LSAT Diaries: "If A Method Doesn't Work For You, Don't Use It"

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from Charles in West Virginia, who took the June 2011 LSAT.

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Thanks to Charles for sharing his experience and advice, and please leave your questions for him below in the comments!

Charles' LSAT Diary:

Loathsome Satanic Armageddon-like Test. I was convinced, when I initially started LSAT prep, that the LSAC should substitute these words for what the test’s acronym really stood for. However, when I reflect back on where I was to where I am now, this isn’t quite as accurate. I’ll explain.

I equate prepping for the LSAT to the first time I ever tried coffee. My first coffee was black, nothing added to it, and I hated it. It was bitter, unappealing, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Soon I accepted the reality that coffee would help me achieve my overall goal of waking up in the morning. I began by adding different things to it (i.e. sugar, creamer, milk, etc.) to make the bitterness go away while improving the overall taste. Trial and error ensued, to the point where I nearly gave up on coffee and began to contemplate other ways to help me. Eventually, I found the perfect combination of additives that could be put in my coffee to make for the perfect wake-up mechanism.

My first diagnostic LSAT exam was much like my first coffee, I left it feeling bitter and with a bad taste in my mouth. A 155 was good for some people, and was supposedly really good for a diagnostic score, but I wasn’t comfortable with settling for good. I started to experiment with the “additives” to my LSAT coffee. Since I’m a penny pincher, I chose to go the cheaper route and invested in a variety of LSAT prep books, which combined to make a tower of terror on my bookshelf.

By dipping into each book, I gradually began to improve. I started to average around a 165 by the time I was three months into my preparation. This would still not suffice. I wanted the coveted 170. The gradual improvement leveled off for a while and I was frustrated. I thought to myself that, if I gave up now, I could still begin studying for the GRE and pick a different career. This was a bit too radical even for me, a West Virginian planning to go out of state for college. The mere thought to most Appalachian Americans is mind-blowing at the very least.

What I credit to be the most helpful aspect of my studying, and what eventually led to the perfect coffee combination (stick with the metaphor), was meeting with an actual tutor who laid down some hard facts to me: that the prep I was using was not really helping me at this point, but there was a solution. He coached me through Logical Reasoning problems, where I learned the most important LSAT test-taking skill: develop a method of solving the problems that works and stick with it. Some books have you conform to their method, which isn’t helpful if it doesn’t work for the test-taker. The same thing applies to the Logic Games (Analytical Reasoning section), if a method doesn’t work for you, don't use it. I was able to finally boost my score in logic games significantly, missing only one each time I took a practice exam.

The last six months of my life culminated in this one exam. I was instructed not to talk to anyone in the testing center before the test, in order to achieve the proper mindset and not get distracted. I was doing very well with this until I came across a person who was extremely vocal, and also extremely uninformed.

“Yeah, hopefully the people around me will do poorly and it’ll help the curve. I wonder if I can inadvertently distract them? Just kidding… sort of, ha-ha.” exclaimed one particularly outspoken test-taker. I couldn’t resist. It was too much. I HAD to say something.

“The curve is pre-determined,” I casually said, then sat back down in silence. It was enough. I felt I did a service for the rest of the group, because the ill-informed LSAT taker was silent the rest of the waiting period.

I walked into the testing room confident. My coffee was good, and I was ready. Taking the actual LSAT was similar to when I taught children how to use e-mail in Africa. One must be patient and work at a steady pace. The solar energy it takes to power Kenyan computers runs out quickly, much like the 35 minutes in each section of the test.

Photo by bdorfman