A week from today, on December 2, I’ll be taking the LSATs. Which means that, (knock on wood,) in a few years, I’ll actually have some credibility talking about The US Constitution on the SDMB. (Which is, after all, my true motivation to become a lawyer.)
The logic puzzles are still my worst section, but I’ll be hitting those hard this week. The other two multiple-choice sections, I’m not too worried about. As for the essay portion, I’m a tad concerned, but it doesn’t look to be too bad. It’s mostly the non-standardized-ness of it that’s causing me consternation. When I took the GRE, I ran out of time on the essay because I sometimes have the dumb habit of overthinking my writing.
Is there anyone who’s taken the LSATs who can give me some sage and timely advice?
Don’t give another thought to the essay. It’s worthless re: getting into law school. Just kill the sections that score and noone will ever look at it. I wrote an essay halfheartedly, really using the time to relax in between the scored sections.
Just a general observation re: the LSAT. It’s really, really, really, really, really fast. It feels like a fast test. You need to be prepared for that so that it doesn’t overwhelm you. I am a superfast test taker, so it didn’t bother me - but I noticed it. Usually I’m the guy twiddling his pencil and looking around or sleeping. Not so on the LSAT. It’s fast. Did I mention it’s fast?
Also - if you freak out on a section, relax. It’s probably the experimental section.
Good luck to all our Dopers taking that stupid test!
What Sherwin just said. Back in the day, when I took the LSAT, all I did for preparation was get old tests, about six or eight of them, take them under time pressure, then review the questions I got wrong, to figure out what they were looking for. Of course back then it was all multiple choice, no essays.
99th percentile. God I love them multiple choice tests. If life was only so easy…
“Timely advice” is right. Everyone has a different point of diminishing returns on the LSAT. In other words, past a certain time working on a particular question group, you would be better to move onto a different question group. The point is figured out as your ratio of speed to accuracy. Peterson’s LSAT guide shows you how to measure your own point of diminishing returns. This really worked for me when taking the LSAT, and I got a score of 161 (84th percentile).
And like others said, don’t sweat the essay portion of the LSAT.
My advice: Watch what you’re doing filling in the bubbles. I managed to blow a decent chunk of the logic games because of a mis-step that I didn’t notice until nearly the end of the time. I think something similar happened the first time I took the test, years ago, too…
Lots of good advice here. To reiterate, get the official past LSAT exams, and don’t sweat the “essay.” I render it that way because you don’t have time to write a real essay, and all you really have to do is defend a point of view. As in, “Bob should choose the XYZ Building for his office because…” It’s my understanding that schools may not use the essay at all, or only in some cases, but they do take the scored portion seriously for all applicants. Concentrate on that.
The logic games are difficult, but not impossible. I used to get books of these things and do them for fun long before I ever dreamed of law school. Solving them is not easy, but you can make it easier on yourself if you diagram them out. If the problem speaks of six people in line, arrange six items (boxes, say) in a line, label them with numbers, and plug in the knowns. (There is a grid method to solving these also, but given the LSAT’s time constraints, I don’t recommend it for the LSAT.)
This diagramming will help you to at least eliminate the impossible answers–for example, if “the man in the blue coat” is known to be third in line, he cannot be the answer to “Who is fifth in line?” even though he might appear as a choice. Similarly, “the woman in the green coat, who is neither first nor last in line” can only then be in positions 2, 4, or 5, because the man is in position 3 and the facts about the woman eliminate 1 and 6. A diagram makes this clear, and even though the test will not give you enough information (or time) to fully solve the puzzle, you can at least make a decent stab at it this way.
It’s not as hard as you think it is; as has been noted, it’s really more of a speed thing. If the time limits were twice as long, everyone would get 170+ without breaking a sweat. Just get used to the types of questions so that you can knock them out in quick succession and you’ll be fine. Also, if it starts wicked-early in the morning, make sure your body is ready for it if you’re not normally a morning person - that was honestly the hardest part for me.
Good luck!
-Kiros, 177 LSAT last fall, not in law school yet but will be there eventually
Others have hit the functional highlights, I’d just add that you need to watch your mental game.
Don’t listen to idiots. Presume this to include everyone you see at the LSATs. Remember, something like 45% of LSAT takers don’t get a good enough score to get into ANY law school. Ignore whatever dumb things they are saying before the exam and particularly avoid anyone in a panic.
If you have a bad section, put it behind you, don’t let it blow your whole test. Stay focused on what you have yet to do.
Bring a snack like a granola bar in your jacket or purse. Chances are you’ll be too nervous to eat properly before the exam and by the mid-section break you’ll be running on empty. Like law school, the LSAT is a marathon fuel accordingly.
Do not worry about time “wasted” when you DIAGRAM YOUR LOGIC GAMES, because after you are done DIAGRAMMING YOUR LOGIC GAMES, the information that they gave you will be all right there in your DIAGRAM and the questions will take less time to answer individually once you have your handy DIAGRAM OF THE LOGIC GAME to which you can refer.
Consider this a practice Reading Comprehension question. Happy Scrappy Hero Pup, BC 2L and 164 LSAT score (91st percentile)
I got a 150 on the test this past September, which is in the 44th percentile.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt to learn from my mistakes. My biggest mistake was that I only studied for the test in sections, and only took a full practice test twice. I also started studying in August for the September test. All the pre-law advisors in my school told me to start studying at least a year in advance.
The best advice I can give you is to take the LSAT when you are ready, and not at any other time.
If you have taken a full practice test and got below whatever LSAT score the Law School of your choice requires, I would suggest waiting until you can bring your score up.
If, however, you are getting good scores on your practice tests then enjoy the December test.
I just bought some real tests on Amazon, and they should be here tomorrow. In all my practice tests, I’m planning to DIAGRAM MY LOGIC GAMES and to bring a snack to the day of the test. Also, I’ll do a good job on the essay, but not really sweat it. (I won’t study for it really.)
Of course, this week I’m cramming lots of tests to drill my times quicker and scores higher. I’m still not getting to some of the logic games, but after this week, I should have that pretty much nailed down.
I had already bought the Kaplan book, and I’ve gone through the entire thing. On those practice tests, I did fairly well. But some of the reading comprehension stuff tripped me up. On some of the “subjective” questions (about the author’s attitude, tone, and such) I bubbled in the wrong answer, and continued to disagree with the test about what the right answer should be, even after I went through the “what did I do wrong?” reviewing of the exam. Oh well. I suppose I’ll just need to learn what the test wants more.
I’ll be sure to update y’all on my scores. Thanks again for all of the encouragement and the nice words!
That’s exactly what you have to do. In this situation, you have to play the game according to THEIR rules, whether you agree with them or not.
One of the things you have to remember to to answer the question they ask. On the long drawn out fact patterns, it can be of value to go to the end to see what you should be looking for.
And this applies in law school as well. I remember a “post mortem” explanation of one first year exam where the professor mentioned one student did an excellent tort analysis of the problem. The problem was that the exam was for contracts, so the result was a rather poor grade.
I think something similar happened the first time I took the test, years ago, too…
