Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT... Forum

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Mel

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by Mel » Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:10 pm

spanktheduck wrote:1) What score did you get?
canceled the first time (Oct), second time 170 (Dec)

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Powerscroe, LRB and LGB

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
Prior to my canceled test probably about a month, maybe a month and a half, mainly during school. Tried to do at least fifteen hours a week. Also did a lot fair amount of test sections during class (outside of the 15 hours). For my retake I only took 2 preptests prior to the test.

5) How many preptests did you do?
Around 30/35

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
I would study for longer prior to my first test and not stress out about it as much on test day.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
Do anything you need to relax prior to test day, take the week off, hang out with friends (soberly), etc... Do not freak out it will hurt you. I canceled my test because I was stressed out. My second test I was relaxed and did awesome. Also in case some are wondering my cold test at the beginning was 161.
quack!

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by wahoo » Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:00 pm

Mel, thanks for posting because it sounds really encouraging. I stressed out so much for the June one that I totally froze and I had to cancel. I would read and reread but I could not comprehend what I was reading. I just hope that I can tell your story in October. How did you relax in October? I am so afraid that might happen to me again and I know I am prepared.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by lsatslave » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:57 pm

Thanks for the great post everyone.

1) 178

2) PrepTest books (published by LSAC)
PowerScore Logic Games Bible
PowerScore Logic Reasoning Bible
Kaplan's Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's

3) I did not take a course, although I considered it.

4) Studied during school and summer.

5) Around 20 preptests

6) I would not change anything.

7)My plan involved working around 4 hours Monday through Friday, and about 30 minutes on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday take a full prep test with exact time, going straight through the first three sections then taking the ten minute break. Then finish the last two sections and writing sample.

On Tuesday I would look at the type of problems I missed in Logical Reasoning and review those type of problems in the PowerScore Logical Reasoning Bible. Then I would practice those type of problems in Kaplan's Big Orange Book. This Orange book is GREAT. It has 800 Real LSAT questions from preptests. But it has about 30 of each type of problem all put together. So if I missed two parrallel the reasoning problems. I would first review the proper method in the PowerScore Bible and then practice this same type of problem in the Orange book until I got 5 in a row right. Kind of intense, but it pays off.

Wednesday, finish reviewing in the same method the logical reasoning problems that I missed. Remember, there are two sections so it is an important section to literally perfect.

Thursday work on LOGIC GAMES that I missed from Monday. I went back Logic Games Bible often, and Orange Book which had the games sorted out by group. Used a similiar method that I used in Reasoning. Just have patience, the whole process is a lot of work. Try to find a way to motivate yourself, and enjoy the process.

Friday, work on reading comprehension. Unfortunately, its the hardest one to get ready for. I am bad at reading so I would underline the conclusion real clearly so I would not get confused. Don't be afraid to spend time understanding the passages, the questions will then come much faster.

Saturday and Sunday: REVIEW briefly by looking at the ones you missed quickly. Try not to do much. You do not want to get burnt out.

Repeat this for 20 weeks on 20 PrepTests! Be patient and do not be too hard on yourself. However, the real key to improving is taking time to analize which ones that you got wrong and why you did, and practicing to improve your weak areas. Good practice is better than a 200 page book from princeton review that does mostly cheerleading.

Good luck

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Mel

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by Mel » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:30 pm

wahoo wrote:Mel, thanks for posting because it sounds really encouraging. I stressed out so much for the June one that I totally froze and I had to cancel. I would read and reread but I could not comprehend what I was reading. I just hope that I can tell your story in October. How did you relax in October? I am so afraid that might happen to me again and I know I am prepared.
You should talk to spanktheduck about that. I was just quacking him/her.

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wiseowl

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by wiseowl » Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:45 pm

1) What score did you get?

170

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

LSAC SuperPrep, All of the "10" series, glanced at Princeton Review

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

Took a Kaplan Diagnostic totally cold in February and got a 165. Knew very little about the process, about schools, etc. Decided I wanted a 170. Discovered boards like this one, took the advice that taking preptests is the best preparation, especially for self-study. Bought all tests used off Amazon. Took all preptests under strictly timed conditions with no breaks at home.

