Am I "wasting" LSAT prep material? Forum

[jeez29]

I'm new here, and I'd just like to say thank you to all those who post frequently. From reading through this site I've already learned a lot on how I should be preparing.

I'm probably not going to be taking the LSAT for another 2 or 3 years, but I've already started doing sections and trying to prepare myself. What I've been doing is sections from the official LSAT preptests in the book with the preptests from 1999 to 2002. I go through the questions and then go over my wrong answers afterwards, usually doing 1 or 2 sections a day. My question is, am I wasting my efforts by doing this 2 or 3 years before I test? Will I just forget anything I learn? And, more importantly, am I spoiling valuable practice tests I could be using a year and a half from now when I start seriously studying?

My other question pertains to my performance. I set 40 minutes on my timer to get through the RC and LR sections. For LR, I'm consistently getting on average usually about -5 in an average of I'd say 37 minutes. For RC, I'm getting on average -6 wrong in about 40 minutes. After I'm done with the section I go through all of the questions I get wrong and try to figure out why I got them wrong. Usually 2 or 3 are dumb mistakes I quickly pick up on while 2 or 3 are ones I really don't understand.

My eventual goal is to get a 167+, but I'm really hoping for a 170. I know to reach that goal, I really should be getting only 3ish wrong a section at the most. Is it reasonable to expect myself to get there in LR and RC if I study hard?

Also, I know I have ignored Logic Games in this post. I know if I tried it cold, I could figure them out if I spent 2 hours on the section, but I know it'll take significant practice to get them right in 35 minutes. However, I'm confident I can teach myself the patters and make that one of my best sections after some hard work. Is this a foolhardy thing to think?

Edit: Do you think If I make sure I don't go past prep test 38 (I think there are 77 total?) I will have enough material when I seriously start studying?

Thank you to anyone who has some input.

[forum_user]

Short answer to your question is yeah, probably. If you're not planning on applying to law school for 2-3 years, why bother studying now? I didn't even start thinking about the LSAT until 9 months ago (applying this fall). How do you even know this is what you'll definitely want to do in three years?

[Goldchain]

There is nothing wrong with taking the LSAT your junior year of college. It may even help de-stress your senior year and allow you to concentrate on rounding out your application. I also highly recommend studying the LSAT for 12 months. One test is more important than 4 years of grades. You might as well put in 1/4th the effort.

[RamTitan]

I'm a big advocate of the 12 month plan too; it's a lot less stressful. Spend the first three months with the PowerScore bibles and light drilling to learn how to take the test, then for 6-7 months do 1-2 sections a day and review them, while spending your weekends taking a practice test and BRing it. Then, for the last 2-3 months crank out 2-3 practice tests a week and BR the hell out of them.

[Blueprint Mithun]

I'm new here, and I'd just like to say thank you to all those who post frequently. From reading through this site I've already learned a lot on how I should be preparing.

I'm probably not going to be taking the LSAT for another 2 or 3 years, but I've already started doing sections and trying to prepare myself. What I've been doing is sections from the official LSAT preptests in the book with the preptests from 1999 to 2002. I go through the questions and then go over my wrong answers afterwards, usually doing 1 or 2 sections a day. My question is, am I wasting my efforts by doing this 2 or 3 years before I test? Will I just forget anything I learn? And, more importantly, am I spoiling valuable practice tests I could be using a year and a half from now when I start seriously studying?

My other question pertains to my performance. I set 40 minutes on my timer to get through the RC and LR sections. For LR, I'm consistently getting on average usually about -5 in an average of I'd say 37 minutes. For RC, I'm getting on average -6 wrong in about 40 minutes. After I'm done with the section I go through all of the questions I get wrong and try to figure out why I got them wrong. Usually 2 or 3 are dumb mistakes I quickly pick up on while 2 or 3 are ones I really don't understand.

My eventual goal is to get a 167+, but I'm really hoping for a 170. I know to reach that goal, I really should be getting only 3ish wrong a section at the most. Is it reasonable to expect myself to get there in LR and RC if I study hard?

Also, I know I have ignored Logic Games in this post. I know if I tried it cold, I could figure them out if I spent 2 hours on the section, but I know it'll take significant practice to get them right in 35 minutes. However, I'm confident I can teach myself the patters and make that one of my best sections after some hard work. Is this a foolhardy thing to think?

Edit: Do you think If I make sure I don't go past prep test 38 (I think there are 77 total?) I will have enough material when I seriously start studying?

Thank you to anyone who has some input.

I think you're starting too early. If you plan on studying for the next 2-3 years, you'll probably get burned out. And this isn't particularly efficient either - if you take a break for a few months, you'll forget a bunch of the material and have to redevelop your instincts for the test, so you're essentially wasting time. I'd say starting a year before the test is the earliest anyone should attempt it.

It's not that you're wasting materials - there are so many preptests at this point that doing a few now is negligible. And besides, if you redo these preptests even 6 months down the line, you probably won't remember most of the questions. I just think that your time could be much better spent.

Decide when you want to take the test and commit to it. Then, get a series of prep books and work through those. Learn the material - master identifying different question/game types, and learn the effective strategies for each one. Don't bother with preptests until you've worked through all the materials. Then you can start to practice on sections, and eventually move on to full, timed preptests.