Whenever I met new students I used to ask them what their “goal scores” were.  I ended up hearing “180!” a bit too often, so I switched to asking this: “What is the minimum score you’d be satisfied with (and not take the LSAT again)?”  This question provided a better sense of the student’s goals.   So, the true goal is to get YOUR top LSAT score.  We’d all like to get 180s, but it’s just not possible for us all to realize that dream.  If you disagree, I also have a bridge to sell you.

So, this strategy/pep talk is for those who are nearing LSAT game day and are not scoring a 180.  Let’s say you’re scoring 168-170 on your latest preptests, that means that you’re roughly missing 7-12 questions between the four “live” sections.  And let’s say you’re pretty strong with the games and RC – perhaps 1 wrong in each of those usually — but you miss 3 – 5 in each of the LR sections.  If we’re a 6 weeks from the LSAT, there’s no reason whatsoever to assume that you can’t improve on that, but if you’re 3 weeks from test day, it’s time to face the facts: you’re probably going to score within the lower range of your recent preptests.  So, at that point, if you’re not happy with such a score, do not take the LSAT!

If you are happy with that 168, then start practicing getting your top score.  This means that you should practice getting ~10 questions wrong.  Most importantly, practice making those 10 incorrect the 10 questions you find difficult.  In other words, don’t get easy questions wrong and don’t leave yourself rushing on tough questions that are within your reach.  Instead, take educated guesses on the really tough questions that you know — through experience — you’re probably not going to get right.  If you allow yourself to do that — instead of throwing 2-3 minutes after that question — you’ve bought yourself some time for the challenging question that is within your reach.

If you practice taking the test this way, you are much more likely to find yourself scoring at the top of your practice range instead of towards your bottom.

Chill Out

No.

Stop worrying about this sort of stuff — get back to studying for the LSAT.  While you’re at it, don’t worry about:

1. When your experimental section happens (sometime in the first 3 sections)

2. Whether it’s a good testing center.

3. The curve this year.

4. Whether to start with (A) or (E).

5. All questions emanating from reality shows, unless it’s an LSAT-related show, which to my knowledge, has not yet been developed.

With love . . .

The LSAT is less than a week away, and people are often asking for final tips about test day.  Here’s my best of:

1.  Easy does it. Don’t take any full preptests within the last two days.  The brain is a muscle, let it rest.  Take a few timed sections each day up until 3 days before the LSAT, a couple untimed two days before, with a bunch of review of work you’ve already done.  And the day before just re-do LSAT sections you have already done.  On the morning of the LSAT, re-do one easy logic game on your way to the test center to get your brain moving.  Caveat: if you know you’ll do better with momentum, go right ahead and get momentumming and go crazy on the LSATs the week before.  Some people like to do a six-section LSAT a week before test day to make 5 sections seem easy.

2. Pack-up the night before. Get all your pencils sharpened, print out the ticket (and make sure your printer doesn’t cut off any part of the ticket), and find that analog watch your dad gave you years ago.  Make sure you know how to get to your testing center – there’s nothing worse than freaking out on your way to the test.  Plan to arrive early and to enjoy a coffee outside while you do a warm-up section, or a crossword puzzle or something that is fun and slightly intellectual. Read more

Weaken questions can operate in a few different ways. Let’s look at some examples.

Sep 09 Exam, Section 4, #2

Here’s the basic logic given in the argument:

You can always keep your hands warm by putting on extra layers of clothing (clothing that keeps the vital organs warm).

THUS, to keep your hands warm in the winter, you never need gloves or mittens.

This argument is a sound argument – no flaws or assumptions. If you have another option for keeping your hands warm, then you never truly need gloves or mittens.

In this case, the correct answer actually attacks the main premise. The correct answer says that sometimes (when it’s really really cold) putting extra layers of clothing on actually is not enough to keep your hands warm. Notice how this contradicts the premise. So, to weaken an argument you can attack a supporting premise.

Read more

Do you struggle with assumption and flaw questions? Do you often choose answers that seem right, or relevant, but end up being wrong? This may help.

Consider the following argument:

Many respected entrepreneurs assert that insufficient capital, capital required to cover operating expenses in addition to initial start-up costs, is inevitably a factor in the failure of start-up businesses. However, all of the failed start-ups with which I’ve been involved have failed as a result of executives’ lack of expertise in the product or service that the company provides. Thus, insufficient capital is not a factor in causing start-up businesses to fail.

If this were followed by a question that asked you to choose an assumption, this would be a pretty tough question. The average test-taker attempts to memorize, or “learn” the entire argument, and then gets distracted by answer choices that seem relevant to some particular part of the argument that ends up not mattering so much. This leads to wrong answers. Read more

You’ve taken the LSAT!  Hoorah . . . but how did you do?  If you’re one of the many folks considering whether to re-take or not, take a look at this:

//www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/07/01/lsat-re-take-considerations-how-to-improve-your-lsat-score/

But do not operate under the influence . . .

