LSAT Scoring - Next Step Test Prep

Transcription

Next Step Test Preparation
www.nextsteptestprep.com
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Table Of Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................................... 3
Part 1: What is the LSAT and why is it important? ..................................................... 3
LSAT scoring ........................................................................................................ 4
What do LSAT scores mean?............................................................................... 5
Introduction to test format and content ................................................................. 6
Are you ready to study for and take the LSAT? .................................................... 7
Choosing a law school ......................................................................................... 8
Part 2: Preparing for the LSAT ................................................................................. 10
Part 3: Improving your LSAT Score .......................................................................... 14
Skip wisely: logical reasoning ............................................................................. 15
Should you really go to the best school you can? .............................................. 15
LSAT reading comp realities .............................................................................. 16
Logical reasoning: why you should read the question first ................................. 16
Three critical LSAT logical terms you MUST memorize ..................................... 17
Will a logic class help on the LSAT? .................................................................. 18
Retaking the LSAT ............................................................................................. 20
How to prepare for a retake ................................................................................ 20
3-month LSAT study schedule ........................................................................... 21
Why you shouldn’t take a big-prep corporate LSAT class .................................. 22
Top 10 LSAT Tips .............................................................................................. 23
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Preface
Thank you for downloading Next Step Test Preparation’s LSAT E-Book. This work will be
valuable to students who are both starting out in preparing for the LSAT and those who are
looking to sharpen their skills. Part 1 goes over the basics of the LSAT and the law school
admissions process. Part 2 goes over planning to take the test, test content, and preparation
options. Part 3 includes several articles written for intermediate and advanced students looking
to maximize their scores.
We will cover the basics of the LSAT, how to study for the exam, and the law school admissions
process. We will not discuss whether you should go to law school; that’s a personal decision
with too many individual factors at play.
Why are we offering this content for free? The largest test prep companies have long
labored under the assumption that they have secret methodologies for which you should have to
pay thousands of dollars. That’s not the case. Every prep company and many publishers of prep
books have more or less the same methodologies. Next Step sells one-on-one tutoring for the
LSAT with experienced experts. There’s no way you can get what we sell out of a book – so
we’re happy to give as much information away for free as we can. If you’d like to learn more
about how you can receive a complete course of one-on-one LSAT prep for the same price as a
lecture course, please see our site here: http://www.nextsteptestprep.com/tests/lsat-tutors/
This work is copyright Next Step Test Preparation LLC. You may share this e-book in its current
form, without our permission, but changes cannot be made without our written consent. If you
have questions after reading this document, please contact us:
[email protected]
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www.nextsteptestprep.com/lsat
What is the LSAT and why is it important?
The Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) is a half-day standardized exam required by all
students attending American Bar Association accredited law schools. (You should not attend a
non-accredited school if you want to have a serious career as an attorney).
While college graduates have taken tests before, they have likely not faced a standardized
exam as challenging as the LSAT. Keep in mind that the LSAT is designed to rate and sort the
nation’s most accomplished college grads. The curve is much steeper than in most college
classes and certainly steeper than the ACT or SAT.
It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of the LSAT. Most estimates suggest that the LSAT
and GPA are together by far the most impotent components of your application. Together they
are referred to as law school “hard factors” as opposed to “soft factors” like recommendations,
personal statements, and work experience. Although it’s hard to estimate exactly, hard factors
are thought to be worth around 90% of an admissions decision.
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Students often overestimate their chances of admission based on good letters of
recommendation, extra-curricular activities, or work experience. Good hard numbers qualify
students to get into the “maybe” file of any given law school. Everything else in your application
helps you get into the “yes” pile. Law schools can then look to soft factors to shape their class.
While you will no doubt read about outliers who were accepted to schools despite belowaverage numbers, these cases are rare and you should not bank on being one of them.
(Schools also routinely reject applicants with above-average numbers if the other parts of the
application are not excellent).
LSAT Scoring
Your LSAT score is made up of 3 components sent to you on your score report.
•
•
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Raw score is simply the number of correct responses across the 4 scored sections,
added up. Generally there are 99-101 questions on any particular LSAT, so this number
is very close to your percentage of right answers.
Scaled scores are on a band from 120-180. When people refer to your LSAT score, this
is the number they are talking about. The LSAT applies a formula that differs slightly on
different test forms to convert raw scores to scaled scores. (When you hear LSAT nerds
talk about “the curve,” this conversion is what they mean.)
Your percentile is the percent of test-takers that scored lower than you on that particular
form.
Here is an example scoring scale; as mentioned this differs from test to test, but only slightly. If
you got 55 questions right, your score would be 151, and 48% of students would have scored
lower than you.
Raw Score
Scaled Score
Percentile Rank
0 - 15
120
0%
37
140
13.0%
45
145
25.8%
55
151
48.3%
60
154
60.0%
70
160
81.0%
80
166
93.4%
90
173
99.0%
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151 is generally the average score. It’s important to note that the LSAT is scored on a standard
bell curve. Most students will score between 140 and 160, each a standard deviation from the
mean of 151. Note that while many students start with a goal of a 170+ score, very few students
will accomplish that goal in a given year.
What do LSAT scores mean?
There is no “passing score” on the LSAT. Higher scores mean a better chance of admission at
more competitive law schools. Additionally, law schools typically make financial aid decisions
based on LSAT and GPA numbers, so students who earn a score well above the average of a
particular school often receive significant financial aid to that school.
As an example, here are 5 Chicago-based schools. All of this data can be found on the Law
School Admissions Council website. Data is reported at the 75th and 25th percentiles.
(You can find this information for all ABA-accredited schools at lsac.org).
Let’s take the University of Chicago as an example. For this year, the 75% LSAT was 173. This
means that 75% of students scored 173 or lower (and 25% scored above 173). Similarly, the
25% LSAT is 169, meaning that 25% scored 169 or below. Therefore, the middle 50% of their
class was between 173 and 169. To be competitive at Chicago, you would want to have an
LSAT in that range. Do note that 25% of their class had below a 169, but these students likely
had a combination of near-perfect GPAs and very outstanding soft factors.
