This installment of LSAT Journals comes from J, a 39-year-old dad. He studied, took the LSAT in December 2009, and got a 157. J thought he could do greater, studied once more, and got a 166 in February 2010.
He's got tons of LSAT advice for you about how he did it.
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J's LSAT Diary:
Steve was flat-out wrong. In many blog posts, he alluded to his “belief” that studying for your LSAT must be an physical exercise that lasts for 3 months at a minimum. But that’s just what the average person must expect. I had often excelled at standardized tests, so his guidance didn’t apply to somebody like me. It was clear to me that I could sufficiently prepare in just more than six weeks, and I was going to smoke that test.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the very first major mistake I created during my LSAT prep, and also the basis for my very first recommendation to you: prepare for this test for at least three months, and as diligently as your schedule will allow. And stick with me via my “diary,” due to the fact I’m writing this for ones sole functionality of providing pointers that I provide because of already owning gone from your system of studying for this exam. I will try to be direct and succinct.
The background: I am 39, married with 2 young children, and decided about a year ago to go to law school right after playing around in the idea for your far better component of the decade. As a result of my loved ones status and my unwillingness to uproot my wife and kids from our home, I was basically limited to applying to two schools: 1 like a Top 50 program, and 1 like a strong, upwardly cellular regional procedure ranked just out of the Top 100. I took the LSAT twice—in December 2009, I scored 157. Right after obtaining my score in late December, I hit the prep books again, and scored 166 in February 2010, which not only helped earn me admission to both schools, but scholarship offers from each as well. Yes, the hard jobs during prep can and will pay off for you in case you devote yourself to it.
So back to my mistakes, and my recommendations for you…
First, the dilemma of how long to study. Given the disparity between my 2 scores, it ought to be apparent for you that I was not sufficiently prepared the first time I took the LSAT. I idea that I was—but I was extremely wrong about that. again, Steve recommends 3 months like a minimum. If you’re serious about scoring well though, and you’re the kind of person who is willing to take a methodical procedure to this, I would suggest four to 5 months. Due to the fact it is possible to get much greater the far more that you read, the far more that you just practice, the more which you drill under timed conditions.
The far more time that you give yourself, the far more ready you are to identify your own weaknesses, and to take measures to strengthen your approach in these areas. Think about how several persons have gotten their outcomes back and idea to themselves, “Geez, what I would give for just two or three a lot more items so that I could get into so-and-so law school…” But it’s as well late for them to “give something” to obtain individuals points. It’s not as well late for you though, and all you'll want to give is your time and focus. People additional things will probably be yours.
Timed procedure tests: it's surely essential that you just mimic the actual testing problems as much as you almost certainly can! When you complete a section of the practice test, don’t stand up to stretch or go for the bathroom; don’t check your Facebook account for notifications or go towards fridge to open a soda. Reset your timer, turn the damn page, and start the next section! It’s not fun, but you are able to be certain that it will be what's needed of you on test day, so you may as well get employed to it now.
The time on the day is very essential as well! I have in no way been a morning person, and I initially took my process exams inside afternoons. Right after my very first score, I changed my strategy, waking daily around 6:00 am and starting my studying in between 8:00 and 9:00, and I took all course of action tests around that time from then on. Once your mind is geared to perform at that level at that time on the day, it makes a large difference. (See Steve’s blog write-up for a lot more on a dangers of rest inertia).
Speaking from the transition from section to section, don't dwell on a truth which you may well have had to fill in a couple of “guess” answers at the end in the previous section. Clear your mind and focus over a new work at hand—otherwise, your lack of focus will later lead you to owning to fill in guess bubbles at the end with the new section as well. That is a planned trap by the test makers that you simply must avoid. Don’t permit them do you in!
And again concerning practice tests, do as many of them under timed problems as you can. But the genuine key to benefiting from them is to review each question that you simply got wrong until you understand exactly why you got it wrong. Failure to perform this will probably trigger you making the same type of mistake on similarly structured questions in the future. Review, review, review!
Do not allow yourself to acquire caught up inside the posts of the stimulus. Focus solely on the structure. As tempting since it is to picture outraged French persons rioting due to the fact some artist displayed a new, controversial work of art (Mon Dieu!), this sort of mental images will suck valuable seconds away from you that could be much best utilized later inside section. Save the visualizations for after the exam—you’ll have a lot more time to chuckle about them then anyway.
Necessary versus adequate conditions. The difference between these is one thing which you absolutely, positively must understand, for this exam will test you time and once more on your potential to discern in between the two. Hopefully, you will reach a thing within your studies when you will suddenly achieve an epiphany about that the 2 interact with 1 another, and about that the psychometricians try to test your understanding of the relationship in between the two. Read what you possibly can about it (you need to read the PowerScore LR Bible chapter 6 very, incredibly carefully). And you ought to really take the time to memorize the list of required and sufficient condition indicator words found on write-up 124. I wrote the 2 lists down on an index card and carried it close to with me for 2 days, periodically attempting to mentally recite the list. You will benefit from it should you do the same.
Some day, you might be tangled up with some nasty stimulus that is certainly produced to sink the vast majority of test takers. But in case you can very easily identify an indicator word, the structure on the stimulus will become transparent, and you possibly can move effortlessly in the question. And do not forget that they will usually try to see should you are prone to confusing necessary and more than enough conditions. Know the difference well enough to avoid this standard trap. See Steve’s blog post about needed versus enough conditions.
Here are several pointers about books:
* Logic Games Bible—read Chapter 2, and then re-read it before moving on. At the end of the chapter, the authors “strongly urge” the reader to perform just this. Guess who initially ignored their advice? I got additional out on the chapter after I read it again during my prep for your re-test. I know that you’re antsy to acquire through the book and get began on taking PrepTests, but it’s actually worth the time to perform it.
