From an LSAT Master Class I recently taught on Logical Reasoning:
LSAT Sufficient Assumption vs Necessary Assumption Questions
From an LSAT Master Class I recently taught on Logical Reasoning:
Digital LSAT Writing Sample, LSAC, & LSAT Scores
LSAC will give your LSAT score to law schools even if you haven't done the writing sample yet.
But still don't wait too long to do it!
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From LSAC:
Dear Candidate –
As you know, starting in June 2019, we separated the writing portion of the LSAT from the multiple-choice portion. After five months of experience with the writing portion (“LSAT Writing”), many of the benefits we expected – including a shorter test day and the ability for candidates to provide their writing sample in a more natural setting at a convenient time and place of their choosing – have come to fruition. But we have also heard from a number of member schools that they are interested in receiving applicant scores as soon as they are available, even as candidates are still completing LSAT Writing.
Therefore, to help candidates and schools move expeditiously through the admission process, we will be releasing scores for the multiple-choice portion of the LSAT to you and to the law schools to which you apply (or have applied), as soon as scores are available, even if you have not yet completed your writing sample. This change applies to anyone who took or will take the multiple-choice portion of the LSAT in this testing cycle which began June 2019 and ends in April 2020.
This change does not mean that legal writing is any less important. Many law schools require a writing sample as an integral part of their admission decision, and therefore, you should take the writing sample immediately and to meet schools’ application deadlines. Writing samples will be shared with you and schools as soon as they are completed. LSAC includes the fee for the writing sample as part of the LSAT fee to encourage this prompt action. In case you are not applying in the current cycle, please note you have a maximum of a year to take LSAT Writing without an additional fee; after that it is a separate fee unless you take the entire LSAT again...
Laurie Pugliese
Senior Vice President for Candidate Services
Law School Admission Council
Undisclosed LSATs are harder?
True or False - Undisclosed LSATs are Harder
ANSWER: FALSE
All tests are equated, so the difficulty is equal overall. Variations in LSAT PrepTest raw score conversions (aka "the curve") account for any slight differences in difficulty.
On taking disclosed vs. nondisclosed LSAT adminisrtations
Disclosed means the test you took is released afterwards (so you can see the questions and what you got right/wrong). Undisclosed means you don't get to see any of that. LSAC releases/discloses 3 tests per year, but not the others. If you know you'll be retaking, then I'd register now. Don't wait, especially since it takes about 3 weeks to get your scores back.
Re: law school timing, rolling admissions matters much less than it used to. Even taking the November LSAT would be fine for the same cycle cycle - not late at all.
On taking disclosed vs. nondisclosed LSAT adminisrtations
Disclosed means the test you took is released afterwards (so you can see the questions and what you got right/wrong). Undisclosed means you don't get to see any of that. LSAC releases/discloses 3 tests per year, but not the others. If you know you'll be retaking, then I'd register now. Don't wait, especially since it takes about 3 weeks to get your scores back.
Re: law school timing, rolling admissions matters much less than it used to. Even taking the November LSAT would be fine for the same cycle cycle - not late at all.
LSAC's LSAT Retake Limits - Appeal
For those who want to attack the LSAC president, from what I can tell, she means well and is much better than previous administrators. I think they're just trying to do too much too soon. The other thing is that LSAC is an organization set up to serve law schools, not students. They consider the schools to be their client base. To me, that's the fundamental problem here.
Free LSAT Class on pre-LSAT fundamentals
Would you be interested in a series of free classes focused on pre-LSAT fundamentals?
What format do you prefer? Slides or more casual videos with Q&A? I typically do unscripted videos based on a loose outline - here's a big playlist of free LSAT classes if you'd like examples of what we could do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFqDFNJAeno&list=PLgOHAiSs08EZk61Ka3sd42E1xTsBZ5Ss3&index=2&t=0s
So feel free to reach out with what you like / don't like and I'll keep your feedback in mind.
