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Hey guys,

I'm new here and apologize if this type of post has been posted a million times already.
Basically, I will be taking the test in September, which is coming up real fast. I don't think I have been properly studying for this test at all; and need some major advice to direct me on how I should drill LR questions properly. Even though it might be a bit late, I have begun to drill questions by type, just to try to understand what I should be looking for in right and wrong answers. So far I have drilled flaws and sufficient assumptions, and started drilling some more flaw-type questions, since I think they help with other types of questions. I also plan on adding in either full practice tests or just a timed LR section every couple of days. Is this a good idea, especially with so little time?
Just to add some info on my studying: I have been studying on and off for about 3 months total after getting burnt out, in addition with school work. My initial "diagnostic" (if I can even call it that) was an untimed June 2007 test, which took me three days... and I score a 149 – so it most likely would have been much, much lower. I have since taken a total of 6 prep-tests. 3 untimed and 3 timed. Given my last timed prep-test, I scored a 153, increasing from 145. This was in a matter of a month or so – so nothing significant. I am not sure that I will be able to crack the 160's and even obtain my target score of 165 by the September test. I have read all three power score books front to back, and even started the LSAT trainer. I realize that the odds are against me and I will most likely be retaking in December. LG is improving well for me and RC isn't too bad for me. The LR is what I am having difficulty with.

Any advice would be appreciated, and sorry for the long post..

Are you applying this cycle? If not, I would advise postponing your exam until December.

How much are you currently getting wrong per section? How much time do you have to put into studying before the September exam? Personally, I wouldn't suggest starting the LSAT trainer if you've already done the Powerscore books because I assume both use different techniques for the various questions types and at this point, you don't want multiple ways to do something, you want one that you understand completely and can stick too.

Would agree on doing timed sections of logical reasoning - drilling is useful to see the nuances in each question and kind of get the "pattern" for it, but you'll never get a straight up LR section where it's only one type. The fact it's different types constantly is what the LSAT uses to throw you off.

Thanks for your comment.

I do plan on applying this cycle, and will most likely take the Sept LSAT to get an idea of how it really is, then take the Dec test. I am basically just using the Trainer for LR and nothing else, and actually found it to help me realize things I didn't when I went through the Powerscore books. But as for the LG, I found it to be too complicated, so I just skipped those chapters. From the last practice test I took, I got exactly 15 wrong on each LR section, the previous PT being -13 and -14 each section. The last PT I took was around 2 weeks ago, and simply have been drilling. As for time studying, I am able to put in a lot of time, around 8 hours per day, until my summer course's final comes up (which is on Monday, the week of the LSAT). Today, I thought about focusing more on the questions that give me the most trouble instead of trying to focus on all the question types. I think this would be a better way of prioritizing my studying.

When I was at that stage, I use to note (after doing a timed LR section) the amount of each type I got wrong in order to focus on that type of question for drilling. Plus, I would suggest plugging in your answers to the analytics on 7sage which will tell you the difficulty of each question you got wrong / the percentage of people that selected an answer choice. If it was an easy/medium question, it meant that I was missing something crucial because I should have gotten that question right and might signal that I have something wrong in my fundamentals.

Another suggestion is (maybe when you've cropped it down a bit though), is to go through each question and write out why each answer is wrong or right.

I've been keeping track of questions on 7sage, too. After looking over the difficulty of each LR question, t seems like I am mainly getting the harder questions wrong. But then again, the majority seems to be ranked at high difficulty. But, I like your advice, I'm surely missing something critical in my understanding, and so I really need to find out what it is! Thanks again.