Increase LSAT score in 8 weeks?

[huskyelliot]

Hi,

I took the LSAT a month ago, I cancelled it and decided to take it on December. I have 8 weeks to prepare. My mistake was I kept studying the last time but did not ever time myself, so I was really slow..

I just took a timed Preptest and I got 146... which is far from what I want. I got a 3.52 UGPA from a small liberal arts college, so I really need to increase my score in order to get in good schools and get decent financial aid. I'm looking at 165+, my dream score would be 170. This means I need to raise my score by 24 points, and that's a lot!

I noticed that I used to be very confident in LG, I would get around 23 points each time I take but that's an un-timed practice. When I time myself I barely finish 2 games. Bummer.

I'm just wondering what I can do to increase my speed, not just in LG but the LSAT in general? And what study schedule would you recommend for someone who kinda already started studying but still not getting the hang of everything.. and if it's possible to have a 20-24 points increase in 2 months. Please help!!!!!

[Adam Tyson]

Hey Elliot, good questions, and thanks for asking.

First, a score increase of the amount you are looking for is definitely possible. It's not common, and I don't want to set any false expectations, but it is well within the range of what I have seen from many of my students in the time period available to you.

For the most part, we don't teach a lot of strategies to get faster. Instead, we focus on getting better, which means being more confident, efficient, and accurate, and that translates to getting faster as a byproduct. In order to pick up your speed, you are going to need to look into what is slowing you down.

You mentioned games - are you spending time investing in your diagram, making inferences and looking for links between rules? Often students make the mistake of just diagramming the rules and then rushing into the questions without considering the further implications of those rules. How do they interrelate? What happens if a certain variable goes in a certain place? Tie spent on a better, more complete diagram will almost always pay off with fast, accurate selection of answers, and more time available to spend on other games. I ask my students "would you rather spend two minutes on your diagram and 10 on the questions, or 6 on the diagram and 2 on the questions?" This shift in perspective and approach, not rushing to the questions before you are ready and equipped with a great diagram, can be painful at first, but the payoff is typically huge.

For LR, are you prephrasing answers consistently, sorting losers and contenders quickly without getting hung up analyzing answers before you have read all five, and then comparing the contenders to each other and to the stimulus and stem to determine which one is best? Getting bogged down on one answer choice because it is confusing or challenging in some way, without first looking at all the other answers, is one way that I see many of my students wasting tremendous amounts of time. Work on that process, being willing to just say "I don't understand this answer so I will just call it a contender and see what the rest say", rather than digging deeper on the first pass through the answers. If you find that four answers are pure garbage and one answer is confusing, the confusing answer must be the best answer, so just pick it and move on!

You certainly do need to incorporate timed practice tests and perhaps time sections into your plans, but it's not just about banging out test after test. Between tests you need to spend time analyzing what you did, why things went wrong, why things went right, where you could have improved, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Then you need to use that knowledge to guide your further studies, including untimed practice to hone your application of the techniques you are learning.

You didn't mention what resources you have available, or whether you have taken any courses. You might want to consider a class, if your schedule and budget allow, or private tutoring. For a study guide, take a look in our Free Help area under the link for LSAT Self Study Site and you will find several, including the 2-month plan found here:

http://students.powerscore.com/self-stu ... y-Plan.pdf

Since you have already been studying a while and now you are looking to go beyond the fundamentals you may want to look at other guides and consider tweaking them to your needs.

The increase you are seeking is a big one, and it will require a lot of time and dedication on your part to achieve. It can be hard to do this if you are working or in school, easier if you are doing nothing other than LSAT prep. If you focus your efforts on finding out what has been slowing you down and impacting your accuracy, and you incorporate a sufficient balance of timed and untimed practice and study, you should be headed in the right direction.

Along the way, please let us know how we can help! Good luck, see you here again soon.

[huskyelliot]

Hi Adam,

thanks for your response. I have all 3 bibles and a lot of LSAC's prep books and this year and last year's LSAT's. Unfortunately, I am unable to afford courses. trust me, if i could , i would've done that in a heartbeat! Lol

I barely opened my Reading comprehension bible though, again.. I was too confident on my "skills" before since I've always been good with reading comprehensions but I guess LSAT proved me wrong!

I am getting decent when it comes to the Logical Reasoning cause I focused a lot on that section, assuming it was my weakness section before. Thanks for all your advices! I'll take everything into account!