I scored a 180 on my first official LSAT after studying for 5 months while working full-time, so I understand both what it takes to master the test in a relatively short period and how difficult it can be to balance LSAT prep with work, school, and life. Since then, I have tutored students across a range of score levels, helping them strengthen their fundamentals, improve consistency, and build a clearer process for both Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.
Whether you need a full LSAT breakdown, help with a specific question type, Blind Review support, timing strategy, practice test analysis, or a new approach after hitting a plateau, I'm here to help. My tutoring style is structured, patient, and direct: I focus on why wrong answers are tempting, why credited answers are correct, and how to recognize the same patterns on future questions.
Reach out to me for a free 15-minute consultation to see how I can help you move toward your goal score.
Discussions
Hi! I scored an official 180 on the LSAT, and Necessary Assumption, Flaw, and Paradox are all question types I work on regularly with students.
With a January test date, you have plenty of time to identify why those questions are giving you trouble and build a more consistent approach rather than rushing through a ton of material.
I structure my tutoring around identifying the specific reasoning patterns behind students' misses. I also offer a free consult if you'd like to talk through your current score, your goals, and what kind of tutoring schedule fits your budget.
Hi! I scored an official 180 and tutor the LSAT full-time. Your situation sounds very similar to students I work with who already have strong foundations but are trying to improve timed execution, reduce second-guessing, and clean up recurring LR mistakes to break into the 170s.
I can also accommodate a London-based schedule. I offer a free consultation where we can go over your current score range, LR patterns, November timeline, and what you've already been doing to see whether I'd be a good fit. Feel free to message me if you'd like to set one up!
RJlsattutor
Independent Tutor180 While Working Full-Time | Opening 1:1 & Group Tutoring Availability | Free Consult
Hi everyone!
Quick tip for anyone balancing LSAT prep with work or school: don't measure a productive study day by how many hours you studied or questions you completed. Give each study session a specific purpose, and leave enough time to review what you did thoroughly. Thirty focused minutes with good review can be much more valuable than several hours of drilling just to hit a volume goal.
As most of my current students finish their testing cycles, I'm opening additional availability for others preparing for the fall and winter administrations.
About me: I scored an official 180 on the LSAT while working full-time, so I understand the challenge of preparing seriously for this test around a demanding work schedule. Since then, I have tutored the LSAT full-time and worked with students across a wide range of scores, from students still building their foundations to those trying to break into the high 160s and 170s or make 170+ performance more consistent.
How I approach tutoring:
I don't think tutoring should just consist of someone explaining questions after you miss them. Most students can understand an explanation once they hear it. The harder part is learning how to recognize the issue yourself before choosing an answer.
During sessions, I want to hear how you reason through the question first: what you noticed, what you predicted, where you hesitated, and why certain answers remained attractive. From there, I'll walk you through my own reasoning so we can compare the two and identify exactly where your process is breaking down.
For Logical Reasoning, I focus heavily on argument structure, prediction, flaw recognition, and understanding why tempting wrong answers fail. The goal is not just to understand why the credited answer works after seeing an explanation, but to become increasingly capable of recognizing the reasoning yourself.
For Reading Comprehension, I focus on passage structure, viewpoints, author attitude, and knowing where information lives in the passage. Memorizing every detail is unnecessary. It's far more important to understand how the passage is organized so that you know what matters and where to return for textual support.
Personalized study plans
For private students, I also use your recent PTs, drilling analytics, Blind Review, review habits, wrong-answer journal, and what I observe during our sessions to build a study plan around the patterns actually costing you points.
The study plan is not something I give you once and expect you to follow unchanged until test day.
As your performance changes, the plan changes with it.
If something that was previously a weakness becomes reliable, we can reduce the time you spend there. If your next few PTs reveal a different recurring issue, that can become the next priority. What you're studying several weeks from now shouldn't necessarily still be determined by what your analytics showed today.
