LSAT Logical Reasoning Difficulty Increase

Ways in which LSAT Logical Reasoning has become more difficult in recent years:

-Many recent questions involving cause and effect reasoning have a lot of tempting answer choices that seem to address alternate causes, but don't actually get at the argument's core gap/flaw. Be on the lookout for these.

-A lot of weirdly-worded question stems that are actually asking about things you likely already know how to do. They're just using unusual terms to throw you off.

-More principle-application questions than in the past.

LSAT Score Fluctuations

I can't think of a student whose LSAT practice test scores didn't fluctuate. Lack of consistency is perfectly normal. Take your timed PrepTests under strict conditions, and be sure to get enough sleep, eat well, and get moderate exercise. This stuff really makes a difference.


Students have an intuition that scores shouldn't fluctuate at all, which may have something to do with intuitions about grades. However, even grades aren't necessarily constant. While people tend to be jealous of the person who "gets straight A's," I can't think of someone who got only As. I often got As, but I also got A-s and even (gasp) B+s.

It may come from the idea that everyone has one "true" LSAT score, just like everyone supposedly has one "true" IQ score. Of course, taking an IQ test at age 20 and age 50 would likely generate different results. But I'd imagine that even taking two IQ tests a week or a day apart would likely generate slightly different results.

LSAT Getting Harder + More Prepping?

Has the LSAT gotten harder since LSAC first started with the modern LSAT in June 1991? I'd say absolutely. More and more students started using actual LSAT exams, rather than just using a few random fake diagnostics. As LSAC published more and more books of PrepTests, students started studying more, and the culture of high-stakes testing became a cycle. "You have to study more because everyone else is." As more exams are released, dedicated test-takers have more material to study from, so they do.

I've also seen students prepping more since I started LSAT Blog in 2008? As higher-quality instructional materials and explanations have come out over the past several years, word about them spreads quickly online, so I think people are definitely prepping smarter and entering the test more prepared, but I can't necessarily say they're studying more.

I can't really tell LSAT difficulty - the best proxy I have is the "curve," and it has shifted very gradually over time. I did a post a while ago analyzing the curves here. I'm not much of a statistician, though, so I don't know whether this is enough data to be significant.

Re: changing demographics, I haven't looked into it, but I'd be surprised if the demographics hadn't changed. If this data exists, it's probably somewhere on LSAC's website. Some LSAC data a few years ago revealed that fewer 170+ scorers were actually applying to law school.

LSAT Score Drops + Fluctuations

Some people ask questions like, "I've studied my way to a 170, so that's now my true score. How could I possibly get significantly lower scores? Am I getting dumber?"

People often fail to consider that there is an element of randomness involved on standardized exams.

-With a limitation on the number of questions that can be asked, some concepts that you're good at might not appear, leading your score to be lower than it would've been otherwise.

-A concept that doesn't always appear might show up on your test. If it's something you're shaky on, again, your score might end up being lower than it would've been otherwise.

As always, the safest course of action to guard against unanticipated low scores is to learn everything.

Other factors that lead to score drops - burnout, sleep deprivation, stress, poor health. Get enough sleep, eat well, and get moderate exercise. This stuff really makes a difference.

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Harder vs. Easier LSAT PrepTests

I can't tell between a "harder" or "easier" LSAT PrepTest. All I know is that people find something to complain about after each actual LSAT test administration. They'll say it was harder than all the previous PrepTests they've taken, due to ____ (hard Reading Comp passage / hard Logic Game / several hard Logical Reasoning questions).

Personally, my guess is that some people just feel like their actual PrepTests are harder because it's the real thing, and adrenaline's pumping. Also, if they don't take their practice PTs under realistic (strict) conditions, LSAT Test Day may seem much harder by comparison.

One more thing: there may be some selection bias at play - people who don't find their actual LSAT test administration harder may not go online to complain about it afterwards. They're off having fun and taking a much-needed break from LSAT stuff.

Increasing LSAT Reading Comprehension Scores

Seriously, reading a lot really helps. Make an effort to improve the quality (difficulty/"grade-level") of what you read.

Since LSAT Reading Comp passages are more difficult than the average BuzzFeed article, make an effort to read articles and books with a relatively higher Flesch-Kincaid score (not ones that's gone through some version of xkcd's simplewriter).

