LSAT Diaries: Starting to Understand the LSAT

This LSAT Diary is from Jason, who writes in with his thoughts on starting to understand the LSAT.

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Jason's LSAT Diary:

Nudging past a 173 is a very difficult accomplishment. I am not sure that is realistic for me in another 6 weeks. In each LR section, there are almost always 2 questions that are either time killers or really tricky. (Parallel reasoning questions with Except, Unless in 2 of 3 conditional statements in the stem and then the answers are contrapositives in a different order. Nightmare in 1:30.) The LSAT is not like the SAT/ACT -- where a top scorer has a relaxed time to spare. I find myself working right up to the second on these sections!

At present, everything has to line up just right for me to make a 172-173 on a practice test. I need to answer the first 10 LR questions in about 8:30, then work 11-15 in about 1:30 each, then 20-end in 1:40, then spend a careful bit on 16,17,18,19. I am carelessly missing Qs 13,16,17 very consistently.

RC, I miss typically 1-2. Most often, just 1. Hard to refine that much further. Also, I've burned through all the comparative passages published. Other than deconstructing those, I have an absence of material.

I have a lot of range right now: I could see potentially missing anywhere from 4 to 11. I need to refine that.

I'm getting nervous -- making daily gains on LG then giving a few mistakes on LR. My first, and essentially, only choice school is SMU here in Dallas -- only because I can't relocate due to family commitments. And, I am not concerned about getting an acceptance offer, not at all, but the strength of my performance on this exam -- of course -- can make a substantial difference in the form of a scholarship package. (It's right at the edge of a T50 school, and very expensive, so they don't get a lot of 172+ scores applications.) I need to, undoubtedly superperform!

I've been actually putting together a number of my own stims, questions stems, flaws and args. That's been an incredible way to really burrow into the test-maker's mentality. Just this past week, I felt that unity -- that point where all the mechanistics internalized. I finished a new PT with a score of 175. That is my highest yet. But, best of all -- I had time. I was relaxed. I felt comfortable moving back and forth between time-drain questions and those that are easily doable.

I am starting, now, to really understanding the zen of the arguments. I understand what it means to not quite remember the rules but internalize them -- I'm starting to feel this way now. I am adding up the Sufficient Assumption questions quickly and read the negations as I roll through a N.A. question. Principle questions I now see the subtlety of different -- as minute as for the force, certainty, scope, order, logical reconstruction, etc. After a while, It's starting to make good sense.

Photo by Paul Watson