Quick Tip

Don’t Overdo Blind Review!

Blind Review is great . . . but there can be too much of a good thing! If you’re taking significantly more time to Blind Review than it took you to do the test or if it’s stretching across multiple days, you may be overdoing Blind Review. Instead, focus your attention on questions that you flagged as having a significant chance of being missed; leave the other questions. And limit yourself to no more than 3 hours (the time you spent taking the original test).

Discussion

Tutoring versus Self-Study

A question we often get from students is: why hire a tutor? Do I need a tutor? The answer, in typical lawyerly fashion, is that it depends. Of course, nobody is hurt by hiring a tutor. But there are opportunity costs: namely, money and time. So for some students, a tutor may not be necessary.

If you’re looking for explanations for questions, a tutor probably won’t be for you. You can get explanations for questions through asynchronous resources and exposure to actual questions through real PrepTests (PTs). You also may not need a tutor if you’re just starting out and don’t have a sense of your needs; many students find that self-study gets them to where they need to be without hiring a tutor.

However, we’d say there are 3 situations where a tutor makes a lot of sense:

First, a tutor may help if you’ve hit a plateau. Sometimes, after extensive study, you’ve stopped improving and don’t know why. A tutor can help you diagnose exactly what’s going wrong and what needs to change. A trained eye can help you find patterns that you otherwise might miss. Furthermore, the tutor may be able to give you targeted drills—born of past experience—to overcome these barriers.

Second, a tutor may help if you feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to allocate your time. A tutor doesn’t just help with the LSAT questions; they also are a “coach” who is here to shepherd you through the process. Perhaps someone to hold you accountable, give you homework, and track your progress is what you need if you’re just too busy to navigate this process yourself and engage in long-range planning.

Third, a tutor may help if you find online explanations aren’t working. Sometimes, people learn better through a Socratic method where the teacher questions them in an interactive fashion; for example, the tutor may walk through a flaw question by pushing the student to understand the flaw themselves with leading questions. Passive learning isn’t for everyone, and perhaps learning actively is more your style. If so, working through questions with a tutor may prove helpful.

Tutors aren’t for everyone, so before you decide for or against one, ask yourself if you fit into any of these categories. That may help inform your decision to hire a tutor. Perhaps you have plateaued, feel the need to have guidance throughout the process, or value active learning. If this describes you, we’re happy to help, and you can chat with us for free here.