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GPA numbers work in a similar way; the middle 50% of Chicago’s admitted class was between
3.84 and 3.63.
One note on GPA. You’ll often hear GPA discussed as “UGPA,” with the U standing for
undergraduate. The LSAC determines this number, including your grades from all institutions
you attended. LSAC also weights the GPA slightly (though it’s hard to say exactly how). Your
official UGPA, then, will often be slightly different from that reported by your bachelors-granting
institution.
Graduate GPA is not taken into account in determining this number. However, law school
admissions committees will certainly examine your graduate school performance. Excellent
marks in a MA program are likely to at least somewhat balance lower grades in undergrad.
Introduction to test format and content
On the day of your test, you’ll take an exam with 6 sections. Each section is 35 minutes long.
•
2 sections of Logical Reasoning (LR)
•
1 section of Analytical Reasoning (everyone but the LSAC calls this “Logic Games,” and
we will do so going forward) (LG)
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1 section of Reading Comprehension (RC)
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1 unscored experimental section. This section will be either LR, LG, or RC. The LSAC
uses this section to test questions for use on future exams. While it won’t be scored, the
section will not be identified to you and, most importantly, will not be identifiable – there
won’t be crazy question types or weird formats. That means you’ll have to give your best
effort on all 5 sections on test day.
•
1 writing sample. The writing sample can’t be ignored, but as it is not formally scored it
deserves very little preparation time.
Logical Reasoning
Logical reasoning, 2 of your scored sections, is made of 24-26 paragraph-length arguments
followed by a specific task such as:
•
•
•
•
Strengthen the argument
Weaken the argument
Find the flaw
Identify the conclusion
While many of the first questions will seem elementary, the difficulty curve quickly increases,
and the hardest LR questions involve complex formal logic. Here’s an example of a more
straightforward question:
John never does the dishes. He always ignores them or waits for someone else to do
them. This may represent self-involvement or mere laziness, but in either case I don’t
think John will make a good husband for Susan.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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As you prepare, you will learn strategies for each question type. Assumption questions can
often be solved by asking, “What entity exists in the conclusion that did not exist previously in
the argument?” Here, the concept of “good husband” is never really defined. The assumption
must make a link between John’s laziness and his status as a bad husband (which is the
conclusion).
Logic Games
The Logic Games section includes 4 logic puzzles followed by 23-24 questions divided among
them. This is the section that worries students the most initially, but it’s also the section in which
Next Step students have shown the most improvement. Smart students draw a diagram for
each puzzle and work through the questions efficiently using inference and rapid process of
elimination. Students sometimes make the mistake of over-studying for this section; just
remember that LR actually counts twice as much in your final score since there will be 2 LR
sections on the exam.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension looks a lot like the reading comp from the ACT or SAT, but you will find
it to be much harder. There are 4 passages in each section with a total of 26-28 questions
divided among them. Passages come from the social sciences, natural sciences, law, and the
arts. The challenge will not be the topics, but rather how the passages are structured. Read our
guide to RC in Part 3 to understand how to deal with this.
Are you ready to study for and take the LSAT?
Before you make the commitment to go to law school, it’s imperative to consider whether you
are prepared to make the effort and take the time to do the process right. Many students are
unprepared to make this commitment and end up with low LSAT scores, poor personal
statements, and apply too late in the cycle to have a good chance. There’s no way around it –
many students just aren’t committed enough over the 6 months or so of the application season,
and it ends up hurting their career long-term. If you don’t think you can dedicate 10-15 hours per
week first studying for the LSAT, then working on personal statements and application
materials, this is not a good time to take the LSAT.
College students especially can benefit by getting some perspective on this. We continually
have students come to us after scoring low on the LSAT, and it often turns out they didn’t
prepare adequately. Nearly everyone who is successful at law school admissions has the same
level of commitment to school courses, part time work, and extra-curricular activities as you do.
Law schools will not care why you have a poor LSAT score or a badly thought-out personal
statement. If you really feel your schedule is full and cannot accommodate study, it’s fine to wait
a year for admission (and will be worth it in the long run). Similarly, if you don’t want to give up
social or club activities in your final year of college that’s a very valid personal decision; you
should also plan to wait a year for law school.
Working professionals or those with families often have significant problems committing to a
study schedule. Law school admissions needs to be treated like a meeting or important
personal commitment. Get it on your calendar, and make it happen despite other distractions.
We have worked with a number of professionals who have dreamed of law school for years or
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who have been “studying for the LSAT” since 2006. If you can’t commit to doing it right, wait
until you can.
Choosing a law school
Choosing a law school is a major life decision, requiring tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars and three years of your life. This guide will give you the no-BS version of getting that
process right. We will not discuss almost anything a law school will show you on a guided tour,
including the great facilities and famous faculty members. We are interested in getting you in
and out of law school with the best possible chance of getting a good legal job at the lowest
possible price.
Here are the factors that you should consider in choosing your goal schools, ranked in order.
Many students, of course, rank things like location first. That’s generally a mistake, but different
people will have different priorities.
School Prestige: The real truth is this: the reputation of the law school you attend matters a
great deal whether you like it or not. If you want to see generally how schools are ranked, pick
up a copy of the US News law school rankings. (No one is in love with these rankings, but they
do serve a purpose and shouldn’t be ignored). Don’t get carried away – the differences between
the 34th ranked and 41st ranked schools are minimal, but there is a major difference between the
20th school and the 120th.
The important distinction between schools is not the quality of education you will receive. Every
school has a similar curriculum and nearly all have excellent faculty. The difference is in hiring
and career development. Top firms recruit aggressively at the best law schools along with elite
public interest positions. Better schools place more of their graduates before or soon after
graduation, and their graduates start at higher salaries. As the legal hiring economy worsened,
this has become more important, not less.
