Hey Guys, I know many of you are taking the LSAT this weekend so I compiled some good tips I found for LSAT success and I sprinkled in a few of my thoughts. Good luck to all of you taking the test, you will do great!
Cheers,
Imran
- Start your day off right. Get some good sleep the night before and then wake up early and have a good breakfast. Even if you dont normally eat breakfast you should eat something before your LSAT test. Then plan to arrive to the test center early to avoid any unforeseen delays. Lastly, visit the restroom before check in and even before the test if you can. You don't want to waste any of your precious time during the exam.
- Know where to find the easier questions. According to regular Kaplan studies on the structure of prior LSATs, the questions in the analytical reasoning and reading comprehension sections tend to get harder in succession. There are exceptions, but it's usually the case that the first logic game is simpler than the next and the first reading passage will be easier to discern than the ones that follow. In the logical reasoning sections, the difficulty also increases as you progress deeper into the test but eventually plateaus in the middle and the sections become easier near the end, according to Thomas. "It rewards the test taker that understands there are easy ones to be had in the back of the section," he says. "When it gets harder toward the middle, it's often advantageous to go to the back and work backward." So that leads me to…
- Answer Easy Questions First. Remember that every LSAT question is worth the same amount of points, so go ahead and skip around, answering the questions that are easiest for you first. You don't have to be a hero and tough it out through the hardest ones. Get yourself the most points you can in case time runs out before you're finished. But if there are some questions leftover and time is dwindling.
- Answer everything. Unlike the SAT, there is no penalty for getting an incorrect answer on the LSAT, so it's important to at the very least make an educated guess on each question. Leaving it blank does you no good. Also, every question is weighted the same. Tougher questions count just the same toward the final score as their simpler counterparts, so don't get bogged down trying to answer the difficult ones. Answer as many easy questions as you can and revisit the tough questions with your remaining time. It's much wiser to tackle questions that are in your wheelhouse first and guess on the harder ones than to dwell on the difficult ones and rush through simpler ones as your time expires, potentially botching them because of the time crunch. "The questions that you spend the most time on are the ones you're most likely to get wrong," says Goehring. "Even if you were guaranteed to get the question right, but you had to spend five minutes on it, how many easy questions would you have gotten right in that same amount of time?"
- Stay Positive. During the test, make sure to keep a positive attitude. You've practiced these types of questions already, so attack them with the strategies you've acquired. Don't let a difficult question or even a difficult section ruin the rest of the exam. Take a deep breath and regain your focus. Confidence and a positive attitude is key to success in any field. The LSAT is no different.
Imran is a 3L at USC Gould School of Law and a Office of College Advising: Pre-Law Team Member
