One of the most common patterns I see is that students think they are reviewing, but they are really just rereading the question and accepting the explanation after the fact.
That usually sounds like this:

“I see why B is right now.”
“I was between B and D.”
“I just misread it.”
“I need to slow down.”

The problem is that none of those actually identifies what went wrong in your reasoning.
A lot of score plateaus happen because students do not isolate the exact failure point. On LR especially, you need to be able to say what happened with precision. Did you miss the main conclusion? Did you confuse a premise with a sub-conclusion? Did you bring in an assumption that was never stated? Did the wrong answer feel attractive because it was too broad, reversed the relationship, or only matched part of the argument?

If your review is too vague, your mistakes stay vague. And vague mistakes repeat.
A better review process is to ask:
What was the argument actually doing?
What did I think the right answer had to do?
Why did my chosen answer feel tempting in the moment?
What specifically makes it wrong?
What would I need to notice next time to avoid missing this again?

That kind of review is where improvement starts. Not just knowing the credited answer, but understanding why your reasoning allowed the trap answer to survive.
A lot of students are not stuck because they are incapable of scoring higher. They are stuck because their review process is not detailed enough to produce change.

If you want, I can make another post on how I would review RC the same way.

I am going into my senior year, scoring 172~ on LSAT and 3.9 gpa. Im thinking about NYU for international law, but does going to a T14 really help with post grad opportunities? I'm debating if it would even be worth it. Also does anyone have any pros/cons about NYU law

Reposting! Over 200 purchases and so many people have messaged me thanking me!

I want to start off by saying - this forum is toxic to success if you base your experiences on the experience of others. A lot of people will post "I got X in my diagnostic, can I get X in 3 months" and people always do the "you might, you can't, maybe" - blah, blah, blah.

If you put in the work, you can and here is where I am going to come in. I first started studying in late September. I took the October LSAT and was VERY unprepared (didn't know what NA or SA differences were) and my score showed (mid-140s). I started reading the posts and saw all the "you need 1 year" replies and was very discouraged, however, I still put in the work 3/4 hour days.

My main focus was understanding the questions rather than drilling and I was doing so well. I was testing in the mid-160s. However, November came and I received a 152. I was livid. Back to the drawling board and I had one goal -- break down the exam. I made guide after guide about things I did not understand. I started analyzing every single question I was taking. I knew the LSAT was based on skeletons and differing topics so I started breaking down questions into skeletons and doing practice tests and drills. I was testing in the 177-180 range by the January test.

After my hold was released in January (finally), I received a 178. I was elated and ecstatic and I have to contribute it truly to all the guides I made and analysis. While waiting for my hold, I decided to merge everything I've made and make a "LSAT BOOK" basically, almost 300 pages of information. Breaking down conditionals, questions, and skeletons (still, a work in progress, my mission is to break down every single LSAT question and find every single skeleton and make a skeleton bank for the future).

If anyone has any questions, dm me! However, majority of questions I will be referencing this guide because I truly put in the WORK to make this and aggregate all my notes (which quite honestly, took the longest because formatting this guide was terrible)

If you would like to buy the guide, message me as I do not want this to be taken down for solicitation, unfortunately, I would post for free, but this was about 4 months of work to get to this point.

Good luck to everyone and remember, your experience is yours. Do not let others dictate your future and your success with "maybes".

Hi all,

I've been struggling with the science passages on RC, and no matter how much I try to "actively" engage with the passage, I still do terribly. I have no issues getting -0 on the other passage types, but for science passages, I seem to overwhelmingly get the majority of the questions wrong because I'm unable to understand the text.

For context, on my last PT, I got every single question for the science passage incorrect.

Does anyone have advice on how I can tackle this issue?

Thank you!

Hello! I'm a pretty frequent poster in this sub and I wanted to share my advice and strategies for RC that got me from a -12, -13 to a -3, -4, I'm no LSAT guru or tutor but I feel like this can help people as much as it helped me.