This isn’t to say that prestige is the only factor. You should consider what type of position you’re
looking for. Jobs at big firms (with 6-figure starting salaries) go almost exclusively to graduates
of top schools (along with academic positions and federal judicial clerkships). However, if your
goal is to be a public defender in your hometown, you’re likely better off spending much less
and going to a lower-ranked school (with more financial aid).
School Location: Some preface is required here. There are generally 2 types of law schools:
national schools, and regional schools. National schools are those that have a brand name
stretching across the US (and the world). They are schools that you and everyone else have
heard of, like Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Berkeley, or Chicago. Generally, these are the top
20 or so schools. Firms and other employers recruit from these firms nationally; Stanford
students have no problem getting positions in NYC, and Harvard students have no trouble
getting work in LA. Regional firms include all other schools. At a national law school, you can
expect to work in any major city if you like; there will be strong alumni networks in every legal
market. Regional schools are a bit different. They generally have very strong alumni and job
placement networks – in their region. Outside of their region, however, they have much less
reach. It’s not that a hiring manager in Washington, DC has never heard of the University of
Tennessee; it’s that he’s never hired anyone from there, whereas he’s taken 45 students from
GW over the last 15 years.
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Location, therefore, is critical if you are not attending one of the top 20 or so schools. You will
have a much easier time getting hired for your first legal position where your school has the best
networks. Bottom line: go to school where you want to practice. You will make a big
mistake if you go to Florida for 3 years of sunshine but plan to return to Boston to practice.
Likewise, if you want to stay near family for law school, make sure you are committed to that
region for the next 5-10 years.
Bonus tip: You can gain a big career advantage by going to the best school in a
particular region. While attending a good school like the University of Oklahoma wouldn’t
turn heads at big firms in New York, your credentials will be taken very seriously in
Oklahoma City, where OU is the highest-ranked school by a wide margin. If you’re
planning to head to a smaller legal market, you may be just as well off going to the
“Harvard” of that region.
School Cost: This includes the top-line cost, which is always very high, minus your offers of
aid. One of the biggest personal questions to consider is whether you want to risk going to a
better school but going further in to debt. (See our article in Part 3 on why not everyone should
go to Harvard).
Bonus tip: It’s imperative that you understand and consider the terms of your
scholarships. Most schools offer their aid on a conditional basis. To keep their awards,
students must maintain either a certain GPA or a certain place in their class. For most
law school applicants, keeping a 3.2 GPA sounds like a piece of cake. However, the
hard curve in law school means that many students will by design fall below that line.
Financial aid officers know how their past classes have performed; you should find this
data and consider how likely you are to keep your award. Please be realistic; while most
law students seem to assume they’ll breeze through school, you’re going to be rated
against a class of other students with similar credentials, and not everyone will keep
their awards.
Specific programs or clinics: The honest truth is that law schools are more alike than
different. Your first year programs will be the same at nearly any school. Every school has many
clinics. Every school will soon enough feature current trends in their marketing materials (right
now: “International Law”). It’s rare for a law school to really be a national standout in any
particular field, regardless of their marketing material. However, there are some places that
stand out – usually in unsexy fields like tax law or IP. This is not nearly as important as students
think it is.
Superficial factors: Nice campus, attractive undergrads, etc. You might as well try to be happy
in law school, but students that consider factors other than those listed above are making a
strange mistake.
All that said, your list must, must be tempered by the realities of where you can be admitted.
Compare your LSAT and GPA with the numbers at several schools. If you are comfortably in
their range, you have a good chance of admission. If you are above their range, you have a
good chance of financial aid. If you are just slightly below their range, it’s a reach but still
possible.
Most students apply to 5-10 law schools. Apply to a mix including:
• 1 dream school, even if you don’t quite have the numbers
•
Several schools where you are comfortably in their range of admitted students
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1-3 safety schools. You want to do this not only to make sure you are admitted
somewhere, but also so you have the chance to compare a great financial aid offer from
a lower-ranked school with a less generous offer from a better school.
Part 2: Preparing for the LSAT
There is a lot of confusion around what the best ways are to prep for the LSAT. This section will
give you an outline of how you should get started and what your options are.
Step 1: Take a practice LSAT
Students delay this step unnecessarily, to their peril. You do not know where you stand until
you’ve taken a full test under timed conditions. Your very first step, even before reading a prep
book, should be a taking a diagnostic exam. You can find a free one here:
http://lsac.org/jd/pdfs/SamplePTJune.pdf Print this test out and take it under test-like conditions,
meaning do it in 1 sitting, 35 minutes per section. (You can take a 10 minute break between
sections 2 and 3, and you don’t need to complete the writing sample).
Score your exam. How did you do? How does your score relate to law schools you are
interested in attending? Students can and do raise their score significantly, but now is the time
to start introducing a dose of reality into your expectations. If you are falling more than 5 points
short of your goal, you should consider getting help.
Step 2: Plan your Test Date
One factor of law school admissions students don’t initially consider is planning the right time to
apply. Most schools have application deadlines on February, March, or April. What they often
don’t tell you is that by those late dates, most of their seats are gone. That’s because law
schools practice “rolling admissions.” This means that instead of waiting for 4,000 applications
to pile up then reading them all at once, schools start deciding on students soon after they start
accepting applications in the fall. This was brought into sharp focus on a panel of admissions
representatives. An admissions director from a top 10 school said that at the time of her
school’s official deadline, she had over 2,000 applications – for 50 remaining seats. She said
that in October, the reverse is true – she has only a handful of applications for 250 seats in the
class. This means that as the months pass, admission becomes more competitive and more
difficult for a student with the very same numbers. This can’t be stressed enough – you should
plan to apply to law school in the fall before you wish to matriculate.
Thinking backwards, that means that you should plan to take the LSAT in September/October or
June of the year before you wish to go to law school.
Many students over the years have asked whether they should take the June or
September/October LSAT. Our suggestion is that generally June is better, but it’s worthwhile
going into detail as there are some exceptions.
