Going to take the LSAT in October, just started prep yesterday...

[BeL0wMe]

From anyone who has taken the LSAT before, is this going to be enough time to get a 165+ on it? i.e. 2.5 months? I'll be working full time during the week and studying every night.

Any suggestions on good books for the LSAT, or good review courses? Are the courses worth it? How many practice test should I be taking a week? I'm a pretty smart kid, 3.05 from Amherst, but obviously need to do well on the LSAT to counteract my mediocre GPA. Sorry kind of freaking out, and need a good game plan. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Aces McGee]

You've got plenty of time. Take a lot of timed practice tests once you familiarize yourself with the LSAT question types.

-McGee

[XXXNoahXXX]

Do you live near Boston? Testwell is a good course even though the guy who runs it is the biggest douche in the world. (great teacher though). I know they go out to HC in Worcester, not sure if they do western mass.


Buy the books of the REAL tests that are out. take each of them multiple times.

always time yourself.

use search function, etc.

[Grey]

The courses are for dumb people who want less dumb scores. If you're in the 160s or even the high 150s I say skip them. Get the powerscore bibles, and a bunch of the past tests.

Eh....

Here: http://www.lawstudentparadise.com/forums...tion-guide.html

[BeL0wMe]

Thanks Grey, I'll buy those ASAP, and Noah, I did some searching but the only thread in the past 6 months that contained LSAT was your Q&A thread about 1L [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Grey, I'll buy those ASAP, and Noah, I did some searching but the only thread in the past 6 months that contained LSAT was your Q&A thread about 1L [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

FYI- If the Testwell course is near you, I think its worth it. They advertise as teaching specifically to high scorers, to help them score even higher.

Personally, the only section I needed guidance on was the logic puzzles. I just had no plan of attack. I guess you can get those from a book, but a $1k class seems worth it especially since I got like a hundred times that back in scholarship money I wouldn't have gotten without an increase in LSAT score.

I didn't do all the work for the course but I went from "Logic Puzzles are the worst invention ever" to scoring perfect on the real test thanks to someone giving me a strategy.


Start doing some tests now and if it seems like you need help, don't be cheap, shell out for the class. Even if the class costs $1k and helps you bump your score 2 pts. more than studying alone, its worth it.


Testwell also does a sliding scale payment based on financial aid at college, which might help. In addition if you jump through a million hoops you're guaranteed to improve or full refund.


All I know is that to work for them you need 99% LSAT which is like 172+, whereas Kaplan requires only 90% which is like 165 or something.

[BeL0wMe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Grey, I'll buy those ASAP, and Noah, I did some searching but the only thread in the past 6 months that contained LSAT was your Q&A thread about 1L [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

FYI- If the Testwell course is near you, I think its worth it. They advertise as teaching specifically to high scorers, to help them score even higher.

Personally, the only section I needed guidance on was the logic puzzles. I just had no plan of attack. I guess you can get those from a book, but a $1k class seems worth it especially since I got like a hundred times that back in scholarship money I wouldn't have gotten without an increase in LSAT score.

I didn't do all the work for the course but I went from "Logic Puzzles are the worst invention ever" to scoring perfect on the real test thanks to someone giving me a strategy.


All I know is that to work for them you need 99% LSAT which is like 172+, whereas Kaplan requires only 90% which is like 165 or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Noah unfortunately I'm located out of the Southeast even though I did go to school up there. As for what you said about the logic puzzles. This seems to be the one part of the test that is actually formulaic and beatable. Care to share what you might remember?

I can get all the q's right but a 5 question section takes me 10 minutes, which means I'm screwed for the real thing. Is it just practice practice practice? Or does a pattern start to emerge like when I took the SAT's and you can just run through them without thinking about it?

[XXXNoahXXX]

Step 1- Do logic puzzles, one at a time, untimed. Continue this until you can get them all right.

Step 2- Bring in the clock. Continue until you get them all right, in the time frame.

Step 3- Profit.


It's hard to sort of lay out any sort of a strategy, but you will develop one through practice, practice, practice.

Eventually, when you get to doing them perfectly the speed will come naturally because you will go to do one and remember "oh these pigs in pens is the same as the one I just did about doctors in offices".

Some tips-

Make a visual representation of all of the concrete rules that are established in the beginning. Then, draw a new picture for each question/choice as needed. Don't try doing it in your head or writing then erasing them, you'll get confused.


Find shortcuts. The LSAT class i took used as an example when they were trying to sell the class a particular logic puzzle question where the choices were.

A. Z
B. Y
C. X
D. W
E. V

If you looked to the rules in the context of the question, V=W and X=Y. Therefore, it was obvious those were wrong since if X were right, then Y would be too, and you can't have two right answers, etc.

You ended up answering the question in five seconds once you picked that out.


To a lesser extent these are present throughout the exams, where two choices are basically the same, cancelling out, which makes it a lot easier/faster.


I should just drop out of law school, study the LSAT til I'm consistently getting 179/180 and then tutor it for $200-$600/hr.

[cgrohman]

I studied for 2.5 months and achieved your goal. I didnt start taking practice tests until the end. I actually reccomened taking a course liek Test masters or Princeton Review is you are struggling to improve your score.

[Borno]

FWIW I studied for 2-3 months and then didn't write it because I decided I didn't want to do law.

I got my score up from 149 to 163 in that time. I took the powerscore weekend course a week before and that raised my score by about 2 points.

I highly recommend reading the powerscore games and LSAT book, it has great explanations and the course just reinforces it / adds 1 or 2 small things (which makes the $400 alot for what you get).

No one can say if you can get a 165 in 2 months.. you need to write 1 test to see where oyu are 1st. my friend wrote his 1st test, has a 3.0 GPA, and got a 168 and was trying to get 180 so it all depends


If you need LSAT resources I have some that I could offer you possibly PM me.