5) How many preptests did you do?
15

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
I didn't start practicing with 5 sections until the week before the test. I felt like I would eat up tests too fast if I did that, and I had limited time to do tests before or after work. I probably would have prepped with 5 sections from the start.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
You've got to test with some sort of distractions present. I have two cats and they always climbed all over me while I was testing and I think that helped. I had a Typhoid Mary sitting next to me on test day who whooping coughed through the whole test and I think I would have been quite rattled had I tested in quiet solitude.

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doctorgonzo

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by doctorgonzo » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:08 pm

1) What score did you get?

167 first time (2005), 173 second time (June 2008).

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

First time, I think I picked up a Kaplan book from the Library. Second time, I used the Powerscore LRB, LSAC SuperPrep, All of the 10 series LSAC Preptests, and the three most recent tests from LSAC.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None.

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

First time, I studied for a month, not in any structured way. Second time, I studied from January to June, doing anywhere from one to four sections at a time, under timed conditions. I am well out of school, so both times I studied evenings and weekends when I was not working my full-time job.

5) How many preptests did you do?

I'd say around 5 before my first test, 35 before my second.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

It's hard to say what I would do differently because I feel I did well. LR was my weak point on both tests, so I probably should have spent a bit more on understanding why the right answer was, in fact, the right answer. However, for some questions, I just never did truly grok them. Maybe that's how my brain is wired!

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Find what works best for you. Determine your weaknesses and spend the majority of your time there. Calm down and relax. :)

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USC2009

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by USC2009 » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:33 pm

1) What score did you get?
169.

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Powerscore Bibles, Testmasters Homework

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
Testmasters Full Length Course

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
From about March on. I studied consistently at first, then stopped during finals time, continued after those were done, and kind of fizzled out by late May/early June.

5) How many preptests did you do?
About 9 I'd say. 5 with TM, 4 at home. That could be off, somewhat...

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
More preptests I'd imagine.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by junelsatonmonday » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:41 pm

Yay I just got my June score so I'm qualified to post on here now!

1) What score did you get?
171(-4 RC, -1 LR, -4 LG)
initial diag: 161

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Testmasters Homework

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
Testmasters Full Length Course

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
Prepped while working full-time 40-45 hrs/wk. Class was 8 hours a week on top of that. Began in March for June test. Throughout March and April, worked really hard, doing homework on lunch breaks, several hours a week of individual homework study time after work and on weekends. By May had fizzled and cut back a lot, spending maybe an hour a week (if even that) studying in addition to class. I think by that point though I had already learned most of what I needed to and reinforced the skills. The LSAT really is a completely learnable test - once you understand the structure of the questions (esp. LR), they all look the same and are all totally dissectable. So even though I cut back big time on the studying the final month before the exam, I don't feel like it hurt me much (maybe if I had kept it up I could've picked up a few more points, esp. on games where I never felt completely comfortable - on the other hand, I might've burnt out more if I had kept pushing myself beyond what I could tolerate).

5) How many preptests did you do?
as full diagnostics, 3 proctored TM + 3 on my own
in addition to tons of homework

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
I'm pretty happy with how I did. I was aiming for 170+ and I hit the spot - I feel like I could've done maybe a few points better if I worked harder at the end but I was so burnt out that I'm just glad I ended where I did.

Advice: Work hard - LEARN THE TEST! Meticulously go through every wrong answer and understand why you got it wrong and why the correct answer is correct. If you don't see it right away, don't skip it - keep going over it until you see it - sometimes you have to go over it many times. Once you do that, you begin to understand that there are only so many ways to ask the basic LR questions and you learn to sift the important parts from the irrelevant filler. Everything is formulaic and you'll know you've conquered the test once all the questions start looking the same to you - it means your brain has cracked the code and you'll be able to zoom through LR without a problem. I took Testmasters and felt it helped me a lot.

