ONE MONTH to study starting from scratch? Forum

[Barbie]

In order to sooth my worries of being filled with regret my 1L year, I've decided to take the LSAT again. I'm deposited at the University of Florida, but I just want to make sure I tried. Unfortunately I joined TLS after taking the LSAT, and didn't know it was protocol to really put some study work into it. Prior to my taking the LSAT in June, I took a total of 3-4 practice tests. Cold diag 154, 158?, 160, 163, then 163 on the real thing. I did so little in that I didn't even look at the questions I got wrong on the practice tests . So I have one month to prepare for this test, essentially starting with nothing.

I usually get between -1 and -3 on LR
-0 and -4 on LG (I either rock it or miss a few)
and -EVERYTHING on RC.

I heard RC is the hardest to learn I would appreciate any advice on how to best utilize this month in my situation.


TYIA <3

[Upton Sinclair]

Personally, I think you should make sure you're good to go on LG first. Those are basically free points if you know what you're doing. Then buy as many PTs as you can. Use the older ones to do individual sections of RC. You won't get the new comparative reading sections, but it should give you an idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Figure out what kind of questions and/or passages give you the most trouble. Go over these and figure out what works for you.

A couple weeks prior, take some full length tests to get your stamina where it needs to be.

Above all else, don't worry too much about it. You're at a huge advantage in that you've already been admitted to a solid school that you would be happy going to (I assume). There's almost no pressure. Trust your instincts and see what happens. Literally, it's all reward and no risk. Good luck.

[Leira7905]

I thought about doing this too, just for the sake of my pride, to see if I could have broken a 170.
Much like you, I didn't join TLS until after the Oct. LSAT. I took one three week long course which involve 3 proctored PTs and took two PTs on my own. That was basically it. My scores were 154, 162, 163, 163, 166, 165. I really should have studied more.

I decided against taking the test again. I'm happy with the school I got into, and I just don't have the energy right now. But def. let us know how this turned out for you.

RC was actually a good section for me, it was the GAMES that screwed me up. So, unfortunately, I can't help you there. But GOOD LUCK! And, fyi, I saw a thread earlier in the week that had some RC advice to offer...... you may want to try to search that.

[thewarflamingo]

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[CmonSD]

I'm doing this as well and signed up to take it today! I feel your pain with the RC. I can't get through the fourth passage. I found though that if I give myself less time, I also miss less because I over analyze the RC questions. I think it helps that there is less pressure since there is little downside to taking it at this point. Keep me posted with your progress and good luck!

[Stringer Bell]

Other than taking a day off here and there to rest your brain, read constantly between now and then. The Economist, Scientific American, The New Yorker, etc.

[firemed]

In order to sooth my worries of being filled with regret my 1L year, I've decided to take the LSAT again. I'm deposited at the University of Florida, but I just want to make sure I tried. Unfortunately I joined TLS after taking the LSAT, and didn't know it was protocol to really put some study work into it. Prior to my taking the LSAT in June, I took a total of 3-4 practice tests. Cold diag 154, 158?, 160, 163, then 163 on the real thing. I did so little in that I didn't even look at the questions I got wrong on the practice tests . So I have one month to prepare for this test, essentially starting with nothing.

I usually get between -1 and -3 on LR
-0 and -4 on LG (I either rock it or miss a few)
and -EVERYTHING on RC.

I heard RC is the hardest to learn I would appreciate any advice on how to best utilize this month in my situation.


TYIA <3

Hey Barbie!

Knowing you, I am really surprised you had trouble with RC.

Anyway, I would this: Take 3 PTs a week, under timed conditions. Look over each test to see your weaknesses. During that time, focus on LG for a week using the LG Bible. Then take three weeks to work on RC. Use the Economist, the RC Bible, and your practice tests to see where you are weak, and work on that. Finally take the last week you have before the test (I think you actually have 5 weeks right?) to make sure you are generally doing well, and haven't weakened on LG or LR.


Good luck girl! And congrats on the other things going on in your life! You rock!

[Barbie]

Thanks for the input! My parents are furious I'm even considering this and trying to talk me out of it. My dad said I'm "taking a step back" and need to just go ahead and enter law school, but I just don't see the logic behind not trying?

But I really appreciate the advice <3

[incompetentia]

Well, RC is the most difficult to learn, but when you're missing a lot, there can sometimes be some easy fixes.

Are you normally crunched for time?

-If not, you should slow down and try to really understand the relationship between the passage and the question.
-If you are, we need to look at how much time you're spending reading and whether or not it may be excessive.

Are there any question types you miss often? I've seen main-point and viewpoint questions be two unexpected sources of trouble more than a few times.

It sounds like LG/LR you're better off on, but do be sure to spend time on each to make sure that you can be accurate. Additionally, with LR, if you're still missing that many regularly, there may be one question type that you're still iffy on. If not, drilling from the complete PTs you take should help you secure your position a bit.


I started in the 160s and went +12 in about 5-6 weeks of study myself, improving my RC score from my diag by 8-9 points (don't remember exactly), so it's definitely doable. Since you've already been through the testing experience, you'll know a little bit better than first-time takers as well how to control your nerves and stay focused in the testing environment, which becomes a bigger issue as you get farther past 165.

Also, seconding everything Firemed says.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I decided to retake in June when I was already deposited at a school and ended up going from a 166 to a 174. I was able to study a decent amount of time though. I think it's definitely worth it to see if you improve enough to consider waiting a year and reapplying. I decided to do that and was very happy with my decision. (I actually ended up at the same school too, but with 30K more in scholarship money over 3 yrs, more time to make an informed decision, and not having to ask myself "what if?")

Is your biggest problem with RC timing? The "softness"/more subjectiveness of the questions?

If timing- try to get a study book that divides up RC passages by difficulty and work on getting as accurate and fast as possible on the easier passages. Kaplan has a book like this for those who take the class, the RC bible might have some passages divided up like this (not sure though). If you don't have access to anything but tests, it can be helpful to just cut up a lot of RC sections and get into the habit of taking as many individual sections as possible throughout the day. Think of it as just a quick LSAT study break that you can do, no matter what else you're doing. Time yourself and review missed answers immediately afterwards. I did this with both RC and LG, and it started to become like a game to see how fast I could get on a single passage/game but maintain accuracy (if you're missing more than 1 you probably need to slow down a little). Mix in doing full sections to make sure you maintain the ability to focus and speed through 4 passages.

You're biggest focus should be on RC (doing individual passages and full sections), but you can't forget about LR and LG. Once you start to get a bit more accurate with RC, your biggest gains might come with working on being more consistent with LG and cutting down the misses on LR.

[mattviphky]

just wanted to say good luck! I'm pretty much in the same boat...took LSAT with little prep, joined TLS, regretted my prepping, deposited at a school, then decided to retake in June much to the chagrin of my dad. But if you got a 163 with such little effort, I'm pretty sure if you put forth a real amount of prepping you could walk away with a great score. Would Florida consider your new LSAT score when determining a scholarship for this fall? Either way, it can't hurt

[fathergoose]

It's doable. I crammed for a month between school and the start of my internship my junior year of UG and bumped up +10 from my frist cold diagnostic. Lots of good advice in this thread but it only does you so much good to read strategies. Just dedicate yourself to going through lots of sections and seeing why you missed the ones you miss and working on not missing them again. Your clearly bright if you did as well as you did the first go around so just buckle down and make it happen.

[bp shinners]

Focus on figuring out the elements of the passages most likely to be asked about. Tracking viewpoints, the author's attitude, and examples/hypotheses/lists are all going to come up in the questions, so focusing on those while reading will improve your score.