LSAT Diary: My LSAT Prep Journey

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from Sera, who's teaching English abroad in Asia while studying for the June 2011 LSAT.

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Please leave Sera some encouragement and advice below in the comments!

Sera's LSAT Diary:
I never imagined a test would so thoroughly take over my life and overwhelm the greater contents of my psyche, but here I am. I graduated from college in the spring of 2009, after which I worked for six months, had a job offer fall through, and ended up teaching English in Asia at a private school.

I desperately wanted to gain international experience because I wanted to study international law or foreign affairs. The day before I got on the plane, I purchased an LSAT study book.

As a political science major, I always loved law classes and had never really ruled out the possibility of seriously studying the subject. I was pretty intent on applying for my MA in foreign affairs though, and I think possibly deep down I may have been a little bit intimidated by law or thought it wouldn’t be something I would enjoy.

Then, one day, I signed up to take the LSAT. I took a practice test, and scored fairly well without any prior experience with the material (upper 150s.) I realized the stuff was pretty suited to my strengths even more so than the GRE had been (I had always loved logic games and reading since I was a kid.) Easy stuff, I thought. I went into the October exam with little practice and sadly scored much lower than my practice exams. 157.

I was completely shocked I could score so low after scoring consistently in the 160s on practice exams in the month leading up to the test. Yet, I knew deep down I hadn’t fully committed myself to it and I had allowed nervousness to overwhelm me.

There were points during the exam in which I was so overtaken with fear that I’d stare at a question for a good two or three minutes without being able to think. At this point, I had realized how much I truly wanted to be a lawyer and that it was the career path I desired. I had put so much pressure on myself to obtain a certain score so I could attend school the following year that I caved.

It was not only that, but also my studying techniques were pretty poor.

I was lax with time. “Eh, so I finished the Reading Comp in 40 minutes… the real thing will be different!” I studied with little sleep. I very rarely took an entire exam in one sitting under tightly timed restrictions. I had no routine or set guidelines for my studying goals. Given my love for multitasking, I took exams on buses and amid screaming children in my classroom.

If one thing is for sure, remember what position Abby is in relation to Bart and what kind of language the two speak or don’t speak is far more difficult when one is intermittently telling a 10-year-old to stop throwing things during our test. Oftentimes, I prepped while they were taking tests (I swear I’m not that bad of a teacher, and my students are fairly well-behaved!) Finally, I never practiced question types separately or truly dissected my incorrect questions.

What I now realize is yes, 98% of my incorrect answers can be chalked up to carelessness, but this carelessness can be avoided through repetition under timed conditions AND more importantly, dissection and getting adjusted to each question type.

Also, I completely underestimated the Reading Comprehension section. Reading was always an area in which I excelled, and I found it to be the “easiest” section. Currently, it’s the section I struggle with the most, with some days receiving anywhere from a perfect score to 5 wrong.

Today, being one of “those” bad days, also brings up another important aspect of studying I discovered: burnout. I’m currently studying in the mornings before school (I teach from around 3-10 p.m.), about five hours each day and from 3-5 hours on the weekend. Sometimes, come Friday, I’m burnt out. My reading comprehension score drops considerably on these days. Take a walk. Take a break. Studying more will NOT increase your score at this point and only make you feel worse and lose confidence. Look at your raw score and your mistakes.

In a nutshell, here is my advice for you.

-Quality over quantity. Yeah, studying a lot for this test is important. But it’s more important that the time you spend studying is at regular intervals (i.e. 5 hours a day, 5 hours a week,) incorporated in some sort of routine. Don’t try studying when you are absolutely exhausted and make every practice test you take count.

-Read this blog.

-Relax.

-Exercise.

-Get adjusted to the time bit by bit. I use my iPod timer set at 30 minutes, and then give myself 5 more minutes. I try to finish each section in 30 minutes, even though I rarely do. This way, I don’t panic in the final five minutes of the section. I do the first 10 questions in the “arguments” section within 10 minutes, and I aim to finish 20 in the first 20 minutes. I usually get to question 22 (but aim for question 23) by 30 minutes so I have the final 5 minutes to do 3-4 questions. The last two are usually pretty easy, so it works.

-Act like you own it. Envision yourself succeeding.

I wanted to share my experience to advocate the fact that with the help of this blog, which provided me with guidelines to approach my studying in a far more efficient manner. But also, I haven’t heard of many people with learning disabilities/issues on this blog or other law school sites. I have ADHD and if I’m able to get through the arduous banality that is the LSAT reading comprehension, then anyone can. I am now consistently scoring in the 170s, with the very occasional 167 (twice in the past few months) and several 175s. Right now, with the newer practice tests, I’d say my score is a 171.

One more month and a half until the LSAT comes to Asia and I’m looking forward to kicking its butt. My goal is a 175. :)

Photo by bdorfman