I got burned more badly on RC than I thought I would. The issue here is focus - when I practiced RC passages on their own I barely got any wrong, but in a test context where your brain has been processing so much information it's a lot harder to concentrate and retain and digest what you need to answer the questions. Always practice the RC under timed conditions and as full 4-passage sections. Luckily my RC was the second section - I think I would've done a lot worse if it had come later in the test. I didn't fully anticipate what an effect it would have and it was only in the last few pre-test diags that I noticed that my RC score stayed consistently -3 to -5 even though I had improved greatly on the other sections. It's all about concentration, and it's hard not to let your mind wander at least a little bit on test day.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by vegcat » Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:27 pm

I too am excited that I finally have my score so I can post in this thread :)

1) What score did you get? 172

2) What books did you use? Powerscore Bibles, Kaplan 180 (didn't really use this one), LSAT Superprep, Powerscore 2004 LSATs deconstructed

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend? None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc) Studied from January to June, while working full time.

5) How many preptests did you do? Almost all of them, about 30 probably.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again? I think I took too many preptests and studied for too long. I think I would have wound up with the same score if I had studied for 3 months instead of 5, and taking such a large number of tests was probably not the most efficient use of my time. I would have been a bit better off spending time reviewing entire tests, the right and the wrong answers, for every question. This is tedious to do though and I found it easier to keep taking more tests, so that's what I did.

Also, I don't think I spent enough time prepping for RC. If powerscore does come out with an RC bible, I think it's going to help a lot of people.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions. Good luck!

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by Roo » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:28 am

I guess I can finally add my two cents to this section

1) What score did you get?
178

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

The Bibles (which I went through 2 times a piece), Superprep, the two most recent LSAT books containing 10 tests, all other released practice tests.

I did the logic games in LSAT180 but skipped the rest - its crap.


3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

Four and half months, while working and in graduate school.

5) How many preptests did you do?

25

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

Try to relax the morning of the test. I was too stressed and I think it probably lost me a point. Also, I would have started off with Superprep so I could get in the mind of LSAC to begin with. As it happened I used it towards the end and it was not a lot of help

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

1. Get obsessed. I researched everything I could about the LSAT, including reading journal articles about the test itself and standardized testing in general. I got obsessed with every little detail ( i.e. How well do I work in a too-cold room as opposed to a too-hot room? What about a noisy room versus a quiet room?). Cover every detail, figure out how many cups of coffee put you at your prime, and what kind of pencil eraser works best. Ridiculous, yes. This isn't a shuttle launch, after all. But treat it like one and you're less likely to have unexpected little things throw you off on test day.

2. You need a cheerleader or two. Get someone important in your life - friend, sig other, parent, whatever, and make sure they know how important this test is to you. This is someone to report your progress to on a regular basis, who understands the difference between getting a 171 on a PT and a 175 and will help you celebrate.

3. Logic games were my Achilles heel and I knew it. When I started, I couldnt finish one in under 12 minutes. I put aside everything else and did logic games only for about a month. I made photocopies and did the same games over and over. Focusing intensely on my weakness helped a lot.

4. On LR - cut out the questions you have trouble with and lightly pencil the right answers on the back. Keep them all together and once you have a good stack go over them. Make sure you can explain out loud why the right answers are the right answers, if you can't, you have to find someone who can explain it to you. This board used to be a good resource for that but now that LSAT questions cannot be posted I'm not sure what to do.

5. Reading comp. Forget the nonsense about reading the economist, etc. If you have reading comp issues then by the time you reach test day you should have completed every single released LSAT reading comprehension section under the sun, and should understand all of your mistakes on questions perfectly. That's the best prep, IMHO

6. If you're taking the LSAT in the morning, make sure you wake up early for a week or so to put your mind on the right schedule. For seven days before the test I woke up at 6 am and took an LSAT around the same time that I would be taking it on test day. Especially important for non-morning people.

7. To motivate myself I would imagine opening my email some day in July and seeing a 165. All of my dreams of top schools would vanish at that point (thanks to a not so stellar UGPA). This provided me with enough motivation to get out of bed early to study and do practice tests, etc. Especially if you are a self-studier, you need to come up with some similar motivational imagery/mantra to keep you going.

