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Related Discussions
How many full PTs did you take?
Cross posted with r/lsat
While prepping, how many full timed PTs did you take? I have access to 1-80+ (but am using 1-35 for drilling/fool proofing). I'm very overwhelmed by the prospect of doing 45+ PTs. That feels like... a lot. So how many did you do - do you feel you didn't do enough? Too much? Just right? If you have Ultimate+, did you utilize all of the PTs?
As of now I'm looking at doing 2-3 a week with blind review, starting in July. That would allow me to get through every single PT 36+. But damn that feels like a lot and wouldn't give me any more material if I decide to retake after Dec.
Comments
Another strategy is to use 35-45 as individual prep sections. This is a good way to prepare yourself for the full blown timed PT. It will help you develop skipping strategies and figure out your timing issues (if you have any).
I haven't been able to start just PT'ing yet. However, from my experience the amount of tests people take vary so greatly that almost any answer anyone can give you is useless because it is such a personalized thing. Example, Blueprint has you take 6 PTs and plenty of people score well enough. To me 6 seems freaking insane, but, hey, you only tend to hear about the success stories on those stupid YouTube ads, lol.
Mike Kim, author of The LSAT Trainer has you do about 10 full PTS (+ another 10 of practice work, much of which is redone). His argument is that that is enough material for most people to reach their potential and that redoing work is more important than doing lots of fresh work.
If look around on Reddit and TLS you'll get answers ranging from all 80 to only a few. There just is no "right" answer.
I know I'm sorry I couldn't answer your questions and hopefully someone who has taken the test can answer with the exact amount they took. FWIW, I plan to take around 20PTs with BR and see where I'm at. This way if I need more, I can take more, or if I need a retake I have some.
@"Alex Divine" So for example with your 20 PTs, are you going to take the, say, 5 most recent as a part of your 20? I'm assuming you won't start at 36 and go to just 56 haha. So basically I'm trying to figure out how to best utilize the PTs just incase I need to re-sit
Yeah, haha. I get what you mean. I haven't fully figured that out yet, tbh. I'm planning on taking most of ~52-81 (I'll probably save some for retakes or PTs, if I need them for more practice) I tend to accept the school of thought of Mike Kim where it is better to focus on more recent stuff, redo it, and really learn from it. I think when we do 50 practice tests we tend to get less out of them, because, well, you take one, then have 49 more. Kind of human nature in a way.
I also think we are at the point now where there are so many tests that the older stuff is good for drilling, but I see people end up having pretty large discrepancies between scores in PTs from the 30s and say 60s series. I'm talking like a 10 point difference.
The test hasn't changed that much, but enough so that I think the opportunity cost for taking those older tests are better spent doing every newer test two times, for example.
Disclaimer: This is just what I think and influenced a lot of what I've read from Mike Kim. I think there is a great argument to be made for doing all of 36-81. And to be honest, I might. If I take PT36 when I'm done with the CC and supplements I'm reading and it's below a 16X, I might end up needing to take all 36-81. I guess the good argument is you work the bugs out on the old stuff first. There's just so many tests! haha
I think something like 10 or 11.
It really depends. If you are already scoring around your target score, I think it's ok for you to do 2-3 PTs per week. Otherwise, I think you should focus on understanding the material and drill.
After CC, I went right into PTing, which I now regret. I had a similar schedule (2PTs/week) for several months. At first, it seemed ok and had some improvements from BR. But the score stagnated shortly after. I think I should have drilled more and done isolated sections from old PTs. I've decided that I won't do my next PT until I have improvements in isolated sections.
I think this is such a great and unlimited strategy. So many people just keep taking tests without using the older tests or material to actually improve. PTs are just diagnostics. True learning happens during your BR and drilling thereafter.
Not too shabby!
This is so true. I was determined to do many PTs as possible, but I didn't gain much from it.
I think it was J.Y. who compared PTs to health screening tests. Your health won't be better by just taking them. Sometimes you may hurt your health by taking too many of those tests. You have to exercise and/or do something to improve, and that's why BR and drills are much more important.
That's the perfect way to put it! It just never made sense to me to take tons of LSATs PTs without doing the bulk of the work in between. In another life, I was considering Med School and I briefly looked into MCAT stuff around 6 years ago when I was still deciding a major in college.
Most people studying for the MCAT do very little PTs and so much work preparing and addressing weaknesses and learning in between those tests. I always figured the LSAT would be similar. I suppose it is to a certain extent.
Between 20 and 25 PTs in 6 weeks... but I don't recommend doing that! There's a lot to learn from each PT. I studied the PTs I took in the 70s pretty intently as the June test approached. That was definitely the most valuable piece of my prep work. I would PT only once or twice a week if I could do it over... My scores on Mondays were always highest, and as I took more PTs one day after another my score would drop off until I took a two day break. Then it'd be high again the next Monday. So I'm not even that sure my PT scores are super accurate! Burn out is a real thing, and it's probably one of the worst positions to put yourself in. I only took one PT last week, and am really grateful I didn't push myself to do more so close to the real exam.
I think I have 5 fresh tests left: 76-80.
How many did you take before that? Just curious? Good to have the most recent left and soon to have 81
I've only taken 6 full tests (4 for a class I took, where I met my tutor; 1 for the Digital LSAT; and 1 today [official June 2017]), and 4-5 four-section tests. I've done tons of timed LR sections, and every single LG section timed (excluding fresh tests, including some repeats) over the course of about 2-3 months, though.
LR and LG questions are beginning to seem recognizable to me. Even certain RC passages seem recognizable as I read through them now. Apparently my tutor claims this is a good thing, something that also happened to him.
I'm a noob, maybe? Oh well. :P
I took 36 - 80 over the course of three months. Let's hope it paid off today (crying laughter face)
Haha! I'm sure you took plenty and did great! That's a lot of material to cover, but you did it!
Na -- I actually really like your style. Less tests; more drilling and timed practice. That's definitely going to be my approach.
Hi, I thought I'd chime in.
I took 66 "fresh" Prs from September of 2015 until December of 2016. And I also retook 19Pts over the same period. I took the December 2016 test and scored a 174 (1.5 points below my average dead for my last 12 tests).
Every single thing I learned in those PTs was helpful (including PTs from the early to mid 1990's)
The but if you don't have the kind of time I did, the important thing to remember is that one should always emphasis quality over quantity.
Hope that helps.
Wow - thanks everyone! My schedule has me starting to PT at the beginning of July, which would be about 5 months. I think I've decided I'm going to start with 1 PT/week (doing every other PT to reserve tests in case I need to resit), and perhaps increasing to 2/week in Oct/Nov when I need to start really honing in on my test day "experience." Other than that I'll drill sections and questions. I'll still be FPing logic games into August, so my hands will still definitely be full with prep!
Not enough lol thats my answer, however im going to take one a week from july 1st ( i need a study brake after the test ) until the dec test and spend a week on review alone. who knows maybe i'll become an lsat guru.
I took 27 PT's before taking the June 2017 LSAT. At first my scores would fluctuate drastically test to test, but over the last 10 I finally consistently scored an average that I would be glad to score on the actual exam.
I started off PTing from #40 and made my way through to PT58. Then I skipped ahead and used some of the PTs in the 70's as it got to be a month and a half out from the real thing. I used a few PTs from the 60's for extra drilling but drills that had a modern feel to them. Other than that, I really utilized the question bank, especially for LG, to make sure I could do any type of game they threw at me. Then we were rewarded with one of the easiest sections to date! Hard work pays off, but a little bit of luck is nice too!