I am writing this because I just took my first practice test since my diagnostic, which was on December 15th (6 weeks ago). My diagnostic was a 154, with a -6 on LG, -5 on LR, and -13 on RC (I got really fatigued during this section and ended up running out of time with like 10 questions left and folded). I am applying to Harvard's Junior Deferral Program this summer. My goal score is a 175, because I have a slightly below 25th percentile GPA for Harvard, so I need to at least be slightly above the median on the LSAT. I am taking the LSAT in April, with the opportunity to take it one more time in June if I do not get my target score.

My process up to this point was that I went through the core curriculum and finished everything. I did not do blind review in the interest of time, instead I would look at the answers and watch the videos for the ones I got wrong, and the explanations for the ones I got right but spent more than the recommended time on. My reasoning for this was that I could always go back and study the questions more intensely later on, if I have trouble with a particular problem type or question, but I did not want to linger too long on anything if I was going to finish the core curriculum before taking a practice test, (which my obsessive mind felt like was necessary). That might also just have been me being lazy, but oh well.

Today I took the February 1997 Practice Test, and got a 172, -4 on LG, -2 on LR, -4 on RC. On Blind review I got a 178, -0 on LG, -2 on LR, and -1 on RC. A big thing was that I had run out of time on the last logic game and went back and pretty quickly fixed 3 incorrect answers. When I submitted I was completely expecting a 165ish score, and it popped out a 172. Obviously I was stoked, but now I have to reevaluate my plan for the next 3 months. I am just 3 points below my goal score, and 2 points below a perfect score on BR, which makes me believe that a 180 is in reach.

I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how to best handle these next 3 months to improve a 172. A big issue I am having so far is time management, which I think will come together as I do more practice tests. But would love to hear in general if anybody has any tips about inching out points in the 170's, and trying to get a perfect score.

I say all this with the thought that it could very well be a fluke and I go back to the 160's next PT, and I still have a lot more work to do like I was anticipating, but I am hoping that is not the case.

I started studying for the LSAT in December, I grinded on it for like 4 hours a day for the next 5 months until I took the April LSAT. After finishing the CC, my study plan was to take Full PTs everyday because I am competitive and that is how I could get myself juiced up to study, just like in golf, I hate going to the driving range, but I love playing because every round starts with the chance to beat my high score. I took a total of 45 full PTS before taking the April LSAT, my PT average got to be a 174, with 3 179's mixed in there. I felt really good coming out of the real LSAT, with only one question I was not feeling confident about I was feeling like I might have scored a 180, but alas it was not to be. My score came back as a 171, I still have no idea what happened, in my PTs I almost always have a feeling when I am not certain of a question, all of my wrong answers are usually ones I flagged, even if I still get it wrong in BR. I really wish they showed which section the wrong answers came from for my personal sanity. Anyways, I had already taken off 3 weeks between the test and the score release, and the next day after getting my score back I scored a 177. I figured I still know what I know, and that I would just take it easy until the June LSAT and see what happens. 3 weeks after the last test I took, today I got my first 180. I think the time off has really given me time to compress all of my knowledge and feel a lot more confident when looking at questions. The questions all feel a lot more simple, my thought process is much quicker.

Who knows what will happen on the June LSAT, but the point is that sometimes less is more, and don't stress over breaks because you aren't going to lose your progress, it will stick with you, and you might even improve.

I just wanted to share my LSAT story as it comes to a close. I took a diagnostic in December and got a 154, and then studied all spring semester with classes going on, I was in the 160's after finishing the core curriculum, and then was in the low 170's, but felt like I was plateauing, especially with reading comp and was not really sure what else I could do on my own. I decided to get a tutoring package, and was paired with Chris Bearne, and he was great. We worked almost entirely on reading comp, and was really helpful in me bringing that down and giving me the ability to get 0-2 wrong on that section when I was 4-6 wrong before. I took the April LSAT, and felt great coming out of it, thinking I might have even got a 180, but I ended up getting a 171. While that is a great score, it was below my PT average of 175 so I decided to retake it. I took the June LSAT and got a 176!

A couple of things that I learned during my journey.

Do what it takes to keep you motivated. The advice generally given is to take your time in the core curriculum, do drills instead of PT's, and extensively blind review everything. I tried to follow that advice, and got through all of the CC, albet was not as thorough as I could have been, but as I transitioned to drills I could not get myself excited to study that way, and would end up not feeling very productive. I am a competitive person, I like to play basketball, not shoot hoops, I like to play golf, not go to the driving range, I like to play chess, not do chess puzzles. I could go on and on. I would get genuinely excited to take PTs, excited by the chance to compete and get a better score than last time. I ended up taking 49 practice tests, basically just taking a PT every time I wanted to study. After them I would blind review my flagged questions, and then look at all the video explanations for my incorrect answers and flagged questions. This method was my way of enjoying studying for the thousand hours I probably put into the LSAT in total. I probably could have gotten more efficient results doing the prescribed method, but I like the direction that I went in.

Logic Games are solvable. I ended up getting to the point where I was getting -0 with plenty of time to spare on pretty much every logic games section I did, the only time I did not was typically when I misread something. My method was centered on basically solving all of the worlds before going to any of the questions. I would do all of the splits necessary to get all of the worlds, even if it would take me to like 16 worlds sometimes, because I knew that once it was all solved, all the questions would take like 10 seconds, and I would be 100% confident in my answer being correct. I was pretty much always faster than the recommended time for each game. The trick is figuring out the most efficient ways to split, and to stay organized so that you could keep track of everything. This works for most games but not all games, whenever one of the games that it did not work out on I usually had enough time to realize it and do it the normal way because I saved so much time on the other games. This is what worked for me, it might not work for everyone, but if you are struggling with games I encourage you to give it a shot.

Reading comp is all about focusing while you are reading and connecting all of the dots. This was tough for me because I would often zone out and stop thinking about connecting all of the dots. I realized that all I had to do was read things and then internally connect that to the other things that I had read so far, and I was able to understand everything so much better.