A common question pops up around LSAT crunch time. "How do I prepare for the test if I've burned through all of my practice material?" There are three key steps I'd take between now and test day so you can still maximize the remaining prep time that you have. Review Review, over and over, anything and everything that's given you the slightest bit of trouble the past several months. A lot of people underestimate or even entirely ignore the value … [Read more...]
What Should I Do While I Wait for My LSAT Scores to Be Released?
So you’re in the wake of taking your LSAT. No doubt the days following it’s completion has been an unrelenting stew of emotion. Relief to be through it, anxiety about how you performed, and sleepless nights waiting on the release of your LSAT scores.For many—and fingers crossed you’re among them—the LSAT is a memory. Prep books and course materials can be discarded as you see fit. For others and perhaps yourself, things didn’t go as well as … [Read more...]
How and When to Create Templates in Logic Games
As people continue to prep for the LSAT, Logic Games weigh heavily on the mind. And a principal concern among most test takers is this: how can you tell when to draw out templates in your setup?More specifically, I was asked this question, "How can I quickly and easily identify when I should and should not template? I know that if I have a variable or variable set that can only go in one of two places, that can be a great hint, but it seems … [Read more...]
Should You Retake the LSAT?
When LSAT scores come out, many students are faced with the uncomfortable reality of a possible retake. With that in mind, let's consider two of the most common questions regarding law school admissions. “Should I retake the exam? And if I do, how will law schools interpret my scores?”In order to help you better understand your options, we have researched the policies of LSAC and top law schools. We've also spoken with many admissions … [Read more...]
Certainty vs. Uncertainty in Logic Games
We focus a tremendous amount of time and attention in our courses and books emphasizing the importance of inference making in Games; determining the truths of the relationships between variable sets. In making inferences, what we’re really focused on is establishing notions of what I’ll refer to here as positive and negative certainty. That is, determining what must occur in an absolute (consistent) sense, and what cannot occur in an absolute … [Read more...]
Ignoring a Possibility vs. Making an Assumption: What’s the Difference?
If you're taking the LSAT, you'll encounter Flaw questions in the Logical Reasoning section. Students commonly struggle with determining how the author talks about a stimulus. Specifically, when reading and analyzing a stimulus, how do you determine whether the author has ignored a possibility or has made an assumption? What clues within the stimulus and/or what reading strategies help differentiate these two author approaches in … [Read more...]
LSAT Score Release Dates: Scheduled vs. Actual Comparison 2004-2021
This article was last updated May 27th, 2022 As the score release date for each LSAT administration nears, tensions run high among test takers. The moment of truth is at hand, and you're days or even hours from knowing exactly how you did. In the past, LSAC confused things further by nearly always releasing scores days in advance of their "official score release date." Because of this, there was uncertainty and anxiety about the process. … [Read more...]
How to Choose the Best LSAT Prep Option
At the beginning of any given student's LSAT prep journey, we commonly receive two questions:"How do I begin to prepare?" "How do I pick the prep option that's best for me?"In this post I’ll do my best to answer both of those questions.First, I'm obviously pretty biased when it comes to courses and prep in general. PowerScore is truly the industry leader when it comes to quality instruction and student results. For the purpose of … [Read more...]
How to Increase Your LSAT Score When You Are Stuck
I'll begin this blog with a confession. The vast majority of the text below is not my own, but rather has been taken (with encouragement) from a post Dave Killoran wrote on our LSAT Forum. The advice is too good and too endlessly relevant not to share, so I'm reusing it here to ensure it reaches the widest audience possible. Specifically, Dave went to great lengths to explore and explain two of the most common concerns plaguing test takers. … [Read more...]
What to Trust and What to Question in LSAT Logical Reasoning
One of the most common questions test takers ask when considering LSAT Logical Reasoning is "How do I know what information I can accept as fact?" So let's consider what information you should question or approach with skepticism.This very question came up on our Forum. A student considered a question from the second LR section, #24 on the February 1994 LSAT. This question discusses investments and the relationship of inflation to … [Read more...]
Flaws in Logical Reasoning Part X: Time Shift Errors
[Further Reading in Flaws in Logical Reasoning: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10] As we finish up this series on common flaws in logical reasoning, here's a reminder of where we started.The majority of LSAT Logical Reasoning questions have an argument in their stimulus and most will contain some sort of flawed reasoning. In this series, we will address a variety of the flaws that tend to … [Read more...]
Flaws in Logical Reasoning Part IX: Appeal to Emotion
We're at the final stretch! Before we can get to Part 9, here's a recap on our purpose as stated in the first post on Source Arguments.The majority of LSAT Logical Reasoning questions have an argument in their stimulus and most will contain some sort of flawed reasoning. In this series, we will address a variety of the flaws that tend to appear with some frequency. I’ll examine common mistakes that authors on the test make. This should … [Read more...]
Flaws in Logical Reasoning Part VIII: Appeal to Authority
Before continuing on to Part Eight of our flaws in LR on the LSAT, let’s review once more. Here’s how I began the first post in this series, where we looked at Source Arguments: The majority of LSAT Logical Reasoning questions have an argument in their stimulus and most will contain some sort of flawed reasoning. In this series, we will address a variety of the flaws that tend to appear with some frequency. I’ll examine common mistakes that … [Read more...]
Flaws in Logical Reasoning Part VII: Internal Contradiction
Part 7 is here! But before we get going on the topic of internal contradiction, let's start with a review the importance of this series Take a look at how I began the first post, where we looked at Source Arguments. The majority of LSAT Logical Reasoning questions have an argument in their stimulus and most will contain some sort of flawed reasoning. In this series, we will address a variety of the flaws that tend to appear with some frequency. … [Read more...]