Tutoring may be particularly useful if you:
understand explanations afterward but keep making similar mistakes
frequently get stuck between two answer choices
have a meaningful timed vs. Blind Review gap
struggle with timing, second-guessing, or confidence
feel inconsistent across practice tests and aren't sure why
aren't sure what you should actually be prioritizing each week
Ways to work with me:
Private Tutoring (1:1)
Individual sessions built around your reasoning process, recent PTs, analytics, and current areas for improvement. What happens between sessions helps guide what we work on next, rather than treating each tutoring session as an isolated lesson.
Study Buddy Prep
A two-person tutoring option for students who already have a friend or fellow LSAT studier with similar goals and would like an alternative to private tutoring.
You each work through questions independently before we compare reasoning, which gives you the benefit of individualized feedback while also hearing how another student approached the same problem.
Weekly Group Classes
Small, interactive classes capped at 10 students. Each week focuses on a specific LSAT concept, question type, or strategy, with the topic announced in advance so you can choose the classes most relevant to you.
For each question, everyone first answers through an anonymous poll, so you're able to participate without publicly sharing your answer. Speaking is never required.
Students who want to can then explain their reasoning before I break down the question, share my own approach, and go through the structure, prediction, credited answer, and most tempting wrong-answer choices.
Classes currently meet:
Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. ET
Sundays at 3:00 p.m. ET
Thursday and Sunday generally cover the same weekly topic, so students can attend whichever works better or come to both for additional practice.
Law School Application Support:
I also work with students once they transition from the LSAT into the application process. This can include personal statements, supplemental essays, résumé review, school-list and application strategy, LOCIs, and reviewing application materials as a whole.
Application support is offered à la carte, so you can get help with a particular part of your application or continue working with me throughout the process as needed.
Not sure whether tutoring makes sense for you?
I also offer a free 15-minute consultation.
We can talk through your current score range, goal score, testing timeline, recent PT performance, study history, and what has been giving you trouble. I'll also explain how I would approach your preparation and what I would likely prioritize if we worked together.
You can book a free consultation, comment here, or message me with any questions.
If you found this post helpful, please upvote or leave a short reply so more people can see it.
Hi! I work with students on personal statements and broader law school application strategy.
I also offer a free 15-minute application consultation if you'd like to talk through what you're looking for and see whether I'd be a good fit. Feel free to message me!
Hi! I work with students on personal statements and broader law school application feedback. I keep the support à la carte rather than requiring a larger admissions package, so you can use it specifically for essay feedback or application review as needed.
I also offer a free 15-minute application consultation if you'd like to talk through what you're looking for and see whether I'd be a good fit. Feel free to message me!
@kyahseals16 Thanks for the mention! For anyone interested, I offer a free 15-minute application consultation to talk through where you are in the process and what kind of support would be most useful.
Feel free to message me if you'd like to connect!
@greenlsatbook Thank you so much - I really appreciate this. It’s been great seeing you improve so quickly!
Hi! I agree that the small question-type samples are less important right now than the broader patterns you identified.
I would not wait until finishing the entire Core Curriculum before drilling. A better approach is:
Learn one concept or question family.
Complete a small set of untimed questions immediately afterward.
Review every answer carefully, including uncertain correct answers.
Revisit the concept if you cannot consistently explain why all five choices are right or wrong.
Gradually introduce timed sets once the underlying process becomes reliable.
At this stage, I would prioritize accuracy and reasoning consistency over speed, but I would not avoid timing entirely. Short timed sets can reveal where your process breaks down, while untimed review shows whether the issue is understanding or execution.
Your RC results especially suggest a pacing problem rather than a humanities weakness. Going 15/20 across the first three passages and then running out of time indicates that the biggest immediate gain may come from learning when to stop wrestling with a question, make the best supported choice, and move forward. I would review where the extra time accumulated, not only the final passage.
For full PTs, I would use them sparingly at first. One every two or three weeks is enough while building foundations. Full tests become more valuable once you have a repeatable approach and need to work on endurance, pacing, and consistency. In between, timed sections and carefully reviewed drilling will generally produce more improvement.
I would also avoid waiting for a rigid accuracy benchmark before progressing. A useful standard is whether you can consistently:
Identify the conclusion and support.
