Law School Discussion

I know mechanical pencils are prohibited, but what about mechanical erasers?  I prefer them over block erasers because they're more precise.

Are you talking about one where you click it to make more eraser come out of the end?  Other than that I'm not sure what you could mean by 'mechanical eraser'.  The language of the LSAC rules just says that erasers are allowed but does not define what types.  I would guess that since they banned mechanical pencils (for whatever reason, why is still a mystery to me!), and that since a 'mechanical' stick eraser is similar to and resembles a mechanical pencil, that it would qualify as a banned item. 

Play it safe and get used to using a block eraser.  Hello Kitty ones are kinda cool still! 

 

No, you would be allowed to take it again before February 2012.  The LSAC policy is that you are only allowed to take the LSAT 3 times within any given 2 year time window.  That means that if your 3rd take was February 2010, you would count the two years from the date of the first of your three takes, not the last one.  As soon as it has been 2 years since the first of the 3 takes you can take it again since then you would only have taken it twice within the previous 2 year period.

Yes, you are correct, it doesn't look great to LS's to have taken the LSAT several times rather than just once or say twice with one cancellation and one reported score.  How it is viewed would of course also depend on what is on your score report in terms of whether you have multiple reported scores or which combo of scores, cancellations, and/or no-shows you have. 

BTW, there is an easy way get an exception to the 3 times in two years limit.  All you have to do is get the admissions office of any LS to write LSAC a letter saying they grant you permission to take the LSAT again and the limit is waived.

OP:  Given that your highest score so far is 146 after some practice/study time I don't think your major problem or best solution is to do the questions in a different order.  You are missing far too many for your current score range to be based on the order you do them. 

You need to do something to significantly improve your understanding of what is going on with LR questions, what concepts are involved and being tested, and to change/improve your approach and skills at solving each of the questions/question types, etc.

Timing is NOT your main problem, your underlying skills are.  Speed comes with/improves with better understanding of and skills with the materials.  When you know what is going on with, how to properly approach the various question types, and know/understand what techniques and methods of analysis to apply to each you will be able to solve each of them in less time with better accuracy.

Other than churning through a bunch of practice tests/sections as fast as you can timed, what else have you been doing to improve your LR problem solving skills?

Not without a prep course and some meaningful way to gauge your progress. This is about what I put in, and I can tell you that it's not enough if you want to clear the 160 mark, which is what I hoped to do. Look, the benefits of taking a test prep course far outway the costs. If you have the time and the ability, taking an LSAT prep course and getting the nuts and bolts of the test down pat will probably improve your scores considerably. The cost is 3000 dollars (last time looked), and you will reap the benefits in terms of better tuition and better options. If i had it to do over again, I would take Kaplan or something comparable.

That said, sounds like you don't have time to change your mind on that one so make sure you are timing your answers. You need to be able to do all the questions in the allotted time, and in my first section I ran out with three questions to go. It set me up for what I can only describe as an awful testing experience for the remainder. So time yourself, or have someone time you. and take 2 practice tests under timed conditions per day.

$3000 for a prep course??   That's double or more the price of most available quality full length prep courses. 

Also, taking 2 timed practice tests a day to try to improve your score is well beyond foolish.  Doing that would be counter productive and waste tons of time that could otherwise be spent doing the study & review stuff that actually helps improve your skill/performance level.  It would almost be the worst possible way of doing the stupid churn and burn routine.

Slow motion study, analysis and review of test content, concepts, strategies, techniques, approaches, mistakes you make along the way, etc. is critical in order to raise your scoring ability.  Burning through a bunch of tests as fast as possible expecting it to help improve your score is silly. 

The only study plan I can think of that would be a worse formula for disaster would be doing 2 timed practice tests a day and starting to take/getting hooked on adderall to do it.

So I have finished my shopping at amazon

PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible (quite helpful)
PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible (useful too)

Any other good books to purchase ?

Thanks !

All or as many of the previously administered LSAT's you can afford, especially including the recent ones from the last several years if you haven't already.

Powerscore has an RC bible too, plus I like the LSAC produced LSAT SuperPrep book.  The explanations for the 3 included tests are excellent.