• Stop overcomplicating RC
  • At its core, RC is simply can you read thoroughly and slowly and then use what you read to answer questions, think about it, when you eventually become the lawyer, you're meant to be and you're forming a case, you are not going to pull random facts without a source or support backing it and that is exactly what RC tests you on, your ability to use the passage as your foundation and answer questions based off of that foundation.
• The passages in RC are actually real
  • What I mean by this is, when you shift your attitude on RC from, this is just another hurdle stopping me from achieving my goal score to this passage actually contains real information from studies, papers, etc. and is actually giving you new information it'll help with retaining the point more. For myself I saw that I got better at RC when I realized that I'm actually learning something new here, and I'm walking away from this passage with information that I can tell my friends.
• If the answer isn't stated or supported, it isn't the correct answer
  • You need to be mean to these answer choices, it's either stated or supported, if you choose an answer, you better make sure that you can back it with a sentence or a paragraph from the passage, if you cannot point to where you got your answer from, then it is the wrong answer. Just like a lawyer, when you eventually get to the point of making arguments, you better be sure to back it with support. This isn't LR, there's less flexibility with RC, meaning, every right answer in RC is backed by support or stated in the stimulus, you cannot reason with the wrong answer in RC, you simply just didn't comprehend it thoroughly enough.
• Sentence by Sentence, rather than Paragraph by Paragraph
  • Every sentence has a meaning in RC, stop rushing to make a low-res summary and then miss a KEY point in a sentence because you're trying to make a summary. That is why I embrace a sentence-by-sentence style of tackling RC because each sentence holds weight.
• Active Reading, Active Conversation
  • Active reading, you need to be interacting with the passage, draw connections from your own experiences in life and bridge it to the passage, talk to yourself through it, "Is it interesting? Is it fun to read, wow this is new information." Doing this was how I was able to have a better feel for the passage, because I would actively remember how I felt when I would dissect these sentences.

Hopefully this advice can help people struggling with RC, I understand that RC can be extensively daunting but fearing RC gives your mind the power to make mistakes because of a lack of confidence. RC is meant to be fun, it's meant to teach you new information about the world alongside being timed to think fast and draw connections. Again, my advice isn't a 100% best thing to do, Im not a tutor but this is what helped me grow.

I wrote this to give my students the kind of context that would help them prep most effectively and to give anyone visiting my site a basic framework for moving forward. If you're clear on what you need to do and why you need to do it, it becomes easier to make the right decisions and to maintain the kind of consistent engagement that you'll need to improve your score. I'm sure that I've left stuff out and that there's things that people might disagree with but I wanted to keep this both broad and comprehensive without diving into a ton of details.

This post is a general overview of the entire LSAT process — it's a condensation of a much-longer 14-post series on the test that I have on my site completely for free. Here I give you the basic info on what the test is and what's at stake, the core analytical skills the test is built on, how the two scored sections work, how to structure your preparation, and the logistics from registration through post-test decisions.

What the LSAT Is

Why the LSAT Carries the Weight It Does

At most law schools, admissions decisions reduce to two numbers: your LSAT score and your undergraduate GPA, combined into an index score. The LSAT carries slightly more weight than the GPA. US News factors each school's incoming LSAT median into its rankings, so schools have a direct incentive to admit students with higher scores — and your score is evaluated against a specific school's median.

Merit scholarships follow the same logic. Law school merit aid is awarded almost entirely based on how your score compares to a school's median, not on financial need. Roughly 90% of students scoring 166 or above receive some form of merit aid, with average scholarships around $24,000/year against a total cost of attendance of approximately $82,000/year.

What It Tests

The LSAT tests close reading of dense, difficult text and verbal reasoning — you follow complex arguments and analyze the logical connections and implications in them. There's no legal knowledge required; preparation is the development of specific skills and not memorization of specific facts or concepts (though there will be some concepts you'll need to learn in order to apply those skills appropriately).

The Current Format

Four sections, 35 minutes each: two scored Logical Reasoning sections, one scored Reading Comprehension section, and one unscored experimental section. The experimental is either LR or RC, it's indistinguishable from the scored sections, and its position is randomized. Treat every section as scored.

• Logical Reasoning — 2 sections, scored
• Reading Comprehension — 1 section, scored
• Experimental (LR or RC) — 1 section, unscored

10-minute break between sections 2 and 3. Delivered digitally through LawHub, with in-person and remote testing currently available. Remote testing ends for most test takers starting August 2026.

