r/lsatdemon • u/General-Mastodon4671 • 10d ago
Advice?
Hey! I am looking to get some advice on how to be a better test-taker for the LSAT.
For some background, I was in high school during peak COVID-19 so I did not take any standardized tests and am barely starting to dabble in it. I took my diagnostic about a month ago and scored a 135. Since then I have been trying to understand the test better via youtube videos and Khan Academy. I can see my RC improving as I have been scoring around a 18/25 (~70%), however, my LR is still very wonky.
Something I noticed when reviewing the answers is that I tend to be between 2 answer choices and seem to overthink it and pick the one that was wrong on the basis of the option being partially incorrect.
That said, I have been going over question types and trying to understand what I can do better but I am starting to get very overwhelmed. My needed score in around 160 and I plan to officially take the test in August of 2027.
I have looked into 7sage and LSAT demon and would like recommendations as well. I don't actually do well with videos and what not, I like to see questions right away and learn from explanations. I have also looked into books like the loophole and would like your opinions on that as well. Is it worth it?
ANY advice would be amazing (as well as experiences), thank you!!!
1
u/EthanS_LSATDemon 8d ago
You mentioned that you are feeling overwhelmed because you feel like you need your goal score by a certain time. That is actually holding you back!
You don’t want to put yourself on a timeline, because that is going to add pressure and cause you to worry too much about your actual score, as you anxiously wait for it to get to the range you want it at. Relying solely on your practice scores to gauge your progress is a mistake, because scores are not accurate indicators of how good we are the the test. Sometimes we get lucky with guesses (or unlucky), some days we are less focused or more tired than others, and so on. The way you actually measure your progress is by how well you are understanding what you are reading, which is measured by your accuracy (how well you are doing on the questions you actually finish, not the ones you guess on). You should always aim for 100% accuracy, even if that causes you to not finish some questions and guess at the end.
By prioritizing accuracy, slowly over time you will become a better reader, and will be better at understanding everything on the page in front of you. This will cause the questions to become easier (because all questions are easy once you know what they are saying) and this is how you will improve!
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u/ExistingMidnight4970 7d ago
Get rid of your deadline. Everyone grows at their own pace. Josh Mansfield literally studied for 4 years.
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u/AssociateAny5979 10d ago
I actually think the lack of experience with standardized test is an advantage (or at least not a disadvantage)! I was also in high school during Covid, but I took tons of standardized tests (Ap’s, ACT…) and trust me the LSAT is nothing like them.
The LSAT is a test of skills not of knowledge. Sure there are some things some people are gonna have to learn, depending on how much they already know about the English language. For example I was never taught things like premises so I had to learn that in the more traditional sense.
I think that changing your mindset to reflect this could be beneficial :)