mid 150's to 170+ in two months of studying Forum

[lutcf2021]

Do you think it's possible?

[lutcf2021]

I'll rephrase. I guess anything is "possible".

But for the "average" person, how probable? how much time would one have to put in?

[willwash]

Probably not in 2 months. But mid-high 160s is definitely attainable, and who knows, maybe you'll get lucky. Are you weaker in LG or LR/RC?

[sinfiery]

Eh.

Average LSAT taker? Would be hard. Average person? lol.


LG bible + practice should put you at mid 160s pretty quickly but improving from there is where it becomes tricky.

[lutcf2021]

What's a more realistic time frame?

[vegso]

Depends how hard you work, definitely doable

[hallbd16]

Depends how hard you work, definitely doable

Definitely doable if my increase is any indication. Have gone from a high 150s to a high 160s in 1.5 months of hard work.

Gotta combine hard work with smart studying. Lots of advice on TLS for smart studying

[lutcf2021]

Depends how hard you work, definitely doable

Definitely doable if my increase is any indication. Have gone from a high 150s to a high 160s in 1.5 months of hard work.

Gotta combine hard work with smart studying. Lots of advice on TLS for smart studying

Gahhh. I hope this doesn't come off as lazy/lackluster. If it does, I honestly do apologize b/c I'm NOT trying to get over.
But there seems to be a WIDE range of differing advice. And I'm sure different things work for different people.

But my current plan was to just take a bunch of practice tests (like from 20 to present). The practice tests I could get a hold of would have answers/explanations.
Would doing this for two months radically improve my score?

like every monday, wednesday, friday, take a practice test. tuesdays, thursdays, = logic game practice/review tests.

Thoughts?

[oaken]

Took a 2-month PS class, went from 158 initial diagnostic to 173 actual. So yes, it's possible.

[20130312]

157 to 169 in two months here, though I honestly didn't study as hard as I would have liked, so definitely possible.

[vegso]

Depends how hard you work, definitely doable

Definitely doable if my increase is any indication. Have gone from a high 150s to a high 160s in 1.5 months of hard work.

Gotta combine hard work with smart studying. Lots of advice on TLS for smart studying

Gahhh. I hope this doesn't come off as lazy/lackluster. If it does, I honestly do apologize b/c I'm NOT trying to get over.
But there seems to be a WIDE range of differing advice. And I'm sure different things work for different people.

But my current plan was to just take a bunch of practice tests (like from 20 to present). The practice tests I could get a hold of would have answers/explanations.
Would doing this for two months radically improve my score?

like every monday, wednesday, friday, take a practice test. tuesdays, thursdays, = logic game practice/review tests.

Thoughts?

Pts arent nearly as valuable as drilling weaknesses away, you'd probably be fine only taking 10 full length proper PT honestly

[DH87]

When you say mid-150s are you referring to a single initial diagnostic with no prep? Or the on-going average of multiple timed PTs? This is very important to distinguish.

My initial, cold diagnostic was a 165, and after that I worked about halfway through each of the PS bibles before PTing again (about 2 weeks). My next PT was 171 and after recognizing and correcting a few weaknesses, I'm now staying in the mid to high 170s. This is all in the last month.

I think 'big' improvements are definitely possible...but you really have to focus on your weaknesses each time you review a PT.

[lutcf2021]

When you say mid-150s are you referring to a single initial diagnostic with no prep? Or the on-going average of multiple timed PTs? This is very important to distinguish.

My initial, cold diagnostic was a 165, and after that I worked about halfway through each of the PS bibles before PTing again (about 2 weeks). My next PT was 171 and after recognizing and correcting a few weaknesses, I'm now staying in the mid to high 170s. This is all in the last month.

I think 'big' improvements are definitely possible...but you really have to focus on your weaknesses each time you review a PT.

There hasn't been HARDCORE studying, mostly light. I've taken two practice tests and scored near the 150s.
Logical reasoning is kicking my tail a bit and reading comp could be better. Logic games aren't too bad. They seem to "make sense".

But yes, I will definitely hone in on what I miss. But from what I've gathered so far, big improvements are possible.
Just have to really understand what I miss when review it?

[lutcf2021]

Maybe start out at test 30 and go to the present?