LSAT Retake Prep: 15 Strategies for Success
If you’ve recently taken the LSAT and you’re not entirely happy with your score or you want to do better, the first question you might be asking yourself is “how do I approach the LSAT differently so I can improve?”
Luckily, there are several methods to help you get a better score.
With so many options, you can try one, a few, or all, depending on what works best for you.
Today, we’ll look at 15 strategies to help increase your LSAT score (check out my LSAT retake class video for more detail on each).
LSAT Retake Strategy #1: Understand the Questions
Most test-takers feel like they worked through an overwhelming number of practice exams and wonder how much additional practice it will take to get a better score.
They tend to ask questions like, “How do I study?”, “What do I do going forward?”, “How do I evaluate myself?”
Diagnosing your problem areas is a start, but it’s crucial to learn thoroughly understand what each question is asking in order to answer it correctly.
You can use outside resources, but it’s wise to stick with more recent LSAT content and carefully analyze each question. This is the most important strategy.
LSAT Retake Strategy #2: Consider Additional LSAT PrepTests
There are nearly 100 released LSAT exams that provide solid study material. Most are numbered, but several unnumbered ones offer additional practice material.
These exams include June 2007, SuperPrep exams from the late 1990s, PrepTest C2 from SuperPrep II, and the official LSAT Prep Test Book with Explanations (Feb 1997 exam). This additional exam material will help you practice your skills and improve your score.
LSAT Retake Strategy #3: Avoid Fake Practice Tests
If you're searching online, it's easy to find fake LSAT questions – avoid these like the plague! If a test prep book does not have an associated PrepTest number / date administered, it’s probably fake and should be avoided. These questions may contain mistakes and are unlikely to be realistic.
That said, if you're very good at logic games, the fake ones may be a fun way to sharpen your logic skills through spotting the mistakes.
For even more fun, you could search Amazon for LSAT test prep books with bad reviews. Find those, and you’ll have even more opportunity to practice finding the mistakes.
My unofficial LSAT logic games also provide challenging practice material, without any mistakes; and if you were to find one in any of my games, I’ll give you $1,000 – I’m that confident they are valid and reliable.
LSAT Retake Strategy #4: Identify Your Weaknesses
Your exam may have been unreleased - if so, your first thought may be, “how can I evaluate myself if I can’t see where I went wrong?”
While it would be nice to know this, it’s not necessary. What’s more valuable is looking at how you did on your most recent 3-5 practice exams. Those results will paint a better picture of where you stand. They will also give you a better sense of how you perform under pressure, the types of questions you might get wrong, and your particular weak areas.
The exam you just took also provides insight, but the point is that by looking at your performance over the past 3-5 exams, and averaging the results, you can get a good idea of where you currently stand and identify your weak areas.
Looking at your recent practice exams allows you to delve into how you worked through each question that you missed and identify where you may have gone wrong (i.e. looking at your notes, what you crossed out, etc.)
LSAT Retake Strategy #5: Review All Areas of Difficulty
Another pitfall when planning out your retake strategy is to focus only on the questions you missed. I would highly recommend including any question type you find difficult, such as the questions where you were able to get down to two options and had to guess (and possibly got lucky on).
Evaluating these can be valuable because you can analyze why you chose what you did and come to understand the question better.
Bottom line, in your retake prep, include both types of questions: ones you missed and the ones you struggled with (even if you got them right).
LSAT Retake Strategy #6: Identify and Avoid LSAT Tricks
LSAT questions contain tricks to trip you up. For example, a sufficient assumption may be offered as a tempting wrong answer for a necessary assumption question.
You quickly find the sufficient assumption, think it’s the correct answer and mistakenly choose it, when another choice (often appearing later) would have been the correct way to go.
A valuable exercise when prepping for an LSAT retake (and for your LSAT review process in general) is to identify your problem areas in each question:
Was your issue with the stimulus, the question stem, or the answer choices?
Knowing which particular areas give you trouble (and the particular tricks you are prone to falling for) will help you avoid them in the future.
