The most important LSAT advice I wish I could give to my younger self...

zoomzoom

This is something I wish I could tell my younger self when I first started off studying. When I first started, I had this mindset of "If I study 5 hours a day and do 100 questions... yeah I'll definitely crush this exam." Yeah, I was definitely cocky with that mentality and now I realize how foolish I was back then to think that haha. But the reason for that is much of our exams in college and high school were fueled by this kind of approach. Whether it be a biology exam or history exam, if you memorized a fact, YOU KNOW and can regurgitate that on paper. "What year was the Declaration of Independence signed? Oooh easy, 1776!"

The LSAT is different. It is less a content exam and more of a skills exam. The exam tests very specific skills that, if you hone them well, will serve you extremely well come test day.

For example, in Logical Reasoning, it is all about evaluating the argument. What does it mean to evaluate the argument? It means you have to be able to find the Conclusion, identify the Premises, pause and think about any assumptions being made, and then figuring out why the correct answer is correct while all the others are bad. To be able to do all this quickly is a skill and the most critical skill on the section.

When I started off, I didn't think much about the above and my basis for success came down to how many questions I got right on a problem set. "Yes, I got 4 out of 5 right! I'm ready for this man!" But the I would just keep getting the same low score over and over and over.

The problem was that I may have gotten the correct answer a few times but I never fully understood why nor did I fully integrate the correct processes to be able to get them consistently right.

The best example is shooting a basketball. I was lucky enough to hit a few shots in a row but come game day, I couldn't hit them consistently time and time again. The only way to make this work is to make sure you integrated the correct processes into your brain so that it is seamless. That's why players like Steph Curry no long think when they shoot. They just shoot because the skill is so embedded in them.

That's where you want to be in LSAT prep. It is far more beneficial for you to take the time to figure just what skills the LSAT is testing and then figuring out the methods to consistently practice those skills over and over.

Your goal should not be "I want to finish 50 questions in 3 hours," but rather "Did I understand just these 5 questions and how to correctly approach them next time?" The latter is far more beneficial and will serve you well because the LSAT repeats the same concepts over and over. The same flaws, the same games, the same RC passages come up over and over. If you could to figure out the best way to tackle these problems the first time around and integrate them, you'll be ready to ace them without blinking the next time you see them.

sarahkoolaid

Thank you for taking the time to write and share this! Very useful

Brrrree3

This is great advice. I still struggle to avoid the preset college mentality but I'm working hard to fully understand exactly what I'm doing.

laura_lolo

Thank you!