June LSAT Pros
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Maximum flexibility. This is the big one. Students who take the June test have the option
of re-taking the text in October if need be, and still having applications in early in the
admissions cycle. Students who first take the test in October and must re-take in
December are behind in the admissions cycle.
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Afternoon exam. The June test begins in the afternoon, the only test to do so. If you are
legitimately not a morning person, this can be a great advantage.
June LSAT Cons (and September/October Pros)
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Other obligations. A pre-law adviser at a top-10 university told us that she doesn’t
recommend that her students take the June LSAT because it’s administered in the
middle of their exam period (they are on the quarters system). If you are taking a
demanding class load, it may make sense to wait and do prep over the summer. (The
caveat to this — some people are just “always busy.” If you’re one of these people, it’s
still better to take it early all else being equal.)
So, unless you have an incredibly demanding schedule in the spring and no obligations over the
summer, the June test is the way to go.
It’s certainly possible to take the December LSAT, do well, and be admitted – though it’s less
advantageous to the earlier dates. For all reasonable purposes, the February LSAT is too late to
be considered for that fall. (Yes, you will hear anecdotal stories of people who are admitted, but
the exception proves the rule. Further, students admitted this late are usually going to a lowerranked school or getting less aid then they would have otherwise.)
The financial Rewards of a High LSAT Score
Students often don’t realize just how much is at stake in having a great LSAT/GPA. Here’s the
merit-based scholarship information from John Marshall in Chicago, whose regular tuition is
$38,000/year.
Did you know that The John Marshall Law School awards more than $2 million in scholarships
to entering JD students each year?'. All admitted applicants are automatically considered for
our full range of scholarship opportunities, including:
Distinguished Scholar Awards: Full Tuition Waiver + $10,000 stipend
Howard T. Markey Distinguished Scholar Awards (for students pursuing Intellectual
Property Law): Full Tuition Waiver + $10,000 stipend
• Edward T. Lee Scholarships: Full Tuition Waiver
• Dean’s Scholar Awards: Ranges from $4,000 to $25,000
Including $10,000/year stipend, the cost swing between the highest scholarship and paying full
price is $144,000.
•
•
To reinforce the point — your LSAT goal should be to absolutely maximize your score, not just
clear a hurdle for admissions.
LSAT prep options
Students are faced with three major options for LSAT prep. Next Step Test Preparation is the
leader in one-on-one tutoring for the price of a prep course, but we do this for a reason. Here
are the pluses and minuses of the three major options for LSAT prep and for whom we think
they work best.
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Self-Study
This includes studying with any number of books; it also includes studying with any kind of
online set of materials. This includes video courses which are pretty much the same as studying
out of a book (but costs more).
Plusses
+ Obviously, the most affordable, though far from free as you should invest in great prep books
and 20-30 practice exams.
+ Totally flexible. Study when you want, study whatever you think you need. (Note that this can
also be a serious drawback if you are not likely to set and keep an aggressive practice
schedule.)
+ Often about as effective as classes.
Minuses
- Scores tend to plateau. At a certain point it’s hard to identify exactly what you’re doing
incorrectly. Bad habits are entrenched, not solved. Given how important every point will be, not
knowing what you don’t know can be costly.
Great for: self-directed students who only need a moderate score increase to meet their
admissions goals
Bad for: procrastinators, students looking to make double-digit score increases
Classes
This seems to be the default option for students. That’s a mistake. Classes are good for some,
but for most students they aren’t much better than self-study.
Plusses
+First class material. Classes supply you with generally good materials and lots of practice
LSATs,
+Concrete study schedule. This is the big advantage. If you’re the sort of person who is liable to
delay studying or who loses focus easily, a class can make it easier to devote a significant
amount of time to study. However, if this is you, studying for the LSAT might be a good time to
gain some self-direction, as you won’t have this kind of structure in law school.
+Your friends are probably taking a class, so it seems safe; this is why the Chili’s in Times
Square is always packed.
Minuses
- Moves at one pace. If you start your class routinely getting every logic game question correct,
you’ll still have to spend hours and hours going over it. (And for some classes, you’ll have to
spend time answering GMAT questions).
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- Lack of personal attention. Doing well on the LSAT requires a very solid understanding of a
challenging set of materials. If there’s something that you don’t understand, it won’t be possible
to slow the entire class and work on that point until you understand. The LSAT is too important
to not be able to focus on your particular needs.
- Designed for average students. Curriculum has to be designed to appeal to the broadest
possible cross-section of possible students, i.e. those starting in the low 150s. Actual prep
courses are mostly an instructor reading to students from a prepared lesson book and putting
pre-written solutions on a white board.
Great for: Average students looking for an average score increase; students with poor study
habits; the risk-averse.
A bad choice for: students starting in the 140′s or 160′s; students looking for a big increase;
students who are great at some sections but need to improve on others.
Tutoring
Tutoring is one-on-one help from a LSAT expert.
Plusses
+ Personal attention helps you raise your score more. You’ll be able to have your specific
weaknesses diagnosed and corrected over the course of your work with a tutor. You’ll get all
your questions answered specifically, and you won’t have to move past content until you
understand it fully. (At the same time, you won’t have to waste time studying an area you’ve
already mastered).
+ Flexibility. Tutors can work with you when you want to meet. I can’t tell you how many
students have been frustrated with having a long work day, then going to LSAT class from 6:3010:00. No one learns at the end of a 15 hour day.
+ More efficient than classes. If you go into a class getting 22/24 on logic games sections,
you’ll…still have to spend 1/3 of your time going over it. Tutoring allows you to focus study on
the sections in which you most need to improve.
Minuses
- There’s nowhere to hide. Unlike classes, you really have to do your homework and come to
each tutoring session prepared to learn and improve. You can’t be lost in the crowd — you’re
the only one there!
- More expensive per hour. With one-on-one tutoring, you’ll have fewer contact hours with the
instructor, so you’ll be asked to do significant review on your own as well. However, the time
you do spend with a tutor one-on-one will be fully engaged going over your weak points and
answering your questions.
