I'm super late to this thread but would love to meet up with someone to study and/or take timed practice tests. Could also definitely use help with in/out games if anyone's an expert (I'm just sitting down to go through tutorials). I'm planning on taking the June test and would commute wherever is necessary to meet up. My email is kittyahmed@.com. Thanks!

42 this fall with a daughter in college and a son one year from high school. Glad to see I'm not the only one starting late! I'm hoping to get 10 years' work in before retirement ;) One thing is clear at my age: I can't do student loans for it! If anyone has thoughts on financing a legal education in your 40s, I'd love to hear them.

I was in exactly the same boat as you both a month ago (knock on wood that I may be coming out of it). I went from getting 165 range to 156, 157 and 161. Like @, I attribute it partly to the newer tests just "feeling" different as well as the fact that I had just started regularly doing full timed tests and was timing myself mercilessly (I think a lot of people, myself included, tend to allow themselves to "finish up" the question they're on or just take a quick two or three guesses after the time is called and that can really give you a false impression of what you're really scoring).

One thing that helped a lot was circling the really difficult questions as I did the timed test so that while grading I could see if those were right or wrong. I'd then go over those questions painstakingly, regardless of whether they were right or wrong. My goal was to be able to recognize what was difficult for me during the timed test (this often differs from what is hard when you're more relaxed) and to really understand why they were hard for me and eventually understand how they work. I also wanted to try to get to a place where only the hard questions were wrong (in other words, minimizing careless errors) If I am struggling between two answer choices, I'll choose one but put a mark next to my second choice - if the correct answer isn't one of those two then I know I've got a serious problem but if it's the other one, then really attentively working on internalizing the advantage of one over the other helps oceans. A vast majority of wrong answers probably fit into this category and you can systematically eliminate them when you see the flaws you make in your reasoning when you don't have the luxury of time.

So basically I would recommend doing very conscious reviews like that scattered throughout the day whenever you have a minute and then continuing to do timed tests in one sitting so you get used to the time constraints. I really think the timed tests have helped me get over the panic that comes with having a strict time limit and the reviewing has helped me feel like I have a better hold on the questions as they come up. I've now started feeling much more comfortable with the test as it is administered and my scores are starting to rebound. Even better is that on blind review my scores have skyrocketed, which makes me think my comprehension is improving even more now. Just keep in mind that this is a way of thinking that you need to internalize and that takes time - especially to be able to do it under timed conditions - and give yourself time to let it settle in. My guess is if you keep doing full PTs regularly your score will start rebounding soon.

As a note, I applied this process mostly to LR sections, which was my worst section for a long time. I made a strategic/mathematical decision to focus on those questions above all else...

I hope this helps you out some (and I hope it helps me out some too!) Good luck on the test!

My center had a clock with the wrong time on the wall (not even off by an hour, but more like 47 minutes fast). The proctor's watch was 5 minutes fast. She also left once during the test, came back and announced that we had 5 minutes left, then said "Well, actually you have less than that but I didn't warn you so I'll give you 5 more." And during LG games I swear she gave 7 minutes after calling 5. I guessed on one of the questions because I only had about 20 seconds left and wouldn't have been able to figure it out in 20. And then she didn't call time for 2 more minutes...

But not worth canceling over and not worth risking a cancellation by complaining. But I was shocked by the casual attitude at the center (for example, phones were allowed in the room as long as she "didn't hear them" and "didn't see them". Did anyone else have something so contrary to the dire warnings on the LSAC page?

I went back and forth between the 40s - 50s a few months before the test, but at 2 months out I started doing mostly 60s with one from the 30/40s every few tests and saved the latest 60s and 70s for the last few weeks before the test (in the end I didn't use several of them because I ended up slowing my study pace leading up to the test). The latest tests I used as stand-alone sections to keep the thinking fresh without the angst of a full test. Sadly, I won't know how this really worked for me for a few more weeks, but the test felt very manageable to me (although this could just as easily be simple delusion - time will tell).

@ if you did awful after a full day at work, then take more PTs after a full day at work. Every weakness you can find is an opportunity to eliminate it before you get in the room on test day.

I did about 1 or occasionally 2 PTs in a week, varying the time (unintentionally) to fit it in whenever I had a couple of hours. Sometimes I'd stay late after work and use an empty seminar room, sometimes close the dining room door at home and work before dinner (I have teens/older kids, so dinner time is sacred). The craziest was when I started a test at 11:30 p.m. The only correlation I ever found was that the busier/more hectic my day was, the better I did. Go figure... One time I never PT'd: Saturday or Sunday mornings. Several people above mentioned taking them in non-ideal circumstances, which I would wholeheartedly recommend. With that in mind, I took a couple of tests even on buses down the east coast (my lowest score was on a bus: 157. One of my highest was, too: 168. Scratching my head...) And @ is totally right: anything you can do to disadvantage yourself when PTing is wise to do. Never baby yourself during PTs - the world isn't kind enough to return the favor on test day...