LSAT Retake Strategy #7: Perform In-Depth Socratic Review
Thorough analysis and review of each question (what is being asked) and its corresponding answer choices is crucial to selecting the correct answer.
For the questions you answered incorrectly, ask yourself:
-What tempted you to make your initial selection?
-What ultimately made it wrong?
-What was it about the correct answer that made it unappealing?
-And what made it correct in the end?
Keep asking yourself these questions to delve deep into why you steer yourself in the wrong direction.
When answering a question, it’s critical to spend time reviewing it and all of the possible answer options.
When doing this, write down your thought process and analysis – and when I say write down, I literally mean by hand – no typing.
It’s been proven that writing by hand stimulates a variety of neural connections, so what you discover and learn through the review and your handwritten documentation of this review establishes a stronger learning experience.
In addition to writing things down, talk about what you are reviewing and thinking.
Have discussions with other test takers, LSAT instructors or even explain what you are learning to a friend.
Using multiple modes of communication to actively engage with what you are learning makes it stick better.
LSAT Retake Strategy #8: Changing Your LSAT Study Plan
Before you commit to retaking the LSAT, think carefully about what may have prevented you from getting a better score. Where did you mess up? Did you have a busy work or class schedule, leaving little time for studying? Think about how you can reduce those hours and focus on test prep. Maybe take fewer classes or talk to your supervisor about temporarily reduced hours. Shift your schedule around a bit to see if you can fit in more prep time.
Maybe the resources you used before weren't sufficient. Look at what you were using and consider changing that up a bit. Look for resources that are comprehensive and cohesive.
If you were using a random LSAT prep book, maybe it’s time to invest in one that is rated better. Make sure you're using actual official LSAT questions. Consider taking a course.
Many ask if it’s worth it to buy more tests or books. Personally, I've found (and my students have found) that investing in quality test prep material results in better test scores, helping you get into a better law school and/or graduate with less debt, giving you more career options after graduating.
In this way, making the extra investment in quality test prep material will have a huge impact on your career. The key is to try something different (and possibly better) than what you did last time.
LSAT Retake Strategy #9: LSAT Study Schedules
Many times, LSAT students will start off studying by taking exam after exam, evaluating their results and moving on to the next one. I call this the Obsessive Practice Exam Narrative (OPEN).
Unplanned test prep, whether it be the first time or for a retake, is inefficient.
Instead, try organizing your prep into three parts:
(1) build your foundation and accuracy
(2) work on timing, completing 35-minute timed sections to see your accuracy under the time constraint
(3) work on endurance by working through a full-length 5-section exam with only 1 break.
By building a strong foundation first (i.e. get the answers correct) and then combining that with getting the correct answers quickly, you naturally progress into being able to complete a full exam.
LSAT Retake Strategy #10: Focus on Weak Areas
As I mentioned earlier, it’s always a good idea to focus your retake prep on your weak areas.
Once you’ve identified them, make it a point to work on those question types. Work on untimed and times exams now and then to mix things up. There is no need to worry about the specifics of whether or not to do timed sections or timed exams, practice questions by type, or any of those small details.
Do a little of everything, but make sure you are focusing on your weak areas. How to focus is your choice, but a mixture of varying sections of prep is always beneficial. My website and study plans make it easy to find practice material by category, so you can zoom in on your weak areas and address them.
LSAT Retake Strategy #11: Prep for the Digital LSAT Specifically
Borrow or get a tablet and take tests in the digital format. When you're using books, treat them like screens (don't write on them). To avoid repeating myself, I'll referral you to the material I've released about Digital LSAT prep on the LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel and podcast - check them out for more.
LSAT Retake Strategy #12: Take Your LSAT Prep to the Next Level
If you want to push the envelope, I highly recommend engaging in this exercise:
*Write your own questions.*
This means writing your own answers, writing your own games, etc.
It forces you to understand the concepts as you go through the process of thinking about how someone could interpret something and get this wrong.
