You haven’t hit within 5 points of your target range at least once in practice.
a) Many students know that they can play up to their competition, performing better in many circumstances when it really matters. Now that the in-person testing option is back on the menu as of Summer 2023, that environment can be conducive to those students who thrive in the heightened competitive air.
b) A jump of up to five points on test day is not extremely uncommon. However, you’ve been watching too many Disney sports movies to hope to realistically jump any higher than that. We can all dream of making the big play in the big game, but don’t sit for your exam until you’ve been nearing your goal score consistently on practice tests.
You haven’t yet learned the (villainous) origin story of RC Passages
a) The relevance of Judicial Candor, the surprising industriousness of C-4 Photosynthesis in certain plants, and the use of an analogous geographic anomaly to highlight a computer model that questions the repetitious principle of scientific experimentation. These may sound like ChatGPT headlines written exclusively for the most terrifying Black Mirror episode, but each of these are real passages used on the LSAT. More importantly, each was derived from real articles written by very real, very nerdy, human beings.
b) Knowing the source of RC passages is instrumental in handling them properly. These authors are inhabitants of upper academia, where truth is their currency and a single claim made without sufficient proof is enough to banish these authors from any sense of reliability. Be aware of that in reading the passages and picking softer answers that an author from a world like that would be willing to firmly place their full support behind.
You haven’t yet mastered Conditional Reasoning
a) I know that in even considering the LSAT and a career in law, you’re likely here in some part because you know what you don’t want to do for a living: math. That being said, there exists a sense of read-between the-lines math that drives so many LSAT stories and arguments. I of course am referring to the power of conditional reasoning.
b) In a test that tends to overwhelm with ambiguity, harnessing the power of conditional reasoning allows you the most powerful weapon in the entire war with the LSAT: the ability to literally prove your answers with verbal math.
You haven’t yet fixed the biggest problem in Logic Games….and Sudoku
a) In both the Logic Games you find on the LSAT and the sudoku puzzles you can find in the back of an in-flight magazine, your survival depends on avoiding one particular fatal flaw.
b) In these puzzles with only one possible solution, each variable truly only has one eventual working option, making it even more important to never act solely on the basis of possibility.
c) Logic Games—designed to be open-ended and subject to multiple working variations, unlike sudoku puzzles—share the same core principle. Just because Gina could drive on Tuesday in a linear game is no reason to place her there; could another player also have gone there
d) Never leap without looking, and never put a variable into a slot until you’ve checked the consequences and ensure you’re acting on necessity, not just possibility.
You haven’t realized how much the LSAT can truly change your future
a) Every teacher you’ve ever had has likely made it seem as if their course was the most important thing in your life. Obviously many college courses are insanely demanding, and in the short term, those professors may be right.
b) However, EVERY college course and exam COMBINED means less for your legal future than what you can score on any one given official LSAT. After teaching the LSAT for over 18 years, I can’t tell you how many 25 year olds I’ve heard say “I don’t care where I go, I’m old and just “need” to be in law school next year.
c) I can promise you, in 5/15/30 years, your professional life track will be so drastically impacted by your LSAT score (which impacts your future law school, law school tuition, future job opportunities and salary potential) that I can GUARANTEE you’ll look back and regret not giving your absolute all to this major gatekeeper to your future. Invest the money and time you need to now in order to recoup massive savings on every level for the rest of your life
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