question for my brother Forum

[timmyd]

I'm a poster on this site in other forums. Recently graduated from UT and am clerking now. My bro wants to follow in my footsteps so to speak by attending law school. I have pressed upon him the importance of the lsat. I truly know because I had to transfer into a good school because I didnt prepare for the exam. His diagnostic is a 163. He is trying to get to 170ish by June or July, whenever the test is. Advice on achieving that goal is welcome. Also, advice to wait until the October exam is welcome as well.

[SlithyTove]

I'm a poster on this site in other forums. Recently graduated from UT and am clerking now. My bro wants to follow in my footsteps so to speak by attending law school. I have pressed upon him the importance of the lsat. I truly know because I had to transfer into a good school because I didnt prepare for the exam. His diagnostic is a 163. He is trying to get to 170ish by June or July, whenever the test is. Advice on achieving that goal is welcome. Also, advice to wait until the October exam is welcome as well.

If he hasn't started studying yet, wait until October. The test is in June and one month is not enough time. But if he's going to be applying next fall for admission to the class of 2020, he should have every other component of his application locked down before he takes the lsat so he can apply the second his scores are in. if he's waiting till the fall of 2017 to apply, this is less of an issue.

All I can say is that what worked for me was studying from the Powerscore books every day and taking a timed practice test once a week under standard testing conditions. I supplemented that with the logic games explanation videos on 7sage and in the month before the test, upped my practice tests to 2 a week, using my weaker areas on the PTs to inform my studying for the next few days. If he really wants to be successful in law school though (and I'm sure you know this better than I do since I'm not in law school yet and you're graduated) he should probably get on here and do the research himself.

[DJ2k15]

I'm a poster on this site in other forums. Recently graduated from UT and am clerking now. My bro wants to follow in my footsteps so to speak by attending law school. I have pressed upon him the importance of the lsat. I truly know because I had to transfer into a good school because I didnt prepare for the exam. His diagnostic is a 163. He is trying to get to 170ish by June or July, whenever the test is. Advice on achieving that goal is welcome. Also, advice to wait until the October exam is welcome as well.

I would advise him to take a prep class like Testmasters or Blueprint. Expensive, but definitely worth the investment. Average increase is around 7-10 points when you take the class seriously. If it is too late to enroll in a class before June, I would still tell him to take it, and then just plan on retaking it October. Regardless of he is prepared by June, it helps to get "game time" experience. As I am sure you know, many people freakout the first time they take the real thing.

[pittsburghpirates]

I'm a poster on this site in other forums. Recently graduated from UT and am clerking now. My bro wants to follow in my footsteps so to speak by attending law school. I have pressed upon him the importance of the lsat. I truly know because I had to transfer into a good school because I didnt prepare for the exam. His diagnostic is a 163. He is trying to get to 170ish by June or July, whenever the test is. Advice on achieving that goal is welcome. Also, advice to wait until the October exam is welcome as well.

If he hasn't started studying yet, wait until October. The test is in June and one month is not enough time. But if he's going to be applying next fall for admission to the class of 2020, he should have every other component of his application locked down before he takes the lsat so he can apply the second his scores are in. if he's waiting till the fall of 2017 to apply, this is less of an issue.

This is spot on. Getting those apps out the door in October is still early for the cycle and will give him as good of a shot as any (depending on his numbers of course). Given the timing, if he hasn't started studying, if I was in the same position (which I was this cycle) I would sit for the September/October exam.

A 163 is a solid diagnostic. Do you happen to know the breakdown of that score (i.e. did he miss a bunch of Qs in LG, etc.)? I personally would recommend self studying because it's possible to make the schedule as flexible possible that way. The LSAT study guides in the Prep forum are excellent and I would highly recommend

[emkay625]

I don't see the harm in him taking the June test and then if he doesn't get the score he wants retaking in Sep/Oct (whichever month it's in this year, I forget).

But yeah, I think it's totally possible to go from 163-170 in a month. My score jumped 5 points from my diagnostic to my second exam just because the stuff was familiar now. Can everyone go up 7 points in a month? No. But some folks will.

