7 months to 170 plan? Forum

[O.J.]

After looking through everyone's suggestions, I'm trying to create the best study plan. I'd love to hear what plan you would use to reach 170, after a 160 diagnostic, starting from scratch. I have the LSAT Trainer on the way, and I plan to purchase the 7Sage "Premium" package (6 months access). I also plan to buy the Powescore LG Bible, and a couple books of tests.

My question is, which order should I start all of this? It's becoming overwhelming because you are all so passionate about which tools you use. So now I have all this great material but not sure where to start? I'm taking in September.

What road map would you use? Be as specific as possible if you don't mind.

[pittsburghpirates]

Personally, I'd read the trainer first. I started from a similar diagnostic and I found that to be very helpful as it provides a good foundation and I thought that it had good strategies for LR and RC. Also, the Manhattan materials, especially for LR and LG, seem to get a lot of love around here. I used Powerscore originally for LG and LR, but wish I had gone with the Manhattan materials because I didn't find the Powerscore materials as helpful (LR primarily thought the LG Bible was helpful). I started reading these books and drilling question types based on what material was being covered in the books. Cambridge was very helpful here because they have LR questions and LG grouped by type. I did all of this untimed at first to focus on making sure that I understood the material. Once I got to a point where I was getting a very high percentage of the question correct untimed, I started timing myself and taking PTs. I used 7Sage's LSAT Analytics tool to track my PTs and I thought this was very helpful because it showed clearly which types of questions that I struggled with and allowed me to drill those areas more to combat that. Towards the latter part of my prep, I focused on taking PTs and blind reviewing them afterwards to understand why I selected wrong answers and why the credited answers were the correct responses. I found the blind review process to be the most helpful of anything that I did. The more PTs that you take, the more you will notice patterns.

There are also some awesome study guides in the LSAT Prep section here. You could consider using one of those as well. 7 months should be plenty of time to hit your goal, best of luck! Any other questions, feel free to PM.

[O.J.]

Excellent advice! I pm'd you a couple follow up questions.

As far as PT's, I'm ordering 52-61 and 62-71. However, I'd like to crack 20 PT's (over 7 months), so is there a volume before the 52-61 I should start at? I can't seem to find it. Thanks guys!

[pittsburghpirates]

Excellent advice! I pm'd you a couple follow up questions.

As far as PT's, I'm ordering 52-61 and 62-71. However, I'd like to crack 20 PT's (over 7 months), so is there a volume before the 52-61 I should start at? I can't seem to find it. Thanks guys!

I would save the more recent PTs for later in your prep as they are more reflective of what the current LSAT is like. Older PTs are great for drilling and the Cambridge bundles only go up to PT 38 I believe. So everything after that you could use for taking full PTs if you like.

[O.J.]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I was looking for tests prior to 52-61, but wanted to use the 10pack LSAC bundles. I have two so far. Thanks again.

[harvardorbust2016]

Everything in here is excellent advice!

I'd like to put in an additional plug for the Cambridge bundles. I bought all the LR and LG sets available, and the type sorting was invaluable. Once I was PTing and identified my weaknesses, this allowed me to drill, drill, drill specific, targeted skills. I kept them all nice and organized in a binder, but once I ran through them it was very convenient to just be able to print them out as well.

They're a bit of an investment, but totally worth it.

[RamTitan]

With a 160 diagnostic and 7 months to study, I'd say go for a 180 bro. Drill baby drill.

[AbbeyS]

Well, let me start by saying that you're in a much better position than I was starting out. My diagnostic was 141 last spring...Yes. You read that right. 141. I took in June with not-so-great study materials and scored in the upper 150s...hit the books again and consistently went 169-170 on my PTs with my new materials.

The best advice I can give is to master the fundamentals. You really need to understand the test, including the patterns.

For my part 2 studying, I started with the LSAT trainer. I highly recommend it. It helps you focus on the fundamentals and patterns like I mentioned. I didn't use his exact schedule though. Instead of doing sections and PTs when the book suggested, I'd do 1-2 chapters a day of that starting out.

I saved all my PTs and mapped out how much time I had left so that I could spread them out to be 1 per Saturday morning, just like the real test. It's important to test under actual study conditions. I literally wore the same type of outfit I'd wear on test day, ate the same breakfast, drank my coffee at the same time, etc.

I downloaded an app called "LSAT Proctor" (it's free) to help me proctor my Saturday PTs. You can even add ambient sounds (coughs, pencil sharpening, whispering, etc) to help you get acquainted with people being annoying AF during the test.

I also downloaded the 7Sage app and used his logic game explanations in combination with my Cambridge bundle LGs. That's what helped me master the games, because his explanations are so good. Drill drill drill. I'd sometimes do logic games for 6-8 hours a day if I had time. The Cambridge bundles are divided by game type, which is helpful to find out your strengths and weaknesses with the games. The bundles are just a download link where you get all the files on your computer and can print as you go and reprint if you wanna do a game again.

I also used the Cambridge RC and LR but not as much as LG. Manhattan LR was pretty good but I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I also had all the bibles but I didn't find them to be as helpful as Trainer or just drilling.

SO basically...LSAT trainer, Cambridge bundles, 7Sage free LG explanations, LSAT Proctor app for PTing, Manhattan LR if you have time. But definitely LSAT trainer. It transformed how I thought about the LSAT. Good luck!