Okay...overwhelmed Forum

[Bobnoxious]

Last week I ordered study materials to prep for the LSAT, including signing up for the PowerScore Full Course. My orders arrived in the mail today.

HOLY HELL!!!

I've got a stack of books that are about a mile high. There's no way in hell I'm going to be able to read the four books from the PowerScore course, the LR Bible, the LG Bible, go through both of those workbooks, read "The Official LSAT SuperPrep," and go through the four LSAT preptest books by June 10th, all while taking a full UG course-load and working 40+ hours a week at the family business. Something has got to give. I can cut my hours at the office down to about 15-20 per week without doing too much damage to the operation, so there's one advantage to being in a family business, but...

...This Is Effin' Daunting.

[CyanIdes Of March]

It can be very difficult. You should schedule it out as far ahead as you need to be ready. I took it last year while working part time with a full course load and I did ok, but I was studying from June to December so I had time to get it right.

[ph14]

It can be very difficult. You should schedule it out as far ahead as you need to be ready. I took it last year while working part time with a full course load and I did ok, but I was studying from June to December so I had time to get it right.

Credited. Good luck OP!

[jmart154]

When there's a will, there's a way.

[dowu]

When there's a will, there's a way.

[Bobnoxious]

Well, here we go. Gonna be a wild ride. I've got the will, Pithypike modified will be the way.

[magickware]

Do you have to take it in June?

Doing full-course load while working what is effectively full-time while studying the LSAT sounds like at least one of them has to be inefficient, and you can't afford to be inefficient in any of those.

[Bobnoxious]

No, I don't *have* to take it in June, but the way I see it, I can take the test 3 times, and I don't want to take it as late as February for the 2013-14 cycle. I took a Kaplan free online diagnostic and received a stellar <sarcasm> 153, and though it means little generally, it tells me I need to bust ass on logic games (-14) and do some brushing up on LR (-5/-10) and RC (-8). I need to improve my speed a bit on RC. I'm not likely to leave Memphis considering I'm 46 years old with a wife, 2 kids (one at UT-Chattanooga), and a mortgage. I'm shooting for any number that will get me some scholarship money here in Memphis, though as little as they give out it's hard to tell whether that number will be in the low or the high 160s or even higher. If I take it in June, I'll still have October and December to do better, even though those tests will see me in the same circumstances. The primary difference will be that during the summer I won't need to be dealing with courses and I can use that time for more studying in the hopes that with some serious review prior to either of the next two exams I can do substantially better than what I'm able to build up to by June.

Thanks!

[eyfl]

If you don't need excellent numbers and just something in the 16x area, reading 2 PS bibles and drilling sections might suffice. Try doing this first and see where you end up.

1-2 sections per day in the evening, reading PS bibles while commuting & doing PTs on weekends sounds doable.

[magickware]

If that's the case, I STRONGLY recommend that you start with the Powerscore LG bible and Manhattan LSAT RC/LR books. Those have by far been the most help I've had in terms of workbooks. The Powerscore LR bible works, but I preferred the Manhattan LSAT one because it guides you through the process better and is simply intuitive in the way it works.

In my opinion, and many other's opinions, games can be best improved if you buy the game types and just drill them individually with no time, then with time. You can get them from here -http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/logic-games/
Use this for review-http://7sage.com/logic-game-explanations/

The 7sage games explanations is pretty much the only reason why I went from an average of -3 to -5 on games even after two months of self-study to an average of -0 to -2. Their analysis of the games allowed me to look at the games in a much more different light, largely because they explain how the rules are meant to connect with one another to create obvious inferences.

So, basically, just go through all those questions three times. Once untimed, the other two times timed. By the end of that, you should be so thoroughly versed in games that it would be incredibly difficult for you to get anything wrong unless you're prone to making silly errors like me.

Another easy section to improve is RC, if you're already good at reading. I'd personally say just follow Voyager's RC guide, which is here-http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... f=6&t=7240

While you do not have to follow its exact principles, which has you paraphrasing virtually every paragraph and thought-processes on the margin, it is very useful to understand the concept behind it. The RC section deals with your ability to quickly dissect and organize a dense passage. If you can do that if your head, then that's terrific. I apparently can't, and so for me just writing every relevant thought on the margins did wonders in helping me organize the passages into easy bite-sized pieces.

As for LR- I plain suck at them and won't try to give you help here =( Eternally locked at -6 to -8...

You can probably work through the games within four months, and RC will be very easy if you just find the strategy that works for you. LR will probably be the greatest time-sink, and the only advice I can give you is just memorize the entire Manhattan LSAT LR book. But since your priority is getting in the 160-range, just raising games and getting the basics of the LR section alone will get you there. So don't feel overwhelmed, you have plenty of time.

[cricketlove00]

There's always October.

[mephistopheles]

If you don't need excellent numbers and just something in the 16x area, reading 2 PS bibles and drilling sections might suffice. Try doing this first and see where you end up.

1-2 sections per day in the evening, reading PS bibles while commuting & doing PTs on weekends sounds doable.

