Scores from the October 2011 LSAT are likely to be released over the weekend. For those of you who got the scores you wanted, congratulations! (You’re also probably not reading this). Students that were disappointed in their scores should consider a retake; however, this decision can be hard to make, and students often decide based on emotion rather than data. LSAC reports that students improve, on average, between 1 and 3 points on a retake, and that roughly 2/3 of students improve on a retake.

Here are the key factors that go into that decision.

How do you know if you should retake the LSAT?

• There was some extraneous circumstance, like you were shorted on time, ill, or misbubbled (and for some reason you didn’t cancel)
• Your score was significantly lower (>2 points) than the average of your final 3 full prep-tests
• You didn’t devote yourself to a complete course of study (i.e. you worked through LSAT for Dummies and took one full real practice test)

If you got a score that’s comfortably in the range of your past prep tests and you devoted 3+ months to studying the first time, you probably shouldn’t retake. Students that have a vague sense that they “could do better” rarely improve much, and it’s probably time to get on with the admissions process with the score you have. (I’ve gotten calls from students that have been studying for the LSAT for over 4 years. Don’t be one of those students.)

You should also consider how taking the next test will position you in the admissions cycle.  For those who took the October LSAT, having to wait for a December score could put you at a  disadvantage in the rolling admissions cycle of very competitive schools if you plan on entering in 2012.  That said, if you are able to raise your score by even 2-3 points, you’ll on net have a better admissions portfolio.

How to Prepare for a Retake

If you simply weren’t prepared, well, work harder! But for students that thought they were ready for the test, make sure you think about your retake studying strategically. Looking through the same books again or re-taking a prep course is unlikely to help much in our experience. Here are a few guidelines:

• If you took a prep course, retaking the same prep course, even for free, will likely not help you improve.
• Students that studied on their own might benefit from the guidance of a one-on-one tutor or another flexible prep strategy. (If you already know the basics and studied from decent prep books, a lecture-style prep course will generally go over the same material you already know).
• If you weren’t on a regular study schedule, it’s time to get on one. Many students studied haphazardly; LSAT prep is like a job. If you’re going to be successful, your study times and practice tests should go on your calendar just like classes or work shifts.

The good news is that in our experience, students who follow these guidelines often can make substantial score gains that really impact their admissions chances. Needless to say, if you’re retaking in December, today is a great time to start.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

Today I want to discuss a key issue head-on that keeps many, many students from being successful on the LSAT. Over the summer, I’ve seen far more students than I would have liked see less success than they otherwise might have by not making the time commitment necessary for the LSAT.

I won’t belabor the point because most of our readers already know how important the LSAT is to law school admissions. The LSAT is worth roughly as much as your entire undergrad GPA. That means that it’s worth 4 times a year of study, 8 timees a semester of grades, 32 times a course (assuming 4 courses per semester), and 128 times as important as a paper (assuming 3 papers per course). Your mileage may vary, but any way you cut it this exam is critical.

Yet, even after we explain this to students, I keep seeing students under-prepare. There’s always a reason — a paper due, a work assignment, etc. Let’s be real — some people who study for the LSAT are just lazy (and probably won’t go on to a successful law school experience), but many more just leave the LSAT for last in their planning.

I think the reason why this is is that the LSAT has the longest feedback mechanism. While you get in trouble today for missing work or failing to turn in a paper, you don’t really get dinged for under-preparing until scores come back, and you don’t really feel the disadvantages of a lower LSAT score until your admissions and financial aid decisions come back.

The way to combat this, even for busy students, is to treat LSAT prep like a job. It should be blocked out on your calendar in big chunks, just like a shift at work or a college course. Then, you need to commit to treating it that way. Just like a shift at work, if you’re deathly ill you can call in sick. But you can’t call in sick because of great social opportunities, school work, or extra-curricular meetings.

There’s no way around it — students who prepare for the LSAT like it’s their job consistently get higher point gains, get into better schools, and get bigger aid packages. Make sure you’re one of them.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for around the price of a lecture-style prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

In the next few weeks, students studying for the June LSAT will have to face the music and consider whether they are fully prepared to take the test (or whether they should wait for October). This can be a hard decision, but there are a couple of signs to lead the way.

1) Have you spent at least a month of focused LSAT study? Some students have successfully reached their top scores with under 4 weeks of study, but they are few and far between. Additionally, if you started with plenty of time but let your study taper off as Dancing With The Stars heated up, you might want to refocus. Another metric to consider is that if you haven’t done at least 10 timed LSAT practice tests, you’re probably not where you should be.

