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Reasons for a Poor LSAT ScoreRisk Aversion This common emotional problem is one I see when I'm tutoring. The student reads the answers, marks B, and keeps right on reading the same set.
"Making sure" is an enormous waste of time, but it's an emotional crutch many people cannot give up. Thorough, diligent people often do this. They seem to forget that a good score requires getting a lot finished as much as of getting them right. Occasionally, a person can be told this and move right on. More often, they are like people who have to check four times that they locked the door. The problem is an emotional one, a need to be positive, or more often a fear of being wrong that won't let them move on even when they know that they're hurting their score. Sadly, I know of no cure for this short of a year or two of therapy or a near-death experience -- something to teach you that being wrong just isn't such a big deal. Panic Type 1 -- I Rushed.
No one has ever, ever, in the 16 years I've been teaching LSATs, said to me, "I panicked." Instead, they say, "I was going too slow, so I started to hurry up." That, folks, is panicking. There is no way on God's green earth to think faster than you do, except by practicing how to think. As your techniques improve, your timing and scores will improve. Trying to think an iota faster then you do is a guaranteed way to reduce your score. Panic Type 2 -- I Froze "I was doing fine. I was down to number n, and the proctor called five minutes. Then I don't know what happened, but I didn't get a single other question answered." Freezing is particularly difficult kind of panic to overcome. I do know of a few things you can try. Always practice with a large, loud clock in front of you until you learn to ignore it. Get your housemates to proctor you, and have them announce the time every five minutes. Make time so repetitive that it disappears into the background, like people do who live near a train. Panic Type 3 -- Second-Guessing "I thought A was right. But then I wasn't sure, so I picked C instead." The underlying assumption to this kind of panic is "I am wrong. I am stupid, I can't do this, I don't know what they want, so if an answer looks good to me, choose another." You can disprove this assumption by repeatedly marking your instinctive choice, your "but maybe it's..." choice, and then looking to see which is right. You need to do that hundreds of times over several months. Eventually, you can learn that you do know what they want. Why People Panic The belief behind all these panic responses is that your LSAT score is THE most important thing in the world, and that THIS VERY NEXT QUESTION will make or break your score. Both of these beliefs, are, of course, wrong. Essays reflecting creativity and maturity, recommendations, and life experiences are all part of the evaluation process. A higher LSAT score will help, of course, but it won't be the sole deciding factor. So take some of the pressure off yourself, and you may see your score magically improve. Poor vocabulary
If you know you have a poor vocabulary, fix it! Either study word lists, or sit down and read LSAT passages and look up words you don't know. Find a vocabulary book that discusses the importance of Latin and Greek roots, so you'll know that "macro" means big and "micro" means little. When your vocabulary improves, so will your test score. Learning disabilities Cognitive and mechanical problems with taking standardized tests can be overcome with special training or extra time. Request extra time (but don't plan on your request being granted -- LSAC is very reluctant to allow accommodations). Get the training you need, practice, and try again in a year or two. Poor Problem-Solving Skills
Problem solving ability is acquired, not innate. You don't acquire it by reading textbooks. You don't acquire it by asking people to figure things out for you. You certainly don't acquire it by watching TV or movies, or even by reading mysteries. You may or may not acquire it in your normal life. If you call the plumber when the toilet won't flush instead of opening up the tank and getting your fingers wet, you probably won't acquire it. How do you acquire it? By solving problems. Get books of puzzles. Logic games, brain twisters, cryptograms all build your problem-solving skills. Computer games like Sherlock and Smartgames build your problem-solving skills. Buy them, play with them, and learn. Now I know it sounds odd to say you learn to figure things out by figuring things out. But it's true. After all, you learn to ride a bike by riding a bike, and you learn to play tennis by playing tennis. Thinking is a thing you do, and you learn to do by doing. The vast majority of education in the United states, from elementary school through college, emphasizes memorization instead of analysis. If you don't know how to solve puzzles, you'll be very bad at the LSAT. I've researched books that teach problem-solving skills in order to help people with LSAT scores in the 140s or lower. The best of these is Problem Solving and Comprehension, by Arthur Whimbey and Jack Lochhead, L. Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J. 1991. The book's methods were designed for a program at Xavier University in New Orleans, and showed an astonishing success rate. Other books that include problem-solving skills but which were not designed for use in an academic setting include:
In addition to these general books, I've found one specifically for those of you who have trouble analyzing the arguments. Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, by M.Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley, Pearson Prentice HAll, 2004, is a great guide to reasoning. It has a hefty price for a tiny book (over $30), but comes with web support, including practice exercises that will be graded for you. If you can't get more than 15 right on the arguments even if you work slowly, give this book a try. I found all of these books on Amazon.com. I'm confident that you can find them other places as well. Learning to think analytically requires time and practice. The larger difficulty, though, is that studies have shown that problem-solving is most improved through peer learning -- studying with other people. So you might want to visit one of those chat boards and see if you can find people in your area to study with, or people who can work with you by phone. If you can't find someone, we can help. "I'm just Not Good at the LSAT!"Usually, about this time in the phone conversation, the person calling me asks, "Why can't they understand that I'm just not good at standardized tests?" I've given a lot of different answers to that question, but the one I've never written is that the LSAT measures skills you'll need to be a lawyer -- language and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work well under pressure. If you're so bad at these processes that you score too low to get into any law school, you probably will have trouble with law school and being a lawyer as well. So learn them now, before you've wasted $100,000 to find out law just isn't your thing. "Why Are You Saying This Now?"
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