Free LSAT Advice

Prior to and during law school, I was an LSAT tutor both on my own and (at a different time) for one of the large test preparation companies.  I'm not particularly fond of the LSAT.  Rather, I couldn't believe that my performance on a single test that was learnable could erase years of undergraduate work.  I figured out a strategy that significantly improved my score (almost 25 points) and wanted to help others do the same.  (An important caveat: I'm naturally good at standardized tests and my father introduced me to logic puzzles in the 6th grade, so I had an advantage.  But I still gained almost 25 points on my LSAT score.  And that improvement was all the difference in getting attention from the schools I was interested in.  Not everyone can gain 25 points, but I think it's easier than the LSAT administrators would like you to believe.)
 
As a lawyer, my LSAT score is almost meaningless.  Nevertheless, while studying for the MPRE recently, I remembered a technique that I'd used to success in preparing for the LSAT.  Whenever I did practice questions - particularly logical reasoning - I would make my own answer sheet with five columns (Question Number, A, B, C, and D).  For each answer choice, I'd try and mark a check mark if I thought it was the correct answer, an "X" if I was SURE that it was an incorrect answer, and an "/" if I thought it was probably wrong but wasn't confident.  Then, when I was checking my answers, I'd pay particular attention to the questions where I was sure that the correct answer was wrong.  In those instances, I was clearly not thinking along the same lines as the test's authors.  I would sit there and go over the question again and again until I finally understood why the given answer was correct.  Sometimes it wasn't easy:  a couple of times I swore that the administrators must have made a mistake or whomever transposed the answer for my book.  Nevertheless, without fail I would eventually see the light.  I truly believe that this simple, but time-intensive process is what made the difference.  If you are serious about improving your LSAT score, I would highly recommend trying this strategy.
 
Another quick tip:  if you're the kind of person who needs to cram one last set of questions in the day of an exam or if you just like warming up your mind, an easy way to do it on LSAT day is to find a critical analysis (i.e., logic game) set of questions that were really easy for you and do them the day of the test.  It was a real confidence booster for me to know that the first logic game I'd seen that day, I'd aced.  Sure, it didn't count.  But it got my mind working and feeling confident.

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