Repeating Practice Tests

[ngreen221]

Good afternoon PS,

I have been studying the LSAT since November of last year and have taken every PT from PT 52 to PT 86 with last years six month self study course. I took the LSAT in July and am planning to take it in November. I gave myself a little break since the July test and have started taking PT’s again. I took PT 79, PT 80, and PT 70 all over the last week and a half because I thought they would be closer to the current LSAT. I am happy to say that I scored better on those tests than when I took them previously, but the issue I am encountering is familiarity.

I did a blind review of most, if not all of the PT’s I have taken and I find brief moments in taking these tests over again where I will remember certain questions, mainly pertaining to RC or LR since I put a lot of focus on reviewing those sections. I do not necessarily remember the answers to these questions specifically, but I will start to read a stimulus in LR or the passage in RC and think “seen this before, what do I do?” I am worried that this is not an accurate representation of progress or the test day environment.

I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations to avoid this?

I am planning to take PT 87 In a couple weeks since it is the only fresh test I have left, but I would appreciate any other recommendations.

Thank you always!

[Adam Tyson]

There is probably some element of familiarity that is affecting your work, ngreen221, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. By now you've probably realized that the test constantly recycles the same argument structures and reasoning errors, so that being familiar with those patterns will pay off even on brand new test material, since you'll know what to do when you encounter a familiar pattern. "Oh, this is one of those numbers/percentages things where they try to confuse me by comparing two groups whose relative sizes are unknown. Been there, done that, can't fool me!"

I would recommend that you try to do PTs that are unfamiliar, too, even if they are a bit old. You started at PT 52, so how about going back to 51, 50, 49? Or, do the ones from the high 60s and low 70s that you took before, but which you probably took long enough ago that your memory of them is less fresh than your memory of the ones you took more recently.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether your familiarity is artificially inflating your score, mostly because worrying about it does you no good. You've seen that material before and cannot unsee it, so just move forward and use everything you do as a learning opportunity.

Oh, and taking 87 is the right idea. The digital version of PT 88 is also available for purchase on our website, so that's one more you can plan on doing before your test in November! You can find that at this link by scrolling all the way to the bottom:
http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/publicat ... /tests.cfm

[ngreen221]

Awesome! That was very reassuring, thank you Adam!