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Hi! I'm a student at NYU Law School with an official LSAT score of 175. I've spent the past year+ tutoring the LSAT, and I have worked with 10+ students across a range of starting points and timelines. On average, my students have improved 7–10 points from their diagnostic score. Throughout my time tutoring (and while studying for the exam myself), I compiled a study guide including all of the question types you will see on the exam and relevant strategies for answering them. I also identify some important patterns across the exam. I’ve written some general tips below, but if you want the full guide, either comment or DM me and I can send it over!
A few general tips:
The LSAT tends to emphasize scope and tone words. The biggest place that my students see improvement is when they begin reading for tone and quantifying words in both LR and RC. In practice, this means recognizing when the passage or stimulus uses words like "some," "all," or "most" and being able to use those words to eliminate answer that are out of the scope of the question. It's my favorite hack and can help you eliminate answers almost every time.
You do not have to start from scratch each time you see a necessary assumption question. Similar to most other question types, necessary assumption leverages your pattern recognition skills, meaning you rarely have to start from complete scratch in answering a necessary assumption question. For example, many necessary assumption questions dealing with an experiment or trial carry the assumption that the group being studies does not have some other common variable that would impact the results one way or another.
For RC, the main point questions should cover the entire passage. If there is a prominent argument or tone in the passage, you will see that in the correct answer choice. If there is a counterargument that is discussed and rebutted extensively, that will also be in there. The most common wrong answers here are the ones that are too specific or too broad and don't cover enough of the passage.
I tutor both online and in person in the NYC area, and I'm flexible on scheduling. If you're aiming for a specific score range or just feeling stuck, message me and we can schedule a free intro call to go over what a study plan might look like. My rate is typically $100 per hour if we are meeting online, and $120 for in-person in NYC but am open to negotiating for class packages/fee waivers.