Describe the gap before reading the choices.
Explain why the credited answer performs the required task.
Explain the precise defect in each tempting wrong answer.
Your jump from 141 exposure to a 147 pre-study baseline is encouraging, and a goal in the mid-to-high 160s is ambitious but not unreasonable with a structured, long-term plan.
@starglooms Breaking the practice up into sections can be helpful for that very reason, but just remember that stamina is a huge component of this exam. Therefore, it is essential to do the full length PTs. Sorry to hear about the tech issues! I hope you have a smooth exam in August and good luck!!
I would not assume you have actually lost the ability to score in the high 160s. A 169 shows that level is possible, but it may not yet have been your stable baseline. The official test, disappointment from the 163, burnout, and pressure to recreate the 169 can all make your decision-making less efficient.
I would do three things before the August exam:
Reduce volume briefly. Take a couple of lighter days instead of responding by doing more and more questions. Fatigue often shows up as misreads, second-guessing, and poor final-two decisions.
Audit the recent 161–162 tests. For every missed or uncertain question, identify whether the problem was:
not understanding the reasoning,
misreading the task,
timing,
changing a correct answer,
or choosing a tempting answer despite having the right prediction.
You need to know whether your underlying skill declined or your timed execution did.
Focus on consistency, not recreating one 169. Do timed sections with very careful review, then take another full PT under realistic conditions. Your goal should be to bring your average back up, not chase a single peak score.
I also would not take full PTs constantly between now and August. One or two well-reviewed tests will tell you more than several rushed ones. If your next few full tests remain around 161–163, September may give you a better chance of reaching 169 than forcing August. If they return to the mid/high 160s, then the recent dip was probably temporary rather than true regression.
Hope this helps!
I wouldn't cancel August solely because of this one PT. It was your first full PT since June, and scoring around -3 on individual practice sections suggests that your underlying skills may have improved even if they did not yet transfer across an entire exam.
I'd use the next week or so to take another two or three full, strictly timed PTs. If you remain around 161–163, I would probably skip August rather than use an attempt to "see what happens," especially since your goal is 170 and you are already registered for September. If your full-test scores begin moving into the mid-to-high 160s and the remaining misses appear fixable, keeping August becomes more reasonable.
Getting another 161 would not necessarily "look bad." Schools receive all reportable scores, but their treatment of multiple scores varies, and many place the greatest weight on the highest score. A repeat score is usually more neutral than affirmatively harmful.
I also would not rush the LSAT to submit applications a few weeks earlier. The September score is scheduled for release on September 30, so you can receive it before submitting in early October. Even if you submit before a later retake score arrives, LSAC automatically sends updated CAS reports to schools when you repeat the LSAT during the same application year. You should still notify each school and check whether it will hold your file, because some schools may review an application as soon as it is complete.
An early-October application is already early. At schools such as Georgetown, regular-decision applicants typically wait "approximately 8–12 weeks after completion for a decision", which can put an early-October file into December or January anyway. That is not universal, so I would not assume no school will look earlier, but there is very little reason to sacrifice the stronger LSAT score merely to submit a few weeks sooner.
@plantpreps That makes a lot of sense, and I think your point that this is only one test is important. At the 173–174 level, the issue often is not missing major concepts; it is based in execution like overthinking, changing answers without a concrete reason, and creating fatigue through too much volume.
Lowering volume can actually be very effective when it leads to deeper review, more attention to uncertain correct answers, and less pressure to constantly prove that you can hit a particular score. The mindset shift you described also helps a lot because uncertainty stops feeling like an emergency, which usually leads to cleaner first-pass decisions and less second-guessing.
Congrats again - A 180 is no small feat!
Very impressive! For those that are likely wondering - what do you think was most important in getting over the 173-174 plateau?
I work with students on exactly these kinds of targeted LR weaknesses. I scored an official 180, and I'd be happy to help with Level 4/5 Strengthen, Weaken, and MSS questions, especially identifying the recurring reasoning patterns behind the misses rather than just reviewing individual questions.
I also offer a free consult if you want to talk through where you're at first.