Last thought on LR and RC - doing well on these sections involves really knowing the nuances of the meanings of certain words and phrases. Focus on that fact in your prep. I found that certain words did not really mean exactly what I thought they meant, and this made a big difference.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by strad83 » Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:50 pm

1) What score did you get?
164 Dec 07, 172 June 08

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)
Powerscore LRB, LGB,

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
Weekend Powerscore, but I didn't find it to be very helpful

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

I studied off and on since last August. It was really difficult while working full time and traveling a lot for work. A typical week while working would be 10 hours on the weekends and 9 hours during the week.

5) How many preptests did you do?

I did all or part of preptests 6-52, some sections multiple times, by the time june 2008 came around. I made copies of all of the tests and organized them in binders so I could go through them sequentially by question type.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

I wouldn't have taken it 2x. Prior to testing in December I was testing within a really wide range (between 166 - 176). The variability of my scores made me very nervous test day and that is why I think I tested below my range and my average. By the time June rolled around, I had gotten my average up to a 171 and my range was much more narrow in how I was performing on tests (between 169 and 173). After doing my entire study regime over again post-December, I felt much more confident.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Practice with a timer to see what types of questions are taking you longer because its not just the answers you get wrong that can trip you up on the test.

Get as many prep tests as you can get your hands on and keep practicing over and over and over.

Score increases take a really long time, and you never know how long it is going to take someone. For me, it took months before I made a consistent, 10 point increase from my first diagnostic.

Practice taking the test under testing conditions at the time you are going to take the test. Make sure to do 5 sections or more so you improve your stamina. Use a digital timer to make sure you stop in time, but practice only looking at your digital watch.

Don't only use the powerscore bibles. They are a fantastic starting point, but if you do the questions too often you only learn the right answers to those questions and not the overall pattern.

Find a way to stay focused and motivated. A cheerleader (post above) is a really good idea. I had someone helping me who had taken the lsat and scored in the high 99%. Its so important to have someone to celebrate with you when you finally get to your goal score.

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kyle

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by kyle » Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:22 pm

171 on a retake, 162 first time around.

my diagnostic was 151. i think the best thing to do is to get a kaplan mastery practice book and study all the different question types. then buy a lot of actual lsats from the lsac and take as many as you can. study every word in the ones you get incorrect.
Last edited by kyle on Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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bgc

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by bgc » Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:48 pm

1) What score did you get?
179 - June 08

2) What books did you use?
Princeton Review, Powerscore Bibles, Master the LSAT (only RC), and GetPrepped's Ace the Logic Games (Mostly for practice games).

Like most people, I highly recommend the bibles. The PR book was the first I read and was useful to get an overview of the test but not groundbreaking. Ace the Logic Games has a large number of good games sections on which to practice without spoiling real tests.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?
None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)
Three Months. I work but didn't have many other obligations in that time.

5) How many preptests did you do?
All of them, in one form or another. I probably did 30 as actual timed tests and used others to provide the fifth section or section practice. I did every games and RC section but left some LRs untouched.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?
Apart from not making a stupid mistake on the LG and missing a 180, not much. I would start making notes about my physical state and eating patterns sooner so as to have a larger sample size when trying to regulate my body with sleep and food.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.
For me, volume of practice tests was key. My diagnostic was a timed 164 (June '07) and my second PT, after going through the PR book, was an untimed 180. I didn't have major problems with the concepts so getting my timing down and getting used to taking the test was very useful.

One thing I started doing towards the end was taking detailed notes about my sleeping and eating patterns, my physical feeling during each test, and whatever other factors seemed significant. When on my game, I was pretty consistent between 177 and 180. I have never been so aware of my own mental state as when studying for the test and found that awareness to be valuable on test day. I was able to figure out, for instance, that taking a day off before the test was NOT the right move for me. My practice results were better when I was on a roll.

Until one is solid on the concepts, taking a large volume of practice tests might not be useful. Once you have it figured out, however, it really is all about practice. I was able to try a few different strategies for RC and LG with enough time to get a sense of how they work.
Last edited by bgc on Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ilanarebecca

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by ilanarebecca » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:01 pm

did the Master the Lsat book help with RC? Thats the biggest problem section for me.

