I'm going to tell you something right up front.
And if you're like most students - you probably won't "get" this.
It's counterintuitive.
I've warned you.
Here goes...
The WORST thing you can do is to start timing yourself on Logic Games right away.
You know - immediately worrying that you can’t solve each game in 8 minutes and 45 seconds.
The “if I can’t do it timed now, I can’t on Test Day“ mentality.
Or ... “Lemme start timing myself BEFORE I actually build a strong foundation" mentality.
You know the type. You've probably done it before.
What's missing in the above picture?
Lemme give you a clue:
Why is timing yourself from the beginning so ineffective?
That's a BIG clue actually :)
The phone rings ... you pick it up.
You: "Hello"
LSAT: Are you trying to solve me?
You: Err ... yes - who is this?
LSAT: I'm the LSAT. I contain a bunch of questions you don’t know how to solve - do you even know what I’m really testing you on?
You: Err ... no. Where did you learn how to talk?
LSAT: Don't worry about that, let me throw a bunch of tough questions at you with words and concepts you don’t understand —
You: But I just wanted to make sure I’m learning how to solve everything fast!
LSAT: Because I’m TRYING to confuse you and make you feel stupid. The BEST way to do that is by giving you lots of tough questions AND not nearly enough time to solve them.
Lemme ask you again - what was missing?
I'll tell ya...
The LSAT’s asking you to do TWO difficult things.
At the SAME TIME!
I have embraced the philosophy of building a strong foundation in what the LSAT’s testing…
BEFORE trying to solve the questions in the short time they give you.
I look at everybody I’ve helped succeed on the LSAT ... and I see that they’ve all mastered the fundamentals BEFORE applying the strict timing.
I know, I know - seems strange, right?
But here's what happens when you adopt this philosophy or mindset.
* You’re able to solve the questions ***correctly***.
* You’re able to solve the questions ***quickly***
I call this “Building the Foundation First.”
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Why was Samson so insanely successful? (he scored 174 and got into Yale Law!!)
[————SAMSON ---------]
No single logic game, looking back, was very difficult. The most “difficult” games were those that I had diagrammed incompletely or inefficiently. As Steve has emphasized, your diagram is key. From your diagram, a cascade of deductions will follow. Take several weeks to master your technique…There should be an automatic quality to your movement through the LG section. You want to complete this section like a machine.
Samson’s LSAT Diary
[————/SAMSON ---------]
Taking the time to master the strategies is KEY!
It's the REASON WHY students like Samson are able to move through the LG section so automatically - like the Terminator!
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Making this automatic is where it’s at.
It's where top scores come from.
It's the foundation of a successful prep strategy.
You see, it's this foundation - that once built, allows students to turn low diagnostics into amazing scores
This is something that - if you follow what I say, can have you ROCKING the LSAT even if your diagnostic score wasn’t great
Here's an example that happened recently:
In the lead to the last LSAT, a strange thing happened with my two top-performing students.
I'll call super-student #1 - Jamie, and super-student #2 - Brian.
Jamie’s score improvement was 10 points more than Mike’s,
But the real interesting part wan't that - it was this:
Jamie’s average weekly study time: 10 hours/week
Brian’s average weekly study time: 25 hours/week
Let me put it another way.
Jamie improved MUCH more than Brian but she studied less than HALF the time!
Let that sink in for a sec.
And here's 'WHY' that happened...
Jamie studied smart and took the time to build a strong foundation BEFORE moving on to timing.
Jamie treated the LSAT with the respect it deserves and invested the time to learn the fundamentals before moving on to timed sections.
But Brian (who also represents the typical student)…
Brian didn’t really “get” the LSAT before jumping into timed full-length exams.
He’d seen the question-types, of course. But Brian didn’t have strategies necessary to solve them QUICKLY and ACCURATELY!
Brian treated the LSAT as something to learn just by taking exam after exam and hoping something will magically click.
He saw the questions, not as representing a coherent, defined system intelligently designed by the testmakers, but as a bunch of random confusing gobbledygook.
He just opened the test after test and gave each question his best (haphazard) shot.
I made the same mistake back when I was studying, and that’s why it took me an entire freakin’ year to finally crack the “LSAT code.”
Jamie, on the other hand, is a living breathing example of what’s possible when a student adopts my philosophy, understands the strategies, and carries them out.
I crush the “experts” all the time with my “LSAT Mindset” strategy.
And I’ve built a small army of LSAT students who do the same.
You can join the LSAT courses here ------->>>>
Steve “LSAT” Schwartz
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P.S. As you’ll see from the course breakdown, I give you a TON of guidance on solving Logic Games efficiently. And I start by giving you the fundamental concepts underlying the section FIRST - *before* moving into timed practice.
P.P.S. I'll get that diagramming cheat sheet I wrote out to you shortly. Just need to finish smoothing it out.
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