The LSAT

[KneeCo]

For those who have taken it.
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?
Any info is appreciated.

[Soul Daddy]

It was pretty much as I expected. Though the setting I took the test in was not appreciated.

Once.

I have no clue. Many hours per day for a few months. Most of that time was spent on practice tests.

Pretty much in line with the practice tests, so I guess as I expected. Though I felt better about the actual test when I left it than I did on most practice sessions.

I would take a prep course if I had to do it over again.

[imported_anacardo]

[ QUOTE ]
For those who have taken it.
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?
Any info is appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shouldn't have been that bad, but extenuating circumstances took over.

Once.

Took a practice test the night before.

Worse, but my standardized test, well, standards, are not the most realistic. + I was in ephedrine shock at the time (long story, [censored] you DayQuil + Stacker combo) and spent a good bit of the logic game section furiously chewing my own palm.

Pay special attention to the logic games in your prep work. The English construction and fallacy identification stuff seems to be things you either have or haven't learned in the course of your previous education, so whatev.

[zokbarjazz]

It was very similar to the practice tests.

Once

I spent a 1-3 hours/day for about a month before the test.

About what I expected...a little better.

The more questions/tests you have done going into the test, the better off you'll be. If you do enough, there should be nothing on the actual test that surprises you.

[mccreadj]

[ QUOTE ]
For those who have taken it.
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?
Any info is appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was about what expected, however the games section was a bit harder than I thought it would be. You will really have to stay aware of how much time is left and how much time you can spend on each question.
I took it once.
I spent about 2-3 hours for about 4 or 5 evenings the week before the test.
I did better than expected.
The score is extremely important. I only had a 3.1 GPA in college, but my LSAT score was so good that I was accepted to two top 15 law schools.

[tommy2]

I taught LSAT prep for The Princeton Review and Kaplan for about 10 years. If you have specific questions, PM me and I will be happy to give you some thoughts.

[squeek12]

I start law school in the morning, and took the LSAT in August. I took the prep course, but very rarely went to class after making 159 on the first practice test. I regret not going to at least the logic games classes, as I completely bombed that section. I think I got only like 8/22 right on that section, and I still think about what kind of score I could have gotten if I had only gotten 14 or 15 of those right.

As for the other 3 sections, there isn't really that much you can do to prepare. It's mostly reading comp. and reasoning. There are only really two things to focus your preparation on:

1) Learn how to do the games.
2) Get accustomed to the structure and timing of the test.

I ended up only taking one practice test, and made the same on that one as I did on the real thing. BTW, law school seems really intense, I'm nervous. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[savman]

hard

1

@10 (if u have the money take the prep, i signed up late and basically took a couple practice tests) logic games were harder than the practice imo. that was the consensus among people i knew that took the test. the deduction portion that is half the test is not something u can practice imo. either u can do them in the allotted time or not. the key there is speed.

about what i expected, but not quite what i hoped. if u have a solid application then my opinion is 160's can take u almost anywhere u want to go. if u are lacking in other areas the better the lsat the better for u.

[boedeker]

Im about to start my third year of law school.

All I know is that I got a book with 10 actual LSAT tests. I took one per week for 5 weeks and scored the exact same score every time. I thought that under the pressure of the exam I would perform better. Instead I scored the same score that I scored on all 5 practice exams.

[Punker]

How was it? No tougher than expected. The lack of scrap paper was not practiced for well by me.

How many times did you take it? Once

Roughly how many hours did you prepare? Not very many.

Did you do better or worse than expected? Worse - I didn't practice closely enough to the actual test conditions.

[Soul Daddy]

[ QUOTE ]
The lack of scrap paper was not practiced for well by me.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was not prepared for this either. I'd love to have seen the look on my face when I found this out.

[renodoc]

All of you lawyers should jump off a building.

Preferably, all at once.

[imported_anacardo]

[ QUOTE ]
All of you lawyers should jump off a building.

Preferably, all at once.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ooookay, med vs. law hate.

Let's not do this one.

Anyway, I quit school to play poker. Better? :-\

[slickpoppa]

I bought a book of 10 real LSATs and took spread out about 2 months before the test. On the actual test I did not do as well as I did on the practice tests or as well as I did on the SATs. I think the main problem was that I was kind of out of practice with taking multiple choice tests under real test taking conditions. So I'd reccommend taking a couple of pratice test like they are real tests.

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?

[/ QUOTE ]

Fine, I got a 219. Once. Zero. Better.

[DemonDeac]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?

[/ QUOTE ]

Fine, I got a 219. Once. Zero. Better.

[/ QUOTE ]

why would u bump a thread just to give assanine answers

[XxGodJrxX]

I'm a junior now, so I have to start studying like hell for it so I can get into the new "HARVARD IN SPACE". For the guys that took a prep course, is it really worth the $1200-1600? I only took two or three practice tests and the difficulty was a huge surprise; I don't think I even got to the end of the second game before I ran out of time (I timed myself in a library). Obviously I need to get a higher score so I can rule all of you like a God. What would be the best way to prepare?

[UCF THAYER]

I took a practice test once, and got a 165. Would you guys still recommend me taking practice courses?

[PhatTBoll]

[ QUOTE ]
I ended up only taking one practice test, and made the same on that one as I did on the real thing. BTW, law school seems really intense, I'm nervous.

[/ QUOTE ]
Get back to us in 3 years when you're sweating the bar...
Seriously though, just make sure you go to class and keep up in the reading. If a prof makes you look like a jerkoff, just shrug it off, you're not the first and won't be the last. Making friends is important for many reasons; don't overlook this.

