Time management on the LSAT is an element of the exam that is as difficult to overcome as it is important to your score: very!

One of the toughest and most common struggles that LSAT test takers face is how much time to devote to each question and what to do when the

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second and minute hands on the clock are interfering with your ability to focus on the actual exam. Maybe you’re having trouble with which questions to attack first, which questions to skip, or when it’s time to take your best guess.

To help students conquer the challenges of pacing and time management on the LSAT, Law School Podcaster has released a new show that shares proven time management techniques and strategies just in time for June 2012 LSAT.

The show grants insight from four experts in the LSAT sphere, including one of our own resident LSAT gurus: Noah Teitelbaum, Director of Academics and co-creator of our curriculum.

Here are a few snippets of Noah-wisdom from the show, which can be listened to in its entirety on LawSchoolPodcaster.com:

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We incorporate the latest discoveries in learning science into our LSAT course to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your prep. Want to see? Try the first session of any of our upcoming courses for free.

Hungry? If you’re gearing up for the LSAT, now is not the time to grab a Snickers. As the clock ticks closer to the big day you may have found yourself in the repetitive study, eat, sleep, routine. Hopefully by now you have the studying and sleeping down to a science, but it is just as crucial to keep in mind that what you put into your stomach could be just as important as all that LSAT knowledge you’ve been planting in your brain. Before you hit the grocery store this weekend, check out some of the top brain food to add to your list as well as the best times to indulge in order to have your mind ready for optimal performance on test day. Read more

With only 4.5 days to go before the June 2012 LSAT you should be at the point in your preparations where you have made peace with your capabilities and are ready to sit down and take the exam with confidence come Monday. If you’re still struggling, you’d ought not to fool yourself in to thinking that a miracle is going to occur. Truth is, many students roughly 3  points lower on the real test than they do on their timed PrepTests leading up to the exam.

These decreases on the real exam are generally due to nerves or random test day variables such as a really annoying neighbor, a less than ideal test center, or a proctor from hell. Unless you have been consistently scoring 2-3 points higher than your goal on your most recent timed Prep Tests, I would strongly suggest postponing your exam until October and spending the next three and a half months sharpening your skills. Read more

The second game on PrepTest 35 is an open assignment game about new cars. Each new car is equipped with one or more of the following: power windows, leather interiors, and/or a sunroof. The diagram we draw for this game is the standard for open assignment games: the open board. The open board is awesome for open assignment games because it provides a means to track how many features each car has. (Remember, each of these cars could have anywhere from one to three features.)

Stiletto Feature Sold Separately

A student recently asked, “Could it have more than one sunroof?” I told her no, that she should assume no duplicates. To illustrate, I said, “Think of how absurd it would be to have a car with multiple leather interiors.” She raised her eyebrows. “I’ve seen it.” (I convinced her with the power windows feature.)

Two-tone leather interiors aside, it struck me that this may be a point worth making clear for you guys: the LSAT is not two-toned. Read more

In the last session of my spring course this week, I asked (pressured?) my students to author inspirational LSAT poetry. Wooed with promises of drinks for the winner (oh yeah, it was a contest), they submitted the following. Since it has been months since I blogged my own original LSAT haiku, the time is ripe to present haiku once again. This time, they come from my students. Enjoy!

Games make my head hurt;
I don’t care who won the race;
All losers to me.

Help me find the flaw!
We can make inferences!
Bang head into wall!

Don’t fear the LSAT.
I won’t do poorly, okay?
You will look better.

Same film like three times?
Open assignment be damned.
This club is BS.*

*The author wishes to clarify that this haiku was in reference to a game on an old prep test in which members of a film club watch the same movie repeatedly. Familiar to anyone else?

Share you own LSAT haiku in the comments!

It is a natural human tendency to procrastinate. Some of the most productive people I know procrastinate habitually. To procrastinate on some things, though, can be seriously detrimental to overall goals (and we know how important goals are). Preparing for the LSAT is one of those things!

If you are hoping to begin law school in the Fall of 2013, now is the time to begin planning your LSAT prep. The October LSAT is 19 weeks away, so if you haven’t given a thought to what you’re going to do this summer to prepare, now is the time to start planning.

In the spirit of getting you off your butt and beginning to prep for the LSAT, here are some famous quotes on procrastination: Read more

Principle Example questions on the logical reasoning section ask you to find an illustration (or example) of a principle given to you in the stimulus. The most straightforward of these provide an outright principle (generally stated) followed by five answer choices describing specific situations. For example, one might look like this:

It's an illustration within an illustration

‘Tis better to give than to receive. 

Which of the following best illustrates the principle stated above? 

(A) It is better for Jeremy to give his dad an HDTV than to give his mom a necklace. 

(B) It is better for Jeremy to get a motorcycle from his dad than from his mom. 

(C) It is better for Jeremy to give his sister the iPad than to keep it for himself. 

(D) It is better for Jeremy’s sister to give the iPad to Jeremy than to give it to charity. 

(E) It is better for Jeremy to give his girlfriend a Dr. Seuss book than to receive one from his sister. 
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It only takes a few minutes browsing the Manhattan LSAT website to realize that we are extremely proud of our teachers. Not only are they 99th percentile LSAT gurus, but they’re seriously cool, too.

Exhibit B (see exhibit A):  Recently our Dmitry Farber was in Paris and partook in a little loose Jazz groove. That’s him on the mic.

Rock on, Dmitry. Rock on.

To recognize a binary grouping game, we look for two things: (1) two groups into which we’re placing elements (that’s what makes it binary) and (2) conditional constraints.

On the June 2011 LSAT, there is a game masquerading as a binary grouping game. It asks us to place judges on one of two courts–appellate or trial–so it meets the first of the two criteria above. Many people see this, make their two columns, and get ready to draw some arrows. But when they get to the rules/constraints, they get stuck. You can’t draw arrows if you don’t have “ifs” and “thens.”

Check out the first game on Prep Test 63, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Did you fall for the trap?

The game offers a lesson that potentially could save valuable time–and points–on the test. Once you spot that you’re sorting elements into two groups, and that alerts your binary-grouping-‘dar, good for you. But you’re only halfway there. Don’t start making “in” and “out” columns until you scan the constraints to confirm they’re conditional. Otherwise, you’re about to spend the next few seconds (or more) wishing you had.

Some people have trouble with flaw questions on the LSAT because there are two ways the answer choices can be worded. One just points out the assumption by asking what the argument “takes for granted.” The other points out the assumption, too, but in a more indirect way; it tells you something the argument isn’t considering by making the assumption:

The argument fails to consider that…

Or

The argument ignores the possibility that…

When I teach flaw questions, there are a couple of morbid examples I like to use to illustrate the difference. So apologies in advance for being a Debbie Downer, but I like to think the morbidity of these makes them more memorable. Here they are, the Morbid Flaws. Read more