How To Avoid Spoiling Prep Tests Forum

[maipenrai083]

Here's my concern: If my study materials (primarily PowerScore Bibles) contain actual LSAT questions from prep tests I will be taking later, those tests will become artificially easier because I have seen some of the questions before.

I'm not especially concerned with this affecting the accuracy of my prep test scores. My worry is that I will have trouble developing a sense of timing when I can blow through questions or sections that I have seen before.

Anyone have any advice on this topic?

[Sean Bateman]

i only used actual preptest, and your right...seeing something you have done already makes it easier.
especially if you reviewed it
especially if its a game and you played it untimed and broke all the rules down

but for what its worth, (i didn't use kaplan or power score so cannot be certain) i'm pretty sure at least power score does not use actual lsat material. hope somebody can verify this

[FreeGuy]

Powerscore absolutely DOES use actual LSAT material.

From the listing for the Logic Games Bible on Amazon:

"twenty-one real LSAT logic games are contained in the book."


From the listing for the Logical Reasoning Bible on Amazon:

"the Logical Reasoning Bible features over 100 real LSAT Logical Reasoning questions"

[yeff]

Unlike some other books, the LG Bible, at least, lists exactly where the questions are from. From this you can try to pick around it.

It is definitely a dilemma and I'm not sure I've got much of an answer, but I found that by doing enough preptests I still got a good sense of the timing, having done enough practice in general and also on un-spoiled sections and tests. I also used the Kaplan Advanced book, designed to have just harder questions, which ruined my preptests even more so, by spoiling the harder games.

That book had errors and problems that I definitely had to watch out for, but was still helpful in focusing on the tougher questions.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Most all preptest companies use actual questions. Be wary of ones that don't. Don't be concerned with running out of material when you just start. And doing games multiple times is actually very beneficial for most people.

[kacee]

I definitely ran into this problem a couple of times having done both PS Bibles but it really didn't affect my practice. The Games and especially LR questions they use tend to be clustered into the same few PTs, so while doing those particular ones will be a little easier it isn't nearly enough to effect your sense of timing. It did let me semi-artificially get a 180 one time early in my practice though (-3, generous curve) and really made me slack off in my practice. So other than that you should be straight assuming you have lots of PTs to play with.

Also, even though I did plenty of full-length tests (mostly only in the last month), I found it useful to treat each section individually as far as timing went throughout my practice since you can't switch back and forth anyway. You should be seeing a pattern of which types of sections slow you down and how you need to alter your practice. Getting a couple easy pitches shouldn't throw you off that much. Just answer it quickly, move on and take it into consideration (a tiny bit) when seeing how much time you had left at the end of the section.

[MURPH]

Save the last two years worth of PTs for the week before the test. If you do every PT, every question available and you spend time working out why each answer choice is either right or wrong, then the timing will come to you. It just comes naturally.

[ljbc03]

To the last poster--how long did u prep for? and how long did u review for?

i am having trouble on timing. do you have any tips for getting timing down?

[tomwatts]

Even if you do 21 tests, there are still 40+ others out there. That's plenty.

[scribelaw]

Save the last two years worth of PTs for the week before the test. If you do every PT, every question available and you spend time working out why each answer choice is either right or wrong, then the timing will come to you. It just comes naturally.

6 PTs in the last week!

That's a terrible strategy.

I definitely would not advise cramming that much the week before the test. Ideally, you should practice steadily over 3 or 4 or 5 months and use that last week to stay sharp, maybe a few sections every night, but it's more important to be well rested and not burned out.

[Z3RO]

Just do lots of tests. I did so many that by the time i recognized that I was re-doing something vaguely familiar, my memory of it was so hazy that it didn't matter.

Also, don't worry too much about inaccurately gauging your performance. Knowing how well you're going to do isn't the point of prep. My actual score was higher than any practice test that I took.

This almost sounds like an attempt to come up with an excuse not to look at the books. Just keep studying. Don't think about it. Study.