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LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:46 pm
by svanderwoodsen
I'm looking to take the LSAT for the third time this December, which gives me a good amount of time to prep. In the first two times that I took the exam, I received the same score twice - a 162. That score, while decent, is nowhere near what I need to get into my dream school.

When I was preparing for the LSAT the first two times, I did everything Powerscore, and it was really helpful because I felt that I got a solid understanding of how to attack each problem type. So from now until December, I'm looking to just practice and really strengthen my ability to handle any difficult question or game. But because I've done everything Powerscore (literally - from the workbooks, to the trainers, bibles, etc.) I can't reuse that material. I've also done all of the recent LSAT exams (2008 +).

Could anyone give me any advice on how to prep moving forward? I know Manhattan Prep has practice packets for each question type and I've heard it's helpful. But I'm honestly so lost on how to prep this time around, so any input would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:49 pm
by anonymous user 100
I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:54 pm
by svanderwoodsen
anonymous user 100 wrote:I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.
I'm nervous to re-use the exams that I took. I took the December 2015 exam today as my diagnostic, and I scored a 170 on that. I feel like that happened because I've taken the exam before and I inherently remembered the games, reading passages, etc. So basically, it wasn't a realistic assessment of my abilities and definitely wasn't good practice.

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:06 pm
by anonymous user 100
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.
I'm nervous to re-use the exams that I took. I took the December 2015 exam today as my diagnostic, and I scored a 170 on that. I feel like that happened because I've taken the exam before and I inherently remembered the games, reading passages, etc. So basically, it wasn't a realistic assessment of my abilities and definitely wasn't good practice.
Maybe that's true, but who cares about what you're scoring. Only your real test's score matters, the rest is just for practice sake. You're taking the test no matter what you're PTing - just practice consistently from now until then. If anything, do fresh PT once/twice a month just so you know where you're at.

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:39 pm
by svanderwoodsen
anonymous user 100 wrote:
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.
I'm nervous to re-use the exams that I took. I took the December 2015 exam today as my diagnostic, and I scored a 170 on that. I feel like that happened because I've taken the exam before and I inherently remembered the games, reading passages, etc. So basically, it wasn't a realistic assessment of my abilities and definitely wasn't good practice.
Maybe that's true, but who cares about what you're scoring. Only your real test's score matters, the rest is just for practice sake. You're taking the test no matter what you're PTing - just practice consistently from now until then. If anything, do fresh PT once/twice a month just so you know where you're at.
That's true! Do you recommend any type of material in order for me to practice one particular part of the exam (ex. Logic Games). I struggle with Logic Games and Reading Comprehension quite a bit, so I would like extra practice with those. The PowerScore trainers were so great, but I've completed all of the questions in those.

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:07 pm
by anonymous user 100
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.
I'm nervous to re-use the exams that I took. I took the December 2015 exam today as my diagnostic, and I scored a 170 on that. I feel like that happened because I've taken the exam before and I inherently remembered the games, reading passages, etc. So basically, it wasn't a realistic assessment of my abilities and definitely wasn't good practice.
Maybe that's true, but who cares about what you're scoring. Only your real test's score matters, the rest is just for practice sake. You're taking the test no matter what you're PTing - just practice consistently from now until then. If anything, do fresh PT once/twice a month just so you know where you're at.
That's true! Do you recommend any type of material in order for me to practice one particular part of the exam (ex. Logic Games). I struggle with Logic Games and Reading Comprehension quite a bit, so I would like extra practice with those. The PowerScore trainers were so great, but I've completed all of the questions in those.
Well, I personally used just the Kaplan book for learning then real prep tests and sections from the LSAC books from there on out (pro tip your public library probably has the Kaplan book). Personally I was comfortable with LR so I did a lot of LG and RC sections individually outside of full length tests too. Definitely don't touch Princeton Review questions. 17x FWIW. I'm sure other folks would have other recommendations too.

Re: LSAT Material - Advice

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:28 pm
by svanderwoodsen
anonymous user 100 wrote:
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:
svanderwoodsen wrote:
anonymous user 100 wrote:I'm assuming you know how to approach each question type by now, so just take full length, timed prep tests every 3 days from now until your test. Reuse tests you've already taken, too.
I'm nervous to re-use the exams that I took. I took the December 2015 exam today as my diagnostic, and I scored a 170 on that. I feel like that happened because I've taken the exam before and I inherently remembered the games, reading passages, etc. So basically, it wasn't a realistic assessment of my abilities and definitely wasn't good practice.
Maybe that's true, but who cares about what you're scoring. Only your real test's score matters, the rest is just for practice sake. You're taking the test no matter what you're PTing - just practice consistently from now until then. If anything, do fresh PT once/twice a month just so you know where you're at.
That's true! Do you recommend any type of material in order for me to practice one particular part of the exam (ex. Logic Games). I struggle with Logic Games and Reading Comprehension quite a bit, so I would like extra practice with those. The PowerScore trainers were so great, but I've completed all of the questions in those.
Well, I personally used just the Kaplan book for learning then real prep tests and sections from the LSAC books from there on out (pro tip your public library probably has the Kaplan book). Personally I was comfortable with LR so I did a lot of LG and RC sections individually outside of full length tests too. Definitely don't touch Princeton Review questions. 171 FWIW. I'm sure other folks would have other recommendations too.
Dang, that's an extremely impressive score. I'm comfortable with LR too, but I struggle with LG and RC. For me, LG is going to be more about practice this time around, but I'm wondering if I should purchase the RC Bible from Powerscore (the only bible I didn't use), or any other RC book. Or, is it a better idea just to practice RC passages and leave it at that?