You definitely need to take care of your kid first of all. LSAT can wait. You need to have peace of mind and confidence to get a good score. I withdrew in February and forfeited the fee, but I don't regret it.

You need to see what specific LR questions give you trouble and drill them.

Do you know all the rules of inferences by heart? It gets pretty easy when you know them like the multiplication table. I've noticed that most in/out games have a Not A then B rule, which gives you three options, A and not B, B and not A or both A and B. So, you can make three boards and make inferences for each one. Once you proceed to the questions, a lot of the answers can be found on your boards. However, not all games have that rule. Like today I was doing preptest 70, and the second game was like that, and was more time consuming.

Those type of questions are usually directed at testing if you understand that numbers and % need to be viewed in a bigger context to qualify as adequate evidence for a conclusion. For instance, profit from sales of product A increased 25% and from sales of product B it increased 50%, so more profit was made on product B was then on product A. Those numbers sort of trap your mind to buy the argument. However, as it is the evidence is not sufficient, since you need to know much more than that to make the conclusion. So, on these type of questions, you really don't need to know math that much, just to understand the concept that % and numbers need to be put in a bigger context to be reliable.

I was thinking about taking the test in September too, but I feel that I won't be able to take LSAT prep for much longer. My whole life is affected right now, I cannot work, spend much time with my family, or even think much about anything other then planktons, extinction of dinosaurs or rate of accidents on highways :)) I give bows to those who can take it for longer than about six months.

I think it is good to prove why every wrong answer is wrong for beginner and intermediate level of LSAT preparation. But, at some point you have to let go of this method and rely on your intuition, since at some point, what you have learnt should become intuitive. You just need to make a conscious effort to be more confident in choosing an answer choice.

Jonathan, I would do ANY tricks to improve my score, even doing PTs standing upside down :)) This method just really helps me with the trap answer choices. If I read a trap answer choice first, then my judgement becomes biased, and I cannot see the correct answer. I have noticed, that most of the time the trap answer choice is above the correct answer choice, so it helps to read the correct answer choice first to somewhat cushion the impact of the trap.

If you get there too early, you can just walk around the campus and look at the trees and the sky, and kind of meditate. That should help release the stress before the test. The testing center is around 10 min from my house, and I am planning to get there 30-40 minutes before the test. I just don't want to be late!

That's December 2006 test. I just could not understand what that argument was about. The language is so convoluted, and the subject so abstract. What do you do when something like this comes up? Do you need to come up with a hypothetical scenario to understand what they are talking about?

Al[^-^]: Not necessarily in that order :)

E.T.90066-1: Dark chocolate is supposed to be good for the brain function and the mood, just as fish oil. I have noticed huge difference in the progress with studying for LSAT when I eat some dark chocolate before I sit down to study.

Powerscore website has downloadable preptests 1-71

Exercise, dark chocolate before studying and fish oil daily should help.

When I realize that 180 score is so far away...

Some PTs are more difficult then others, especially older ones. Maybe that could be the reason.

To improve on LR, I don't think it is enough just to keep practicing preptests. You need to apply your knowledge of logic to the tests, rather than learn logic from them. Here is a useful link I found http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/tvs.html

The only way to improve on RC for me was to scan questions before reading the stimulus and separating general ones from specific. I highlight the key word/phrase in the specific question and as I read the stimulus, I answer those questions. This way, by the time I am done reading the stimulus, 30-50% of the questions are already answered.

Very good question. I've read somewhere that any argument asserting casual relationship is inherently flawed from philosophical viewpoint.

I was also having a problem of not seeing much improvement despite doing tremendous amount of practice. One day, I just told myself that I needed to review my methods. I started to do deep analysis of each question on LR and RC, trying to understand the underlying concepts. Then, finally I started to see progress. I would compare preparing for LSAT to learning a foreign language. You need to understand and memorize the rules of grammar, understand the cultural context, and practice the vocabulary everyday to learn it successfully. So is LSAT, you need to understand the rules of logic, the rules of argument, causation, conditionality, etc. Then you need to practice them every day to commit them to memory. It is tremendous amount of work, for sure, but the good news is that you can improve.

It is over!!!

I feel right now exactly like when you get on a roller coaster, they buckle you in, and just before it sets off, you ask yourself, why did I get myself into this??

At which point are you supposed to give up on a question? You still need to invest some time to read it, at least.

Thank you guys. Being a paralegal, questions involving legal issues make me think about what happens in real life. I forget, I cannot do it. You are right that if you look just at the information in the stimulus, and solve this question technically, it is easy to see why answer choice E is correct.

Answer D is wrong since the information used in it is not used as a premise to support the conclusion. The stuff about years of medical training is just background information. The gap is between completing evaluation program and being competent, and answer choice C fills that gap.

I don't think you should go into the deep meaning of words in conditional logic questions. Just look for the premise that supports the conclusion and draw a diagram.

Some knowledge of cognitive biases, how to make a proper argument, and knowing as many logical fallacies as possible helped me improve on LR. Also, drilling causation questions, as well as questions involving numbers and % helped a lot.

When reading RC passages I look at them as compare and contrast essays, as well as use the "scales" to weigh the evidence for and against an opinion. This method helps me sort out the dense information contained in the passages.

With LG, it is nothing but practice. It took me about 6 months to be able to complete this section on time, although I still cannot always do it.

In assumption questions, most of the time, the gap is between the predicate of the conclusion and a premise. For example, It will rain tonight because the sky is overcast. Here the gap is between "will rain" and "the sky is overcast." The sufficient assumption is "It has always rained when the sky is overcast," since if this is true, then the conclusion follows. Necessary assumption will be "It has sometimes rained when the sky is overcast," since if this is not true (negated), the conclusion will not follow. Sufficient assumption gives us certainty about what will follow, and hence it will usually contain words like always, never, constantly, etc.