Great Advice on How to Get 160+ on the LSAT...(Roo)

1) What score did you get?
178

2) What books did you use? (Kaplan, Powerscore LRB, Powerscore LGB, etc)

The Bibles (which I went through 2 times a piece), Superprep, the two most recent LSAT books containing 10 tests, all other released practice tests.

I did the logic games in LSAT180 but skipped the rest - its crap.

3) What prep courses did you take (if any)? Full length, weekend?

None

4) How long did you study for, and under what conditions? (during school, during the summer, etc)

Four and half months, while working and in graduate school.

5) How many preptests did you do?

25

6) What would you change if you were to do it again?

Try to relax the morning of the test. I was too stressed and I think it probably lost me a point. Also, I would have started off with Superprep so I could get in the mind of LSAC to begin with. As it happened I used it towards the end and it was not a lot of help

7) Any other misc comments/suggestions.

1. Get obsessed. I researched everything I could about the LSAT, including reading journal articles about the test itself and standardized testing in general. I got obsessed with every little detail ( i.e. How well do I work in a too-cold room as opposed to a too-hot room? What about a noisy room versus a quiet room?). Cover every detail, figure out how many cups of coffee put you at your prime, and what kind of pencil eraser works best. Ridiculous, yes. This isn't a shuttle launch, after all. But treat it like one and you're less likely to have unexpected little things throw you off on test day.

2. You need a cheerleader or two. Get someone important in your life - friend, sig other, parent, whatever, and make sure they know how important this test is to you. This is someone to report your progress to on a regular basis, who understands the difference between getting a 171 on a PT and a 175 and will help you celebrate.

3. Logic games were my Achilles heel and I knew it. When I started, I couldnt finish one in under 12 minutes. I put aside everything else and did logic games only for about a month. I made photocopies and did the same games over and over. Focusing intensely on my weakness helped a lot.

4. On LR - cut out the questions you have trouble with and lightly pencil the right answers on the back. Keep them all together and once you have a good stack go over them. Make sure you can explain out loud why the right answers are the right answers, if you can't, you have to find someone who can explain it to you. This board used to be a good resource for that but now that LSAT questions cannot be posted I'm not sure what to do.

5. Reading comp. Forget the nonsense about reading the economist, etc. If you have reading comp issues then by the time you reach test day you should have completed every single released LSAT reading comprehension section under the sun, and should understand all of your mistakes on questions perfectly. That's the best prep, IMHO

6. If you're taking the LSAT in the morning, make sure you wake up early for a week or so to put your mind on the right schedule. For seven days before the test I woke up at 6 am and took an LSAT around the same time that I would be taking it on test day. Especially important for non-morning people.

7. To motivate myself I would imagine opening my email some day in July and seeing a 165. All of my dreams of top schools would vanish at that point (thanks to a not so stellar UGPA). This provided me with enough motivation to get out of bed early to study and do practice tests, etc. Especially if you are a self-studier, you need to come up with some similar motivational imagery/mantra to keep you going.

Last thought on LR and RC - doing well on these sections involves really knowing the nuances of the meanings of certain words and phrases. Focus on that fact in your prep. I found that certain words did not really mean exactly what I thought they meant, and this made a big difference.