Next Step provides one-on-one tutoring because we believe that if a student is going to invest
in professional LSAT prep, they deserve personal attention rather than a lecture-style
environment. If you would like to learn more about one-on-one tutoring packages for the price
of a prep course, please visit our site here http://www.nextsteptestprep.com/tests/lsat-tutors/ or
email us at [email protected].
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Part 3: Improving your LSAT Score
In Part 3, we’ve selected the best of our blog posts that will be of interest to every LSAT taker.
Common-sense advice for LSAT test week and test day
Your home for 4 hours Here’s how to make sure all your hard work pays off with your best
possible LSAT score
The week before
•
Resolve any stresses to the extent that you
can early in the week. Pay bills, vow not to
go to bed mad, avoid aggravating frenemies
•
Drive by your test site. You want to know
exactly how to get there, how long it will take,
and how you’ll find parking. If you’re on
public transportation, figure out your route,
and plan to take the bus/train before the
absolute last one to get you there on time. If
you can, go inside the test center and see
what it’s like. Since most test centers are at
universities, you can usually get in and have
a look at your room.
•
Take a final practice test the Saturday before — 5 sections, starting at 8:30. You should
have been doing this already, but if not, now is the time to practice early-morning
endurance.
•
Practice waking up at the time you’ll need to be up on test day. Especially if you’re not a
morning person, it’s time to start establishing this routine. When you get up, read the
paper or some substantive blogs to get your mind going. (If you’re taking the June test
which starts in the afternoon, you are off the hook on this one).
The Day Before
•
Don’t plan on doing any LSAT prep the day before. It will only add stress, and if you
haven’t internalized the right methodologies by now, no amount of cramming will help.
•
See if you can take the afternoon off — see a movie, take a walk, etc. The last thing you
want is a late night of work stress.
•
And, of course, get plenty of sleep and avoid alcohol.
•
Pack your snack — if chocolate will help reduce stress, go for it, but make sure to
include something nutritious too.
•
Make sure you have everything together before you go to bed. Pencils, highlighters,
admissions ticket, photo, snack, and analog watch.
The Day Of
•
Dress in layers. Obvious but true — it will likely not be your ideal temperature at the test
center and you want to be ready to adjust.
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•
When you arrive at the test center, have something to do to get your mind going. Many
people recommend doing a logic game that you’ve done before — if that works for you,
give it a try, but reading a newspaper or magazine article that will get your brain moving
is just as good.
•
As you are seated, if there is any problem whatsoever with your location, ask to change.
As they say on reality TV, you aren’t there to make friends with the proctors. If you are
under a vent, in the sunlight, in a corner that’s too dark, next to someone who smells
bad, whatever — now is the time to change your seat.
Skip wisely: Logical Reasoning
One of the most important skills for the LSAT is section management, meaning timing the
section to maximize your score. In Logical Reasoning, it pays to be aware the pattern of
difficulty that recurs from test to test.
In short, the test starts easy, gets harder, goes back to easy/medium difficulty right around the
middle, then has another peak that drops down to easy for the last 2-3 questions.
How can this help you?
•
Be aware that there are several questions at the end of the section that are much easier
than others. The test-makers put these here to reward students that finish, but they also
reward savvy test-takers that know to go to the last few questions before tackling timeconsuming question types like parallel reasoning
•
Know that while the questions get harder on average, if there is a tough question early on
(questions 6-10), you can safely skip knowing that there will be lower-hanging fruit. Get
the easy points and come back to more difficult questions
•
Even if you believe that you can get to all of the questions, make sure to follow this strategy
to give yourself the maximum possible time to complete time-consuming questions like
parallel reasoning
Should you really go to the best school you can?
The real truth? Maybe Harvard isn't right for you.
A fascinating article was just released that should help 0L’s as they think through their law
school choices. In short, the paper argues that it’s rarely a good idea to attend a law school to
which you just barely got in. The reason is that grades are of relatively more importance than
prestige in predicting future career outcomes.
This makes sense intuitively as long as the spread between schools isn’t too wide; no one
would recommend choosing a third-tier over Harvard. But a student who just barely got into the
#10 school might be well-advised to consider that financial aid offer from the #20 school. Top
students from nearly all law schools will have interesting options for their first job; much better to
be top 10% at Boston College than bottom 10% at Georgetown, according to this research.
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In order to accept this advice, potential law students will have to let go of one misconception I
see all the time–that they are virtually guaranteed to be in the top 10% of their class. As you
think through your school decision, just remember that at the best school you were admitted to,
most of the students will have higher GPA’s and LSAT scores, and most will be just as
hardworking.
LSAT reading comp realities
Reality 1: LSAT RC passages are designed to trick you in repetitive ways. Take a look at
the acknowledgement page at the back of an LSAT — material has been “adapted” from original
sources, in ways that the test-makers know will make the passage harder to read. That’s right
— the material isn’t just challenging, it’s specifically re-written to be less comprehensible. The
most obvious way LSAC does this is by making it harder to understand who is speaking at any
given time — the author, the author’s opponents, critics of those opponents, etc. That’s why it’s
critical to outline passages aggressively.
Reality 2: The questions are hard because they are designed for you to get wrong. Especially
since the RC section became harder a few years back, most RC questions will have at least one
wrong answer that seems like a very good option. LSAC makes questions harder primarily by
making answer choices look closer together. If you need an example of this, look at any given
main point question; there are generally 1-2 answer choices which certainly are correct in
outlining some or even most of the main idea of a passage (but which are ultimately incorrect).
Reality 3: The particular challenge of reading a RC passage is understanding the structure and
flow of the argument. At the end of the passage, you must understand how the argument fits
together at a high level and what the author was ultimately getting at. A great way to do this is to
predict the passage’s main point (actually write this down, but you can do it in ~10 words).
