Self-paced
Hey y'all. I am planning on taking the August LSAT, so am in the final stretch of my preparation. I am working through the 150s practice tests, and have thus far taken PT 150, PT 151 and PT 156. I got a 165 on PT 150, a 162 on PT 151, and a 170 on PT 156. These were all taken within the last two weeks roughly four days apart. I read that 150-155 are the most accurate to the real exam, and I noticed on PT 156 the second RC section was identical to a section in the July 2020 exam. (I saw on reddit the old RCs were harder so I did the 2020 tests lol). Will that be the case for PT157-159?
Basically my question is how do I gauge readiness and last minute prep at this point? My goal is basically 170. I would be very happy with higher but I primarily don't want to get lower than that. I posted around a month ago when I was stuck at 165 and got advice on making an error log which I have found very helpful. Right now I am essentially redoing all the PTs plus the newest tests I have not done before. In addition, I am doing drill sets of just the Level 4 and Level 5 questions. My concern at this point is not ability but consistency. I find myself getting stressed in the tests as I get closer and essentially leaving questions I know the answers to on the table. I think I performed on PT 156 today because I got 170s on PT 127 and PT 147 over the last few days so I knew it was doable. Basically, what are suggestions for this last month to prioritize the questions that will be most similar to the real thing?
This was way longer than I intended but I mostly wanted to articulate my thoughts, thanks for reading. :)
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4 comments
Hey! What kinds of things do you write in your error log?
@businessgoose Hey! I don't use the 7sage Wrong answer Journal platform, what I do is I have a Google doc where I write out each wrong answer per section and indicate which question it was, what the passage, stem, stimulus of the question was, and its out of five difficulty level. Then I write a sentence or two explaining in my own words why I got the question wrong and what the thought process behind the incorrect answer was. Then I do drill sets of 5 questions for each missed question of the same question and stimulus tags, usually at the difficulty level I got wrong, or just at level 4 and level 5. This takes quite a while bcs it is usually 10-14 errors per test and that's five questions for each. I spend the day after a practice test doing those drill sets. Hope this is helpful!
Hello! First of all, huge congratulations on hitting that 170 in practice!
To answer your first question: I don't recall the exact origins of PTs 157 and 158, but I do know that PT 159 was an actual exam administered sometime in early 2025, likely reusing sections from the 2020–2022 era. LSAC has recently been mixing things up, sometimes pulling from that older pool and sometimes generating entirely new exam.
Frankly speaking, it is incredibly rare to walk into test day feeling 100% ready; almost everyone feels at least a little anxious. Ideally, hitting your goal range in your PTs consistently tells you that you're ready.
As you have already noticed, your mentality is just as important as your technical knowledge. Seeing that 170 proves you have the ability, so trust in that! Your strategy of using slightly older PTs (like the 120s or 140s) to build confidence is excellent. Those exams still share the exact same underlying logic as the newest ones, so high scores there are highly valid indicators of your current skill level.
Lastly, for this final month, do not save PTs 157-159 for the few days right before your test. Give yourself enough runway to do a deep, thorough review of them. For every single missed question on those final exams, investigate exactly why you missed it and build a concrete strategy in your error log to ensure you never repeat that mistake on the real thing. I hope this helps, and best of luck!
@SerinJ Thank you for the advice! I have in my schedule to have taken all the PTs by the week before the test (my planned date is August 8) leaving only PT 155 the Sunday before for a final data point. I plan on redoing all the 150s tests untimed for review purposes in those last two weeks. Right now I am taking a new timed test on Sundays and a new test on Wednesdays. (I am doing these timed too but not exactly with the allowed breaks because I don't have three uninterrupted hours on Wednesdays). Your suggestion to really hone in on the 150s tests as they are the most accurate is helpful, I will keep that in mind!