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1. powerscore bibles (LG, LR, RC)

• The Official LSAT SuperPrep

• 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests

• The Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests

• 10 More Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests

• 10 New Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests

• Prep Test 62 - 65

1. after the disgnostic test, I gave myself 3 weeks to finish the 3 powerscore bibles. During that 3 weeks, I also used 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests as workbooks for the powerscore bibles. I wrote down answers to each LR question, analyzing the question type and each answer option; diagrammed every RC article, and LG games

• finished the semester on 20 May, started timed PTs on that day (3 - 4 PTs every day until one day before the test day) was able to practice each PT at least twice

Max324 wrote:Congrats on your score. While I'm glad you found something that worked well for you, I believe that these are not strategies that most TLSers should follow.

Four PTs a day is way too much, even for a short period of time. This is a brute-force method, and while it might work to some degree, it is far more time-consuming and far less effective than a moderate schedule of study and review.

Let me relate this back to my profession, which is music education. Some of my students tell me that they practice for hours each week, but they seem to make little, if any, actual progress. More often than not, this is because they've developed poor practice techniques. These students will spend hours playing their assigned pieces a dozen times a day, but never bother to review the mistakes, the fingering, the interpretation, etc. In other words, they're going for quantity, not quality. In contrast, a student who plays their piece four times a day, but is diligent about correcting mistakes, checking fingering, and fine-tuning interpretation, will almost invariably perform better, with less logged practice time.

The LSAT is similar. The most efficient way to study is to review all of your work after you PT. You should be thinking about why each answer is correct/incorrect, what clues led you to choose your AC, what distractors were used, etc. Doing this properly takes some serious time; that's why I usually recommend taking three or four five-section PTs a week. That gives you about 12 hours of testing and ~12 hours of review, leaving you with enough time to brush up on strategy/work on drills as needed.

I would also discourage the use of Venn diagrams. On a simple problem, they work fine, and they may have some use conceptually. In practice, though, Venn diagrams tend to become overly-complex, ambiguous, misleading, unruly. They take longer to write than logic chains, and take up more room on the page. And there isn't a single diagrammable LR problem that can't be expressed with a logic chain.

I agree that PowerScore's relative ordering method leaves a lot to be desired. I personally favor Manhattan LSAT's tree method. It's super straightforward, and since I started using it, I don't think I've lost a single point on a relative ordering game (except for when I first encountered relative ordering with conditionals -- completely blindsided).

Four PTs a day is way too much, even for a short period of time. This is a brute-force method, and while it might work to some degree, it is far more time-consuming and far less effective than a moderate schedule of study and review.

reresearch wrote:Max324

Thanks for the advice

Four PTs a day is way too much, even for a short period of time. This is a brute-force method, and while it might work to some degree, it is far more time-consuming and far less effective than a moderate schedule of study and review.

reresearch wrote:Max324

Thanks for the advice

Four PTs a day is way too much, even for a short period of time. This is a brute-force method, and while it might work to some degree, it is far more time-consuming and far less effective than a moderate schedule of study and review.

Yes, you are absolutely right about that. I was seriously burned out when the test day approaches, and if I'd change anything about my preparation, I'd say I would start early, in March or even in Feb.

I found that as an ESL taker, I was intimidated by the length and language in the LSAT. Given I only had about 7 weeks to prepare, the only way for me to overcome that psychological barrier was to use the "brute-force" method. Like I said, it could work for a really short period of time, but it has a lot of limitations. I didn't think it was possible to bring my score any higher than what I got.

so I should put my message as "if you are intimidated by LSAT, START EARLY, give yourself more time to build up the stamina"

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As for the use of Venn diagrams, I agree with you it is NOT very good test strategy. It takes more time than the arrow diagrams, and it's highly problematic if you make mistakes drawing the diagrams.

The reason I used Venn diagram when I am studying, is because it provided me a comfort zone in between two things I am not very familiar with: English language and abstraction of the logic structure. Venn diagram is a good intermediate tool for people to see clearly the logic structures when they are not very familiar with it. When I became more confident with the questions, I adhere to the powerscore system of diagramming (arrows and etc).

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Also to my fellow ESL takers

I am not "promoting" my preparation strategy in any sense. What I am really saying is don't be intimidated by this test, give yourself more time to get familiar with the questions and techniques you need, slowly build up your stamina and confidence. Although English could be a weakness of us, something in our background will help us one way or another in the preparation.