Logical reasoning: why you should read the
question first
LSAT prep companies and tutoring gurus differ over a wide range of opinions related to LSAT
prep. Many of these seem to be small distinctions, but today I want to focus on an issue that
has divided the prep community and that, in my experience, really can impact students’ scores.
That is: in logical reasoning, should students read the question first, or the stimulus?
To be upfront, we are going to come down on the side that students should read the question
first, and then use that as a means of interpreting the stimulus. This is the method taught by
several of the largest test prep companies. However, others teach that students should read
the stimulus first.
Why you should read the question first
In short, I believe it saves significant amount of time. For example, if a student did not read the
question, she would immediately devote time to mapping out the argument, predicting
assumptions, etc. That time would be wasted if the question was a relatively straightforward
“find the conclusion” question. Further, on the most difficult questions, it can help enormously to
know what you are looking for. Another example: in the more difficult “flaw” questions, it is not
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always apparent to test-takers that there is a problem in the argument. If that student
knows she is looking for a problem, she can save a good deal of time.
Why others think you should read the stimulus first
The Powerscore LSAT Logic Games Bible says “We are certain [those who recommend reading
the question first] are seriously mistaken.” They list several reasons, but the most important is
their claim that “reading the question stem first tends to undermine the ability of students to fully
comprehend the information in the stimulus.” In short, they believe that students should do their
best to understand the stimulus on its own terms, then figure out what the question actually
wants you to do. They believe that, on complicated stimuli, the student is forced to “juggle two
things at once” by also considering the stimuli.
We think this is backwards. On more difficult questions, the student who attacks the stimulus
first risks spending a ton of time breaking it apart and analyzing the argument. In at least some
of those situations, the question itself will not be so difficult. We’ve all seen LSAT logical
reasoning questions where the language was deliberately opaque or overly complicated, but
actually solving the problem was relatively straightforward. In these situations especially, it
makes the most sense to attack the stimulus knowing what you are trying to do.
As with all things LSAT, it makes sense to try both methods in your prep. In our experience,
students are more comfortable and build their score when they practice reading the question
first.
Three critical LSAT logical terms you MUST memorize
Most of the conditional logic that appears on the LSAT is fairly straightforward, of the “if A then
B” variety. However, there are three LSAT logical operators that you must memorize in advance
of the test. They have been showing up more and more on newer LSATs; if you have a logic
game that involves “unless” logic and you don’t know what to do with it, you risk missing the
entire game.
Unless
Unless statements require a three-step process which you should commit to memory.
Statement: “You’ll come to a bad end unless you change your evil ways.”
The rules for interpreting “unless” statements are as follows:
1. Whatever term(s) is/are modified by “unless” becomes the necessary conditions and
goes to the right of the arrow. This is the statement that follows unless. In the example,
it’s “change your evil ways.”
2. Whatever is left is the sufficient condition and goes to the left of the arrow…
3. And the sufficient condition (left of arrow) is negated. This is the part that students
tend to forget, but it’s critical.
So, the statement can be rendered: No bad end –> changed your evil ways.
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Sometimes the contrapositive can be easier to understand: didn’t change evil ways –> came to
a bad end.
Only if
“Only if” statements essentially reverse the standard conditional relationship. Take the following
statements:
Statement 1: You’ll succeed in life if you take your father’s advice.
As usual, the term modified by “if” is sufficient and goes to the left of the arrow, yielding the
statement “TFA –> SiL”
Statement 2: You’ll succeed in life only if you take your father’s advice.
Note here the “only if” operator. What does this indicate? It doesn’t say that if you take the
advice you’ll succeed. It says instead that in the world in which you’ve succeeded, you must
also have taken your father’s advice. (Remember, conditional statements don’t imply a causal
relationship. We’re not saying that succeeding means that you will then take the advice.) So,
this statement is outlined “SiL –> TFA.” The “only if” operator reverses the
conditional relationship.
If and only if
“If and only if” operators actually indicate two relationships at once: “if,” and “only if.” Therefore,
the first step is to write out both statements.
Statement 3: You’ll succeed in life if and only if you take your father’s advice.
This breaks down as:
TFA –> SiL (this is the “if” statement)
SiL –> TFA (this is the “only if” statement)
These statements can be combined into a double-sided arrow if you like: TFA <—> SiL
Bottom line: You MUST memorize these three operators before you’re equipped to work
modern LSAT logic games. The past several tests have involved at least one and often more
rules that necessitate understanding this logic.
Will a logic class help on the LSAT?
A question we get frequently is “what college courses will help me on the LSAT?” The most
obvious choice is an introductory or advanced course in logic, often offered through university
philosophy departments (but if not almost always offered somewhere else, like in mathematics
or computer science). If you’re serious about learning logic, you should take the most
challenging course offered; at my alma mater, there was Phil 103 and Phil 303; 103 was a bit of
a joke while 303 was hard but doable. I really enjoyed this course and was glad I took it.
However, it’s far from required. Let’s go to the map:
Pros
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•
Logic courses will help you adapt to strict formal reasoning, a key skill on the LSAT.
Many students have a hard time adjusting from “common sense” to LSAT formal logic. A
logic course can give you an extra semester to learn this new form of thinking.
•
You’ll learn some concepts you’ll need on the LSAT. Symbolic logic and basic
conditionality can be hard to understand for newbies, and a course will help you
understand them.
•
Logic courses can be very challenging but enjoyable. Yes, whether you like the class
matters, and students who enjoy logic puzzles will probably love diving into the depths of
their homework and, later, LSAT formal logic.
Cons
•
Most courses will teach you a lot more than you need to know for the LSAT. If you’re
only taking the course to improve your LSAT score, you’d probably be better off devoting
all of that time to specific LSAT study.
•
Conversely, logic courses usually also leave few concepts out that turn out to be
important on the LSAT. Conditionality is probably the number one logic skill on the
LSAT; while you’ll learn formal conditionality in a logic course, it will look a bit different
on the LSAT. Formal logic courses also often skimp on the kind of story-based examples
you’ll see in logical reasoning.