2) Have your LSAT scores leveled off? The goal is always to get the very best score possible; if you’re still seeing significant increases as you put in more work, it might be beneficial to hold off until you’ve started to plateau.

3) Are there areas where you fundamentally don’t understand what’s going on? Nearly everyone misses a few problems, but if there re particular issues that you can identify holding you back, you want to address those before sitting for the test. While you might have been able to stumble through algebra without knowing how to factor, if you don’t understand formal logic you really just aren’t ready to take the LSAT.

4) Is one section significantly weaker than the rest? While some variance is normal, if you routinely get 25/26 in LR but only 12/23 in LG, you probably have the aptitude to do a lot better on the games.

If you just didn’t devote enough time to the LSAT, re-committing might be all that’s required. If you’re still missing some basic concepts, it might be time to consider a different set of books or an LSAT tutor.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

Or: The case for waiting a year

Most readers know that the February 2011 LSAT is the last stand for those looking to start school in Fall 2011. For those of you who receive a great score on this exam, as always, is congratulations! For those of you with a borderline or disappointing score, here are some considerations:

• Waiting a year is often a great option. In fact, for many it could be an only option as admissions can be tough to come by this late in the cycle. A year off can give potential applicants a great opportunity to not only improve their LSAT but add some great work experience as well. Applying for 2012, you’ll have the opportunity to prepare for the June test for several months and get applications in at the begining of the application season rather than the very end, a big advantage.
• The June LSAT should be out as an option for those looking to apply in 2011. It just isn’t going to happen for accredited, full-time applicants that aren’t already on a school’s waitlist.
• June LSATs can sway wait list decisions, but don’t count on it. Last year Next Step had a student that was wait-listed at UNC Chapel Hill. He was able to improve his LSAT by several points on the June test, and the week after scores were released he was in with a partial tuition grant. However, this is the exception rather than the rule.
• That said, one great strategy would be to prepare for the June test with the intention of applying for 2012, and just keep in your back pocket that if you are on a few wait lists, a great score might put you over the top.

It’s hard to overestimate how important hitting the right time in the admissions process can be. We’ve seen dozens of students that are crushed by the idea of waiting a year to go to school. However, in the current legal hiring market it’s even more important to make sure you go to the highest value (prestige/cost) law school you possibly can. Waiting a year won’t kill your career, and it can make a big difference in your law school options.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

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Although students still have plenty of time, it makes sense to start thinking about preparing for the June LSAT. We recommend spending 3-4 months on focused study, so starting in February would make a lot of sense. Here’s why we recommend the June LSAT for 2012 law school applicants (rather than later exams).

Rather than specify particular books or tests, I wanted to lay out a basic study plan to broadly capture what students should be doing month-to-month.

February

• Take a diagnostic exam. This will give you a great idea of what your goals should be and an initial idea of where you should start focusing your efforts. LSAC has a free sample exam here.
• Finalize your decision about prep. Many students will self-study, some students will attend classes (hopefully not too many!), and some students will engage a tutor.
• If you’re not getting professional assistance, order your books. You’ll for sure want at least 15 practice exams and probably more; I’d start with the 10 More Actual LSATs in addition to at least 5 of the most recent preptests.
• You’ll also want to get some sort of methodology book to guide you in addition to practice tests.
• This is the time to work your way through at least half of your methodology book. During this month, you can do all of your practice un-timed.

March

• Work through the remainder of your methodology books. There’s no need to try to save these for later; you want to commit all the methods to memory so you can practice better.
• It’s also time to start doing timed practice. Start by timing all of your practice sessions (35 minutes). When time expires, if there are questions remaining go ahead and finish, then review intensely.

April

• Re-evaluate your decision if you are self-studying. How is it going? We get tons of calls in mid-May from students who aren’t doing as well as they’d like, and by then it’s really getting late for tutoring to make sense. If you’re seeing the results you want, keep on trucking, but if not this is the time to ask for help.
• Now is the time to start doing regular full-length practice tests with review. Here’s how to get the most out of that experience. Working through full tests will be the basis of your prep going forward.
• Generally, work from the oldest tests you have to the newest. While there aren’t incredibly huge differences between Preptests 30 and 60, the difficulty of RC goes up significantly, so you’d like to be moving into those more challenging sections and more up-to-date logic games.
• In the month of April, all of your practice should be timed, while also taking significant time to review.

May

• The focus of your last month of prep should be on taking practice tests and evaluating. Sounds simple, but the art is in reviewing your work for progress.
• Think about doing 2-3 tests per week, plus intensive review of each.
• If you haven’t devoted the time to studying, you want to re-evaluate whether you’re ready for the exam.

