Early PTs

seamusyarbrough

First off 7sage logic game explanations are a Godsend. Logic games are the only section I really struggled with, but I am finally starting to feel semi confident on them with the help of 7sage.

My question is on the relevancy of old PTs. I bought a pack of 10 PTs from LSAC. I have taken 7, 9, and 10. Scoring 179, 170, and 173. The 170 after I ran out of time on a logic game and guessed 5 questions wrong. So I am feeling pretty confident for a Feb test, but I know these PTs are from the 90s. Am I in for a rude awakening when I start to deal with more recent tests?

ddakjiking

Yes and no. You obviously are competent at this test since you are scoring 170+.

Some big differences since then.

LR: There used to be stimuli that were shared for 2 questions and that would save some time. But LSAC stopped doing that somewhere around PT 40. People say the LR from the 90's had really wordy stimuli whereas the "modern" ones are more concise, however, the answer choices have gotten a lot trickier. Whereas you could've have gotten away with little shortcuts offered by prep companies in the past, you really have to know the argument core nowadays.

LG: This section is set up where a single game takes up 2 pages now so you have more scratch paper to work with. People say games from the early 90's had really unconventional games not really seen today. There has been a recent shift towards games with few upfront inferences and a lot of brute forcing.

RC: June 2007 marks the start of Comparative Passages where you have 2 mini-passages and questions will often reflect how each mini-passage agrees/disagrees with each other/etc. People say RC has gotten harder in the last 20 PT's or so and the length of the passages in general have gotten longer.

*Note*: People say=trends that were talked about on the TLS forum.

alexroark5

In addition to the above, the curve on newer exams tend to be less forgiving.

msmith85

I would say, yes, contemporary LSAT is definitely harder. licknee did a great job of explaining why.

I am a sincere believer in drilling old PTs (especially LGs). But don't rely exclusively on older (pre 50 something, I'd say) to be a barometer for your capabilities on test day.

Example of this: I can score a 175-177 on LSATs pre 38 regularly. On tests from the 60s, I'm happy for a 172. That is my personal experience, granted. But the point is, if I went in on test day having only practiced with older LSATs I'd have grand illusions about how that test was gonna go.

Long story short. Drill the old. PT with the new. You'll be golden.