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This might turn into a long post, but it's obviously very important to my future so I will get to the point off the the bat for anyone who doesn't want to read a lengthy post...

I took the December LSAT for the third time in three years, scored six points under my 171 recent average, and have no more fresh PTs left to study. Do I have any chance for meaningful enough study after having exhausted all the material? I need at least a 170, but want a 175.

Now for the longer post...

I first took the test in 2010 after studying the PS Bibles and doing the 50s PTs. I missed 16 in LG, but still managed a score in the low 160s. I took the test again in 2011 with the same prep material and did the PTs in the 29-38 book. I greatly improved on LG and scored in the mid 160s.

I devoted myself to the LSAT in the second half of 2012 after reading about employment prospects and such on TLS. I studied the Manhattan guides in addition to PS, did all questions by type from PTs 1-38, did sections from 39-42, and took full PTs from 43-67 (doing most of the ones from 53-67 twice). I did most recent LGs in existence 3+ times. I was able to score as high as 174 on multiple occasions. I know that I attained a much deeper understanding of the test. I even delayed from October to December to make sure I raised my average above 170. So after hundreds of hours of sacrifice where did I end up? Back at square one with the same score as my second take.

I really don't think it was a test day issue. I just effed up. I missed the last six questions on LG and just completely bombed the last game. I also did well below average on RC (-7).

I'm over the initial shock and disappointment, but I have bigger issues. I have enough determination to try this again and know that my final score was unrepresentative of my potential, but I think some of my problems directly resulted from running out of material. I became accustomed to knowing diagrams for LGs and topics for RC during my retakes on PTs. I think this really hurt me in RC and LG on test day with all new passages and games.

Now this problem gets only worse because I have absolutely nothing new to study. Not only would I not be able to gauge my progress, but I fear the ultimate effect on my score. I could wait until October in the hope that I will have forgotten enough about the PTs to make them a useful study aid again, or wait until 2014 when I will probably have forgotten most things about the test and will have to reteach myself, or just forget about law school altogether. The farther I get from my undergrad experience, the longer it takes to get back to a high enough intellectual level to crack 170+.

In the meantime, I'm struggling to make ends meet. I have been so focused on going back to school that I haven't had time to get a well paying full time job, and I just devoted half a year to studying something that netted me zero gain. I feel like I'm in a deep quandary, any help vastly appreciated!

Take at least 6 weeks off completely, deal with your employment issue, then start from the earliest tests you took, doing 1/week. You can also do the games on our site for seeing games you've never seen (though note they are usually harder then real LSAT games). If you remember a question, game, or passage, focus on walking through the thoughts you want to have when facing that sort of thing.

There's a good chance you'll do a lot better in June.

Manhattan LSAT Noah wrote:Take at least 6 weeks off completely, deal with your employment issue, then start from the earliest tests you took, doing 1/week. You can also do the games on our site for seeing games you've never seen (though note they are usually harder then real LSAT games). If you remember a question, game, or passage, focus on walking through the thoughts you want to have when facing that sort of thing.

There's a good chance you'll do a lot better in June.

Thank you, Noah. I still give your products the highest respect because I know how much better my process and instincts have become. I can firmly say that PT 68 (as it has now become) was a statistical anomaly. For some reason, I did bellow average on PTs 66 and 67 as well, but had some of my best scores on PTs 64 and 65. I guess I just tried for too much and probably burned out from unhealthy study habits. My scores became increasingly inconsistent toward the end (like 5 point swings- though nothing quite as bad as the actual test) and I was just hoping for a good day but got the opposite.

Sounds like you've got a good sense of the situation. You're well set for a strong comeback, so enjoy the time off and the space to reset your life (stay away from TLS )

Manhattan LSAT Noah wrote:Take at least 6 weeks off completely, deal with your employment issue, then start from the earliest tests you took, doing 1/week. You can also do the games on our site for seeing games you've never seen (though note they are usually harder then real LSAT games). If you remember a question, game, or passage, focus on walking through the thoughts you want to have when facing that sort of thing.

There's a good chance you'll do a lot better in June.

I know your opinion is biased, but how close would you say your custom games come to the real LSAT games? Do you strive to make them more realistic or more challenging than real LSAT games? Are they modeled after real games at all?

I never bothered with those games, but I, too, have exhausted all my material and even after a lengthy break I'd like to see some new (if unofficial) material.

Also, to OP, lsatblog also has some unofficial games as well you might look up.

cahwc12 wrote:I know your opinion is biased, but how close would you say your custom games come to the real LSAT games? Do you strive to make them more realistic or more challenging than real LSAT games? Are they modeled after real games at all?

I never bothered with those games, but I, too, have exhausted all my material and even after a lengthy break I'd like to see some new (if unofficial) material.

Also, to OP, lsatblog also has some unofficial games as well you might look up.

My biased opinion is that our games are better than LSAC's

My unbiased opinion is that our games are not based on actual games (as in, we didn't just change the names and a couple of rules), but we do make sure to incorporate LSAT tendencies and things we've picked up from doing lots of real ones. We tend to make them harder and often with more questions than a real LSAT game.

About half of them were written by teachers as part of their training program and then those games get a polish. The other half were written by folks in the curriculum team.

I can vouch for MLSAT LG as well as their whole study guide. I honestly hated LGs. But after going through their 3rd edition and some of their games online, LGs aren't that bad. I feel on a general level, their custom games are slightly harder than the real LGs, then again, the LGs from 40s- mid 50s is a joke. One more thing, their RC guide is brilliant.

I second Fianna's response. I tried Powerscore's Bible and it was fine for LR, but I find Manhattan's to be much better for logic games. I'm still not where I need to be, but I'm improving. My only complaint about them is that they don't have any classes near me.