How I Changed My Understanding Of The LSAT

LSAT Blog reader Jacob once asked me:

How has the depth of your understanding of the LSAT changed from the day you started or when you started to teach, until now, with the website and tutoring?

My response:

Over the years, I’ve really developed more and more of an appreciation for just how complex this exam is and how much work goes into creating it. I’ve interviewed a former writer of actual LSAT questions a number of times and speaking with him, just the way he speaks and the way he writes, it’s so refined. I see that similarity in how the LSAT itself is written.

They devote such an obsessive attention to detail and the wording and everything they create. So, I’ve noticed that more and more. At one point, I started writing my own LSAT-style logic games. I’ve written a number of them. Through the process of learning to write my own games, I really developed more of an appreciation for LSAC’s efforts in writing games.

When I started writing my own logic games, I found that it would take me a full day to write one game, from start to finish, in terms of the scenario, the rules, the inferences associated, and all the questions and correct answer choices, wrong answer choices, etc. There’s a lot of thought that goes into creating wrong answer choices for all three sections! So I have noticed things like that over time as I developed different tasks for myself that I wanted to do for the site, whether it was writing the games, writing 1,000+ LSAT question explanations or creating LSAT courses.

Every little project I’ve worked on has taught me something new about just how deep the rabbit hole really goes when it comes to this exam. I’ve looked at other exams in the past, like the SAT and GMAT, and I’ve found that the LSAT is really deeper, more complex and more deserving of respect than any of the other exams that I’ve come across.

I find that the people who really do best on this exam, the people who get the highest scores, really develop a real appreciation for this exam. It’s hard to hate something once you become really good at it, and once you understand it well.

People who are scoring really low, like in the 130s, say things like, “Oh, the LSAT’s dumb. It doesn’t test anything worth knowing. It’s a risk. Why do they have this?” Once you start getting better at it and once you master it, you’ll say, “This exam is really awesome. I want to help others master it. I want to write about it. I want to know more about it. It’s really worthy of respect and study.”

From when I started with this exam until today, I found that the way that I think, speak, and write have all become more refined and specific. It's all a lot more deliberate than when I first started with the LSAT. I’ve noticed it in the way I analyze what other people say and write. I really do everything with that LSAT mindset of thinking critically and skeptically - developing that attention to detail.

It’s really something that can help you in life (as long as you’re not a jerk about it).