Quick Tip: Study Actively
One common misconception about the LSAT is that improvement is solely a product of the number of hours put in. Some think that even if those hours aren’t productive, as long as you’re “on the clock,” it counts. This is wrong! Improvement is not purely quantitative (a measure of hours studied) but about how you’re doing it.
It’s important to distinguish between passive and active studying. While passive studying might involve you multitasking or just looking over notes/videos passively, this doesn’t work so well for the LSAT. The LSAT requires every ounce of brainpower you have to be focused on one thing alone: the test. Instead, study actively: shut off your phone, study in short spurts (30 minutes or less) with breaks in between, and push yourself to be doing something active (such as doing questions, rewriting questions, etc.).
Discussion: Optimizing Score Preview/Cancellation
As of the August 2022 administration, students are allowed to cancel unsatisfactory scores after seeing the result (a privilege previously only given to first-time takers). This “score preview” option costs $45 if purchased prior to sitting for the test and $75 if purchased after sitting for the test.
The vast majority of students will—and should—purchase this option (although whether you buy it in advance or buy it after the test depends on how confident you are about how the test went). It offers additional flexibility in case of a bad day, particularly since most students would rather have the neutrality of a “cancel” on their record than a low score. The purpose of this post is not to convince you to purchase this, but rather to explain some of the strategic implications of the option for your studying.
The primary implication is that conventional wisdom of “not sitting for the test until 100% ready” may need to be slightly modified. I used to tell my students to not sit for the test unless and until their prior 5 PTs are averaging the same score as their goal score. The reason for this is that most students do “worse” on the real test than practice and, therefore, it’s not worth it to chance a low score showing up on their record.
However, score preview/cancellation changes this calculation somewhat. Now, a bad score simply won’t show up on the student’s record. This lowers the “risk” portion of the “risk/reward” ratio somewhat; if a student feels reasonably likely to hit their target score (even if not averaging that target score over 5 PTs), sitting for the test may be worth it. Other considerations—sitting for an earlier test to apply earlier, personal reasons they want to be done with the test—may take on greater significance than before.
As a result, if I were advising a student on when to take a test, I’d now say the following: if their PT average (over 5 tests) was within 1-2 points of their target score AND they’d scored their target score before, they should sit for the test.
However, it still bears emphasizing that students shouldn't take tests frivolously. Numerous cancels on the LSAC record would still look worse than 1 good score. And there’s still the limit of 7 lifetime takes, plus the annual limit of 3 takes. But the option of expunging the score does permit additional flexibility, making it easier to justify sitting for the test when slightly less sure about hitting the target score.