Clarification on PrepTests Forum

[TonyStarks]

I keep reading on here that it is better to practice from official LSAT PrepTests, rather than ones made by other entities such as Kaplan, and I just want to make sure I am clear about them. So here's what I think I know:

These official prep tests are not actually former tests, but are made by the LSAT for studying purposes, making them closer to the real thing than what others offer.

Excluding the 5 tests released in the "LSAT SuperPrep", there are 59 total official PrepTests to date. 7-38 are available in the "Actual" books, except for number 20 which is free online.

The last 20 PrepTests have to be purchased separately, or in bundles if you can find them.

Is all of the above true? How much more valuable to studying would PrepTest 59 be than to one from "10 More Actual', like say PrepTest 22? Where's the best place to get the most recent PrepTests?

[vespertiliovir]

No: the LSAC preptests are real LSATs, administered in years past. Generally speaking, the newer tests are more valuable, as they are more indicative of the feel of the tests these days; however, the older tests still hold a great deal of value.

Amazon I think has a buy 3 get one free deal for the newer, to-be-purchased-separately tests.

[tomwatts]

These official prep tests are not actually former tests, but are made by the LSAT for studying purposes, making them closer to the real thing than what others offer.

As noted above, no, these are real, previously administered LSATs.

Excluding the 5 tests released in the "LSAT SuperPrep", there are 59 total official PrepTests to date. 7-38 are available in the "Actual" books, except for number 20 which is free online.

There are 3 in SuperPrep, but there's also a February test in the thing that LSAC sells called "Itemwise," and there's the June '07 test that's available for free on lsac.org. So that's 5 in addition to the numbered ones. There are also a couple missing from 7-38 in the 10 Actuals series. But yes, the numbered ones go from 1 to 59 right now (60 coming soon!!).

The last 20 PrepTests have to be purchased separately, or in bundles if you can find them.

Yep. Same is true of any of the tests not in SuperPrep or the 10 Actuals.

Is all of the above true? How much more valuable to studying would PrepTest 59 be than to one from "10 More Actual', like say PrepTest 22? Where's the best place to get the most recent PrepTests?

Well, you probably want to do at least 10 tests, probably more like 30-40, maybe even 60+. Given that, I'd say that you want to work the stuff out of the 10 Actuals series and the most recent 5-10 tests or so. Make sure you include some of the most recent tests in your study regardless of what else you do, though.