This is Part 4 of our LSAT Webinar, going over how to start preparing for the LSAT.

Here’s LSAT Webinar Part 1 if you missed it.

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

This is Part 3 of our LSAT Webinar, going over how to start preparing for the LSAT.

Here’s LSAT Webinar Part 1 if you missed it.

Here’s Part 4 of the LSAT webinar. 

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

This is Part 2 of our LSAT Webinar, going over the most frequently asked questions for students considering the LSAT and law school.

Here’s LSAT Webinar Part 1 if you missed it.

Here’s Part 3 of the LSAT webinar. 

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

On May 16 Next Step did a live webinar on the LSAT and the law school admissions process. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we covered:

• How long should I study for the LSAT?
• When should I take the test?
• What materials should I use?
• What are my prep options?
• What skills will I need to master to get a great Logical Reasoning score?
• How can I start to make sense of Logic Games?

Here’s Part 1 of the hour-long webinar.

Here’s Part 2 of the LSAT webinar. 

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

Why might you want to work with a LSAT tutor?

Students generally choose to work with a LSAT tutor in one of two situations:

• As a primary means of preparing to take the LSAT the first time
• After studying for a time, either independently or after taking a prep course and not getting an ideal score

What do you actually do with an LSAT tutor?

Here’s a sample of what a LSAT tutoring session looks like. (We do tutoring both online via video conference and in person, but it sure is easier to tape an online session!)

At nearly all sessions meeting with a LSAT tutor, you’ll accomplish three things:

• You’ll have a short discussion on your overall progress. This allows you to make sure you’re focusing on the right areas. Generally, this is the result of your most recent practice test scores. You’ll also be assigned very targeted homework to focus on weak areas and to make sure you’re doing the right number of complete timed Preptests (15+ during the course of your studies).
• You’ll learn and actively practice methodology. Depending on where you are in your LSAT studies, this can be a bigger or larger portion of your activities. If you are just starting out, several initial sessions will likely be going over methods for each question type, then drilling on those concepts to make sure you understand them. (If you’ve been studying for a while, you already know the basics). You will go over specific questions from the homework
• Discuss any questions you have on your homework. This can be incredibly valuable. A great tutor doesn’t just explain the right and wrong answers (although for a lot of students that’s helpful). A great tutor goes the extra mile to make sure you understand the patterns in your mistakes so you can identify those same logical structures later on.

What’s the difference between LSAT tutor and a class?

Students have vastly different experiences in prep classes versus tutoring. A prep class is pretty much like a college course; there’s one instructor and 10-30 students. Generally it’s lecture+question — meaning that it’s a lecture but the instructor will ask super-specific questions. (At big prep companies, the teacher’s book details exactly when to ask a question, what to ask, what the answer is, what do do if a student says a particular wrong asnwer, etc). While you can ask a question or two before or after class, you are mostly there to watch a pre-programmed lecture that’s presented identically to tens of thousands of LSAT students accross the country.

Working with a LSAT tutor is completely different. First, it’s paced for your needs. Every student is better with some concepts and has trouble with others. Your LSAT tutor makes sure that you understand every concept before moving on. Maybe more importantly, you can come back to concepts that are difficult down the road. (Even if you understand sufficiency vs. neccessity the first itme you hear about it, you may miss subtleties when you see those concepts on the hardest LR questions on a practice test).

You also get to form a partnership with someone highly invested in your personal success. Most prep course instructors are  great people who want their students to improve, but there’s only so much you can do for 25 students. Your  tutor, however, is a coach and a partner. They help keep you on track with your homework, can address your concerns about any issue, and generally help you manage the entire LSAT process.

Should you take a class and get an LSAT tutor?

Honestly – no. Nearly every student who does this ends up wishing they would have just done their tutoring. The reason is that a tutor can help you learn all the same basics as the class — but then goes well beyond those basics to give you personal guidance as you move forward. While lots of students take just a class and do fine, if you’re considering both you should definitely consider your LSAT tutor to be a primary prep mechanism.

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

People just getting started on the LSAT ask this more than perhaps any other question. The short answer is, it depends. The longer answer is that it depends on what your goals are for law school.

Good LSAT Scores for Top 14 Law Schools

The vaunted top 14 schools definitely require top scores. Cornell, ranked 14th in this years’ US  News report (yes, a flawed ranking), has a 25th percentile LSAT of 166 — that means that 25% of their class had under a 166. But, of course, that means to have a realistic chance of admission, you want to be over that mark. And, if your GPA is only average, you’ll have a tough time competing against students with higher GPAs and similar LSAT scores.

