Starting to Prep for the June LSAT: Advice Needed

[June2010]

Hi everyone, I am starting to prep for the June 2010 LSAT. I have taken a practice test and scored 154. My target goal is to hit between 165 and 170. Is this a realistic goal? And, with less than five months to go, what would the best approach be to demolishing this thing? I have read a lot on this, but could use a second opinion in regards to strategy.

Thanks!

[Jack Daws]

Good question. I've started reading some LSAT prep books, but I'd like to hear the answer to this question too.

[jsh1177]

June 2010,

I've read its possible but it going to take some serious time commitment.  I've read on other boards that folks who scored in high 160's and 170's seemed to prep for over three months and dedicated quite a bit of time.   Good luck, I'm in the same boat as you are.

[lsattutor]

Nothing beats practicing with past real LSAT questions.  Practice makes you perfect.  This is a test about logical thinking. So more you practice the better prepared you will be.  My recommendation is use the released tests.  

--post edited by EC

[Jeffort]

Hi everyone, I am starting to prep for the June 2010 LSAT. I have taken a practice test and scored 154. My target goal is to hit between 165 and 170. Is this a realistic goal? And, with less than five months to go, what would the best approach be to demolishing this thing? I have read a lot on this, but could use a second opinion in regards to strategy.

Thanks!

Starting with a first run score of 154 (provided you followed the time constraints) is a very good sign for being able to improve substantially and possibly into your goal range in terms of your non-prepped skill level.  On the first LSAT I ever saw and took 'cold' under timed conditions I scored a 152 (it might have been 151, I forgot which).

After much study, practice and review over the course of 6 months (not working on it the whole time, took a vacation and breaks from it and canceled my first real take) I ended up getting a 177.

To improve you need to study and learn the common concepts, question types, patterns of the test and effective techniques from quality prep resources.   You then practice all of it on real test questions a lot as you go.  There are close to 60 previously administered tests available for practice, meaning there is no shortage of practice materials..

Early on you should NOT be concerned of about going fast.  Go through the stuff and problems in slow motion including substantial review time dissecting the questions and answer choices in order to get very familiar with all of it so that it becomes second nature.  It can be analogized to learning to ride a bike.  You start by going slow with training wheels and progress to riding fast.     

As far as prep methods, there are a few quality books for self prep (Powerscore bibles are the best), the rest that you can find at bookstores or on Amazon or wherever pretty much suck.  There are many 'off the shelf' LSAT prep guides in bookstores that are lame and also very out of date.  As examples I perused a Barrons book and the Nova LSAT books.  IMHO they were not comprehensive, barely touched the basics and also presented techniques that IMO are counter productive.

For quality in depth instruction, a live prep course from a reputable provider with a good experienced instructor can help a lot.  One on one tutoring with an experienced instructor can also be very helpful, provided that the tutor has experience and has been doing it for a while.  If you go for private tutoring, DO NOT go with somebody that just recently took the test and pulled off a good score.  Being able to achieve a highly ranked score does not mean that the person can provide quality instruction.