LSAT Test-Taker Survey

I asked the following questions to some subscribers and website visitors who recently took the LSAT:

What do you know now that you wish you’d known before starting your LSAT prep? What would you have done differently?

Here are their responses:

– I wish I hadn’t focused exclusively on the LSAT. My one track mind had a detrimental impact on other parts of the application preparation (getting recommendation letters). I also wouldn’t have taken 2 consecutive days off [the week before]. It negated progress to some extent.

– I think your recommendations prepared me very well. The most important thing I learned was to take a lot of practice tests, and that it’s all about timing.

– I wish I had started taking timed tests sooner. I only did them in the last two weeks and it was definitely not enough.

– I wish I knew how much harder the newer LSATs are–at least in terms of the curve. I also would have prepared better for reading comp. The newer passages seem to take a lot longer to get through.

– Your LSAT book recommendations! If I had known about them a year ago I could have saved a lot of money on Kaplan classes.

– I took the LSAT twice, but the second time I wasn’t sure how much to study. I think it might helpful to set up a schedule for retakers who experience LSAT burn-out the first time from too much prep but who still want to adequately prepare for the second testing.

– I would have approached it less as a “general intelligence” test and more of a set of skills to master, particularly the logic games. I don’t know if that would have changed how I prepared, but it would have been a different mindset. I did not take a prep course and still would not have chosen to do so.

– The typical burnout timescale. It freaked me out and almost broke me down until I talked to some other LSAT studiers who happened to be experiencing the same thing at the same time. I wish I would have known it was coming so I could have just pushed through it knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel instead of wasting valuable time freaking out.

– Not get stuck on one problem in my logic games. LOL I still think about that now. I got stuck on my 3rd game, the colors and toy dinosaurs, remember mauve lol. Anyway, my strategy was to focus on Reading Comp and Games since those were my strongest areas and less on reasoning. I wish I would have know the LSAT will get you distracted on a question to prevent many from getting to the easier questions, like the 4th game with 7 questions.

– I wish I’d known the position of the experimental section. It would’ve helped prepare me better for a shocker first section on the February LSAT.

– Started earlier and read your articles sooner!

***

If you’ve taken the LSAT before (or have been prepping for a while), how would you answer those questions?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!