Older fresh PT's or retake 70's?

GordonBombay

Plan on re-taking in December. At this point the only relevant fresh PT's I have left are PT's 50-54 and 67-69.
I have about 5 weeks left before the December LSAT and can't decide if it would be better to take these fresh PT's or just re-take 70-75 while using the fresh PT's for drilling? I can really only manage to take one full timed PT with a thorough BR per week right now since I'm taking a full semester and graduating in December. I've never re-taken any PT's yet and don't know if it's at all useful or not. Any advice is much appreciated.

c.janson35

I just wrote this to someone else, so I thought I would repost here as well:

"Retakes are immensely beneficial, so don't shy away from them just because you've taken them already. You'll be surprised how much you don't remember. Also, the early tests are valuable too! I honestly believe that you have to be anticipating answers for the large majority of questions on the test, which means that you can't rush through the stimulus on the first read. Spend the time on it to really understand the argument. You have to train yourself to be constantly critical and to have a strong self-talk. If you have some earlier tests, try taking a couple LR sections as untimed BR. When doing so, do not move onto the answer choices until you are comfortable describing what the flaw is, where the assumptions lie, and what the correct answer choice is going to be. A lot of times you'll surprise yourself and step 3 of this process will match pretty well with the correct answer. Even if it doesn't, engaging in steps 1 and 2 will set you up nicely to finding the correct answer once you do move on."

In order to tailor this directly to you, I would say to try to alternate between fresh PTs and retakes. Also! You don't have to complete an entire PT at one time. Retake individual sections if you can squeeze those into your busy schedule. Wake up an hour earlier and you can do half of a test! Then review during lunch or something. Do not use your remaining fresh tests as drilling material though. Those are precious, so don't waste them needlessly.

Good luck!

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@GordonBombay: Agree with @c.janson35

Only think I would add: don't get complacent. My personal experience is this:

I never ever remember LR when I retake.
I might remember an important inference in a LG, especially if it is an unusual game (buses, dinosaurs, jugglers) but for typical ordering/sorting I never remember them.
RC I don't remember the questions, but in most cases I will remember the passage. This means that the passage is much quicker and easier to read and comprehend than it would be if I were doing it on its own. If I then go back and suddenly do a passage that I have not done before, I am typically surprised at how much harder it is. So just keep that in mind.

But really, retakes are awesome! I did the 60's three times, and learned something new every time.

GordonBombay

Appreciate the feedback guys. I will definitely look to mix in 70's retakes with some of the fresh PT's that I have left and use some of the 70's for drilling.

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@josephellengar
I feel the same way about redoing reading passages. Even though I don't remember what questions are about, rereading the passage definitely feels easier. How did you overcome this problem while studying for a retake?

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@lsat_321

I overcame this in three ways:

1) I had been trying to read more intensely earlier anyway, just to improve my comprehension after a year out of grad school. I think this helped at least prime me, as did my intensive study of LR, which I feel is similar. So I think everyone will get better naturally the longer they read.

2) I ignored it. You definitely need to make inferences regardless, so yeah, rereading will always have some benefit, especially if it helps you with pattern recognition on common LSAC tricks.

3) I was fortunate enough that I was stupid and didn't do PT 72-74 prior to the June test, and I had the June test (PT 75) to retake prior to October. So I used them as diagnostics to ensure that the tests I was retaking weren't anomalies.

I know this isn't much help, but I'd say that while it might feel easier, you still have to apply yourself. Also, in my experience, even though it feels easier, it might not be. I was getting literally the exact same number of questions wrong on every section that I did, even when they were retakes. So I don't think there's anything to worry about.

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@josephellengar Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate it!