Core Curriculum OR Prep Tests?

jacobgirard0

I am signed up to take the September and December LSATs and only about half way through the core curriculum. I'm pretty comfortable with understanding the lessons and more so have timing issues in so far as getting through the sections. On average I'm scoring just over 150 and I don't think the next month is going to get me to my goal of a 165 or higher so I'm most likely going to take the December exam as well, short of a miracle. I'm wondering if anybody has an opinion about whether it's better to complete the core curriculum or work on timing with the prep tests first? Cheers!

Sprinkles

Do NOT waste PTs. They are meant to be taken after the CC. Also I don't think you should take the Sept LSAT. You will do better once you complete the CC and give at least 2 months for PTs

draj0623

Start PTs only after you're done with CC. There's no point in assessing what your score will be so early on without knowledge of the full range of question types or sections. After the CC, you'll be able to assess your strengths and weaknesses with full length PTs without the burden of having to account for the areas you haven't yet been exposed to. This will allow you to have a more efficient approach to studying. Best of luck!

Cant Get Right

Yeah, agree with @montaha.rizeq . Consider withdrawing from September. The miracle isn't going to happen so there is absolutely nothing to gain from taking September.

jacobgirard0

Thanks for your comments @montaha.rizeq and @draj0623. It seems like sound logic, so I will focus on completing the core curriculum before moving on to PTs. From everybody I've talked to so far it would seem like the majority of law schools just take your top scores, as they report them for rankings on US News and other sites, so it would benefit them to report the highest scores. If this is the case and I have time for the Sept exam, do you think it could cause harm to just take it as practice rather than just eating the costs? Thank you again for your quick responses.

jacobgirard0

@"Cant Get Right" Okay. I'll consider it and my gut tells me the same thing. Why is there absolutely nothing to gain if you could elaborate? Thank you.

jacobgirard0

@montaha.rizeq Also, isn't there a sufficient supply of PTs available? In what way is it a waste to take a timed PT?

_oshun1_

There's nothing to gain bc you're wasting your 1/3 LSAT attempts that you get in 2 years. You're going to be incredibly stressed out (and if you're not then you aren't taking it seriously) for the next few weeks and are going to be rushing through the curriculum, thus not getting any benefit from it. After the Sept. LSAT you're not going to have gotten the score you wanted, and you're going to be in the same situation - stressed out and rushing through the curriculum before December. It's not a good use of your time.

If you do Sept., you'll for sure have to retake. Sept. will have been a total waste, it may as well have been you taking a prep test in a library. For you, December will be your first actual test as the previous one was just "for practice". Now you're down to 1 more attempt for the next 2 years. Maybe you feel you did well in December, but you realize you can do even better with some more studying, maybe you're at a 159 and you want over a 160, or you're at a 169 and you want over a 170. So you take it in June. June you have a major headache when you wake up and you just cancel your score. You now have to wait 2 years to take it again.

It's a waste to take a timed PT when you're not ready to take it. What would you benefit from taking an accumulative Calculus Final if you've only made it through half the text book? You wouldn't be able to tell if you got an answer right because you guessed nor would you be able to understand why you got an answer wrong.

jacobgirard0

@"surfy surf" I really appreciate you taking the time to write that out because I totally get it now. That was a perfect explanation to me that probably saved my chances of going to a solid law school, seriously. Thank you.

Sprinkles

Yeah there's a thread of affordable PTs on here. Unfortunately with the LSAC ban of PDFs, they have been difficult to obtain. Also it's a waste to take PTs even after you finish the CC and you see you're getting answers wrong and can't seem to increase your score, it's good to stop taking PTs for that moment, maybe do some drills and definitely review the CC. Don't take PTs just to take them. Learn from each one.

jacobgirard0

If it's too late to withdraw, does that mean it's going to count towards my 3 attempts or how does that work? Thanks.

Sprinkles

You're able to withdraw until the night before the LSAT. Otherwise it will be seen as null and it does count towards your 3 attempts.

jacobgirard0

Under the lsac website section "eligible to withdraw" it says no. Does that just mean I can't withdraw online or something then?

Sprinkles

Maybe that's because the ticket isn't available yet? But you can always call LSAC and have your date withdrawn.

jacobgirard0

Thanks, @montaha.rizeq! I'm glad I decided to use 7sage for my lsat prep.

Cant Get Right

Yeah, surf pretty much covered it. There just isn't any experience gained from taking an LSAT that at all helps you for the next time. I took my first LSAT as a practice, and now that I'm finally scoring consistently in the 170s I'm down to my final take. What I wouldn't give to have that "practice" test back. If I have a bad day and score more than a few points below my potential, then taking that test before I was ready will have significant consequences that will affect the trajectory of the rest of my life. It is serious stuff. I know sometimes I can get overly insistent on the whole don't-take-'til-you're-ready thing, but it really is a huge mistake with potentially life changing implications.

Alex

@jacobgirard0 said:
I'm wondering if anybody has an opinion about whether it's better to complete the core curriculum or work on timing with the prep tests first? Cheers!

CC first 100% Any other way just doesn't make sense. Also I'd second everything Surf said.

stepharizona

@montaha.rizeq said:
You're able to withdraw until the night before the LSAT. Otherwise it will be seen as null and it does count towards your 3 attempts.