June

• See our post about what to do the week before the test

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

Many students over the years have asked whether they should take the June or September (this year, October) LSAT.  My suggestion is that generally June is better, but it’s worthwhile going into detail as there are some exceptions. This is assuming that the student wants to apply in 2011 for 2012 admissions.

June LSAT Pros

• Maximum flexibility. This is the big one.  Students who take the June test have the option of re-taking the text in October if need be, and still having applications in early in the admissions cycle. Students who first take the test in October and must re-take in December are behind in the admissions cycle.
• Afternoon exam. The June test begins in the afternoon, the only test to do so. If you are legitimately not a morning person, this can be a great advantage.

June LSAT Cons

• Other obligations. A pre-law adviser at a top-10 university told me that she doesn’t recommend that her students take the June LSAT because it’s administered in the middle of their exam period (they are on the quarters system). If you are taking a demanding class load, it may make sense to wait and do prep over the summer.  (The caveat to this — some people are just “always busy.” If you’re one of these people, it’s still better to take it early all else being equal.)
• Do or die. A student told me that her pre-law adviser always recommends that students take the September test. He believes that students who take the June test don’t put forth maximum effort because they can “always retake in September.” I think this is bad advice.  The reason students should take the June test is exactly that.  A lot of things can go wrong on an LSAT other than students’ being too lazy to study.  If you plan to take the October test and your car breaks down, you get the flu, a relative falls ill, etc you can really hurt your admissions chances for that year.

So, unless you have an incredibly demanding schedule the next 3 months, the June test is the way to go.

Of course, either option is better than taking the December test — here’s a post on why.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

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Is there a case to be made for taking the February test as a first-time test-taker?

There’s a general consensus that to be fully prepared for the LSAT and to have a score in hand at the most advantageous time during the admissions cycle that June is the best time to take the LSAT. That’s certainly our position for most students; here’s why.

However, there may be good reasons to consider studying and taking the February test. The majority of February test-takers are those looking to raise their scores from the December test or VERY last-minute applicants. But there’s nothing wrong or different about taking the February test the year before you intend to start law school. (To be clear: if you’d like to start law school in 2011, the February 2011 LSAT would be a poor choice; I’m making the case that it might be worthwhile to take the February 2011 LSAT to matriculate in Fall 2012).

Here’s why you might consider the February exam:

• The June exam falls right in your finals week or the week before finals. Many schools on the quarter system fall into this trap. If that’s the case, it would be much better to take the February exam than the October exam (for the same reasons it’s better to take the June exam rather than February).
• You’ll be travelling over the summer or will be otherwise indisposed in the months leading up to June. I’m not one to believe that LSAT prep cannot be worked into busy schedules, but if you just know April-June will be packed, might as well get the test out of the way.
• You want to take advantage of the winter break if you’re a student. Those 3 weeks of freedom can be incredibly helpful. Hint: this only works if you actually study over winter break. We’ve seen many students promise to knock out hours of study a day only to be caught up with family activities.

There’s still plenty of time to prepare for the February test as of mid-October; however, if this is an option you’d like to consider you should begin prepping no later than mid-November. You can’t let February LSAT prep slide until winter break.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

Photo credit jamesjordan under a Creative Commons license.

LSAT burnout is a serious disease with any combination of the following symptoms:

• Pure hatred of the test and everything associated with it
• Dropping preptest scores
• Practice that doesn’t seem to go anywhere — you don’t feel yourself improving, and there’s no upward movement in scores

It’s important to distinguish burnout from two other distinct phenomenon: plateauing and laziness. Every student has a natural ceiling past which no amount of studying will move his/her score. This is why the world isn’t full of 180 scorers that started in the 140′s. This is natural; if you’re feeling very good in practice and scores just aren’t going up, you may be reaching this point. Congratulations – reaching your maximum score on a regular basis is the goal of studying. Laziness is what it sounds like — you’re just not working hard enough.

Students who are suffering burnout are usually doing so because they are working on the LSAT too much. A past student of ours was working a demanding full-time job, coming home, exercising, working on the LSAT for several hours, and then going to bed, each and every night. However, he took Saturdays off, and did a full preptest on Sunday. His Sunday scores were significantly higher than any of his other tests. See the pattern?

The lesson is that each person only has so many high quality hours in the day. Burnout is hard to avoid if you are working on the LSAT during low-quality hours. Students that have full-time jobs should consider taking every few nights off.