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bgc

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by bgc » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:10 pm

ilanarebecca wrote:did the Master the Lsat book help with RC? Thats the biggest problem section for me.
I'm not sure. It certainly wasn't the tremendous help that the bibles were. RC was also my hardest section but I only missed one this time around. The thing that helped the most was practice. It enabled me to experiment with different amounts and types of note taking and figure out what would help the most without getting me in trouble with time.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by hvcaulfield » Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:13 pm

I profited extremely from this post and so feel somewhat morally inclined to add my own two cents. Not that the 8 full pages of advice isn't already in excess of what one person could conceivably need, but who knows? Maybe something I did will help someone in the same way that I was helped.

1) What score did you get?

177 (slightly below my average on the last 15 or so prep tests)

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

Barron's Passkey - I bought it before I had really even seriously contemplated going to law school. Mostly worthless but at least it's an intro.
Powerscore Logic Games Bible - Though I ended up sort of going my own route with the games this was a fantastic help in the beginning. Really breaks down how to set up each type of game. Great for the people trying, like I was, to just do it all in your head.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None.

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

I probably studied for about 150-250 hours. I'm in sales and so tend to have a lot of free time when I'm not on the road. I would do them at different times and in different environments (e.g. outside, at coffee shops, sitting quietly at my desk or dining room table). I never worried about doing more than one at a time at first. I would even break up the games sections into their four constituent parts and time them individually. After a while, after the questions started to become routine, it became increasingly easier to focus for longer periods of time. Even during the last few weeks, however, I could rarely get myself to do more than 3 sections in a row before I became insanely bored.

5) How many preptests did you do?

Almost every single one. I actually would have done every single one but I got completely burned out about 2 weeks before the test. I also did them in chunks. I started thinking about the test about a year ago. At that time I sat down and did about 10-15 of the oldest tests. Knowing that I had no immediate plans to attend law school I put it down for about 6 months. When I picked it up again I found I was doing slightly better because of the break. I put it down again only to pick it up in late April. Each time the break had given me a fresher, better perspective.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

I would do at least a few tests of five sections in a row (maybe use an old reasoning or games section to take the place of the experimental). I also wouldn't worry as much. Answering the questions at your desk at home is really no different from answering them in the actual test. If you can find a way to convince yourself of that you'll be golden.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Do the prep tests. Keep plugging away and pretty soon you'll start to feel like you could write the questions yourself. After a while I would barely even have to read most of the answer choices, the answer seemed so obvious. And do each game several times, though not in a row. After you've done them once just use a separate sheet of paper with all of the answer choices both circled and crossed out. That way you can't know what you had answered before, and I'll be damned if you can remember.
One last thing. My increases would come all at once after long plateaus. I was testing at 170 until I jumped to 175, and at 175 until I jumped to 178/179. To tell you the truth, I don't think I had a single score of 176 in 45 prep tests, I just skipped it. So don't be discouraged if you feel like you're not improving after 10 or so tests. Just be patient and keep plugging away.

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semperfi1860

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by semperfi1860 » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:06 am

1) What score did you get?

170

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

Powerscore LRB and LGB

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None.

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

Starting studying a month and a half before the test while working full time. I did at least one section a day during the weekday (unless I was really burned out) and did 3-5 full prep tests during the week.

5) How many preptests did you do?

20-25

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

-Start studying earlier. I had an extremely busy semester, so I thought I couldn't start studying until the summer. Not true. Starting 3-5 months before the test, dedicate an hour or two a week in the beginning and make sure you keep to your appointment. Sacrifice an hour of sleeping in on weekends. It's worth it.

-Related to the last point. Don't assume that your problem areas will remain constant. I had big problems with games, but I focused most of my time on them and started doing well. But as the LR and RC got harder on the newer tests, I started doing worse in those areas and didn't have time to study them as much as I wanted. Again, this can be fixed by starting earlier.

-Have someone to talk to on test day. I can't stress this enough. I was so stressed on test day that I couldn't think straight. Luckily the first section was experimental so I had that section to chill out. I did all sorts of things to relax over the weekend and the morning of (like working out), but before the test you can't do any of that, so just go up to a random person and start talking.

