Self-study
Hey!
I'm currently registered for the 2025 November LSAT and I started studying (seriously) at the beginning of August. My current diagnostic is a 145 and I've done only two other PT's afterwards with the same score and I want to at least get a 158+ on the real LSAT. Is it possible to attain that or am I being delusional lol? I study at least 4 hours on weekdays after work and 6-8 hrs on weekends too if that helps.
Any tips, suggestions, reality checks, etc. will be greatly appreciated :)
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8 comments
Hi! I am in the same boat!! I am looking for a study buddy if you are up for that!
Hello, this is very much possible. I began studying in July with a 156 diagnostic, and am currently PTing around the 167-169 range (with some variability) and I am registered to take the test in October. Here are my suggestions:
It is much better to study 1-2 solid hours heavily focused compared to 6-8 hours. I am honestly not sure what you could even do for 8 hours studying wise without burning out.
Focus on doing drills a lot more than "learning the logic". I know 7sage has courses but I found them to be very confusing and over complicated, when often you can get an intuition for a lot of questions after you see them enough times, and understanding why the correct answer is correct.
At this point - and this may seem counterintuitive - slow down. If you want a 158, you can still afford to get quite a few questions wrong on the test (5+ per section). That means you have a much better chance improving your score by slowing down and instead of trying to answer 25 questions in a section (and as a result, rushing through most and answering inaccurately), slow down and aim to answer 18-20 questions per section, and just guess the last few in the last 1 minute or so. This way, you have a much higher chance of getting 20/25 correct, and mathematically, you have a high probability of getting 1 of the 5 correct too.
This is the biggest tip that helped me: you need to understand that there is only ONE right answer, and as a consequence, 4 WRONG answers. Often we kid ourselves into thinking that we chose the "second best" answer, or the "trap answer". But any answer that isn't correct is wrong for one reason or another. Which brings me to my final point:
Be very honest with yourself as to why you got an answer incorrect. When I first started studying, I would look at the correct answer and tell myself: "Oh that makes sense, I just misread the question". But this isn't true generally. Firstly, the questions are very carefully crafted, and not only did I not select the right answer, I also chose the WRONG answer - which means I had to have had a misunderstanding of the question as a whole, not just misreading it.
@CameronSchmidt This is great advice, thank you for this! Also I believe to get a 158 (there is of course variation based on each test curve) I have seen that you can get roughly 7-8 wrong per "scored" section.
@CameronSchmidt Hi, I loved the advice you gave, definitely helps a whole bunch!!!! I was wondering if you had tips on reading comp, I seem to be better at LR than RC. I get only 6-7 questions right while i did 3 passages worth of questions. Any tips on getting better at RC? I am also writing in NOV
@CameronSchmidt Thank you for the advice! I appreciate it a lot. When it comes to PT's and individual timed sections though, what would you recommend is a good amount of times I should do them in a week on top of drilling? Again, thank you for the recommendations and have a great day :)
@Reiii23 I recommend using the study plan tool that 7Sage has! It's been super helpful. I would be careful doing more than one prep test a week since they are limited and would devote the time you would have spent on a second prep test to in-depth blind review.
@Reiii23 I would think of your studying like you would preparing for a marathon. Sure, you want to include some days where you run close to the distance of the marathon to improve your stamina (this would be like doing a full practice test, making sure you can focus for several hours), but you also want to make sure you can effectively run the shorter distances too, making good time for those (i.e. drills and sections). In my opinion I would do 1 section 2x per week, a prep test 1x per week, and the other days shorter drills. If you're not reaching the accuracy you want on 5 questions, it would be a waste to do 25 questions, since you'd just be repeating the same mistakes. I would be doing drills to try and spot your weaknesses, and use full sections as a guage of how you're improving.
@xcutethings Hi there, here is my advice for reading comprehension:
My biggest advice that has helped me go from -8 average to around -3 is to significantly slow down. I take my time reading the passage (usually takes me 3.5 to sometimes 4 minutes to read the passage) and as I’m reading I translate each sentence I read into simpler terms to make sure I get it. Instead of trying to focus on reading all passages and rushing/being less accurate, I try my best to be very accurate on 3 of 4, then speed through the last one (or whichever one is the 5 question one). This way you can be closer to 20/26 with a decent chance of getting some of the last 5 correct.
In terms of understanding the passages better, I think using an "active" reading style is very helpful. Try to think of reading the passage as if you had to retell it to your younger cousin. Each sentence I read, I say to myself "So basically insert very simplified version of what I just read".