[DH87]

When you say mid-150s are you referring to a single initial diagnostic with no prep? Or the on-going average of multiple timed PTs? This is very important to distinguish.

My initial, cold diagnostic was a 165, and after that I worked about halfway through each of the PS bibles before PTing again (about 2 weeks). My next PT was 171 and after recognizing and correcting a few weaknesses, I'm now staying in the mid to high 170s. This is all in the last month.

I think 'big' improvements are definitely possible...but you really have to focus on your weaknesses each time you review a PT.

There hasn't been HARDCORE studying, mostly light. I've taken two practice tests and scored near the 150s.
Logical reasoning is kicking my tail a bit and reading comp could be better. Logic games aren't too bad. They seem to "make sense".

But yes, I will definitely hone in on what I miss. But from what I've gathered so far, big improvements are possible.
Just have to really understand what I miss when review it?

Well the good news is that LR can definitely be approved upon (in my limited experience) with prep. I have definitely noticed a shift in how I analyze these problems, after developing more of a strategy a la the PS LR Bible.

If you read around TLS, there is a commonality between many high scorers. Review, review, review your missed questions. Find out why you missed them, correct for it, and learn to recognize them. I read somewhere on here that a near 180 scorer would often spend 45 min to an hour dissecting each problem they missed, looking at each answer choice, and making sure to understand exactly why they missed it.

[cahwc12]

The biggest tips I can offer are to take as many practice tests as you can comprehensively review, and to take them in a mixed up order. Don't be like 90% of TLSers on this forum and wait until this week to see PT60+ for the first time.

Take a few of the 60s early on to get an appreciation for what the test is currently like, and spread your tests around (a few from the 40s and 50s and 60s).

Drill, drill, drill and focus on individual sections and question types early on, then build your problem-solving repertoire so that it includes more and more subsets of a given section, until you can practice full sections and ultimately full PTs.

Every question that you miss is two mistakes, not one. You picked the wrong answer and ruled against the correct answer. So make sure you understand BOTH mistakes. Repeat the questions you miss a week or a month later and see if you get the right answer for the right reasons this time.


Don't be afraid to repeat PTs, and I definitely encourage you to do so. Repeating PTs is probably the most underrated way of prepping for this test. The best way to spot whether you truly understand or truly learned from your last PT is whether or not you miss questions that you got right originally, and whether you miss the same question twice. And unless you are 180'ing repeats, there's some value in taking them for a third time (assuming enough time has passed).

To me, the big question is, why are you just now beginning to think about prepping for December and looking into it? Law school is a long-term decision that requires a lot of advanced planning. Aiming for a 170 is a good goal, but you may consider setting up a longer plan to possibly take next June instead, giving you ample time to crush the test.

It's not a sprint, but rather a marathon. I was offering some help to a student who had just finished a prep class last week, and she was so dead set on the method she had learned for solving a particular LR question type, and when I tried to show her an objectively superior way, she was like "look, no offense, but it's crunch time."

It is NOT crunch time and there is no crunch time for this test. You shouldn't be doing any crunching. Set up a plan, and start working. After a few weeks you will quickly realize whether or not it is attainable for you to break 170 in 2 months. I would say for most people in your position, and given the late start in researching LSAT prep plans, it's most likely not going to be something reasonably attainable for you.

That said, while December may be overly optimistic, there is no reason you can't kill it in June, and you'll have more PTs to draw from by then.

[Striderite3]

Just my experience... started off at cold diagnostic of 150. I started studying the last week of August and have just finished the first month of Pithy's study plan. The first month culminates with you taking PrepTest A- which I got a 158 on. So that's 8 points in a month from a relatively weak diagnostic. And from what I hear it gets harder to gain points the higher your score (pretty intuitive). So unless you were testing at upper 150s, I would be hesitant in expecting to raise your score to a 170 in two months. Now if you're like myself and planning on taking a later test, I definitely think 170 is doable with efficient/effective studying. Just my take.

[Tiago Splitter]

Focus more on drilling the individual question types in LR. If you are scoring in the 150s taking full length PTs will largely be a waste of time and potentially a waste of questions.

~155 to 170+ is relatively easy for people who get that 155 on an ice cold diagnostic with lots of misses on logic games. If that doesn't describe you it might take a little longer, but it is possible.