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

One of the best ways to do well is to master the games. If you master them, it's almost a guaranteed -0 on test day. RC and LR are harder to master as they're more ambiguous, etc. but LG should be money in the bank and will protect you if you bomb another section.

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ColtonDLong

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Help!

Post by ColtonDLong » Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:37 am

So, quick (maybe not so quick) question.

I've been studying for the Oct. LSAT for a few weeks now. I have wrapped up the LR Bible, and I'm going through the LG Bible. I've gone through most LR section in the LSAC 18-28 book, and I've taken two from the next one (I was planning on using those first 10 for practice section by section, and then the other 24-25 as full tests). I took a test Monday, and got a 164. I took a test today, and scored 162. I struggled because the specific test (31) had some LGs that were completely unknown (-9), and for the life of me I can't figure out how I can get fewer than 3 or 4 wrong per LR section. I feel like I've hit a wall or something. Any advice? I'm aiming for a 170 +. It has been incredibly difficult getting less than 6 wrong in LG in general. Practice makes perfect?

Do I just keep going over my mistakes, and hope for the best?

I plan on reworking EVERY LG section until I get it correct timed.

One other thought: I HONESTLY feel like I just haven't been reading the questions close enough. I've been making dumb mistakes that I truly think prevent me from breaking a 165+. I reread the questions after I find out that got them wrong, and I can't believe how dumb my answer was (with the exception of a few that I legitimately get confused about) Any advice other than the obvious on how to overcome this?

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by dannyrhino » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:06 am

indy wrote: I'm writing to inquire of the methods/techniques ppl who scored 160+ used to get the score they did.

1) What score did you get?

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

5) How many preptests did you do?

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Thanks,
Indy
Hey everyone... just though I'd throw my 2 cents into the pot. I just got a 171 on the June 2008 administration.

1) 171

2) Princeton Review Books (from their online course)

3) Princeton Review Online

4) I studied starting in late April, using the PR online lectures and the practice sections that are included with the course. For the final final month leading up to the exam, I was studying about 3-4 hours per day, not including any prep-test. I always did my studying on the loud floor of the library...it was still pretty quiet, but not completely isolated from distractions.

5) I probably did about 8-10 prep-tests...all of my scores in the 167-170 range.

6) If I were to study all over again, I think I would just self-study with the Bibles or something. The class was helpful because I had really no inside knowledge of the test, but I think I couldve done as well (or better) just grinding through the Bibles.

7) My advice, as I've given in a few random threads, is to learn the LSAT at your own pace before trying to take the exam at "LSAT Pace." This could take a long time for some people, but I think it is better to learn how to do all of the types of problems correctly before trying to learn how to do them quickly. IMO, it is a waste of time and effort to force yourself to attempt all of the problems in 35 minutes if you dont really know how to do the problems without a time limit.

Learn to walk before you try to run.

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ColtonDLong

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by ColtonDLong » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:56 pm

dannyrhino wrote:
indy wrote: I'm writing to inquire of the methods/techniques ppl who scored 160+ used to get the score they did.

1) What score did you get?

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

5) How many preptests did you do?

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

Thanks,
Indy
Hey everyone... just though I'd throw my 2 cents into the pot. I just got a 171 on the June 2008 administration.

1) 171

2) Princeton Review Books (from their online course)

3) Princeton Review Online

4) I studied starting in late April, using the PR online lectures and the practice sections that are included with the course. For the final final month leading up to the exam, I was studying about 3-4 hours per day, not including any prep-test. I always did my studying on the loud floor of the library...it was still pretty quiet, but not completely isolated from distractions.

5) I probably did about 8-10 prep-tests...all of my scores in the 167-170 range.

6) If I were to study all over again, I think I would just self-study with the Bibles or something. The class was helpful because I had really no inside knowledge of the test, but I think I couldve done as well (or better) just grinding through the Bibles.

