Up your score

There's about 3 more weeks before V-day (Victory Day) - a.k.a. LSAT testing day.

It's just about time for my students to start panicking. Some will wonder, "If I just hadn't worked that extra shift, then maybe my score will be higher." While others will wonder, "I shouldn't be stressing so much because it may be what's keeping my score down."

Given my students' myriads of personality types and backgrounds, it's impossible for me to sit here and exactly diagnose what's keeping some scores down and pushing others up. However, one thing is certain: without practice improvement is just impossible.

Many of my students are the smart types. They come to class and try really hard to understand the concepts and tools for attacking the LSAT. However, once they feel they understand one concept, they feel that they can move on to the next concept. This type of study method may have worked throughout high-school and maybe even college. But the LSAT is quite a bit different, at least for many people.

LSAT requires repetition and practice. Merely understanding the concepts is not sufficient. You need to digest those tools and concepts to make them a part of your second nature. This requires you to actually hit the floor and do the grunt work. For example, think of Chess. It's not enough to merely understand the rules and moves. In fact, winning a few games is not sufficient (e.g. your opponent may have been a not-so-good player). To become really good at Chess, one needs to actually sit there and practice, again and again, until one can react almost naturally to every possible move.

Now, there are those few genius types that are simply great Chess players or awesome LSAT takers from the up-start. These people are very small in number/percentage. Focusing on or comparing yourself to them will not up your score. Most people, including me, need to work hard to improve.

Now here's the problem I see with most students, they practice three or maybe four hours on one concept. They get a decent number of questions right and a few wrong. Compared to where they were before doing the practice, they feel that they have improved. So they never return to practice or review these concepts again.

To improve, one must practice, again and again and again, even the concepts one "thinks" she mastered. In many cases it take only about a day for your mind to forget the concept you just mastered.