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how long before the testdate do people usually start/want to be scoring at that target score?

It would be nice to be scoring above your target consistently a few weeks before the exam.

lawschoolplease1 wrote:how long before the testdate do people usually start/want to be scoring at that target score?

I'd say if you're not close with 2 weeks to go (close being within 5 points), it's time to start considering postponing.

However, don't postpone until the night before. Just make sure that you have an average score within a few points of your target (at least) that spans 3+ PTs going in.

lawschoolplease1 wrote:how long before the testdate do people usually start/want to be scoring at that target score?

I never had a target score. I wanted as many points as I could get my hands on.

That said, I was hitting a consistently comfortable range of PT scores that I would have been okay with by about a month out. Had I not hit that range by that point, I would have been...concerned. But that's me. My brand of neurosis is special.

This interests me... I'm usually scoring about 6-7 points under my "ideal" score of 175-ish right now and I'm signed up for October. How soon should I be able to make these gains? Also, what should I be doing at this point to improve?

burtlantin wrote:This interests me... I'm usually scoring about 6-7 points under my "ideal" score of 175-ish right now and I'm signed up for October. How soon should I be able to make these gains? Also, what should I be doing at this point to improve?

You may never be able to improve to 175. I recommend working on and improving your endurance by taking five sections without breaks. On the test day you don't want to lose a few points on the last section or two by being tired and losing focus.

That's what I'm thinking. I've done six PTs so far, four of them were high-160s and a two of them were mid-170s. And most of my misses are coming from LR. I know that the consensus is to keep drilling, but how would you go about this intelligently?

lawschoolplease1 wrote:how long before the testdate do people usually start/want to be scoring at that target score?

I waited until I was practicing 3/4 points above my target score before I decided to go through and take the exam. When I took the actual tests I dropped a few points from my practice average and it is something typical that happens to many.

burtlantin wrote:That's what I'm thinking. I've done six PTs so far, four of them were high-160s and a two of them were mid-170s. And most of my misses are coming from LR. I know that the consensus is to keep drilling, but how would you go about this intelligently?

I drilled and then carefully reviewed all the questions and answer choices of the ones I missed. The more tests you take, the less times you will experience questions that come down to two similarly same answer choices that you are unable to pick from. LSAT is all patterns and the more you practice the better you see how the test makers go about writing answer choices and try to trick you as well as learning your own weakness and adjusting.

Also save the latest lsats to do last as they are different from the earlier tests.

thanks everyone!
hopefully we'll all get there somehow...

shinton88 wrote:My brand of neurosis is special.

Not for law school students.