How many PT's do you need to take?

1234abcd-1

HI All!

I was on track to take the November LSAT, but I decided to push back to January and strictly focus on taking PT's, and build speed and accuracy. My goal score is a 165 or higher, I have been currently scoring in the mid 150s and still need to close that gap between my actual score and BR score. So far, I have been scoring my goal score during BR. I will also add that my diagnostic score was a 144, so there has been improvement.

I was wondering about how many PT's is it recommended to take until you actually hit your goal score?

I know it all depends on the person, study habits, how many hours you put in, etc. But if you guys have any tips advice on how to close that gap, I would like to hear.

drbrown2

I took about 30, some people take them all. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity, but if you do end up taking a huge amount of PTs (with thorough review) you benefit from recognizing cookie cutter structures. Get the fundamentals down first and develop a good timing strategy, because if you take a bunch of PTs with bad habits those habits are harder to correct later on.

Jay Hawlader

@drbrown2 said:
I took about 30, some people take them all. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity, but if you do end up taking a huge amount of PTs (with thorough review) you benefit from recognizing cookie cutter structures. Get the fundamentals down first and develop a good timing strategy, because if you take a bunch of PTs with bad habits those habits are harder to correct later on.

Hey would you happen to have a weekly study structure you follow? I've been generally studying based on my gut recently but some solid structure would be nice

shapesandspace

Take one PT a week every Monday at 1pm (since the Jan exam is a Monday afternoon exam) until the week before your exam. If you need to skip a week or two in between, that's perfectly normal with the upcoming holidays. Use the days between your PTs to BR and address weaknesses from the previous PTs. That should be plenty

BrainiacMS

Honestly, I think taking as much as you can is the best option, provided you are doing a thorough job of reviewing the tests. I usually consider an exam as a 2-3 day process, depending how I feel like it. I've managed to bring my score up to a 168 from 150 Diagnostics. Weird how the scores sort of jumped every once in a while. low 150 --> mid 150 --> high 150 --> mid 160 at this point. Too early to tell if 168 was a fluke. But I'm confident I can get a better score in the near future.

Day 1: Take the exam. BR the exam (I really take my time with this. It usually takes me 4 hours or more, depending on the difficulty of the questions). Practice past Logic Games if I have time -- My goal is to fill up at least 8 hours a day.

Day 2: Go through the mistakes. Discard pages I don't need to review. Keep all the Logic Game sections though. Take notes so as to avoid the same mistakes. Write SoPs and other essays. (Also preparing for a PhD so..)

Day 3: If I feel like it I repeat the cycle. But when I'm feeling burnt out (which is quite often ha), I go through my past tests and review the mistakes and throw away the pages I'm confident I can get right next time. (including timing logic games and throwing away the ones I manage to solve in time). Again, keep notes to avoid the same mistakes.

cooljon525-1-1

For me it was 70. Took around 6 months

drbrown2

@"Jay Hawlader" said:
Hey would you happen to have a weekly study structure you follow? I've been generally studying based on my gut recently but some solid structure would be nice

Usually did at least a section of LG every day, except PT days (just 1 game and some LR for warmup before PT). Usually spent 1 long day or 2 normal study days doing BR. Still did LG foolproofing for old games on BR days.

I was working on correcting poor timing habits later on in my prep, so I spent the rest of the week doing timing drills for LR and mixed in a section of RC every other day. Blind reviewed all those practice sets and sections. Foolproofed games from that week’s PT.

All that work usually took 5-6 days, and depending on my schedule I would take a new PT or take a light study day and limit myself to LG practice.

I recommend listening to the early 7sage podcast episodes for specifics on blind review methods and study routines.

Jay Hawlader

@drbrown2 said:

@"Jay Hawlader" said:
Hey would you happen to have a weekly study structure you follow? I've been generally studying based on my gut recently but some solid structure would be nice

Usually did at least a section of LG every day, except PT days (just 1 game and some LR for warmup before PT). Usually spent 1 long day or 2 normal study days doing BR. Still did LG foolproofing for old games on BR days.

I was working on correcting poor timing habits later on in my prep, so I spent the rest of the week doing timing drills for LR and mixed in a section of RC every other day. Blind reviewed all those practice sets and sections. Foolproofed games from that week’s PT.

All that work usually took 5-6 days, and depending on my schedule I would take a new PT or take a light study day and limit myself to LG practice.

I recommend listening to the early 7sage podcast episodes for specifics on blind review methods and study routines.

Thank you very much! I started listening to the podcast already very helpful.

EagerestBeaver

There is no set answer. More importantly, make sure you are approaching different question types correctly and you have a firm grasp on the material you are attempting to study. For example, say you struggling with flaw questions (or whatever type you think of), it is not beneficial to be cranking out PTs because if you keep making the same mistakes, it would be better to stop, re-evaluate your approach/fix an important error, and then start cranking out PTs. If you are fundamentally approaching aspects of the test incorrectly, you are wasting valuable Practice Tests. Does that make sense?