Do I Need

[cosgrovewatt]

Hi folks. Last month I took the June 2007 LSAT as a diagnostic, totally cold. I got a 163, which included

• 14/23 on LG (obviously my biggest opportunity for improvement),
  22/25 on the first LR section,
  24/25 on the second LR section, and
  23/27 on RC.

My question is: given this breakdown on my diagnostic, should I be dedicating any time to improving LR right now? Or even RC?

I have plenty of time -- I'm not looking to apply to law school until fall of next year, so I can take the LSAT for real anytime in the next 12 months. And, to be honest, I have a job I like fairly well right now, so I'd be fine waiting to apply until the following cycle if it looks like I still have room to improve my LSAT come 12 months from now. I've started studying using the PowerScore 12 month study plan, but it seems like maybe I should deviate from it to focus on LG. If I were more time constrained, the choice to narrow in on LG prep would be clear, but given that time is on my side, should I still work to improve all 3 sections by following the 12 month study plan? Thanks for your input!

[Adam Tyson]

That's a great diagnostic score, cosgrovewatt!

As with so many things involving law school and the law, the answer to your question is "it depends." What would you consider to be an acceptable score on your LSAT? What is the median score at your target schools, and at your dream schools? You've indicated that you can wait a while to take the LSAT, but do you want to get it done and out of the way soon?

In general I would say that you should continue to work on all three sections of the test, whether you are taking it in January or not until much later (I assume that you are not signed up for this November, and that registration date has passed, so January 2022 is your next chance). For one thing, as well as you did, there is room for improvement, and any increase in score is well worth the effort. For another, you should not neglect those areas of the test because then you may be less prepared for test day than you should be. But for sure put your greatest effort into learning a good system for diagramming and attacking Logic Games (and I hope you'll find the Powerscore methods to be very helpful in that regard).

Two pieces of advice we often give, and they go hand-in-hand: 1) don't take the test until you are ready to get a great score that you would be happy including in your applications, and 2) a higher score later is better than an earlier score sooner. That second bit doesn't much apply to you, because you still have a lot of time to prep, but you should probably not rush into taking the test before you are ready. You also shouldn't drag it out any longer than you have to, because it's easy to burn out and start to see your performance degrade after a while.

I suggest that you work on your games for a while, while still keeping a hand in with the other sections to see if you can identify any patterns in what you are missing or struggling with, and take periodic practice tests. When you get to a point where your PT scores are close to what you want to score on the real test, register for the next test that you can take, and then put in a sustained effort to get the best score you can get on that test. After that, you can decide whether it's worth it to keep studying and retake (which would be a good idea if you think you can improve even slightly), or if you are ready to be done with the test and want to focus on the rest of your application.

Good luck, and let us know how we can help!