Retake Best Practices? Forum

[FutureLawyer92]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

[LSATWiz.com]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

I'd drill RC hard, and as with LR, pay attention to the types of questions you are getting wrong. Are they inferences, more difficult assumption q's? I'm a big advocate of drilling individual question types, and for you, these may just be the most difficult q's of each q type. Anything you get wrong in the first 15 LR questions is normally indicative of a struggle with that specific q type.

[Capstone]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

I'm in a similar situation as you. I scored a 169 on the March LSAT. Did worse on the June LSAT. I sat for the July exam but I don't think I cracked 170. My PT ranges have also been 167-173. Going into September, I've taken or drilled questions from every PT except PT 86. We have similar strengths and weaknesses. My plan is to do timed RC sections for PTs 42-85. Afterwards, I'll blind review each passage.

An important note is getting yourself acclimated to the digital LSAT. For example, I'm adjusting my RC strategy. I bought an ipad but am limited to PT 71, 73, and 74 from the LSAC website and the free June 2007 on the 7sage digital LSAT Tester since I'm not registered for any prep courses. Since I'll be doing timed RC sections on paper, I bought yellow, orange, and pink highlighters so that my approach is the same when I'm reading passages on the iPad. I've stopped making notes in the margins of the passage.

I'm going to continue re-doing harder logic games as well as timed LR sections that I had lower scores on when I originally took them during a PT. Personally, I feel like LR has gotten tougher in the 80s and I thought the July LSAT LR questions were tougher overall than usual.

[FutureLawyer92]

Thank you both for this advice! It sounds like drilling and targeting those weak spots are the way to go. Thank you both for your help! @capstone - if you're interested in studying together, let me know! Seems we're at just about the same place right now and might help to study virtually together. I'm going to make a separate post in just a minute gauging interest, feel free to chime in.

[Mccoyology]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

I'd drill RC hard, and as with LR, pay attention to the types of questions you are getting wrong. Are they inferences, more difficult assumption q's? I'm a big advocate of drilling individual question types, and for you, these may just be the most difficult q's of each q type. Anything you get wrong in the first 15 LR questions is normally indicative of a struggle with that specific q type.

I would like to ask how people drill for specific questions? Do you go through prep books and pull them out?

[HopefulSplitter0000]

I would like to ask how people drill for specific questions? Do you go through prep books and pull them out?

I did, but I was a bit of a masochist during my preparation. Most people do something far more sensible: they buy books that break down and sort questions by type.

PowerScore publishes three such books (one for each section):

PowerScore LSAT Game Type Training
PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning: Question Type Training
PowerScore LSAT Passage Type Training

I have no idea how beneficial these books are since I did things the hard way, but I would guess that since PowerScore made them, they are probably excellent.

[LSATWiz.com]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

I'd drill RC hard, and as with LR, pay attention to the types of questions you are getting wrong. Are they inferences, more difficult assumption q's? I'm a big advocate of drilling individual question types, and for you, these may just be the most difficult q's of each q type. Anything you get wrong in the first 15 LR questions is normally indicative of a struggle with that specific q type.

I would like to ask how people drill for specific questions? Do you go through prep books and pull them out?

You could purchase books that do this or enroll in an online platform. I think it's well worth the money. Like with bar prep, the books are much more valuable than the actual course if you're sufficiently motivated.

[Mccoyology]

Hey everyone! I sat for July and, while I have a looong wait ahead of me until score release, am already starting to revise my study plan in preparation for September. Prior to July, my PT average was 170, and my range was 167 to 173 during that timeframe. Majority of my tests were 170 on the nose. Going off how I felt leaving test day, I feel it's likely that I scored on the low-side of that range and will need to do something different in the next two months to perform at my potential on September's test. I would absolutely love to hit the 173-176 range for that test, and feel like it's possible to get there if I use my study time as efficiently as possible.

LG, I've gotten to a consistent -0/-1 and LR, for individual timed sections, range from -0 to -3. Practice tests I sometimes slip up more and may have a bad section where I miss 4 or 5. RC has always been my wildcard. I've only hit -1 once (on an individual section), otherwise it's usually between 2 and 6 wrong. On timed practice tests, especially, I find myself making more careless mistakes on both LR and RC, and the time pressure/brain fatigue gets to me a lot more.

Given that I have a decent grasp on the fundamentals, what's the most effective way for me to target my study-time over the next 10 weeks and set myself up to really perform on September's exam? I'd love to hear from those of you who were able to make big gains from one official test to the next: was it thorough review that did it, individual drills of sections and really understanding your errors, trying to dig into the nuance of what makes the right answers right and wrong answers wrong, or just doing full timed practice tests ad nauseum until it became second nature?

I'd love any advice and to hear success stories of what worked for you - AND if anyone has any interest in forming a sort of virtual study group for the September exam, comradery and people to commiserate with (and tackle the tougher questions with) are always welcome as well thanks all!

I'd drill RC hard, and as with LR, pay attention to the types of questions you are getting wrong. Are they inferences, more difficult assumption q's? I'm a big advocate of drilling individual question types, and for you, these may just be the most difficult q's of each q type. Anything you get wrong in the first 15 LR questions is normally indicative of a struggle with that specific q type.

I would like to ask how people drill for specific questions? Do you go through prep books and pull them out?

You could purchase books that do this or enroll in an online platform. I think it's well worth the money. Like with bar prep, the books are much more valuable than the actual course if you're sufficiently motivated.

Currently I study 4 hours a day 6 days a week I'm motivated! I am a splitter so I have to hit this 99 percentile. I took blueprint but I work full time and classes were not sensible. I wouldn't mind doing their online trainings because it was an excellent resources, its just really pricey at 200 bucks a month.