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hi
so ive decided to register myself as i have been reading all these forums and figured that it would be a lot better to talk to people who have the same interest as i am at this point - of course, doing well in the LSAT.
at first, i registered myself for the october test but figured that i don't have enough time to study for it since i had summer school and took a pretty heavy course load. so i re registered and i am writing mine in december.
i have 2 weeks off, so going to spend that to study some more...then fall semester starts again for me, but i have enrolled to a very light course load. im taking 3 instead of 5 courses and they are pretty easy ones too.
i really hope i get enough studying til december.
i took a prep course with powerscore and i took the diagnostic and scored really low- 139. this was last july.
i just finished my summer school and been trying to pull all-day studying sessions to be able to catch up with all the homework. i am still on lesson 4 when i already finished lesson 12 class last week. it's been really hard. its almost like i didnt know where to start. then i was forced to take another test today and sadly, i only got 142.
the first diagnostic test i took, i finished everything without really knowing anything.
the second one is i didn't finish all the questions but understood some and just rushed through others. i didn't even get to use the stuff i have learned from the course yet since i felt like i was too slow and just wanted to get through everything.
this has been really scaring me and making me feel really depressed. this is why i decided to join the forum as i can hear from many suggestions from fellow lsat takers.

any suggestions?

Try to focus on accuracy first.

When you're taking the test, just do your best to finish as many as you reasonably can without rushing. Put down a guess for the rest when time is up, then after return and do those questions. Then you'll see how well you're doing for accuracy - and timing will hopefully come together over the next few months for you.

Another method some people do is doing a whole test timed (without writing on it, I guess?) and then doing it untimed, then marking both and going over mistakes.

Study smart, not just a whole lot.

It's easy to get overwhelmed especially if you have never seen the test material before and then all the sudden you get tons of homework piled on you by a prep company...on top of that, a new semester at school with its own obstacles. It's easier said than done, but I strongly believe you gotta take one thing at a time. Are you having more trouble with the games, the LR section, or both? If you are adamant that you want to apply for Fall '11, then you need to get as many points as you can get - LG might be the best place to start as it's generally seen as the easiest to improve on once you understand them.

Previous poster is absolute correct, you need to first be able to accurately answer questions before you work on speed. It'll probably be tough while at school, but you are going to need to find time to work on sections UNTIMED, and more importantly REVIEW them. Know WHY you're getting answer right or wrong. There's no point on burning through prep stuff and needlessly getting frustrated.

Dec may seem like it's approaching fast, but 3 months is a good amount of time. Take it step by step & focus right now on the basics, then on hitting 150. Take it from there.

tl;dr - Accuracy before speed - untimed prep -understand why answers are right & wrong - focus on the small victories (get to 150.)