* The PowerScore Reading Comprehension Bible. I hate reading comp. Or at least I did. It was my weakest part of the test, and I loathed the concept of even trying to prep for it. Rather, I focused on the other areas. The result was a big, fat -11 on the December exam. Getting out of school for so long, I wasn’t used to while using sort of essential reading skills that the exam seeks to measure, and my speed was lacking. I ordered a copy in the RC Bible and spent the far greater component of the week reading it, and I’m glad that I did, because it gave me direction on what to search to see the author’s tone, and discussed specific trends that have repeated themselves from your tests. By the time I took my second exam, I was consistently scoring in the -4 to -5 range, and additional important, I was finishing (or virtually finishing) the section inside allotted time, something that I wasn’t able to do before—and this was a confidence booster. This book is likely not for everyone, but should you are scoring over 5 or six wrong over a section during prep tests, it might be worth a look. I can confidently say that this book elevated my raw score by a couple of to three points at minimum.
Pointer: I totally agree with Steve’s feeling that you just shouldn’t allow yourself to obtain too bogged down within the regular PowerScore pattern of over-classifying everything. They have a tendency to go as well far, and it’s not like it'll quite allow you to to begin classifying sorts of RC passages.
* Kaplan Advanced. I ordered this book from Amazon previous to becoming familiar with Steve’s blog. When I asked him what he concept of it, he wrote that I must give it to my worst enemy. Because I had many other material to study from anyway, it sat on my bookshelf until my February exam was postponed because of snow. By then, I was out of prep tests, and didn’t know what else to do. I started out heading from the Kaplan Advanced book for much more practice, and I will tell you that I feel how the book has some importance as far as LR goes, for it offers a collection of really tough LR questions for you personally to method on—the kind which you tend to find in questions numbered 15 to 23 on the exam, though the explanations for the questions are always lacking in substance.
It offers much less value for logic games, for the games tend to be outdated. Sure, they’re very good to perform from a brain activity perspective, but the more recent game sorts (the kind that you’re additional almost certainly to determine whenever you take the exam) are not well represented. But what incredibly pissed me off about this book is that as smart as these authors purport themselves to be, in all of their smugness, they failed to adequately proofread their very own work. Sometimes, they provide a stimulus and answer choices, and then inside the discussion section for the right answer, they provide an explanation that belongs to an entirely various stimulus. I was in particular angered at a single thing simply because I spent roughly 20 minutes trying to realize their explanation for why a certain answer was appropriate before realizing that they had truly chosen the wrong answer. What a bunch of clowns. I didn’t have the time to waste on one thing like this, and I’m assuming that you just don’t either.
(Warning: unsolicited testimonial). Assist from Steve: I enlisted Steve’s tutoring services through telephone to your total of three hours. I was already in a position where I could ace numerous games, but certain types would give me trouble. I went in to my sessions with him with a list of games that had specifically given me trouble.
What Steve helped me to do was to sharpen my skills so that I could slash right through many games (many in only 5-6 minutes), giving me the extra time I would require within the case of an particularly ugly game (Dinosaurs, for instance) may perhaps appear. He also taught me how to effortlessly identify the limited placement choices which are essential to cracking specific difficult games, and also how to know after generating full templates of possibilities is your best bet (a excellent instance of that is PT 59, Game 4).
It’s most likely difficult for you personally to imagine how a tutoring session via telephone would be feasible (before trying it, I certainly did), but it works extremely well. And the time I spent working with Steve for those few hours to sharpen my skills was well worth the investment: once I approached my fourth game on the February test, I had 18 minutes remaining to do it.
If absolutely nothing else, be sure to discover some of his techniques to numerous games, especially those people involving limited placement games (dinosaurs), Grouping: In and Out games (birds from the forest), and Sequencing. I consider strongly that his techniques in these areas are far superior to those people obtainable by the prep books.
By the end of my prep, I had done adequate LR questions that I felt as though I knew what was coming—where they would try to set you up, and how to sidestep it. I got towards the point that I sometimes didn’t even have to read every in the answers—I could pre-phrase after reading the stimulus and go straight on the appropriate answer, thereby conserving valuable time for your tougher queries later during the section (though I don’t necessarily recommend this method UNLESS you have spent considerable amounts of time drilling).
I told Steve that I sort of felt like the Keanu Reeves' character “Neo” in the Matrix—that I could see “the code” and react accordingly (interestingly, Steve told me that he uses that analogy with his students as well). Why dodge the bullets coming at you whenever you can just raise your hand as much as them and cause them to fall harmlessly towards the floor?
For Test Day:
Be prepared! If at all possible, visit the test center a day or a couple of prior to the exam. I did, and what I discovered was a lecture hall with cramped tray desks and somewhat poor lighting. But I also witnessed that there have been several larger desks located during the back in the hall, adjacent to some windows that provided natural light. Though checking in, I said to one from the proctors that my back wasn’t all that very good (remember, I’m 39…) and asked if I could sit in one on the bigger desks (she allowed me to complete so). If nothing else, a visit towards screening room will probably keep you from having to deal with any curveballs on test day that may well get you rattled.
Finally, understand to love the LSAT. Yes, I’m serious. After I first read Steve’s content articles about loving this exam, I concluded that he need to extremely be deranged. But what I found is how the far more you drill, the a lot more you understand the setup and also the a lot more that you simply can come to admire it. There have been some questions that I got wrong during practices that following examining again, I would believe to myself, “Wow, what a very cool question…” And even though I idea that he was deranged, I discover myself a few months later even now getting his weekly blog post email and looking via it—I suppose I’ve grow to be a deranged Steve Schwartz disciple myself.
I hope at least some of you find this being helpful, and I wish all of you luck in your efforts. Bust it up!
