How often should practice tests be taken?

[Joey_C]

It seems like if you take them back to back the grade sometimes goes down. Maybe the grade decreasing is actually part of the learning, sort of like you have to go down to go up or something, I don't know. How often did you take prep tests and how were the results? Also, how often do prep courses recomend (if you took an actual course how often were you tested)?

[violaboy]

When I was close to the test, I would be taking 3 or 4 a week.  Before then, 1 to 2.  In the prep course that I took, we took practice tests every Saturday morning.

[just Trev]

you want to take practice tests as little as possible.  there's nothing that can turn a potential 145 into a 130 quicker than getting too much practice on those silly tests which don't even count for anything.  you've got to keep the main thing the main thing.  remember, in the days leading up to test day, you've got to just relax and do nothing.  relaxing and doing nothing is the best preparation for the LSAT, law school, and later on in life: retirement.  trust me on this: practice tests are for dummies.

[just Trev]

bumping to spread the wisdom.

[!закон и право!]

In the earlier stages of your prep, once a week should suffice. Twice a week in those weeks leading up to test day. None at all in the very last week preceeding the test.

3 or 4 a week is superfluous IMO.

Good Luck.

[AtlasLSATMike]

In my opinion, practice tests are primarily useful for two things --

1) getting a sense of where you are at in terms of your score
2) figuring out your weak areas

Repeatedly taking practice tests is not the ideal way, however, to study, or improve your score.

In order to do that, what is best is to study one problem type at a time, in-depth. Become automatic at the easy versions of that problem type, and get to the point where you can anticipate the nuances of the hardest versions of that particular problem type.

[PurplePug]

I am presently in the middle of a 12 week prep class. We took a diagnostic prep test the first week and then took another prep test about 4 weeks into class. The second 4 weeks we take two prep tests and then 4 the final four weeks.