<p>I'm a rising senior at a top 20 university, planning on taking the September LSAT and applying to law school in the fall. I'm trying to figure out the best course of study, since I'm not sure the traditional class route is the way to go for me. I bought a book of old LSAT exams, and took one of them (timed, and excluding the writing sample) without any kind of preparation. I scored a 165-- just barely finishing the two logical reasoning sections in time (and scoring ~ 20/21 out of 25 on both), not having enough time to get through the games section (I got through 3 of the 4 games, got around 16 correct), and finishing the reading comprehension section with time to spare (and getting 23/25 right).</p>
<p>I have the powerscore bible book on logical reasoning, and am going through that, but at this point I'm not sure if it'll be helpful for me. I find the method kind of contrived and think it might be taking away from my studying. Would I be better off just doing a lot of practice exams instead?</p>
<p>I'm planning on using the powerscore book for the games section- do you think that would be helpful, or is there something else I should try? I saw that powerscore has weekend courses, and was thinking about doing one of those. </p>
<p>Do you have any advice on how I should prep for the LSAT, given my performance on a practice test?</p>
<p>I’m a fan of Manhattan books and/or velocity online for LG.</p>
<p>If you are in the 165 range, not sure a class will help. (You’ll have to do all the work yourself, anyway.) But if you are a procrastinator type, a course might give you the incentive to keep up.</p>
<p>I will also be taking the September test and have enrolled in the Velocity Test Prep course a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure of the traditional class type too, but I’m so glad I signed up for this course. Take a look at some online options and give them a try. 7Sage, Blueprint, and Velocity all have online courses and offer free videos so you can see what works best for you.</p>
<ol>
<li>practice, practice, practice. and then go back and look carefully at every question you got wrong. you need to know not only why the credited answer is right, but also why another wrong answer tempted you away. the test creators really do try to trick you; learn to recognize their tricks. </li>
<li>make sure you answer EVERY question. if there’s anything you don’t get to, fill in something random such as C or D. </li>
<li>learn to recognize the logic basics COLD: if-then, causality, correlation, none/any/some/most/all, etc.</li>
<li>take all the easy points first, then go back and work on the harder questions.</li>
<li>if checking each answer to a question will take a lot of time, check them in reverse order. they like to waste your time by putting 3 or 4 time wasting answers before the correct answer.</li>
<li>the test is created by lawyers and law professors. on the long reading passages, the author’s position will always be that more law would be a good idea. read the long passage ONCE, then just go back and verify the answer for each question.</li>
<li>ya gotta love the games. </li>
</ol>
a 165 is a great place to start, congrats! I think the first step to LSAT studying is getting a handle on the strategy and the powerscore books are a great place to do that. Then, practice practice practice. Since you’re not learning anything new for it, its really the best way to prepare.