Learning science has come a long way in recent years, and we’ve been learning with it. 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.

And so you want to answer every question, but you shouldn’t spend the same amount of time on every question. And ideally, you’d like to use the easy LSAT questions to buy time for the harder LSAT questions.

So what can we do in our practice to implement this? Read more

Ready to study the right way? 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.

Of all the standardized tests out there, the LSAT is perhaps the most intensely time-pressured. We all know the feeling of our hand shaking a little as we stare down at an entire unattempted Logic Game with only five minutes left on the clock. So students often ask me questions like, “When will I start to see improvements in my LSAT timing?” “Will it come with practice, or will I just kind of naturally start to go faster?” Read more

With less than a month to go before the October LSAT, I have noticed an increase in the number of students who call and ask for advice on which LSAT administration they should be setting their sights on. Many of these students are concerned about their readiness for the upcoming October exam, and are fearful about what postponing until the December exam will do to their admission prospects (timeline wise) for the Fall of 2012.

Legend has it LSAC decided on its four implementation months by tossing a marble on a rotating Mayan calendar

While there is something to be said for taking the June or October LSAT and applying earlier in the rolling admissions cycle that law schools use, I want to be very clear about my advice on this: it is far more important to maximize your potential on the LSAT than it is to apply early!

Ann Levine, President of LawSchoolExpert.com and author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert has reiterated this point time and time again on her blog.

I can certainly understand the tendency of a prospective law school student to want to get the LSAT over and done with – and their applications in as early as possible – however rushing to take the test before you are truly prepared is an error in judgement that will ultimately hurt your application, since the LSAT is factored so heavily in to your admission decision.  If you have been preparing for the October LSAT and are not yet where you think you can be score wise, then you should embrace (not fear!) the prospect of postponing your exam until December.  Remember, LSAC has relaxed its policy on postponing registration for the exam, making it more convenient for students to choose a course of action that will benefit them the most in the bigger picture.

When it comes to the February LSAT, it is a different story entirely.  Taking the February LSAT will not allow you to apply for law school admittance for the Fall of that same year.  While there is nothing wrong with taking the February LSAT if you’re ahead of the game (scores are good for five years), all February LSAT takers should be aware that the February test is not released, meaning you will never have the opportunity to review which questions you got right or wrong, which can be a real bummer when you’ve put so much in to preparing for the exam.

If you’re one of the many students who has been preparing for the October LSAT but are not quite feeling like you are where you can be score wise, you should strongly consider setting your sights on the December exam.  We still have a few online courses (and courses in select cities) yet to kick off that have schedules catering to December LSAT takers.

A lot of folks struggle with timing on the LSAT.  Clearly, if the test were un-timed, we’d all find it a lot easier.  Since we have only 35 minutes per section, if you’re having trouble finishing on time, it’s important to address your pacing.

There are several reasons folks struggle with pacing:

1. Not enough full practice under time conditions. If you’re just starting out, your mind is probably not used to the pace at which it needs to work.  I know that I generally equate a good read with a slow read — but that simply doesn’t work for the LSAT.  You probably can speed up considerably by just telling yourself to speed up!  From now on, every problem you try should be done with a stopwatch.  Also make sure you’re throwing in full practice tests along the way.  Don’t wait until you’re done learning all your strategies to work on your speed.

2. Ineffective strategies. Some ways of tackling problems would work just fine if the LSAT were untimed but breakdown under time pressure.   For example, in logic games, writing out all the possible scenarios doesn’t work for the vast majority of games.  In reading comprehension, you simply do not have enough time to do a full re-read.   In logical reasoning, you can’t wait until you’ve read the question to start thinking critically about an argument you’ve already read — you need to be reading critically from the outset.

This problem turns up more frequently with folks who are not using a book to study with, though even those who are in a course can fall prey to this problem if they don’t do timed practice, which often forces them to realize that they must indeed use the strategies they’re learning about. Read more