If you’d like to review the LSAT with us, we’re holding a live online workshop on October 25th at 8pm EST //www.atlaslsat.com/EventShow.cfm?EID=3&eventID=113

One interesting development in the latest LSATs is the introduction of a new strain of question in logic games.  The LSAT has begun to ask which rule change would have no effect on the scenarios possible under the rest of the game’s constraints.  One of the impressive aspects of the LSAT is how it continues to evolve so that it remains an accurate assessment of one’s ability to make inferences.  Strict executors were thrown for a loop by those questions since they’re new and not directly covered in most courses or books.  Flexible test-takers were able to adapt.  One of the major considerations with such a question — and a line of thinking that can help you avoid the time-consuming testing out of each answer choice —  is “How does the removed rule affect the game?”  All rules limit the possibilities, so the challenge is to figure out how that happens in relation to the other rules.

I thought I would add one more tip to a previous posting full of tips for those about to go and take the LSAT: //www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/06/03/final-lsat-tips/

Bring some light warm-up LSAT material with you to the testing center. I suggest bringing some tough questions that you completely mastered.  Before you enter the testing center, just run through the questions one last time, toss the paper into the recycling bin and head to your room.  Don’t bother checking your work.  The reason to do this is that you don’t want to use the first section of the test as your warm-up.  You want your logical thinking already moving when you start section 1.  The brain is a muscle, so warm it up just like you would your legs.

And I stand behind my night-before-the-LSAT recommendation: Legally Blonde, 1 or 2.

Good luck!

People often ask whether we offer a score guarantee and are sometimes surprised to find that we don’t.

Why don’t we do this?

1. Score guarantees are not what they seem. If you read the fine print about score guarantees, you’ll see that you have to do a great deal to qualify.  You cannot miss a single class; you must do all the HW, etc.

2. Everyone’s goal is different. What if your score improved one point – is that satisfactory?  What if you’re shooting for a 15 point gain and your scores rise only 10 points?  We want to help anyone who has not yet reached his or her goal, and is willing to do the work.  Finally, a 6-point increase means very different things for the person initially scoring a 150 and someone starting at a 169!  We specialize in people looking for top scores, and often they come to us already sporting robust numbers.

3. Improving isn’t hard. If your score doesn’t improve a few points after doing a series of PrepTests, something is off!  Exposure to the LSAT is in itself a way of improving your score.  Why guarantee something that is easy to achieve?  We guarantee satisfaction.

4. It’s a waste of time. Managing a score guarantee program generally entails a lot of work on the part of the student and the company.  HW needs to be checked, diagnostic tests need to be administered, etc.  Our first class is a class – not a diagnostic test to be used for score comparisons later – we are more interested that you practice once you have something to practice!

5. You need to do the work. There is an unavoidable fact about LSAT prep: if you don’t do the work, you won’t improve your score.  While our teachers are phenomenal and our curriculum is top-notch, you need to do the heavy-lifting.  We guarantee that we do our job, but we can’t guarantee that you’ll do yours!

If you find that you were unable to keep up with the class – if life got in the way – you can take our course again for $399.

Lots of people struggle with the LSAT, but few take the time to figure out what the real problem is.  For each of the following scenarios, try to assess what the test-taker did wrong before reading further.

Scenario 1: Logic Games: An Unconditional “Must Be True” Question
The test-taker has notated all the constraints for the game correctly and made a few initial inferences. The second question is an unconditional “must be true.” He looks at choice (A), and doesn’t see why it should be true or false. He looks at (B) and feels the same way.  Looks through his diagram and notes again but  can’t make a determination. The element mentioned in answer choice (C) isn’t even on his diagram! He starts to panic, and thinks of going back to answer choice (A) and starting over, or double-checking if his diagram is correct…

What do you think? What did this test-taker do that was so wrong? Don’t read ahead until you have a guess. Read more

If you’re an LSAT forum poster/reader, you know that the good majority (almost all, in fact) of content-related LSAT posts focus on Logic Games and Logical Reasoning. This makes perfect sense. It’s easy to submit a post about a setup for a tough logic game, and it’s very easy to discuss the underlying logic present in one short LR question. LG and LR questions come in nice, neat packages. They are forum-friendly. Additionally, future LSAT test-takers seem to see and appreciate the immediate impact of a well-designed setup or a clever way to think about a piece of LR logic. The payoff is quick, and often immediate.
Reading comprehension, on the other hand, is messy. In order to have a serious, in-depth discussion about an RC passage, everyone in the conversation needs to be coming directly from a focused read of the passage. It doesn’t work to try to remember back to the passage, or to read a quick summary. For this reason, not many like to talk about it or ask about it. It’s inconvenient. Furthermore, there never seems to be a quick, easy payoff when it comes to RC. There’s not one inference that can be made to change confusion to understanding, there’s no quick gimmick that can be posted concisely to help someone become a better reader. There’s simply no quick fix, no immediate gratification. So why spend time on it? Most people don’t.
These are the people you are competing against. The better you do relative to them, the higher your LSAT score. Make their RC weakness your strength and you’ll put yourself in a position to gain upwards of 4 raw points on the field. Before you decide to make RC your LSAT version of a powerful forehand, you need to be in the right mindset. Read more