Introducing LSAT Interact: Our New, Fully Interactive Self-Study Program
Have you ever given birth to a baby? I have. And I did it along with some fellow LSAT geeks here at Manhattan LSAT. We are very proud to bring the world LSAT Interact! What the heck is LSAT Interact? In short, it’s a self-study course built on interactive videos (click on answer (D) and you go here, click on answer (B) and you go somewhere else). We are so incredibly excited for this to be done. But let me take you on a short trip down a timeline of how this all went down:
Solid Advice from Someone Who Has Been There
Like any good marketer, I try to keep my ear to the ground to make sure I’m aware of the relevant pre-law/LSAT prep chatter that is happening out there on
Advice
the interwebs. One bastion of such pre-law babble is the inimitable (if not insane) Top Law School Forums.
A recent thread started by a forum user called “piney” provided some insight that I could not have written better myself, in a thread called “My advice to future test takers”. I was so impressed with the advice that I reached out to the author in order to get his buy-in on me sharing his advice on our blog. Turns out his name is Michael C. and he was fine with us sharing his astute insights with you all. Thanks, Michael!
We know Michael is a smart, credible, intelligent guy because he studied using Manhattan LSAT books (hehe). Here are his insights, with a bit of commentary from me in italics (you can read his thread in full here):
1) Get used to an analog watch. With the stop watch, I knew exactly how much time I had spent on each question and how much time I had to go. That’s not as easy to calculate with an analog watch, and the proctor won’t write a stop and finish time fo(r) you on the board. You get a 5 minute warning, which is really only enough time to panic if you have an entire logic game left because you couldn’t keep track of time.
Most students will score 2-5 points lower than their PT average on test day. There are loads of theories as to why this is — nerves, crappy proctors, etc. — so why not prepare in a way that will make you as comfortable as possible on test day? To me, this includes getting comfortable with your timing mechanism. So important is the whole watch thing that there is an entire company, LSAT TIMER, that sells watches calibrated for 35-minute intervals specifically for taking the LSAT!
2) When I practiced, I made the mistake of checking my answers after each section right away. This usually put me at ease, because of the five or six questions I was unsure of, I usually got most of them right and moved on to the next section with confidence. You won’t be able to do that on the test. The doubt and uncertainty you have about your performance accumulates with each section, and you lose confidence very quickly. By the third section, I started to worry I might not even be able to apply this cycle (I’m 27 right now, so that’s a big deal for me). I have no idea whether I scored a 175 or a 165, and that anxiety will stay with me until January.
Again, it’s important to follow game-day protocols while practicing. Some level of test-day anxiety is unavoidable, but you can eliminate aspects of it by being diligent in your practice habits. Perfect segue to advice nugget #3…
3) Take preptests in uncomfortable and unfamiliar environments, not your dorm room or library. If you can, take your test in a classroom with no windows in a building you’ve never been in before. That’s what test centers are like.
Manhattan LSAT offers free proctored exams at our locations across the country. If we have one in your city, consider signing up. It’s free!
4) Don’t expect your proctor to put you at ease. The strictness of the procedures makes you anxious from the start. You realize LSAC trusts no one and automatically assumes you’re there to cheat the system. Expect to have an excentric (sic) and snippy PhD watching your every move for 3 hours, and a large group of Saturday morning volunteers who don’t know the procedures and can offer no help.
This is not a one-off experience; I constantly hear tales of the proctor from hell. Expect the unexpected on the proctor front.
5) Don’t wait until December to take the test like I did. If this had been June, I could have told myself during the test that I had two more chances to get a higher score. But when I started to worry I was doing badly and knew there was no chance of redemption, I became depressed very quickly, and this probably hurt my performance.
This is a nice piece of long term advice for those of you reading this blog as part of your pre-planning efforts. Knowing you have an administration or two “in the bank” in case you don’t do well can sometimes go a long way in calming your LSAT nerves.
Come One, Come All! A Universal Tip for LSAT Takers
In the week before the LSAT, I’m always inclined to write last-minute tips, but I’ve done that already and you can read them here. This week I want to offer a tip both for those of you cramming a few last days of study in before Saturday and those of you beginning to prepare for the February test.
The tip is: don’t study badly.
A friend who tutored the LSAT for years used to tell her students that the worst thing they could do is study while doing something else: watching TV, listening to music, tuning out a conversation (that you’re not really tuning out, because how possible is that, really?). Her tough-love line was, if you aren’t going to study well, don’t at all. It’s worse to develop bad habits and associations around the test than it is just to study less.
I’ve come to see her point. When I talk to people who don’t understand why their scores aren’t going up, it often goes like this. They tell me that they study all the time! They use the strategies! They have read the guides cover to cover and highlighted! But then I hear, well, sure, I have Pandora on. I study during Project Runway–but I’ve seen them all before so it’s not even like it’s suspenseful! I just like having it on in the background?
You know what I say to this? Auf wiedersehen, 170+.
When you devote half your attention to a task, you’re saying that that task doesn’t demand your full brainpower. This may work when you’re talking to your mom on the phone and washing dishes, or reading Gawker and keeping an eye on the phone to see if that certain person texts, or cleaning your roommate’s toothpaste off the sink while plotting his “accidental” demise, but the LSAT isn’t a stubborn clump of Colgate or a story about your Uncle Clifford’s mystery mole. It’s an endurance test designed to challenge the best and brightest minds intellectually, emotionally (anxiety is probably the number one issue students want to discuss one-on-one) and physically. You don’t train for a marathon by stopping every two miles to update your Facebook status, and you can’t successfully study for the LSAT by half-heartedly committing to your preparation.
Easier said than done, I realize. Believe me–I spent twenty years doing exactly what I’m saying you shouldn’t. I wrote college papers to Michael Jackson denying he’s Billie Jean’s baby daddy and Bono’s stalking. Do you know when I stopped? When I was studying for the LSAT. I had already graduated from college when I learned that I wasn’t going to get by on half-braining it, because when I did, I missed twice as many questions as when I found a quiet space and focused. That remains true today.
So close the door to your bedroom–your dog will be fine–get a big, bright lamp and a little pair of bright orange ear plugs if you have to, and set a reasonable goal: I’ll do this for thirty-five minutes. One section. See what a difference it makes. And good luck.
Sufficient vs. Necessary Conditions on the LSAT
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding. Select your test to sign up now.
“It’s confusing sufficient with necessary” is probably one of the phrases that LSAT students use most frequently. But what does that really mean? If you’re just starting out your LSAT prep, this conditional logic can be a bit confusing. So, here’s a basic lesson.
Let’s start with an example: Read more