[cyj43]

I don't see the harm in him taking the June test and then if he doesn't get the score he wants retaking in Sep/Oct (whichever month it's in this year, I forget).

But yeah, I think it's totally possible to go from 163-170 in a month. My score jumped 5 points from my diagnostic to my second exam just because the stuff was familiar now. Can everyone go up 7 points in a month? No. But some folks will.

Very possible if the majority of his points came off LG. Though, it would help to know what his GPA is as the two should be looked at together.

[Blueprint Mithun]

I'm a poster on this site in other forums. Recently graduated from UT and am clerking now. My bro wants to follow in my footsteps so to speak by attending law school. I have pressed upon him the importance of the lsat. I truly know because I had to transfer into a good school because I didnt prepare for the exam. His diagnostic is a 163. He is trying to get to 170ish by June or July, whenever the test is. Advice on achieving that goal is welcome. Also, advice to wait until the October exam is welcome as well.

A diagnostic of 163 is great. All the more reason that he shouldn't rush to take the test, because he clearly has potential to get a very high score. It's definitely possible to get up to 170 from a 163 diagnostic within a month, but he'll need to score in that range consistently for 5-10 preptests if he wants to be sure that he can do that well on a real test.

And he shouldn't do any more preptests until he's finished studying a big chunk of the test material. So his time is tight if he's dead set on that goal. I think he should look at his score breakdown and start by learning the material for the section he lost the most points in, especially if it's logic games.

My gut is telling me that waiting for October is a better idea. He'll have plenty of time to practice and reach his full potential, which will translate into higher scholarship offers and acceptances into better schools. He'll still be able to submit his app early enough in the cycle to get a leg up on most people. And he won't feel like he could've done a significantly better if he'd put in more time/started earlier.

[timmyd]

Sorry for the late response. Right now on the practice tests, he's missing 2-3 in lr and rc. Missing 8-9 on logic games. He just ordered the logic games bible. Thinks he doesn't need class.

[Jordan Catalano]

He doesn't need a class. These classes are filled with people who are scoring in the 130-155(ish) range. If he is already at 163 he will be held back learning basics that he already seems to understand. For $1500 he could buy a bunch of books, Cambridge packets, and spend the rest on a tutor to help him hone in on specific questions he is missing.

[timmyd]

His diag was 163. Second test 164. Third was 165. Mostly missing logic games.

[Mikey]

His diag was 163. Second test 164. Third was 165. Mostly missing logic games.

163, 164, and 165 without any prep? Wow that's actually quite impressive, especially since the ones he is missing are basically logic games. If he gets his games down, he'll be breaking 170 in no time.

[jjking]

I disagree and think he should seriously prep/take a class for october. My diag. was 169 and I only managed a 172 with major studying.

[Jordan Catalano]

I disagree and think he should seriously prep/take a class for october. My diag. was 169 and I only managed a 172 with major studying.

I agree that he should seriously prep, I just don't think a class is needed in this case.

[Fiddlesticks]

Check out Dave Hall's Velocity LSAT for Logic games. He takes a slightly different approach, and it really clicked for me. I went from missing 4-5 per LG section, to getting 0-1 every single time.

Edit: Just watch some of his free videos to see his LG approach. http://www.velocitylsat.com/free-lsat-prep-videos

[timmyd]

My brother has taken the test twice now. He scored a 167 and then a 168. His gpa is only a 3.1. Hes taking it again and pted at a 179 the other day. He was pting in the 170-175 range before the last test but it did not translate. As it stands now, what are the best schools yall think he can get into/ What about if his next score nudges him to 170?

[Mikey]

My brother has taken the test twice now. He scored a 167 and then a 168. His gpa is only a 3.1. Hes taking it again and pted at a 179 the other day. He was pting in the 170-175 range before the last test but it did not translate. As it stands now, what are the best schools yall think he can get into/ What about if his next score nudges him to 170?

He's a splitter. Splitter cycles are not very predictable, he just has to apply broadly and see what happens.