Question for those who have re-taken the LSAT Forum

[CommanderKeenet]

I have noticed on a few threads that people who have taken the LSAT for a second time seem to have an improvement of their score. So my question is:

What did you do differently the second time that helped you get a better score (either during the test or during prep)

1st and 2nd scores with your answer would be greatly appreciated.

-CK

[LittlePete83]

-

[toddly76]

October 2011: 160

December 2011: 169

Before my first exam I was scoring generally 168-172. Highest was a 175 on an older PT.

I took a powerscore class the summer before the first administration, but I didn't ever have a good grasp on the games. I was always best at LR and RC so I preferred to practice them. I found the games in the October exam to be particularly troublesome (I also had a lot of problems before the exam: bad family news, had to travel a few hours to take it, etc.) All said, games were my first section, I knew I had bombed, and it killed my momentum for the rest of the exam.

For the december course, I knew I needed help on the games and read that velocity had a different approach and took the online course with them, it worked. Missed 2 on the december exam games. I'll also note that I had to retake a lot of PTs that I had taken before, but I made sure to take around 3 a week along with the study schedule recommended by Velocity. All 5-section, all in exam conditions. I felt absolutely no exhaustion after taking the second exam. I also did much better on the difficult LR thanks to velocity's approach in deconstructing stimuli.

During the powerscore course, I took a lot of the older RC sections and consistently scored -0 or -1 on them so I built up a great deal of false confidence in my abilities. When it came down to the later exams, and the RC got much more difficult, I started to struggle. RC killed me on the second exam, even though it was my historically strongest section. If I had it to do over again, I would have followed a better system for RC (I only looked at powerscore and velocity) but didn't follow either assiduously.

[boblawlob]

October 2011: 160

December 2011: 169

Before my first exam I was scoring generally 168-172. Highest was a 175 on an older PT.

I took a powerscore class the summer before the first administration, but I didn't ever have a good grasp on the games. I was always best at LR and RC so I preferred to practice them. I found the games in the October exam to be particularly troublesome (I also had a lot of problems before the exam: bad family news, had to travel a few hours to take it, etc.) All said, games were my first section, I knew I had bombed, and it killed my momentum for the rest of the exam.

For the december course, I knew I needed help on the games and read that velocity had a different approach and took the online course with them, it worked. Missed 2 on the december exam games. I'll also note that I had to retake a lot of PTs that I had taken before, but I made sure to take around 3 a week along with the study schedule recommended by Velocity. All 5-section, all in exam conditions. I felt absolutely no exhaustion after taking the second exam. I also did much better on the difficult LR thanks to velocity's approach in deconstructing stimuli.

During the powerscore course, I took a lot of the older RC sections and consistently scored -0 or -1 on them so I built up a great deal of false confidence in my abilities. When it came down to the later exams, and the RC got much more difficult, I started to struggle. RC killed me on the second exam, even though it was my historically strongest section. If I had it to do over again, I would have followed a better system for RC (I only looked at powerscore and velocity) but didn't follow either assiduously.

Can you give a general gist of Velocity's approach to deconstructing stimuli?

[Honey_Badger]

October 2011: 160

December 2011: 169

Before my first exam I was scoring generally 168-172. Highest was a 175 on an older PT.

I took a powerscore class the summer before the first administration, but I didn't ever have a good grasp on the games. I was always best at LR and RC so I preferred to practice them. I found the games in the October exam to be particularly troublesome (I also had a lot of problems before the exam: bad family news, had to travel a few hours to take it, etc.) All said, games were my first section, I knew I had bombed, and it killed my momentum for the rest of the exam.

For the december course, I knew I needed help on the games and read that velocity had a different approach and took the online course with them, it worked. Missed 2 on the december exam games. I'll also note that I had to retake a lot of PTs that I had taken before, but I made sure to take around 3 a week along with the study schedule recommended by Velocity. All 5-section, all in exam conditions. I felt absolutely no exhaustion after taking the second exam. I also did much better on the difficult LR thanks to velocity's approach in deconstructing stimuli.

During the powerscore course, I took a lot of the older RC sections and consistently scored -0 or -1 on them so I built up a great deal of false confidence in my abilities. When it came down to the later exams, and the RC got much more difficult, I started to struggle. RC killed me on the second exam, even though it was my historically strongest section. If I had it to do over again, I would have followed a better system for RC (I only looked at powerscore and velocity) but didn't follow either assiduously.

Can you give a general gist of Velocity's approach to deconstructing stimuli?

You can watch free videos online yourself to see if you like the approach:
http://www.velocitylsat.com
(I don't work for Dave, but would rather you look at the material yourself than taking TLS words for it...)

[Dreas]

.

[JohnV]

October 2011: 160

December 2011: 169

Before my first exam I was scoring generally 168-172. Highest was a 175 on an older PT.

I took a powerscore class the summer before the first administration, but I didn't ever have a good grasp on the games. I was always best at LR and RC so I preferred to practice them. I found the games in the October exam to be particularly troublesome (I also had a lot of problems before the exam: bad family news, had to travel a few hours to take it, etc.) All said, games were my first section, I knew I had bombed, and it killed my momentum for the rest of the exam.

Why didn't you cancel?

[toddly76]

October 2011: 160

December 2011: 169

Before my first exam I was scoring generally 168-172. Highest was a 175 on an older PT.

I took a powerscore class the summer before the first administration, but I didn't ever have a good grasp on the games. I was always best at LR and RC so I preferred to practice them. I found the games in the October exam to be particularly troublesome (I also had a lot of problems before the exam: bad family news, had to travel a few hours to take it, etc.) All said, games were my first section, I knew I had bombed, and it killed my momentum for the rest of the exam.

Why didn't you cancel?

Good question. I suppose I convinced myself that there was a possibility that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Looks like I learned better. Plus, I knew that most schools only cared about the highest lsat score, and even if you cancel, you can still only retake it twice more in the two year window. I guess I decided I'd see what I got.

[hichvichwoh]

First Try - 167
Second Try - 173

Approach: Downloaded legally acquired every test I could get and took them in turn over the course of several months. Made sure I understood every mistake I made. At some point you have to start holding yourself to the strict 35 minute time limit, even if it means you don't have time to finish, otherwise you won't get faster. This is just my experience, might not work for everyone.