LSAT Aid

Get recent preptests. The first thing I recommend is to buy all the recent preptests. Preptests are actual previous LSATs. As of this writing, the latest preptest available is #45 (December 2004). Not all preptests are published... each year, there are 7 LSATs administered, but only 3 of these end up numbered and published preptests.

Preptests can be purchased individually, or for preptests 7-38, in books of 10. There are 3 books of 10, listed here with the corresponding preptests included:

• 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests (7-18)
• 10 More Actual, Official LSAT Preptests (19-28)
• Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT Preptests (29-38)

While I highly recommend getting the latter 2, I don't recommend getting the first one (with preptests 7-18), because I think the preptests contained are too old to be of practical use.

In addition, three previously unpublished preptests are in the Official LSAT SuperPrep. The Superprep is super because it has explanations for all the answers. While we're on that topic, LSAT Answers has explanations for the answers in preptests 19-28 (but not the questions). LSAT Answers was released after I took the LSAT, so I can't give an opinion about it... but the reviews on Amazon seem to indicate that it is worth the money.

To summarize, these are the books I recommend getting:

• Official LSAT SuperPrep
• LSAT Answers
• 10 More Actual, Official LSAT Preptests (19-28)
• Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT Preptests (29-38)
• Official PrepTest 39
• Official PrepTest 40
• Official PrepTest 41
• Official PrepTest 42
• Official PrepTest 43
• Official PrepTest 44
• Official PrepTest 45

Benchmark yourself. Before you read any books, take the earliest preptest you have and see what score you get. This way, you can see how your score improves as you study more and more.

Work on your weaknesses. After your first preptest, go back and look to see if there were any sections that you really sucked at. A lot of people have trouble with the logic games section. If this is true for you, I would suggest getting the PowerScore Logic Games Bible.

When I took my first preptest, I did alright in reading comprehension and logical reasoning, but really horrible in the logic games. The PowerScore Logic Games Bible helped me get more familiar with the different types of logic games that can appear. As an aside, test taking is a very personal affair, so while they present a very detailed system of working through logic games, you don't necessarily need to (and perhaps should not) follow it precisely. I found that my own modified version of their system actually worked best for me; I got a full score on the logic games section when I took the LSAT.

If you had a lot of trouble with the logical reasoning section, Powerscore also has a Logical Reasoning Bible. This was released after I took the LSAT though, so I can't really say whether this book is helpful.

If you did poorly in reading comprehension, I'm not sure what books you should use. If anybody has a suggestion, let me know: lsataid at gmail dot com.

Preptest, preptest, preptest... After you feel you have a better grasp on any sections you were particularly weak in, start going through all the preptests you have. You may not see an immediate score increase from your first benchmark preptest. Don't be alarmed, give some time for your education to sink in.

As you work your way through the preptests, analyze each one to see why you miss questions. If you are making dumb mistakes, keep those in mind so that you don't make them again. If you are having serious trouble with a certain type of problem, try to really break the problems down and understand the correct answers. Do not ever get a question wrong without fully convincing yourself that you were wrong, and fully convincing yourself why the official answer is correct. The LSAT Answers and Official LSAT SuperPrep books should come in handy for exactly this purpose.

Personally, I had some trouble with the reading comprehension section. I'd often see two answer choices, and be able to make arguments in favor of each. What really helped me was finding similar questions in Official LSAT SuperPrep and reading the explanations. By doing that, I was able to start thinking like the test-writers and see why one answer choice could be considered more correct than another. Whether all the answers are irrespective of how you view the question, I do not know... but the test-writers have a consistent view, so even if their view is not necessarily the only correct one, as long as you can synchronize yourself with them, you should be in good shape.

I also had trouble figuring out how to set up diagrams for the logic games. If you have the same problem, the PowerScore Ultimate Setups Guide is helpful for addressing this weakness; it provides initial diagrams and partial answers for the logic games in preptests 14-39. What I did was to first try to do a logic game on my own, then go back and use the Setups Guide to see how I could have improved my setup.

Order matters. I recommend working the preptests in a somewhat chronological order, as the LSAT tends to evolve slowly over time. By working in chronological order, you'll finish your preparation with the preptests most closely resembling the one you will take. However, another aspect is that preptests for which you have explanations are scarce and valuable... you only have 13. Therefore, you might want to take preptests 19-28 and the tests in Official LSAT SuperPrep towards the end, when you will have presumably worked through your more easily resolved weaknesses, and only the tough ones remain. A good schedule might be to take preptests 29-38 interspersed with the 3 SuperPrep tests, then take preptests 39-45 interspersed with 19-28 (for which LSAT Answers covers).

A final note on taking preptests. Just about every LSAT preparation book will tell you to take preptests under conditions as close to actual test conditions as possible. This is pretty good advice, but with 30 preptests to take, it can often be impractical to take the entire test in one sitting, as you will on the actual test date. In my experience, I would recommend doing this for your benchmark test, your last few tests, and only every now and then for those in between. Always time your sections for 35 minutes, but if you've identified a weakness in a section type, go ahead and power through that section on a few preptests to try and get it hashed out. Sometimes it's more important to focus on attacking your weaknesses, than to simulate test conditions.