[North]

If you don't need excellent numbers and just something in the 16x area, reading 2 PS bibles and drilling sections might suffice. Try doing this first and see where you end up.

1-2 sections per day in the evening, reading PS bibles while commuting & doing PTs on weekends sounds doable.

Scooped. Nobody "doesn't need" excellent numbers.

[Icculus]

If you don't need excellent numbers and just something in the 16x area, reading 2 PS bibles and drilling sections might suffice. Try doing this first and see where you end up.

1-2 sections per day in the evening, reading PS bibles while commuting & doing PTs on weekends sounds doable.

Scooped. Nobody "doesn't need" excellent numbers.

+1. Especially at 46, married, with kids and a mortgage. OP needs the highest number he can get so he can walk away with zero debt.

Though the original question brings up the question, OP why law school? Considering you would be graduating at 50, what will a law degree help you do that you can't do without it? Or is it just something you are doing for yourself? The reason I ask is because it may not be worth 3-4 years of your life + expenses/tuition unless you have a pretty compelling reason as to why you want to do this.

[nygrrrl]

+1. Especially at 46, married, with kids and a mortgage. OP needs the highest number he can get so he can walk away with zero debt.

Wait.
I just have to say... OP? You're 46 and you are just now finishing your UG degree, you've raised 2 kids, maintained a family biz and you're aiming at law school? KUDOS, MANG. I am seriously impressed. Welcome to the ranks of the Second Career/Parent/ Law Students/Hopefuls! There are several of us on TLS; if you have questions about how to make it work, hit me with a PM and I'll try to connect you with some people who've already done it. (I leave it to good folks like Icculus to ask the tough questions; my role is just to help you find answers if this is the path you've decided to take.)
Best of luck!

(Oh, and for the record? The Powerscore Games Bible was one of the best prep materials I found, studying for the LSAT. GL!)

[Bobnoxious]

If you don't need excellent numbers and just something in the 16x area, reading 2 PS bibles and drilling sections might suffice. Try doing this first and see where you end up.

1-2 sections per day in the evening, reading PS bibles while commuting & doing PTs on weekends sounds doable.

Scooped. Nobody "doesn't need" excellent numbers.

+1. Especially at 46, married, with kids and a mortgage. OP needs the highest number he can get so he can walk away with zero debt.

Though the original question brings up the question, OP why law school? Considering you would be graduating at 50, what will a law degree help you do that you can't do without it? Or is it just something you are doing for yourself? The reason I ask is because it may not be worth 3-4 years of your life + expenses/tuition unless you have a pretty compelling reason as to why you want to do this.

It will allow me to practice law, which is something I've wanted to do for about 20 years (small business litigation, insurance recovery, B2B collections, and more). To be honest, it's also a bit of an ego/pride/promise thing. I promised my mom a long time ago that one of these days I'd be an attorney. She died of leukemia December 2009, and while I wish I'd have done this so she could have seen it while she was still alive, it's still a promise I intend to keep, consequences be damned. The timing could have been better and I didn't do this when it would have been ideal, but it darned sure won't get any better considering my age.

[Icculus]

It will allow me to practice law, which is something I've wanted to do for about 20 years (small business litigation, insurance recovery, B2B collections, and more). To be honest, it's also a bit of an ego/pride/promise thing. I promised my mom a long time ago that one of these days I'd be an attorney. She died of leukemia December 2009, and while I wish I'd have done this so she could have seen it while she was still alive, it's still a promise I intend to keep, consequences be damned. The timing could have been better and I didn't do this when it would have been ideal, but it darned sure won't get any better considering my age.

In that case I would say that the best advice is to get as high a score as possible not simply aiming for a 16x. The reason being the higher your score the better chance you'll get the kind of scholarship money you need. So while it may seem daunting I would recommend that you don't take any shortcuts and really aim as high as possible. Good luck! And I can understand, my father died when I was in high school and I know that part of what motivates me is that. Though at this point in your life you want to try ad minimize debt as much as possible so if your score isn't high enough this time around you'll want to use as many chances as you have to maximize it.

[TomThompson]

I personally didn't find the powerscores or manhattan RC books to be particularly useful but I did have a decent RC score to start so I'm not sure. There are also other ways to improve in RC- read dense, well written articles from The Economist, Scientific American, New Yorker(?), and think about their structure, analysis, etc. This can be a lot more fun too

Consistency and quality is just as important as the number of hours. With this many months to study, if you put in 1-2 hours every day of quality studying and maybe more on the weekends, you can accomplish a great deal.

Once you have a few PT's (10+?) under your belt, LSATQA can be quite useful to find your weak areas (especially in LR), and then the Cambridge LR packets are great to drill your weak areas. With LSATQA it's nice to track your progress and improvement as you study. I don't know how generally this holds, but interestingly enough, my LSAT in October was 0.5 points off my PT average of the last 17 tests.

Good luck! TLS is a great forum- lots of hard working people with high expectations that can help you raise your own.