PTs. I understand the basics behind each question type, but my problem seems to be some MAJOR suckage around 18-24. In fact, on each PT, it seems as though I miss ievery question from 18-22. I'm sort of debating writing 7 through 20 and seeing how much I improve, because I actuallu felt really good while writing this test. My end goal is 170+ and I'm pretty much willing to do anything to get there.

I'm wondering if this 155 (2 pt. increase) is on the low side because I hadn't wrote a PT in 2 months. My stamina felt okay but I was really nervous because I wanted to see how much my studying paid off. Obviously LR is a major weakness, and I've heard people say it starts to click and you jump into the 160's almost overnight whereas the 170's is a little different story. Can anyone shed any light from personal experience?

about a week of off and on studying

In my experience, there's really no 'one size fits all approach' (i.e., everyone's a bit different so what works for someone else may not work exactly for you). Take the advice you glean from the good and bad suggestions here as well as the generally very good advice you'll find in the Powerscore books and go forward.

For me personally, it was a very gradual process when it came to logical reasoning. I bought the bible, read through it, did some tests and even took the Powerscore course. Obviously, understanding the basics of LR and of each type of LR question is important, but once you get the fundamentals down it really comes down to lots and lots of practice.

I found that my LR score didn't start to improve until I started to do large amounts of pure LR practice. There are a few books available that contain sections of just plain LR questions (some organized by LR question type and others just put together randomly). I used the Powerscore practice books I got from their course and I also found Kaplan's Big Orange Book of LSAT's as well as another Kaplan pacing and mastery book which both had lots of LR questions. The Kaplan books are only available via their course, I think, so if you're like me and you don't do a Kaplan course then you'll have to check out the Internet, Craigslist and any local, second-hand book stores you can find. I got a lot of good books used at Half Priced Books, but they are only in Texas I think.

Anyways, to sum up, 1) make sure you have fundamentals down then 2) practice A LOT on just the problems and then 3) start taking some more practice tests and gauging your progress. If you find that you're missing certain types of problems, go back to the bible, study them and then try and find some practice problems of that type to practice.

This is what worked for me. Good luck!

Personally I think that if you've gone through the LR Bible thoroughly already, most of what youcan get from it will be from learning your specific weaknesses and using the Bible to attack those question types directly. Therefore my advice would be to skim the end of each LRB chapter where it sums up the question type strategies over an hour or so one time, and from there just do lots of LR sections, reviewing THOROUGHLY, trying to figure out the correct answer to the ones you got wrong BEFORE you look at the right answer, and eventually picking out the question types you get wrong consistently and using the LR bible to hone your skills in those specific areas without wasting time on your strengths.

Try timing yourself and doing your best to do the first 10 LR questions in 10 minutes. Do the rest as accurately as possible - if you run out of time, take mental note, but go ahead and try to finish the rest of the section as accurately as possible (you're not learning anything by just skipping them, and who's keeping score besides you?). Review review review! Why was it wrong? Why did you pick the answer you did? You'll learn what tricks you tend to fall victim to and what giveaways the LSAT uses to indicate the right answer. And, ESPECIALLY for questions in the 18-24 range, the later chapters in the LR bible are invaluable for helping you figure out how to attack particularly tricky question types in fast and helpful ways.

Thanks for the advice folks.

Guess I answered my own question, hit a 161 on PT 9 today. It was sweet too because a couple of times I lost focus due to people having full blast conversations in the library on their cellphones. The best part was that it doesn't feel like a PT is a chore anymore, my mind doesn't wander nearly as bad and instead I'm genuinely interested in the material and attack every question. I actually look forward to them now which is an awesome feeling compared to before when I was scared of them.

/hi5