3 replies to this topic

[Neo]

For those of you who did well on the LSAT, could any of you kindly share your thoughts on whether practicing by doing full prep tests is more effective than going through a bundle of questions by types or vice versa?

[staffer]

From October to December, I dedicated nothing but the LSAT and successfully lifted myself from a 157 to a 165.

I used the following system:
- Went through all 3 powerscore bibles; I did them simultaneously, a chapter or few from one and then switching to another.
- 3 times per week I wrote full prep-test, timed, properly scored, and with 5th section
- Other than PTs I did Logic Games without a timer until I mastered the concepts. After that, I started doing timed Games sections, and shorter drills, giving myself 8, 7, 6, and eventually 5 minutes per game.
- I practiced my weak Reasoning questions without a timer (principle questions and parallel flaw). I did regular timed sections of Args, and I also worked on drill of 1-minute per question and 10-minutes for the first 12 questions of sections.
- Reading comp was my weakest area. I did timed sections almost every day, and timed drills of one passage at a time. Honestly, I never really lifted my RC score - I was -12 on RC on the LSAT where I got a 165 but I made up for it with nearly perfect sections of Logical Reasoning and just a couple errors in games.

Hope this helps!

[Enhance]

Neo, on 03 February 2012 - 09:05 PM, said:

For those of you who did well on the LSAT, could any of you kindly share your thoughts on whether practicing by doing full prep tests is more effective than going through a bundle of questions by types or vice versa?

I wouldn't say I did that well with a 161, but I think you should definitely be doing some full tests when nearing the end of your studying. Drilling specific question types is fine when you start to get a feel for how the questions work, but you should be getting a feel for writing the actual test as the test date draws near. Familiarity and comfort is key to being successful and there's no better way than to simulate a test day scenario if you can.

I began with individual questions only with no timer, to doing timed sections, and finally to entirely timed full tests.

[KER_2012]

I did individual sections of LG when that was my weakest section and I was trying to improve. Once I did, I only did full tests, 5 sections, timed.