•
Logic courses can be hard. Make sure you understand that this will likely be a
challenging course involving lots of study. If you’re the type more willing to skip lectures,
advanced logic courses might be a strike against the all-important GPA. (However, if
you’re not willing to commit to hard classes now, law school might not be the right path).
Bottom Line
If you have some extra credits to fill and you definitely want to take the LSAT, formal logic is a
great course to take. However, everything you need to know about formal logic for the purposes
of excelling on the LSAT can be learned by specifically studying LSAT material. If you are
planning on self-study, logic might be a good course to take. However, if you’re planning on
taking a reputable LSAT course or working with a good tutor, you’ll learn all you need to know
on the test.
Studying for the LSAT is like a job
We won’t belabor the point because most of our readers already know how important the LSAT
is to law school admissions. The LSAT is worth roughly as much as your entire undergrad GPA.
That means that it’s worth 4 times a year of study, 8 times a semester of grades, 32 times a
course (assuming 4 courses per semester), and 128 times as important as a paper (assuming 3
papers per course). Your mileage may vary, but any way you cut it this exam is critical.
Yet, even after we explain this to students, we keep seeing students under-prepare. There’s
always a reason — a paper due, a work assignment, etc. Let’s be real — some people who
study for the LSAT are just lazy (and probably won’t go on to a successful law school
experience), but many more just leave the LSAT for last in their planning.
I think the reason is that the LSAT has the longest feedback mechanism. While you get in
trouble today for missing work or failing to turn in a paper, you don’t really get dinged for under-
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preparing until scores come back, and you don’t really feel the disadvantages of a lower LSAT
score until your admissions and financial aid decisions come back.
The way to combat this, even for busy students, is to treat LSAT prep like a job. It should be
blocked out on your calendar in big chunks, just like a shift at work or a college course. Then,
you need to commit to treating it that way. Just like a shift at work, if you’re deathly ill you can
call in sick. But you can’t call in sick because of great social opportunities, school work, or extracurricular meetings.
Retaking the LSAT
How do you know if you should retake the LSAT after receiving a low score?
•
There was some extraneous circumstance, like you were shorted on time, ill, or
misbubbled (and for some reason you didn’t cancel)
•
Your score was significantly lower (>2 points) than the average of your final 3 full preptests
•
You didn’t devote yourself to a complete course of study (i.e. you worked through LSAT
for Dummies and took one full real practice test)
If you got a score that’s comfortably in the range of your past prep tests and you devoted 3+
months to studying the first time, you probably shouldn’t retake. Students that have a vague
sense that they “could do better” rarely improve much, and it’s probably time to get on with the
admissions process with the score you have. (We have gotten calls from students that have
been studying for the LSAT for over 4 years. Don’t be one of those students.)
You should also consider how taking the next test will position you in the admissions cycle. For
those who took the October LSAT, having to wait for a December score could put you at a
disadvantage in the rolling admissions cycle of very competitive schools. That said, if you are
able to raise your score by even 2-3 points, you’ll on net have a better admissions portfolio.
How to Prepare for a Retake
If you simply weren’t prepared, well, work harder! But for students that thought they were ready
for the test, make sure you think about your retake studying strategically. Looking through the
same books again or re-taking a prep course is unlikely to help much in our experience. Here
are a few guidelines:
•
If you took a prep course, retaking the same prep course, even for free, will likely not
help you improve.
•
Students that studied on their own will benefit from the guidance of a one-on-one tutor or
another flexible prep strategy. (If you already know the basics and studied from decent
prep books, a lecture-style prep course will generally go over the same material you
already know).
•
If you weren’t on a regular study schedule, it’s time to get on one. Many students studied
haphazardly; LSAT prep is like a job. If you’re going to be successful, your study times
and practice tests should go on your calendar just like classes or work shifts.
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The good news is that in our experience, students who follow these guidelines often can make
substantial score gains that really impact their admissions chances.
June LSAT Study Schedule
Although students still have plenty of time, it makes sense to start thinking about preparing for
the June LSAT. We recommend spending 3-4 months on focused study, so starting in February
would make a lot of sense. Rather than specify particular books or tests, we wanted to lay out a
basic study plan to broadly capture what students should be doing month-to-month.
February
•
Take a diagnostic exam. This will give you a great idea of what your goals should be and
an initial idea of where you should start focusing your efforts. LSAC has a free sample
exam here.
•
Finalize your decision about prep. Many students will self-study, some students will
attend classes (hopefully not too many!), and some students will engage a tutor.
•
If you’re not getting professional assistance, order your books. You’ll for sure want at
least 15 practice exams and probably more; I’d start with the 10 New Actual LSATs in
addition to at least 5 of the most recent preptests.
•
You’ll also want to get some sort of methodology book to guide you in addition to
practice tests.
•
This is the time to work your way through at least half of your methodology book. During
this month, you can do all of your practice un-timed.
March
•
Work through the remainder of your methodology books. There’s no need to try to save
these for later; you want to commit all the methods to memory so you can practice
better.
•
It’s also time to start doing timed practice. Start by timing all of your
practice sessions (35 minutes). When time expires, if there are questions remaining go
ahead and finish, then review intensely.
April
•
Re-evaluate your decision if you are self-studying. How is it going? We get tons of calls
in mid-May from students who aren’t doing as well as they’d like, and by then it’s really
getting late for tutoring to make sense. If you’re seeing the results you want, keep on
trucking, but if not this is the time to ask for help.
•
Now is the time to start doing regular full-length practice tests with review. Here’s how to
get the most out of that experience. Working through full tests will be the basis of your
prep going forward.
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•
Generally, work from the oldest tests you have to the newest. While there aren’t
incredibly huge differences between Preptests 30 and 60, the difficulty of RC goes up
significantly, so you’d like to be moving into those more challenging sections and more
up-to-date logic games.
•
In the month of April, all of your practice should be timed, while also taking significant
time to review.
May
•
The focus of your last month of prep should be on taking practice tests and evaluating.
Sounds simple, but the art is in reviewing your work for progress.
•
Think about doing 2-3 tests per week, plus intensive review of each.
•
If you haven’t devoted the time to studying, you want to re-evaluate whether you’re
ready for the exam.
June
•
See our post about what to do the week before the test above.
Why you shouldn’t take a big-prep corporate LSAT
class
Next Step Test Preparation believes in providing individual attention on the LSAT. Most often,
students are comparing our tutoring against a class at one of the big corporate prep companies.
I’ve been in the prep industry for years, starting at one of those companies. I want to explain in
detail what’s wrong with LSAT prep classes to those considering taking them. Is this selfserving? Sure; I’d like for you to tutor with Next Step and not take a class. That doesn’t make
any of the following less true based on my experience.
One note: talk to your friends about these points. You’ll find that many students who took prep
courses aren’t completely satisfied. Don’t take our word for it!
•
Hamstrung instructors. Even the best instructors at such companies often feel
hamstrung by the rigid syllabus. The instructor must work through a
specific progression in their big binder, using exactly the practice questions printed
there. I can’t tell you how many Next Step tutors coming from these companies have
been relieved not to be tied down to rigid curricula.
•
Lack of personal attention. This one is obvious; you’re in a class with 15 students and
one instructor. But this is complicated material, and you won’t have the ability to
specifically go back and forth with the instructor. The need to have a set curriculum for
everybody also leads to terrible miss-uses of class time. You’ll spend a ton of time, for
example, discussing intricate categorizations of question-types, which should take about
20 minutes and is of limited value on the test. The curriculum has to be heavily tilted
towards subjects that are easy to lecture on and that don’t generate lots of questions.
Advanced logical thinking is incredibly hard to teach, and you’re definitely not going to be
able to do it with a room of people starting from the 130′s to the 160′s.
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•
Reliance on “shock and awe” marketing. How did you hear about that big prep
company? My guess is a flyer or presentation at your school. Word of mouth from these
companies is generally not great. Talk to 5 of their ex-students.
•
Needlessly expensive. Here’s a thought experiment. You’re in a class with 15 students,
and you all paid $1,300 to be there. There are 36 total hours of instruction. How much do
you pay an hour? ($36). $36×15 students =$540 revenue per hour. Remember, the
instructor is getting $20/hour if they are lucky. Sure, some of your fees goes to books.
But the point remains that you are paying an astounding amount of money, the vast
majority going to paying for advertising, real estate, administration, and, of course, profit.
(For comparison, Next Step offers complete one-on-one tutoring packages for the same
price as a class).
Please, please do some research before signing up with these prep companies. Students often
choose them as the “default option.” They should not be. Check out any of the law school prep
forums like TLS to see what kind of word of mouth they get. There are numerous prep options
for the LSAT; taking a big-prep class is probably the worst.
Top 10 LSAT Tips
If you’re just beginning your LSAT preparation, here are the top 10 tips to increase your score
on the LSAT.
1. Set goals and create a study plan. Although everyone
wants to maximize their score, goals are helpful for
motivating students to push past plateaus. You should also
have an idea of what kind of time commitment you can make
to the test. Plan to work on the test at least 10-15 hours a
week.
2. Take it early. The best time to take the LSAT is June the
year before you plan on entering law school (during/after
Junior year for college students). Many students make the
mistake of taking the LSAT too late. Law schools roll their
admissions, meaning that they start evaluating applications
as they come in. Because of this, applicants at the
beginning of the admissions cycle are competing for more
seats. Most law schools have an application deadline in February or later, but the very few
spots left are for extraordinary applicants. By taking the test in June, students have the
advantage of having score in hand before applications are accepted so they can submit as soon
as the admissions season begins. February test-takers have the additional advantage that
should they perform poorly, they can retake in June and still be on time.
3. Consider your prep options. Students can study on their own from books (or videos which,
however well-edited, are pretty much the same as study books), take a class, or receive one-onone tutoring.
4. Understand logic games diagramming. Logic games give beginning test-takers the most
difficulty. The most important skill for games is to be able to quickly and accurately diagram the
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situation out. A rule of thumb for diagramming is “if it’s in your head, write it down.” The more
you put on paper, the easier the game will get.
5. Master basic formal logic. Formal (or “symbolic”) logic is a critical skill for both logic games
and logical reasoning. You aren’t ready to take the LSAT if you’re not an old hand at
diagramming statements out in formal logic, understanding common fallacies, and finding the
contrapositive. Any decent tutor, course, or LSAT book should teach you this skill, but many
don’t spend enough time making sure you master these concepts.
6. Understand the basic structure of arguments. Arguments in logical reasoning are
comprised of a premise(s), assumption(s), and conclusion. Being able to identify these three
components is critical to effectively solving 80% of questions on logical reasoning, so this skill
should be at the center of your LSAT prep.
7. Predict answers. For many questions in logical reasoning (and some in reading
comprehension), effective test-takers learn to predict the answer mentally before ever looking at
the answer choices.
8. Get comfortable with process of elimination. Many harder questions in logical reasoning
and reading comprehension can best be attacked by process of elimination. Evaluate each
answer choice — if it’s wrong, cross it out. If it might be correct, it’s a “definite maybe.” It’s ok
to not be able to instantly identify the right answer; you’d much rather eliminate 3 possibilities
than guess completely or skip a question.
9. Practice smart. After you complete a section or full test, it’s imperative to look back and
understand why you missed what you missed. Pure repetition will only help you improve so far;
students must diagnose their weaknesses and address them in each study session. Here’s how
to get the most out of practice tests.
10. Prepare for test day. Test day is an incredibly high-stakes, nerve-wracking experience (as
if you didn’t know that already). Preparing yourself mentally and physically for the ordeal can
mean the difference between putting all your training to good use and getting a disappointing
score because you weren’t in the right frame of mind.
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