Starting With Older Practice Tests

ricardo.e.miranda

Dear 7Sagers

I've only recently gotten to the point where I can get through this test.
I'm by no means out of the woods but think that now I'm at the point where my learning curve will allow me to get better and faster. My first couple of diagnostics came in around 142 :-( Right now focusing on LG's only. I was spending a lot of time going over LG problems but when I'd sit down to work a Practice Test, I could only get 5 or 6 correct. I changed my strategy and have broken through a new threshold and am getting 9 correct on the first try. On the second pass at the same LG game (timed conditions), I'll go up to +16 and by the third pass will get -2. I think this new strategy is working and if I keep implementing it I will be finishing all 4 games under timed conditions after 5 LGs, or so.

I have PTs 52-71. Right now, I've have finished 52 and 53. I don't want to use up all the more recent tests to work through LGs only and wanted to ask for recommendations regarding how far back I should go in order to get more LG practices that are still valid and relevant. Read some of the reviews on Amazon for PTs 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 (of the 10 Actual from LSAC) and comments were mostly that the LGs, for the most part, did not reflect the current LSAT. So question is, what is the earliest PTs I should buy, that are still relevant and reflective of the most current material, to have the most LGs to practice from?

jdawg113

if you don't go with getting 7sage(awesome videos and a great help) or even just the LG bundle I recommend checking out http://www.cambridgelsat.com and get at least the LG bundle, it uses the lower PT's. Although they may have more curveballs they will def still help you improve... I recommend taking time to read whatever books you have(trainer/LG bible, etc.) and drilling games over PTing right now. If you are only getting 9 right in a LG section you are almost wasting PTs, especially if they are higher ones. Take the time to drill and get your fundamentals down b4 you start burning through more recent PTs

LSATisland

If you are only getting 5 or 6 correct on a timed test, you might want to focus on improving LG without time concerns. Maybe try doing LG untimed, many times for each LG. Time issues are largely proficiency issues. As your knowledge and diagrams of LG improves, you will get faster. Doing tests without the time pressure at this point may help you absorb the techniques fully.

As for tests, the more recent LG tend to be easier and more predictable than the older tests. But they're all using pretty similar principles and inferences, so you should be alright with older ones as well. However, this should only be a concern if you plan on using all the PTs during your prep. If you are concerned, I'd primarily use old tests and some recent (50s-60s). You can save the most recent tests for closer to the test date.

alexroark5

95% of games from PT 1-35 are relevant. I strongly recommend mastering ALL of them before doing games from PT 35-74

TeddyKGB

The LG bundle from 7Sage is fairly cheap. Get that and work through it un-timed; it did wonders to my LG (went -0 on gameday, PT73). I worked up and down that thing until LG became second nature. FWIW I never did any of the games timed (outside of loads of PrepTests), and achieved speed and clarity. I think if you're willing to do at least one problem set per day you'll see steady improvement.

HTH