[rpsalta]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for taking the time to have office hours. I started the LSAT Trainer the end of August, using the 16 Week- Exams 29-71 schedule (albeit slowly), in preparation for the February LSAT. I’ve been taking my time with the lessons, and am only finishing up Week Seven at this point, which leaves exactly 9 weeks before the Feb. exam date.
<div>I remember reading earlier on in the LSAT Trainer that improvement in RC and LR tend to come at the tail end of LSAT prep, in comparison with LG. However, I’ve been drilling on RC lately (keeping track of time, but not focused on it), and I’ve been getting the sinking feeling that I might not be ready in time for the Feb. exam.</div>
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<div>The last time I took a full prep test was a couple weeks ago (in accordance with the schedule- Exam #54), and I scored a 158, untimed. I would like to break 170, and I’m not sure if this is the point to be considering pushing the exam back to June.</div>
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<div>On the other hand, I have 9 weeks left in the LSAT Trainer study schedule, which I plan to stick to. I’m not sure if having faith in the process with the intent to take the exam in February would be naive.</div>

[Mike Kim]

Hey — thanks for the question — appreciate you discussing your situation so honestly, and I’m happy to try to help in whatever way I can —

Here are some thoughts — some are more for your mindset, and others are more practical —

1) LSAT improvement rarely tends to be gradual, and, the big leaps do tend to kick in later on in your prep — there are many reasons for this, but the two that most immediately come to mind are that 1) answering any one LSAT q requires successfully bringing together many different skills, and right now you are still in the process of developing these skills often in isolation and 2) improvement generally requires learning+practice, and I don’t think, per what you’ve told me, that you’ve gotten enough practice in yet to really see what you can do —

2) Your skills and habits are better indicators of where are are vs where you ought to be than your score. I harp on this too much in the book so I won’t stress it too much here 🙂

3) Per what you’ve told me, I think the biggest factor in your decision may be just how pumped you feel about putting everything you have into getting ready for Feb — if the idea of that doesn’t excite you, and instead it makes you feel not-so-good, that’s certainly a sign that June might be better —

Treat yourself like a star, and treat this test like your main event — do everything you can to perform at your best. Again, you have to decide for yourself whether that means putting it into high gear for Feb, or being more methodical and getting ready for June —

4) Finally, if you can’t quite decide, I suggest that you use your performance on the problems in the second of the Drill Sets (those that start being assigned in week 9) as your barometer —

By that point, if you want to be scoring at a very high level, you should be feeling very comfortable with the vast majority of problems that you see — if at that point you still feel uncomfortable with your mastery over a lot of different types of questions, that could be an indication that you ought to slow down.

Again, you know yourself best, but those are the thoughts that came to mind. Perhaps most importantly, please feel free to keep checking back with me as you need to, and I’ll be happy to help in any way I can as the situation evolves —

HTH and take care–

Mike

[rpsalta]

Thanks Mike for the advice– this puts things into perspective. Thank you again!

[Mike Kim]

Sure thing – let me know if you need me — MK