Not so, there is one other option. You can get an absence"A" for not showing up and still keep your 3 takes, it just shows up onyour record, whereas if you cancel by 11:59pm the night before there is no record. You lose a take if you 1) get a score 2) cancel your score

One A will not be the end of the world, and it does not have to be explained. People understand things can happen, like accidents, being sick, flat tires. But its better to withdraw.

Also, if you have a waiver, you need to withdraw or you WILL lose one of your 2 credits.

Alejandro

Also, don't take the test this September.

EmmaWI88

As someone who stupidly read parts of the PowerScore bibles and then only took practice tests AND then took the LSAT (after maybe doing about 10 PTs?), and scored a 158, DO the CC. Seriously, I'm now looking at my life choices and wondering wtf I was thinking in just not dropping some $$ to have actual instruction. There's nothing to lose in doing the CC first (besides time which seems on your side anyway as you can change the date). I'm not that stressed about my first score since schools will hopefully only look at the highest and I learned a lot from that first experience, but if I had known then what I know now from doing a lot of the CC (still in the process), I wouldn't have even bothered doing PTs until I had had a full fleshed out course.

jacobgirard0

@"surfy surf" https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-advice/lsat-test-taking-limits Flash forward, it looks like the rule has changed. What is your suggestion to new test takers who now have the ability to take it unlimited times? Take it till you make it?

Alex

@jacobgirard0 said:
@"surfy surf" https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-advice/lsat-test-taking-limits Flash forward, it looks like the rule has changed. What is your suggestion to new test takers who now have the ability to take it unlimited times? Take it till you make it?

While having unlimited takes is great there's still little point in taking the test until you are already scoring at or above your ultimate goal score. There is a big misconception that because almost all schools only count your highest score for admissions purposes that it means they don't consider your other scores. They do, and it can make a big difference. I've been to admissions forums where the admissions professionals explicitly said those with lower scores on there records will be at a disadvantage. I've read this in admission books as well and I have some anecdotal evidence that seems to confirm this.

I'm actually not sure if lower tiered schools care about retakes as much because the admission forum and books seemed to have been geared toward those applying to top 14 schools.

Let the retakes be there if you need them. Don't ever plan on taking the test only to retake though.

jacobgirard0

@"Alex Divine" That makes a lot of sense. I am shooting for those schools. This test takes a lot longer than I had originally anticipated for which to be well prepared. Thank you for your perspective on this recent change to the rules.

I took the exam once before I had even studied at all unbeknownst to me that it could be potentially disadvantageous to my getting into a top school. That being said, on exam day the classroom that we were scheduled to take the exam in was changed twice. We ended up starting almost 3 hours later than originally scheduled. I did not meet my goal score during this exam. Will the LSAC ever remove scores from your record in a case like this?

Thanks,

Jake

katie.noe

Timing is my struggle and I get test anxiety and tend to panic. I started taking PrepTests after only 1 month of studying and continued the lessons as well. For me, doing both simultaneously has been helpful to get more comfortable in a timed situation and become comfortable with the format. It is not a waste of time even though I have needed to go back and review questions that I messed up, which is also a learning experience in and of itself.

jacobgirard0

@"katie.noe" Thank you for your feedback Katie. Timing myself has been super helpful as well. I tend to take the problem sets as opportunities to test myself under timed conditions. As for using full-lengths I think the point that @"Alex Divine" was making is that there are fundamental knowledge and skills required to approach those questions properly. If you start taking full-lengths as a way to practice then the idea is you are doing many problems despite having a strategy for those problems, in turn potentially learning an ineffective technique and spending more time than is necessary to study for the exam. I've found that the amount of time I spend studying a particular type of problem is decreasing as I learn more of the core curriculum, and my confidence relative to learning more of the curriculum has increased. I think you can definitely learn by taking full lengths as you described and for everyone the learning process will vary. For me, following the core curriculum as a base of knowledge/skill has been most time saving.

TheMikey

@jacobgirard0 said:
@"surfy surf" https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-advice/lsat-test-taking-limits Flash forward, it looks like the rule has changed. What is your suggestion to new test takers who now have the ability to take it unlimited times? Take it till you make it?

I personally feel like the rule changes nothing of how people should approach prep. Ttake it once you feel prepared. If you don't feel prepared, and end up taking it and getting lucky with a good score, then great. But why take it over and over and over again just until you get lucky? Take it once, and never think of the test again. I say this as someone who has taken it twice while being unprepared and I regretted it because it was a huge waste of time and money.

jacobgirard0

@TheMikey Agreed. I wish I hadn't taken it the first time around. Any idea if a testing facility delays the test for 3 hours due to overbooking and reorganizing the room to accommodate more people if they will wipe that test score from one's record? @"Alex Divine"

_oshun1_

Damn I wish this unlimited takes thing was a rule a year ago, I would've been in law school by now. I studied for a year and my score really didn't change much from my first PT.
Had I taken a sort of "practice" LSAT before then I would've have realized how intense just getting into the exam room is and how long the whole process ultimately takes and I would've practiced like, standing around for hours and then taking the exam after. I don't think anything could've prepared me for this past June lsat waiting for 2+ hours in the heat to get into the exam room and the exam being over at 8pm.
The only reason I didn't take it last September/December when I originally wanted to was bc I was so nervous and didn't want to waste my takes.