I’ve received a couple of notes from readers asking about LSAT preparation. I went with the Princeton Review’s Cracking the LSAT book, which in retrospect was probably not the best approach. Many online reviews and discussions with my classmates revealed that there were better routes I could have taken. However, I did better than I thought I would on the LSAT. The process of working through practice tests from the book and old LSATs from LSAC really did help.
I didn’t take a practice course for a variety of reasons, but a good friend of mine took one with a one-on-one tutor at the same time I was preparing for the LSAT. She came out a point or two ahead of me when our results came back, but I think if we’d taken the test five times each, her average score would have been four or five points higher than mine. For one thing, she’s an amazing test-taker. She had also graduated from college relatively recently, and is really smart.
What I’m getting at here is that I’m not really sure that there’s a single best approach for LSAT success. For my friend, the one-on-one tutoring may have best suited her learning style. For me, going through practice tests and taking a lot of old exams helped.
Here are a few things I wish I’d done:
Check out the LSAT testing facility ahead of time – Do whatever you can to mitigate anxiety on LSAT day. Having the directions totally dialed in, knowing where the testing building is, figuring out parking, and yes, even knowing the location of the restrooms all would have helped.
Conduct better visualization – This one may sound a bit kooky, but if you’ve gone to the LSAT testing location, you can more easily guide yourself through visualization of the entire test day. I did some of this, but should have done more. Go through the process of waking up, going through your morning routine, getting to the testing location, sitting at the desk, taking the test calmly and cooly, and walking out feeling satisfied with your performance can help you do the same thing on exam day. Visualization works. Just ask Tiger Woods.
Monitor your mind – I had an analytical reasoning question at the end of the test that was a bit tricky. It was a typical ordering/segmenting question, but I could see daylight. I only had four or five questions to go, and instead of taking an extra 30 seconds to carefully doublecheck the parameters of the question, I went into autopilot. Belatedly I realized that due to some obfuscatory text in the question, I’d interpreted the call of the question incorrectly. 180 degrees incorrectly. Thrown off-balance by the error, instead of ditching the questing, moving through the remaining few questions, then circling back to the offending question, I maintained a doberman-like grip on the problem, spending precious time getting to the correct answer. I should have realized what I was doing and let the error go, but I was so fixated on getting that particular question right at that particular moment that I lost sight of the real goal, which is to get as many total questions correct as possible.
If you are in law school and already have the daunting task of LSAT prep and testing behind you, I’m curious which LSAT prep strategies you used, and how well you think they served you.
p.s. – If you’re wondering what books to read in preparation for law school, you may want to check out the Mac Law Students Bookstore at Amazon.com. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but so far it seems to be the least annoying way of trying to cover some of the costs of running MLS.