I decided on high-conflict divorce after watching my boyfriend's disastrous divorce/custody battle with an unstable ex-wife play out across two continents. (I never had any interest in law before that). I decided that 1. courts overall do not have enough psychological training to deal with personality disorders and 2. most of those in such relationships completely underestimate the dangers of divorcing disordered people. I'm also disturbed by the expense of representation in family law but have found that the free clinics in the courthouses (at least for my BF) either did not or could not help with the kind of help anyone in these cases needs. I'm not sure if I will eventually work in policy or in representation (see above question on affording law school) but if I represent people, my goal is to make it as affordable as possible for people, hence the requirement that I not carry debt...

Sure it's hard and money can be found in all kinds of other ways, but I would hope many of us are doing this because we believe in something that's worth all the hard work and maybe not the best pay. This isn't to say any one person is better than another for choosing to go through with law school, just that if you're not in it for something you really believe in, then you are absolutely right to find a job that is worth it to you. So I am very glad that you made this realization before you started law school and before you invested too much into it. That said, saying that we (who may believe in something worth this work) need our heads examined is dismissive in a way that most of us on the forum are trying not to be. Let's all respect each others' choices.

I want to work in high-conflict divorce and family court issues, but am not sure if law school will end up being financially feasible for me. We'll see how the next LSAT scores come out... @ how are you avoiding the cost of law school??

@ better prep would have been to take a different test (I'm only partially kidding). Like @ the math inferences about the distribution in LG4 made it much easier - but it took me too long to realize that. I feel like 3 was more about probability than any other game I've seen - did anyone else feel the same? All in all, I feel like @.k13.0's gif...

Quick question for of those of you who planned to take the Dec LSAT: did you take it and if so, how did you do? I'm preparing for the June LSAT and am trying to learn as much as I can so I can (hopefully) take it just once...

I can't stress enough how strongly I agree with the comments here. To improve meaningfully on the LSAT, you need time to digest the concepts and processes you're learning and for that you need resting periods. A schedule like you've proposed (I think) runs the risk of limiting your performance rather than maximizing it. I also think it's a good idea to not sacrifice targeted drills or individual sections and do nothing but PTs in the later stages. PTs are great for getting a sense of timing and for increasing stamina, but accuracy is a crucial factor and individual sections work just as well for that while still saving your brain from overload...

I'm tossing in my two cents here, with some caveats: first, I have not taken the LSAT yet (I take it next week) so there's no telling how my studying will pay off in terms of the actual test (my PT range is mid- to high-160s). Second, I did not take any courses or tutoring of any kind, so I can't say what is and isn't worth it in the end. What strikes me in what you write is that you might have tried to get to the finish line by a certain deadline, which I don't think is the best approach for dealing with this test. It is evident from your post, you are frustrated and I sense that you may be grasping at lots of different methods when you don't meet with expected success. Many, many people do this (I went through a phase of this a while ago, too). In this sense, the time off and the trip with your girlfriend will be invaluable in resetting your mindset (@ is very right here).

If your score improves on BR, then it sounds to me like the concepts are starting to take hold, but that you maybe dove into full PTs too soon. I've read (and agree) that you shouldn't start timed PTs until you have a high degree of accuracy without time constraints. There is no doubt that a fully timed, proctored LSAT is incredibly exhausting - especially when the concepts are still relatively new to you. Taking timed PTs is a way of seeing how you're doing and exposing weak points in your studying (if you can't do it quickly during the test, then for all intents and purposes you can't really do it). But I feel like it is only part of your studying (again, my opinion based on my experience) and can't entirely replace slow, focused work on questions, timed individual sections and drills. To be able to score really well on the test, the habits and thinking have to be deeply ingrained on a subconscious level and this comes about by repeatedly working through your reasoning again and again and again. I've been studying for more than a year (with occasional breaks of a few weeks) and I still feel like I have a long way to go before I get to the point that I can guarantee a certain score 95% of the time. Most importantly, I only started to feel like I had a really firm grasp on the questions and the ways of thinking after about a year of studying.

Another poster (@) recently wrote about their scores taking a nosedive when they starting doing full, new PTs with strict time controls (I had the same problem). I think it's really important to know that this is a phase in your development and that you will learn to mitigate it over time - often subconsciously. Once you can answer questions correctly on blind review then you are halfway there. I really feel like in the end there is simply no substitute for time in internalizing these concepts...

Honestly, there is a lot more I could say about this and you are more than welcome to PM me if you'd like. If I had to distill my advice into a few points, I'd say this:

1. take a break from studying when you're burned out, even if that means multiple breaks over a long time. Rest time is critical to really learning these concepts.

2. when you're doing LR, articulate out loud what each answer choice is saying and how it relates to the prompt and the question stem. It's slow and you don't need to do it forever, but it is the best way to hone your thinking and to be aware of your assumptions while you develop your thinking.

3. with LG, try each game at least twice before going to the video explanation. Redo the game at least twice after watching the video. Repetition helps, I swear.

4. For RC, pray. (and practice of course ;) I never found any method that helps more than just doing it again and again)