Re-taking Practice Tests

[nabeatty]

Hello, I hope you are all staying safe! I thought I would try to get some advice regarding the re-use of materials. I took the powerscore class back in September and thoroughly enjoyed it, and have been studying for about 7 months, and felt that I was in a good position rolling into March.

I was signed up for the March LSAT and then switched to April, which at this point seems highly unlikely/not happening. Between drilling sections and taking practice tests, I have the 9 most recent practice exams as fresh material, but have seen all the other released material either in drilling or as full tests. I would like to use the exams I have left judiciously--stretching them possibly until June/July/August or whenever the exam can be administered. I am planning to re-take exams and to review thoroughly to try and stay sharp/not drop out of the range that I have been in. Do you have any advice when it comes to re-using material?

I have kept a log of all the questions I got wrong or that gave me trouble and were sticky, would drilling those all again be a good starting point? Should I re-take exams I took say 5 months ago (these would be early exams from the 20-40s) or focus more on the recent exams to retake and pick them apart as much as possible? I am worried about losing the stamina a full length test requires, when I retake exams would it be wise to add say 2 extra sections on and make the exam longer? Feeling a little lost in how to make a study plan when I don't want to waste new material.

Thank you for any suggestions!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi na,

Thanks, and we hope you're staying safe and healthy also!

The good news is that you can definitely retake exams you've already taken and still keep your skills sharp! So don't worry about revisiting exams you've already done. You do need to hold yourself to a little higher standard on those (since you've seen them before, and there are bound to be a couple questions you'll remember and get right as a result), meaning you want to aim for a few points higher than whatever your ultimate goal score would be.

As to which exams to retake, you can mix in some of the older ones (the ones in the 20-40 range you mentioned taking 5 months ago) with some of the more recent ones. I like the older ones because they often have some very challenging logic games sections, so that really helps you to build your LG skills. But you do need to include (at least one on a weekly basis) some of the post-2007 tests as well, because those are where you get the comparative reading comprehension practice you need. I'd say if each week you take one of the 20-40s range PTs and one of the post-2007 PTs, you'll be in good shape.

Drilling the old questions you missed/logged is something good to do on days when you're not taking practice tests. Since we ordinarily recommend limiting your PT volume to 2-3 per week (with plenty of time to review--best is at least an extra half study day to review), you should have time to do that on the one or two days a week when you're not taking/reviewing PTs. (Also make sure you take at least one full day off from studying each week. You really do need to schedule regular time to recharge your mental batteries!)

If you are worried about stamina, I absolutely agree that doing 6-section practice tests is the way to go. That can be a bit exhausting. So if you do every practice test as a 6-section exam, I would recommend limiting your full PTs to 2 per week. Alternately, you could do one 6-section and either one or two 5-section PTs per week, and you'd still be doing that "endurance challenge" enough times to make progress.

Finally, every couple weeks or so I would sprinkle in one of the 9 most recent practice tests that you still have fresh. The thinking there is you don't want to jam all of those tests into the last two or three weeks before the exam you take, because if you do that, you may not be leaving yourself enough time to absorb the lessons you're learning about recent content.

Make sense? If you have follow up questions on any of this, don't hesitate to let us know. For now, I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[nabeatty]

Thank you very much for the response. That sounds like great advice and a great plan to follow. Answered all of my questions and then some, thanks again!