7) My advice, as I've given in a few random threads, is to learn the LSAT at your own pace before trying to take the exam at "LSAT Pace." This could take a long time for some people, but I think it is better to learn how to do all of the types of problems correctly before trying to learn how to do them quickly. IMO, it is a waste of time and effort to force yourself to attempt all of the problems in 35 minutes if you dont really know how to do the problems without a time limit.

Learn to walk before you try to run.
I think that has been some of my problem in my practice for Oct. I just think I'm getting real anxious about the test. I know that I'm know the test, it has just been difficult to let that translate into a scored test.

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hamilcar

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by hamilcar » Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:56 pm

1) What score did you get?

176

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

LSAC's Official Guide

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None.

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

I beheld my first LSAT question exactly two weeks before I took the test (probably not the recommended course for most). I was a grad student/TA during the semester and I got married four weeks before the test. I wanted to stay married, so that precluded studying during the honeymoon. :) I read the Official Guide in the evenings (I work full time in the summers) and took a practice test a day for a week.

5) How many preptests did you do?

About seven.

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

If two weeks yielded a 176, what might three have done?

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

IMHO, the Games are the only section you can significantly improve on in the short term (and by short term, I mean two weeks to one year). With the other sections it is very hard to guarantee a significant score improvement on the real deal, even after several months of studying after your first diag--you generally either have those sections down or you don't.

That said, one way to "have those sections down" is to keep your mind active on substantive stuff. I'm not a big TV watcher, and in the year before the LSAT I worked through Copleston's nine volume History of Philosophy. There's no way of knowing for sure how many points I gained on RC and LR by doing this, but it sure didn't hurt.

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ColtonDLong

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by ColtonDLong » Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:29 pm

As a studier of the LSAT right now, I couldn't agree more. The LG section is def. the only section that can at least provide some sort of guarantee that you'll increase your score significantly in a short time. I came to that realization today.

I've continued working on my weak spots for the past week, and tried to study LG along with LR even when I was spending more time on LR that particular day in my schedule. So much of it is being able to figure out the tricks of the writers, and deciphering what key rules can be extracted from certain conditions. Today on a timed section I only got one wrong. This is coming from a kid who thought they'd never get fewer than 5 wrong in that section.

Any advice from you 165 +ers on LR? I can't seem to get fewer than 4 wrong.

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by TalkingHeads » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:21 pm

I'm curious to know how all of you dealt with the speed of the exam? I've been studying for the Oct. exam for about a month and just started to incorporate more timed exercises into my routine after going through the LG Bible once. Did it come to you over time (as seems necessary in my case) or could you naturally just deal with the time crunch? Clearing that last game is always tight and I haven't been able to fully get to the end of the section. Thanks in advance!

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ColtonDLong

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by ColtonDLong » Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:04 pm

Yah,
I have the same problem. I did well on my LG section yesterday, but it was a little over time. Nevertheless, it is a vast improvement from where I was even 2 weeks ago. I would Keep on practicing each type, ESPECIALLY your weaknesses and increase speed. For me when I did this my accuracy decreased, but eventually I was able to fix that problem. Practice each weakness and do that same game more than once until it is 100 percent correct (Try to be sure it has been a little bit so you don't remember key details about the game). Also strengthen your speed on the games your good at, or the easier games like simple linear games. If you can do each one of those in under 8, you'll have a couple more minutes for the advanced linears or conditional grouping games, which I suck at. Did that help?

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Re: Great Advice on How to get 160+ on the LSAT...

Post by USC2009 » Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:44 pm

TalkingHeads wrote:I'm curious to know how all of you dealt with the speed of the exam? I've been studying for the Oct. exam for about a month and just started to incorporate more timed exercises into my routine after going through the LG Bible once. Did it come to you over time (as seems necessary in my case) or could you naturally just deal with the time crunch? Clearing that last game is always tight and I haven't been able to fully get to the end of the section. Thanks in advance!
Timing wasn't ever really an issue for me on LR or RC, and after about 2-3 games sections I had no problems with timing. On ANY diagnostic, mind you.


On the real thing, I pretty much ran out of time on the RC (-5 at the end) and somewhat on both LR sections.


So, even if you feel like you have timing down, think it over again before you take the real thing.

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