Living in Japan, Oct 153, best way to study Forum

[rostovru]

I was averaging mid-160s PTs, but scored a 153 on the real deal. My final score naturally caught me off guard.

I put the idea of law school on hold given the poor prospects a 153 would yield.

Now I'm giving it another go. I'm living in Japan: Obviously there's no access to in-person prep courses.

Anyone have a recommendation for an online program that actually works?

My biggest problem is LG.

[Kurst]

Anyone have a recommendation for an online program that actually works?

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=151670

[incompetentia]

If you ended up that low, your problem is probably equally nerves or the way that you PT. Both of these are easily correctable, but you have to figure out what's going on.

[downing]

Sorry to here about the 153, but it must have been the fault of an unfortunate contingency if you were pting in the 160s.

I took the LSAT last June while I lived in Korea and scored a 159. I was pting in the 160s regularly. I was pretty bummed too. Then I began studying again for October and scored a 165. During neither period did I feel the absolute need to purchase a study program, and I believe if you train yourself to study well you'll be able to save a lot of money. I attribute the significant jump in my score to a greater focus on smart studying rather than the mindless and repetitive drills I forced myself through the first time. There are also a lot of great books for you to buy, namely the Bibles, and a good number of complete practice tests to utilize.

I mistakenly assumed that I would simply be able to score well if I plowed through the pts one by one, even without doing any in-depth analysis of my problem areas, though in my defense I was indulging a theory I developed about how the brain should subconsciously "learn" a skill after enough exposure to a certain task, the practice tests were the task, and my theory proved detrimental. In short, I assumed that I would "get it" by the time the test rolled along.

I believe conventional TLS wisdom is on the mark about where you'll score on the real test relative to your practice tests. If you want a score in the mid-160s+, in order to be safest, you really should be getting scores in the high 160s to 170s on your practice tests. In my case, I was regularly scoring from 167-170 the second time around, so the 165 was a actually a bit of a disappointment.

The actual test conditions are harsher and less comfortable than most simulated conditions you'll end up putting yourself in, so I think it would be rational to expect a drop in your average by several points due to environmental stresses (and of course, this is different for each person).

Oh, regarding LG - there's a lot of golden advice on these forums that detail ways in which you should be able to improve your skill and speed with logic games. Even for people who find it difficult(myself included), I think there's a firm consensus that LG is the most "learnable" of all the sections. With a lot of effort - hours every day - you should be able to avoid paying a lot of money to LSAT courses.

[JamMasterJ]

With your PT score, you need the LG Bible. If LG is your biggest problem, you can probably go through that book and ask questions on TLS for stuff you don't understand. Manhattan LSAT people and a few others are pretty helpful