Top Law Schools

I'm planning on taking my first diagnostic PT tomorrow (#7 1993 LSAT) cold. I have no real experience with the test (aside from doing a few practice LR questions), and am frankly a little nervous about my performance. I'm signed up to take the October LSATs and was wonder how good of an indicator this test would be? I have no idea how to do logic games, so that section is an absolute crap shoot

If you have no idea how to handle the logic games section, then you need to buy a study guide such as the PowerScore Logic Games Bible as soon as possible. Most Borders bookstores keep it in stock but ask $64.95, although Borders rewards members (a free membership) get 40% off coupons almost every month. It's about $20 cheaper from PowerScore or on Amazon.com

It's a great way to see where you stand so you can work out a plan of attack. The time constraint of the test is a huge factor, so taking a PT will show you just how fast you have to complete each section. Make sure to hold yourself to the time, cheating doesn't help you out.

Your cold diagnostic score on Reading Comprehension and Logical Reasoning are much more important than Logic Games. You won't really have a sense of how good you are at LG until you start to learn the basic techniques. After you take your first diagnostic read the Power Score LG Bible and see how you do on a LG section. That should give you a much better indication of where you stand. IMO taking LG with no prep would be sort of like taking a Calculus test having never learned calculus. Just because you can't immediately figure it out doesn't mean you aren't capable of learning how to do it. The other two sections are sort of self explanatory so you should get a decent picture of where you stand for RC and LR.

Best of luck on your prep. The whole test is learnable and your score will largely be a function of the effort you put into it. It can be daunting but the sky's the limit.

I find zero utility in this. It's really, really, really cold, and IMO actually wastes one of a limited number of PTs.

Sell Manilla wrote:I find zero utility in this. It's really, really, really cold, and IMO actually wastes one of a limited number of PTs.

If it's possible to gauge your potential, how do you do it?

..

For it to be a true diagnostic, wouldn't it be better to use a more recent LSAT? The format has changed a lot and #7 is a really, really early one. The early ones usually have really weird games (the games section has become a lot more standardized now) and LR and RC was easier back then as well.

Anyhow, OP don't worry too much about your actual score. What you should get out of it is finding out first-hand what kind of exam this is, and figuring out what things in general you should be focusing on. There's plenty of time to make some real progress - people on TLS have gotten 20+ points above their diagnostic on the actual thing.

Sell Manilla wrote:I find zero utility in this. It's really, really, really cold, and IMO actually wastes one of a limited number of PTs.

I agree. I think you should test the wasters with a LR and RC section to see how you do, but if you've never seen a LG section it's pointless to attempt them for your diagnostic.

acrossthelake wrote:Nah, disagree. It lets you know ahead of time how far you are from where you would need to be on test day and helps illuminate things you might not catch otherwise---maybe you think you're good at RC, but fall apart under timing, etc. My diagnostic made it clear that LG was my weak spot, so I focused in on that section and mostly ignored the other 2, which was I think the right plan of attack for me.

That should hold true for almost everyone, as LG is the most learnable skill set, not counting years of development.
LG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>LR>>>>>>>>>>>>>>RC>>>>>Watching Television.

You should give yourself enough time to do LG bible fully & LR bible skim at least. Then un-timed PT & take it from there, IMO.

I was going to say, for a cold diagnostic it should be one of the newer PT's numbered in the 50's. Also, I think a cold diagnostic is useful to know where you need to spend most of your time, as a motivator, and as a place to gauge your studying.

acrossthelake wrote:

Sell Manilla wrote:I find zero utility in this. It's really, really, really cold, and IMO actually wastes one of a limited number of PTs.

Nah, disagree. It lets you know ahead of time how far you are from where you would need to be on test day and helps illuminate things you might not catch otherwise---maybe you think you're good at RC, but fall apart under timing, etc. My diagnostic made it clear that LG was my weak spot, so I focused in on that section and mostly ignored the other 2, which was I think the right plan of attack for me.

I also like the idea of having a cold pt. it was a good motivator for me, to see how much I actually was improving. plus you could end up confusing yourself unnecessarily if you try a complicated method of doing things for one of the problem types when you're able to do it in your head (but don't know it yet)

sibley wrote: plus you could end up confusing yourself unnecessarily if you try a complicated method of doing things for one of the problem types when you're able to do it in your head (but don't know it yet)

This is a great point, but you can still account for it. I don't diagram the same way as the bible says in all cases: Sometimes I'd use whatever I came up with which is easier to remember.
But this was even more of an issue with LR. It's valuable to cover the ground rules (eg. "unless" was kinda tricky for me), but I would approach a new section, & read/answer the questions first. For any question I was 100% sure about & got right, I'd skip its explanation.

To each his/her own.
If you're using it as a motivator & it works, then all power to ya.
If you're using it as an actual diagnostic of where you stand, I think it's premature.
If you're using it to see where you need work, you might as well cover Games & LR anyway before taking your first diagnostic, & then you'd have a reasonable picture of what sections need the most work.

I've decided I'm going to do the test taking only the LR / RC / AR sections and saving the LG for when I finish the LGB (just got it and plan on working on it over the next few weeks). I know 2.5 months isn't a lot of time to study for this thing, but I'll manage...