Of course, writing problems can be difficult, and it's not for everyone, but there's no denying that it forces you to really understand the concepts and the logic behind the questions.
LSAT Retake Strategy #13: Can You Explain It to a Friend?
Find a study buddy or enlist a friend to help. Being able to talk about something helps you work out your thoughts and forces you to engage on a deeper level. You've probably heard that teaching something helps you understand the concepts better, and this is a good way to do it.
LSAT Retake Strategy #14: Write Your Own LSAT Explanations
If Strategy 14 is not always possible (maybe your friends need a break from your LSAT oratory), just write down your thoughts - or dictate them. Talking or writing down your thought process helps you understand the reasoning underlying each question.
For the ones you got wrong, your written explanations will help you uncover where you went wrong. For those you got right, you will solidify your thought process and approach to answering that question type.
LSAT Retake Strategy #15: Reduce the Stress
Remember that while the LSAT as a whole is incredibly important, no one particular LSAT test date will make or break you. Law schools don't average multiple LSAT scores - they only consider the highest.
Feel free to reach out if you need anything as you prep for your retake.
-LSAT Steve
Digital LSAT Writing Sample & Law School Admissions
It isn't scored, but it actually matters more now than it used to - because it's typed now, admission officers can actually read it.
Every Law School in the US - Google Maps
A Google Map of every law school in the country, color coded by rank category, to make it easier for people to find their nearest law school (by Josh Hanson)
Top 14 - Red
15-30 - Orange
31-50 - Yellow
51-100 - Green
101-145 - Blue
146-192 - Purple
LSAT Scores by Applicant Percentile
LSAT Scores by Applicant Percentile
Looks like more high scorers applying - fewer low scorers applying.Interesting to see the changes from previous years.
(via @bluefreakbob on reddit)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dMCBkobFcZRmMu_0X682As5u8WlK_ykpaWykzvHl65I/edit?usp=sharing
What this shows you is what percentile of the applicant pool your LSAT score is. Comparing this data to the percentile data for all LSAT takers is interesting—a 170 is in the 97th percentile of all takers but the 90th percentile of all applicants so far this year, for example.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dMCBkobFcZRmMu_0X682As5u8WlK_ykpaWykzvHl65I/edit?usp=sharing
What this shows you is what percentile of the applicant pool your LSAT score is. Comparing this data to the percentile data for all LSAT takers is interesting—a 170 is in the 97th percentile of all takers but the 90th percentile of all applicants so far this year, for example.
Cycle data for this cycle is as of 12/3/19, cycle data for last cycle is as of 12/4/18, and cycle data for two years ago is as of end of cycle. Annoyingly, LSAC's link to the end of year summary for last cycle actually points you to the end of year summary for 2017-18, so I couldn't find last year's full cycle data. But all three are pretty close, year to year.
Hope you find this helpful! I think this is a useful other dimension along which to consider your LSAT score since ultimately, how you compare to other applicants, not testers, is what matters for admissions.
Law Schools Waiving Application Fees
PSA on Law Schools Waiving Application Fees
Sadly, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. They might just be trying to increase applications to decrease the acceptance rate.
But if your numbers are above the medians, it could be because they want you. Look at LSAC's calculator to see where you stand.
If it's a free application, not much downside to applying other than time involved. And if you get in with a good scholarship, you can use that to negotiate with other schools. (Do this: it's the easiest money you'll ever make.)
But if your numbers are above the medians, it could be because they want you. Look at LSAC's calculator to see where you stand.
If it's a free application, not much downside to applying other than time involved. And if you get in with a good scholarship, you can use that to negotiate with other schools. (Do this: it's the easiest money you'll ever make.)
LSAT Unplugged YouTube Comment on LSAT and Law School Scholarship Money
"It's possible to spend six weeks studying for the LSAT and for that six weeks worth of work to generate a $200,000 scholarship or about $5,000 per day of study."
-One of the smarter comments on the LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel
-One of the smarter comments on the LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel
