4 Tips For Success on the LSAT
4 Tips For Success on the LSAT
The June 2017 LSAT is not too far away! To do well, it’s best to get started now, especially if you are starting from scratch and aren’t familiar with the test. To help you get going, here are 4 tried and test tips for success on the LSAT!
4 Tips For Success on the LSAT
1. Time yourself during your prep.
I cannot stress this tip enough, because I see it trip up students all the time. Given an unlimited amount of time, most people could score very well on the LSAT. Unfortunately, test day doesn’t work like that! The first question I ask students when we meet is if they time themselves during their prep. Timing is so crucial to success on the LSAT. Your score during prep means absolutely nothing unless you achieve it under timed conditions.
So, make sure to time yourself starting with the first few times you study. Don’t initially worry about taking more time than you will get on test day. As you become more familiar with the material, you will get faster. Timing yourself, along with scoring correct answers, will help you see the progress you make while studying. It can also help let you know if you need to reach out for help.
2. Develop a study schedule.
As I frequently tell my students, the second best thing you can do to prepare for the LSAT is to develop a study schedule. It’s very difficult to cover all the material you need to if you take a scattershot approach to the LSAT. Almost everyone who takes the LSAT has things going on, like work, family, and school, which can take away from review time. Develop an LSAT study schedule as early as possible, and stick to it! It does not have to be the same every day, as long as you are consistent studying.
3. Analyze your incorrect answers.
This is a step many students skip during their LSAT prep. Often, they will take a practice test, score it, and then move on to more material. In some ways, your incorrect answers are almost as important as your correct ones! So, analyze the answers you get incorrect, and see if a pattern develops. You can learn a whole host of things this way. Maybe you struggle with a certain type of logic game or logical reasoning question. Or perhaps, you consistently run out of time during the reading comprehension section. You could even discover that by the fourth scored section, your endurance is so worn down that you score poorly no matter what type of section it is. Whatever the case may be, use this information to tailor your study moving forward.
4. Start small, and work your way up.
There is not much value, for most people, to immediately taking full LSATs when you first start to study. I always advise students to start with smaller chunks of questions, and work their way up to full sections. There’s two reasons for this. The first is that starting with a few questions allows you to become more familiar with the material without worrying about performance. For me, there’s no point in taking a whole logical reason section and getting 10/26 correct on your first try because you don’t know the material. Start off with blocks of 5-10 questions under timed conditions, and work your way up to full sections. This will stop you from getting frustrated by wrong answers, and allow yourself to acclimatize to the material.
The second reason is that it’s much easier to pinpoint any problem areas if you only have 5-10 question to initially work through. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s much easier to do if you only have to looks through a few strands of straw, as opposed to a big pile. So, start with smaller sets of questions, and as you master the material, work up to bigger ones.
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