Why would you want to go outside of the actual passages? Have you truly worked through all 400+ LSAT Reading Comp passages? (If so, review them again. There's no need to go outside of them.)

However, what can help is reading up on the sorts of topics that LSAC tends to write about, just so you're familiar with them (people like to read The Economist for this purpose). That makes them less scary and quicker to digest on LSAT Test Day.

I actually categorized all LSAT Reading Comp passages by topic a few years ago.

Outside of the LSAT, I'd try to read something relatively challenging on a regular basis (I just mean some kind of nonfiction more substantive than the average news article.)

Read all LSAT answer choices?

For LSAT Logic Games, since it's mathematical and doesn't have the ambiguities of language of LSAT Logical Reasoning and Reading Comp, you might consider just choosing the answer that works and moving on without reviewing the others.

For LSAT Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, I'd recommend going through all 5 just in case, except for the first 10 or so Logical Reasoning questions. Sometimes knowing it's right doesn't necessarily mean it's right, right? :)

If you consistently score in the mid-to-high 170s, you can probably just choose and move on for those you pre-formulate / pre-phrase - at least on the easier questions. However, if you consistently have time remaining, I'd go through all 5 just in case.

LSAT necessary vs sufficient assumption questions

Brush up on the difference between LSAT Logical Reasoning necessary and sufficient assumption questions. I've written a whole article about this, but the short answer in telling the difference is that the key is the verb in the question stem.

Bonus advice: It's always been possible for necessary assumption answers to be both necessary and sufficient.

For a necessary assumption question:

To buy a $1 item, it's necessary to have $1, but it also happens to be sufficient to have $1 if you want to buy the item.

Correct sufficient answer choices must always be sufficient of course, if they happen to be necessary as well, that's fine, but it's nothing new. I haven't personally noticed an increase in the occurrence of what you describe, but I haven't been looking for it.

(And I agree 100% about the whole vagueness in "Out of Scope, etc." as a cop-out when describing wrong answer choices. Kaplan does this a lot, and it's one reason their explanations aren't that good.

When I was wrote my LSAT Logical Reasoning explanations, believe me, I could've saved a LOT of time if I resorted to that.)

LSAT Anxiety and Test Day Score Drops

If you're having LSAT confidence issues, you may be experiencing some form of LSAT test anxiety. Much of success on the LSAT is beyond a simple understanding of LSAT concepts.

Factors that often lead to LSAT Test Day score drops:

1. burnout
2. sleep deprivation
3. stress
4. poor health

Things you can do to achieve your fullest potential on Test Day:

1. get enough sleep
2. eat well
3. get moderate exercise
4. de-stress / relax (some kind of mindfulness / meditation, or even just spending time in nature can help)

This stuff really makes a difference.

LSAT Studying for a year

I honestly think studying for the LSAT over the course of a year year is perfectly fine if you spread it out enough, and even, possibly, a good thing! Not enough people devote the time necessary to achieving full potential. You won't run out of LSAT PrepTests if you space out the material enough and make sure that you're making the most of it all. Just make sure you're conscious of how many LSAT PrepTests you have (nearly 100, some of which are unnumbered) - full LSAT PrepTest list here.

Drilling is separate from taking full timed LSAT PrepTests - I'd start drilling questions by type as part of learning each q-type (ex. drill LR by type as part of learning LR). I'd start taking practice tests soon as you've learned the basics of each section (with a year-long timeline, you should be able to start regularly taking practice tests at least 3-4 months before).

LSAT Test Anxiety and Meditation

I suspect meditation can improve LSAT scores and focus in general, and that it can reduce anxiety. (The test prep study I found suggested it improves GRE scores, specifically.)

Studies aren't always well-conducted or reliable, though, and the LSAT is not the GRE.

However, there is an abundance of evidence suggesting that meditation can reduce anxiety and stress, and that it can increase focus which would certainly have the potential to help you on LSAT Test Day.

However, the best course of action, IMO, would be to forget about the studies and simply try it for yourself (maybe 5 minutes / day to start) and see what happens. I highly doubt it would reduce your scores.

I have personally experienced many of the benefits typically associated with meditation. I'd recommend it, especially if you have issues focusing.

As for whether LSAT students take study drugs, I'm sure some people do it, but I'd be surprised if a high percentage did. I'm not sure we have a way to actually find out the % who do though...