Bad Glacier

As I’ve been prone to do lately, I’m taking someone else’s post idea and going off my own way with it. This time, it’s Narkoleptomania trying to come up with advice for a pre-pre-law student on LSAT prep classes (here).

First off, none of this is based on personal experience, as I didn’t take a class. But I did have a friend who taught them. His advice to me was that if you’re scoring 165 or above on practice tests, a prep class won’t do much for you. Remember, most of the test prep companies only require their teachers to have a score above the 90th percentile (that’s somewhere in the 167-ish range, I think). Of course, the teachers get training in the things they will teach, but my point is: if they can learn it to teach it to you, you can surely learn it on your own.

I guess a class could be useful if you don’t have the self-discipline to make yourself do old LSATs and look over the answers and such (but what an expensive way to make yourself practice!). I just have a hard time justifying the $1000-1500 when there are all kinds of practice tests and books already out there.

My advice to future LSAT takers is pretty simple. Get a bunch of old tests and take them under the test’s time conditions. As you go, mark all the questions you’re not sure about. Then, when you’re done, look over all of the marked questions, even if you got them right. Figure out what the right answer is and why each of the wrong answers is wrong. Work through the logic of the question until you understand it. Get that question down cold. Then move on to the next one.

When I was getting ready for the LSAT, I started out taking a couple practice tests and going through Kaplan’s LSAT 180 book. I recommend the book. It’s full of really tough problems (not straight from old LSATs, but fairly similar to real questions), with strategies for each type of question and explanations for each problem. (Whatever book you get, try to find one with explanations.)

I noticed that I got slower, and missed more problems, in the later sections of the test. So I went into this weird type of endurance training. I started taking 6 or 7 sections in a row (still timing myself). If I finished a section ahead of time, I just reset my timer and went straight on to the next section. After I finished all the sections, I went back and reviewed my answers and all that.

I ended up doing ten or so old tests, along with the Kaplan book. Oh, and I took a break the day before the real thing. Just relaxed, played guitar, and watched TV.

I guess, between the endurance sessions and the LSAT 180 book, I was preparing for a much harder, much longer test. It make the real thing seem—well, not easy, but not as tough as I expected. Except for the horribly long Reading Comprehension section. Ugh.

Update!: Why Law’s post brings up a point I forgot: take a logic class! It’s fun (seriously) and we both think it helped on the LSAT.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Applying to Law School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.