The LSAT is scored between 120 and 180. The average score is about 151, which is generally too low for acceptance into many, if not most, law schools (at least the more desirable ones). With so many valuable resources for preparing for the test, it’s somewhat surprising that so many people fail to markedly improve their scores from the time they begin prepping to the time they take the test. There are three main reasons for this.
1) Not Spending Enough Time Prepping
This one’s sort of obvious; but, if it were really that obvious, maybe more people would do it. It’s a good idea to spend around 2-3 months prepping for the LSAT, totaling about 75-100 hours of study time. Most people do prep for the test, but many of them do not spend enough time working problems. The LSAT is not like most tests we take in school where you can just study the night before and do fine. The LSAT requires learning new skills and drilling them until they are more or less second nature. The second reason people fail to improve on the LSAT involves how they use their time prepping…
2) Not Spending 1/3 of Their Prep Time Finding Out Why Their Answer Choice was Wrong
While it’s important to spend a lot of time working problems, if you don’t know why you got the answer wrong, there is limited benefit. The way we avoid making the same mistakes is by learning why we made the wrong choice. So, when you discover that one of your answer choices on a problem was incorrect, take the time to figure out why it was wrong. It will be time well spent.
3) Not Figuring Out Why Each Answer Choice was Either Correct or Incorrect
It’s not enough to simply find out why your answer choice was incorrect; you should also determine why the other wrong answer choices are wrong and why the right one is right. On the LSAT there is only one correct answer choice for each question. That means there is a very definite reason why it is correct and why the others are incorrect. A process known as “blind review” involves answering LSAT questions and only looking at the correct answers (at the back of the test) once you are 95 to 100 percent confident that your answer choice was the correct one. If you aren’t 95 to 100 percent sure that your answer was the correct one, you go through each answer choice and figure out why the one you picked must be the correct one and why all the others must be wrong. Once you’ve completed this lengthy process (don’t time yourself), then and only then should you look in the back to see the answer.
If you are looking for an LSAT prep course and don’t want to spend $1200+, please feel free to contact us or apply for our course. We at Campus Prep have helped thousands of students prep for their standardized tests, and we charge a small fraction of what the major companies charge. Want a comprehensive, live LSAT course? Email us at admin@campusprep.org or apply for the course at campusprep.org. We would be happy to help you prep for this important test.