Good LSAT Scores for Top Tier Law Schools

Schools around the 50th mark have 25the percentile LSATs around 160 — meaning you’ll want to be over that mark to have a good chance of admission to the top 50 schools.

If you want to find out how you can access all these numbers and plug your LSAT/GPA in to see your chances at every school, watch our short video on LSAT/GPA calculation here.

I just want to go to school!

To have a realistic chance of admission at any ABA-approved law school, you will likely need at least a 145, and even that is not a slam dunk. Further, you really have to evaluate whether it would be worth your time to go to one of the lowest-ranked schools, likely paying full price as lower scores tend to disqualify students for scholarships.

As always, I’ll note that it is possible to get in with a much higher GPA if your LSAT is a little low. It’s also possible to get in with lower numbers if you’re really outstanding in some incredibly rare and wonderful way — but please, please don’t bank on beating the numbers. It’s rare.

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

What is the highest LSAT score?

180 is the highest score possible. Interestingly, it is possible to score a 180 while missing one or sometimes two questions — so technically you could get the max LSAT score and still not have a “perfect score.”
 

How many people get the LSAT’s highest score?

It ranges from year to year, but usually 25-50 people will score a 180 on the LSAT.

Here’s the average LSAT score.

Want to know what is considered a good LSAT score?

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

How much does it cost to take the LSAT?

The price of the LSAT has recently gone up. It now costs $160 to take the LSAT. Late registrants pay an addition $69

In addition, students need to budget $155 to sign up for the Credentials Assembly Service.

If you’re just getting started on the LSAT, please download our free e-book below!

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

What is the LSAT Average Score?

Here’s the breakdown of LSAT scores, courtesy of a LSAC research report:

LSAT Score Curve

You’ll see that the national LSAT average score is 150 (actually, often technically between 150 and 151). For your statistics buffs, one standard deviation either way is 10 points — meaning that the vast bulk of LSAT takers will score between 140 and 160.

Here’s what to do if you have a low LSAT score.

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

What to do once you’ve gotten a low LSAT score — even after one of the big LSAT prep classes.

In 2011, Next Step worked with several hundred students to raise their LSAT scores — after they had taken a prep class. I mention this so you know that 1) this happens all the time, so you’re not alone and 2) we have some ideas about how you can improve.

Usually, students know that their LSAT prep class isn’t working well for them as they are going. Most often, this is because the single pace of a prep class isn’t exactly right — specifically, a student is still struggling with, say, assumption questions while the class has moved on to something totally different.

Sometimes, however, a student will be doing fine in practice exams — but then bomb on the day of the exam.

Either way, it’s now on you to make sure you get a big score increase.

How to NOT increase your LSAT score after a prep course:

• Taking the same LSAT class again (even if you can do so for free). This is why “score guarantees” that only let you take a course again are scams. The class didn’t work for you the first time. Remember that old cliche about the definition of insanity? That applies here. Sitting through 50 hours of the same lectures is not going to help.
• Taking a very slightly different class from another company. While all the marketing will try to convince you otherwise, prep classes are more alike than different. Yes, it’s possible that you would get a better instructor (the key driver of student success), but there’s absolutely no way for you to know that would be the case. (Our all-time record for this is a student who had taken Kaplan, Powerscore, and Princeton Review and was still in the 130′s).

So, what are your good options?

• Go through your class materials methodically, making sure you completely understand every element before you move on. If you have questions, ask a friend who is also studying.
• Get some better books. You might want to check out our book of explanations for Preptests 52-61 on Amazon. The Powerscore books are also a good bet.
• Get a LSAT tutor. A tutor helps you understand exactly where and why you’re falling short, then puts together a custom plan to help you improve. For hundreds of our students, tutoring has been the antidote to LSAT prep courses — we make sure every student understands exactly how to work a problem before moving on.

The most common concern students have with getting a tutor is that the student will have to re-learn a totally new methodology. That’s not the case. When our students begin with a tutor, we help them look at the methodologies they have been using and keep the ones that have been working. (Yes, that means that we’re fine if our students use Company X’s diagramming techniques — if they work for that student!) Moreover — to be blunt — if you’re in this situation, what you’ve been doing before wasn’t really orking, and you should be open to other options.

Every day, a student will call in who knows they need a tutor, but who doesn’t want to make the investment since they already sunk $1,400 into a LSAT class that didn’t work for them. While we see this as a good reason for future students to not take the prep classes, if you already have it’s simply an issue of sunk cost. (Remember Econ 101?) If doing well on the LSAT is still worth a major investment, it makes sense to look into this option.
 

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/