This is also why it’s so critical to start studying early. Students that try to cram a complete course of studying into 6 weeks or less simply won’t have enough high-quality hours in the day to make it work.

Hear that, October test-takers?

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

Several months ago we posted on LSAT prep book anti-recommendations. In short, just don’t buy a book that doesn’t use real LSAT questions or that for any reason takes you too far from doing real LSAT sections with pencil and paper. Here now are our recommendations for what books you should use.

Highly Recommended

• Preptests 40-60. These are currently available only as one-off’s and are a bit on the expensive side. However, the most recent LSATs will provide the very best preparation. Get at least 4-5 of these and use them for full-test practice towards the end of your practice cycle.
• 10 Real series. These are books of 10 actual LSATs published by the LSAC. Specifically, you should definitely get 10 Next and 10 More. The tests are relatively recent. These are also the great bargain of the LSAT prep world, 10 tests for around $20 on Amazon.
• Powerscore Logic Games Bible. Yes, everyone recommends this book and we have little reason to disagree. It includes tons of licensed LSAT questions and first-rate methodologies for attacking the games.

Recommended with reservation

• 10 Actual Official Preptests. This is the first set of tests put out by LSAC. While the test hasn’t changed dramatically since these tests were administered in the 90′s, there have been many smaller changes that make these the least-desirable tests to use for practice. In particular, you’ll find that there are many logic game types that appear very rarely on the modern test (pattern and mapping in particular).
• Powerscore Logical Reasoning Bible. Lots of our students have used this book, and some of our tutors recommend it highly. What’s great about it is what’s great about every Bible — lots of real LSAT questions arranged in thoughtful ways, with good explanations. However, at a fundamental level it’s extremely hard to advance your thinking on LR by using a book. That said, Powerscore does it as well as any other book, so if you’re not seeking any other professional help on the LSAT, you might want to pick it up.
• Powerscore Reading Comprehension Bible. This is a decent book, I just don’t think students really need hundreds of pages of explanations for RC. But, again, it’s probably worth it to have some direction for this section, and Powerscore has tons of real questions.

Not recommended

• Any off-the-shelf prep book by Kaplan, Princeton Review or others that do not use real LSAT questions. (Caveat: Kaplan and TPR materials given to their classes use real LSAT questions, but those materials are very different from the $15 books available at Barnes & Noble). While I have specific gripes about the methodologies of these two companies, the overriding concern is that their books just don’t publish real LSAT questions. With ample real Preptests available, there’s just no reason to spend time on fake questions, and there are not any fantastic methodologies you’ll miss out on.
• Exam Krackers books. Sorry to single these guys out since their books look really great, but the only timed practice sections are 25 minutes/15 questions. There’s just no excuse for not doing timed practice under the actual constraints of the exam (35 minute sections). The back cover says that this is what they do in their classes; that just means the classes are also doing things the wrong way.
• Any book or web service or class that relies on working with tons of questions online. The LSAT is a paper test, and you really really need to practice doing it on paper — jotting notes, scratching out answers, etc. Yes, this really makes a big difference. Until the LSAT goes paperless, the best way to practice is completing and reviewing real practice tests.

A great advantage to being a small prep company is that our tutors aren’t beholden to any one methodology or curriculum. There’s no way around it — a good LSAT study plan will include lots and lots of real Preptests.

Next Step Test Preparation provides complete courses of one-on-one tutoring with an LSAT expert for less than the price of a commercial prep course. Email us or call 888-530-NEXT (6398) for a complimentary consultation.

One of the benefits of private tutoring is that students get a study plan that’s personalized for them and that also evolves as they progress through the program.  However, lots of people have asked for a basic self-study plan.  Here’s an ideal study plan for 3 months.

Why 3 months?  3 months is about the right time to study if you can devote significant time to the LSAT (10-15 hours a week or so).  I’ve certainly seen students prepare and get the scores they need in less time, but especially for those who are balancing school and work, 3 months is the right timeline.  After about a 4-month timeframe, students start plateauing and reaching points of diminishing returns.  It’s better to prepare semi-intensely for 3 months than to work on LSAT once a week for 6 months (or to cram for 1 month).

This plan is front-loaded with learning and is back-loaded with practice.  It’s critical to lay down a solid foundation in methodology before you start taking timed tests (except for the diagnostic.

For this plan you’ll need the following books:

• Powerscore Logic Games Bible
• Next 10 Preptests
• 10 More Preptests
• Optional but highly recommended: Powerscore Logical Reasoning Bible.
• Optional: The last 5 published Preptests (available from Amazon)

Numbers refer Preptests from Next 10 and 10 More.

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