[SackUp]

[ QUOTE ]
For those who have taken it.
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?
Any info is appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Took it once and this is all you should be taking, unless you absolutely bomb. Most schools avg. the scores and it is not worth doing again. Do it once and do it right.

2. I didn't find the test too hard after taking a prep course. I HIGHLY recommend Testmasters. www.testmasters180.com (http://www.testmasters180.com) Take it and you will be happy. It has helped everyone i know tremendously, including two 180s. And if you think the cost is a lot, then you will be in for a shock for the price of law school. Paying a thousand bucks or so is NOTHING compared to how much future earnings you get from going to the class and doing well on the test.

Morever, doing well on the test may not only get you into a better school but can get you scholarships as well.

Take the class and do all the work that is assigned. However long it takes. Probably about 2-3 hours a day.

Just do it, you will thank me later.


Good luck!

[StevieG]

It was tiring.
Took it once.
Probably prepared 40 hours or so.
Did exactly as I was doing on practice tests.

Get plenty of rest, be in a prepared mental state. Kick ass.

Try not to stare at the hotties too much.

[miajag81]

Just buy a couple books of old tests and practice, practice, practice, especially the logic games. If you have discipline and can do this yourself then the LSAT classes are a waste of money. If you can't do well on this test without taking a class then law school is probably not where you should be spending the next 3 years.

[squeek12]

IIRC, 165 is in the 95 percentile...i wouldn't spend a dime on prep. If you maintain that score you're pretty much money whereever you want to go.

[savman]

[ QUOTE ]
I took a practice test once, and got a 165. Would you guys still recommend me taking practice courses?

[/ QUOTE ]

i made the same, took the practice test twice, and still rec. practice course.

[davelin]

[ QUOTE ]
For those who have taken it.
How was it?
How many times did you take it?
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?
Did you do better or worse than expected?
Any info is appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not too bad - your standard standardized test
Once
Took a Kaplan course so I spent a good amount of time studying
I did worse on the actual test than on the practice exams I was taking

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
For those who have taken it.
How was it?

[/ QUOTE ]

awful. worst testing experience of my life (and i'm a good test-taker).

[ QUOTE ]
How many times did you take it?

[/ QUOTE ]

once.

[ QUOTE ]
Roughly how many hours did you prepare?

[/ QUOTE ]

i have no idea.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you do better or worse than expected?

[/ QUOTE ]

well i walked out of it expecting to have bombed it, but i actually did pretty well considering i completely blanked on the "games" section (my best section too!), and just wrote in "c" for 15 of the answers (a la "summer school"). (and no, the "games" wasn't the uncounted experimental section...there was only one "games" section so it had to count towards my score.)

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
IIRC, 165 is in the 95 percentile...i wouldn't spend a dime on prep. If you maintain that score you're pretty much money whereever you want to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

don't expect your practice test score to accurately predict your actual score.

[jakethebake]

My little sister did a 170 with a couple of weeks prep and no class. She's a horrible procrastinator but pretty smart. Yea, I'm proud of her in spite of her chosen profession. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[mantasm]

[ QUOTE ]
I took a practice test once, and got a 165. Would you guys still recommend me taking practice courses?

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't need to take courses but you do need to prepare. Get that into the 170s and and you'll be ok at most top schools if your gpa is solid.

[mantasm]

I don't know if someone else mentioned this already, but it's pretty important that you plan on only taking it once because schools will take your average score. If you take it just to mess around the first time and do badly, it will affect your average score and you won't get in anywhere you want to go.

[CollinEstes]

I took the Princeton Review prep class with live instruction. It was only me and one other dude. I am pretty sure that I gained about 12-15 points from my study through that course. I went from cold taking a practice LSAT and getting a 150 to consitently making scores around 165. The real test is however alittle harder than the practice tests for the obvious reasons. But I finished up with a 163 and was pretty happy with it and I thought the course was defintely worth the money.

[nickg1532]

It wasn't too bad. Exhausting, but nothing you won't be prepared for if you look at a few practice tests.

Once.

For a few weeks before my test I basically did a bunch of practice tests. I'm not sure how many hours it worked out to.

I did a little worse than I expected, although I am still happy with my score. The only place I stumbled was on the logic games section. I got stumped by a tough game and kind of froze up and got nervous for little bit. Thankfully that was my last section so it didn't carry over to anything else (but the writing sample, which was easy anyways). Besides the games section, everything else went really smoothly. I did great on all the other sections.

Other info: I think just doing practice tests is the best prep. The courses and books have some merit, and will give you some good tips for approaching certain questions, but imo they're not as valuable as actually doing tests. For me the preparation was helpful in getting more experience with the games, and getting used to the timing constraints.

Also, the score is very important and you should by all means work hard to do the best you can, but don't go crazy because of it. This is easier said than done, as I was very stressed out both before I took it, and then waiting for my results. But it's probably not worth all the stress. Just try and stay relaxed and confident--as long as you do a little bit of prep you'll be fine. Worrying about it won't change anything, and will probably just hurt you.

[nickg1532]

[ QUOTE ]
well i walked out of it expecting to have bombed it, but i actually did pretty well considering i completely blanked on the "games" section (my best section too!), and just wrote in "c" for 15 of the answers (a la "summer school").

[/ QUOTE ]

haha, this sounds kind of like my experience (although the games section was always my worst). i don't think i had to guess on 15, but it was probably about 10

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if someone else mentioned this already, but it's pretty important that you plan on only taking it once because schools will take your average score. If you take it just to mess around the first time and do badly, it will affect your average score and you won't get in anywhere you want to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

but you can take it and request that they not report your score, or not grade it.

[warlockjd]

I scheduled it, did not study, got drunk the night before, overslept. Didn't make it.

But my little bro just graduated law school so its cool.