In a quandary, please help! Forum

[179orBust]

I plan on taking the LSAT in June 2015. There's a supposedly unbelievable prep course near my house which I'd like to take, however, the instructor is only giving one course in preparation for the December/ February exam and another in preparation for the June exam. The course is around 4 months but I feel this isn't enough time for me to do exceptionally well on this exam since I'm a methodical learner.

So here's my question: Should I take the course for the December/ February exam or wait to take the course for the June exam? My primary concern with taking the course for the Dec/ Feb exam is that I will burn through material (instructor reviews the newer exams). The positive is that I will be able to learn effective methods ahead of time and be able to apply them to all the LSAT problems/ exams I tackle in the future. Taking the course for the June exam will avoid the burning through newer PTs concern, however, I'm worried that the 4 months isn't enough time.

After thinking about this for a few days, I believe that the best thing to do would be to study myself until the June course starts by reading some books, and drilling with the Cambridge packets 1-38. Then take the course and kill the LSAT (hopefully). Is this the right move?

There are a lot of smart people on this forum who constantly give prudent advice so I figured it would be best to hear from everyone, Thank you in advance!

[GreenTee]

I'd recommend doing the Dec/Feb course. Courses begin with the fundamentals. If you read all the prep books between now and the June course, you're going to be horribly bored for the first few weeks.

On the other hand, if you take the course first, then you can spend all of your time between Feb and June taking PTs and drilling on your own to iron out your weaknesses. This puts you in a much better position to reach your highest potential in June, IMO.

[BillPackets]

y not 180orbust?

[Gray]

.

[179orBust]

I'd recommend doing the Dec/Feb course. Courses begin with the fundamentals. If you read all the prep books between now and the June course, you're going to be horribly bored for the first few weeks.

On the other hand, if you take the course first, then you can spend all of your time between Feb and June taking PTs and drilling on your own to iron out your weaknesses. This puts you in a much better position to reach your highest potential in June, IMO.

Thanks for the advice, but when I take those PTs my score won't accurately reflect my true ability since I will already have seen some of the questions. This drawback makes me want take the later course.

[179orBust]

I'd recommend doing the Dec/Feb course. Courses begin with the fundamentals. If you read all the prep books between now and the June course, you're going to be horribly bored for the first few weeks.

On the other hand, if you take the course first, then you can spend all of your time between Feb and June taking PTs and drilling on your own to iron out your weaknesses. This puts you in a much better position to reach your highest potential in June, IMO.

As the poster above mentioned, that username is already taken lol. So it's 179 or bust for now. Won't complain though if I score 180.

[GreenTee]

I'd recommend doing the Dec/Feb course. Courses begin with the fundamentals. If you read all the prep books between now and the June course, you're going to be horribly bored for the first few weeks.

On the other hand, if you take the course first, then you can spend all of your time between Feb and June taking PTs and drilling on your own to iron out your weaknesses. This puts you in a much better position to reach your highest potential in June, IMO.

Thanks for the advice, but when I take those PTs my score won't accurately reflect my true ability since I will already have seen some of the questions. This drawback makes me want take the later course.

This really doesn't matter. Just take whatever PTs you don't cover in the course, and then intersperse a few retakes of the most recent ones as you approach the test date. Honestly, you'll be so much better off if you save more time for individual prep after the course.

But, like Grey said, it also depends on your diagnostic. If you're close--say, within 10 points of your goal, then you won't need that much individual prep time.

Edit - since you appear to be 179 or bust, take the earlier course.