Dominating the Februray LSAT

[Nadia0702]

Hi PowerScore,
I took your full-length 12-week live online course that concluded Dec 1st. Prior to the start of the course, I hadn’t even looked at an LSAT question apart from my diagnostic. Throughout the course, I was able to increase my score to the low 160’s (161-163) from my diagnostic of 148. I wasn’t one of those students that had sudden jumps; my increases were gradual and in small increments. Throughout the course, I took a total of 10 practice tests and did some section work (not a lot).

This past Saturday I took the LSAT and my guess is that I will score right in the low 160’s (at least I hope). When I started this whole process, my goal was to score 165. Going into Saturday, though I hadn’t yet reached 165 in any of my PTs, I was hoping I’d have my breakthrough moment and do the best I’d ever done. Sadly, this didn’t happen. The main reason it’s disappointing is that I definitely felt capable of scoring 165, since in all of my previous tests I felt that I was just making careless mistake after careless mistake. Analyzing Saturday’s performance, I can see several things at work. For one, I got a really slow start, which is something that just seemed to plague me throughout all of my PTs. This happened despite a 20-min warm-up at home and a game set-up at the testing center. Throughout my PTs, my first section has invariably been my worst section. Second, though I feel that I have a good understanding of all of the LSAT concepts, I can see that they just aren’t second nature. I sometimes feel unsure and do a lot of second guessing, even when I get the questions right. This obviously isn’t going to get me a high score. Finally, I burnt myself out leading up to the test. I was studying 8+ hours per day for several weeks beforehand and I just hit a brick wall the week of the test. Unfortunate timing! (Should I also mention the 4-hours of sleep I got the night before because I just simply could.not.go.to.sleep? )

I have decided to take the February LSAT and am looking for some advice on how to proceed with my studies. On my 3 PT’s (12/09, 12/11, and 10/13) leading up to Saturday's test, I scored a 163, 161, 161, respectively. I did them as 4-section tests. My LR’s ranged from -12 to -9 (total for 2 sec's), my games were constant at -9, and my RC ranged from a -2 to -8. I no longer have a goal of 165. I want to break the 170 mark and really do feel I can from here until February. I know that in order for that to happen, everything needs to be second nature. Do you have advice for how I should move forward with my studies? I have all of the course material, the Bibles which I haven’t used at all, and the weekend class booklet, also unused. I also have at least 8 unused practice tests from 2004-present that were provided with the course. I haven’t looked at the other available PrepTests but I’m guessing I can find several more that I haven’t taken and that you don’t provide with the course. I’m trying to be careful with how I proceed given my burnout but at the same time I want to utilize my time wisely because I really do think 170 is achievable for me. I'm not going down without a fight!

Should I review all the course material? The Bibles? just work on particular areas?

One additional point that I’d like to mention is that I am going to apply to schools with my Dec test score unless it’s catastrophic so on top of studying for the LSAT and other life commitments, I do have to focus on my actual law school applications as well.

As always, thanks so much for your help!

Nadia

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Nadia,

It's great that you're so dedicated to getting that 170--with a positive can-do attitude like that I think you can do it! First, let me refer you to this 6-week study plan Nikki wrote for students re-taking the exam. It was written for students who wanted to re-take the exam in December after taking the October test but the same strategies apply. He gives great advice for how to really drill down to figure out your weak spots and then he offers a specific study schedule to help you practice, practice, practice so that the strategies you've learned start to become second nature.

Whether or not you stick to Nikki's plan, here are some suggestions I have for your study: Since you're going for a 170, I would suggest reviewing all of the sections since you can pick up some points in each. I would start with the Bibles as they will be a great review of everything that was discussed in the course. After each chapter in the Bibles, you will need to practice those question types so that the strategies become really ingrained in you. You can start with the questions you didn't get to in the course homework or in the Weekend Course book. If you're good at identifying question types, you can use some of the older practice tests, test sections, or practice sets that are in the Online Student Center and pull out the types of questions you're working on. If you feel like you still need practice, consider the Bible Workbooks or the Type Training series, as Nikki suggests.

Plan to take at least one LSAT a week between now and the February test. If you can set aside Saturday mornings for this purpose, that would be ideal as it would start to get your brain trained to take a full test on Saturday mornings. Really take the time to analyze your performance after each test. Track the types of questions you miss and also try to determine why you missed each question (misread the question? forgot to apply a strategy? timing?, etc.).

One other point about the practice tests: with the Full Length Course, you have access to basically every released LSAT question since the early '90s. The practice tests that aren't in the Online Student Center are not there because we've used the questions from those tests in the lessons, homework, practice sets, etc. That doesn't mean you can't get those tests and use them to practice, but it's something to be aware of and they may not give you a very accurate score since you've likely seen most of the questions before.

The most important thing is to make yourself a study schedule and stick to it. You want to keep that study momentum going until February. That doesn't mean you have to study 8+ hours a day. Make your study schedule reasonable and try to keep it fairly steady between now and then so that you don't need to ramp it up in the week or two before the test and end up burning out again.

Hope that helps! And good luck in February! Go for that 170!

Best,
Kelsey

[Nadia0702]

Hi Kelsey,
Thanks for your response and for cheering me on

I read Nikki's blog post and it was also very helpful - thanks for pointing me in that direction. I will likely get the "Type Training" series for all LR/LG/RC and possibly the Bible Workbooks. One question I have is whether the questions included in these workbooks are entirely different from the questions in the course materials or whether there is some overlap. Also, I see that the Training Series and Workbooks have a lot of questions from PrepTests 31-51. I need to come up with an additional 8 PrepTests from 31-51 and was wondering if you had any recommendations for the PrepTests that are not as heavily used in the Type Training/Bible Workbooks.

Thanks again for your help!
Nadia

[KelseyWoods]

Good questions, Nadia!

The questions in the Type Training books and the Bible Workbooks will all be somewhere in your course books or in the Online Student Center. But unless you have completed every single question in the course books, as well as all the online practice tests, practice sections, practice sets, etc., it's unlikely you've seen most of the questions. The benefit of the books is the way that they are presented, divided by each question type so that you can really focus your practice. Also, chances are that even if you come across a question you've seen before, you may not remember it or remember the correct answer and re-practicing doesn't hurt.

The Type Training books have every single question from LSATs 1-20 (volume I) and 21-40 (volume II). So if you complete all of the questions in all the Type Training books, you will have seen every question that was on those tests. But you should still have plenty of tests post-PT40 to practice with. The Workbooks don't have every question that was on a single test but they do have some questions from some relatively more recent tests. My advice there would be to try to take the earlier 2000s prep tests sooner (before you get to those questions in the workbook, if possible) and save the later 2000s prep tests for closer to the exam.

Let us know if you have anymore questions!

Best,
Kelsey