LSAT Writing is a separate 50-minute writing sample administered through LawHub on a different day. It doesn't affect your score, but law schools won't receive your score report until you complete it.

Scores and Targets

Scale runs 120–180; national median is approximately 152–153.

Top school medians (approximate):

• Yale — 177
• Stanford, Harvard, Chicago — 176
• Columbia, Northwestern, Virginia — 175
• Penn, NYU — 174
• Georgetown, Michigan — 173
• Duke, UCLA, Berkeley — 172

A 170 is below the median at every T14 school. Use the above as a rough guide — as you move toward less prestigious schools the medians drop.

The Underlying Skills

There are three key skills you'll need to develop before everything else becomes easy to learn: reading comprehension, verbal reasoning, and formal logic. Understanding these before you encounter specific question types matters — the question types are essentially applications of these skills.

Reading Dense Text: Grammar and Sentence Structure

The difficulty in LSAT text isn't just vocabulary. It's sentence complexity: long and awkward constructions that bury meaning inside layers of modification and make it opaque who the agent is and what they're doing. Every sentence has a core — a subject and a predicate — and additional complexity gets layered on through three mechanisms:

• Modification — adding information through words, phrases, or clauses
• Nominalization — converting verbs into nouns, which buries the action and the agent
• Passive voice — making the agent optional, removing actors from view

Arguments: Verbal Reasoning

An argument has a conclusion — the claim being made — and premises, the reasons offered in support. Indicator words often signal which is which: conclusion indicators (therefore, thus, so, hence) point forward to the claim; premise indicators (because, since) point back to the support. Arguments can also have sub-conclusions (claims that both receive and provide support) and response structures where the author pushes back against a stated position.

Formal Logic: Conditionals and Quantifiers

Conditional reasoning is if-then reasoning. The "if" part is the sufficient condition; the "then" part is the necessary condition. Think of conditionals as rules: the sufficient tells you what triggers the rule, the necessary tells you the consequence. A valid rule is one where the consequence always follows when triggered — you can't have sufficient without necessary. The one valid deduction from any conditional is the contrapositive: if the necessary is absent, the sufficient must be absent (flip and negate both sides). Two common errors: false reversal (treating necessary as sufficient) and false negation (negating the sufficient to conclude the negation of the necessary). Both mainly come from applying everyday speech habits to a more technical usage.

Syllogistic reasoning uses "all," "no," "some," "most." "All" and "no" map directly to conditionals. Formal "some" means at least one; formal "most" means more than half — neither implies incompleteness. This isn't as common as conditional reasoning but it appears and you have to know the specific language.

The Two Scored Sections

Logical Reasoning

Each LR question gives you a short argument and asks you to do something with it. Question types fall into four categories:

Relevance — answer choices bring in new information from outside the argument:

• Strengthen — find the choice that makes the conclusion more likely
• Weaken — find the choice that makes the conclusion less likely
• Evaluate — find the question whose answers would both strengthen and weaken the argument
• Paradox — stimulus presents a contradiction; find the choice that resolves it

Rule — answer choices bring in principles rather than new facts:

• Principle (Justify) — find the rule that bridges premises and conclusion when applied
• Sufficient Assumption — find the assumption that makes the conclusion inevitable
• Principle (Illustrate) — stimulus is a scenario; find the generalization derived from it
• Principle (Scenario) — stimulus contains a principle; find the argument it correctly applies to

Consequence — works entirely within the stimulus:

• Must Be True — find the choice that has to be true given the stimulus
• Must Be False — find the choice that contradicts the stimulus
• Necessary Assumption — find what the conclusion can't hold without
• Disagreement — two speakers; find what one is committed to that the other contradicts

Structure — asks how the argument is built:

• Conclusion — identify the main point
• Method of Reasoning (Role) — identify what function a specific statement plays
• Method of Reasoning (Structure) — describe the overall logical structure
• Parallel Reasoning — find the argument with the same logical structure
• Flaw — describe the logical error

These question types all have different variations and a big part of doing well is learning to recognize them.

Reading Comprehension

RC passages cluster into recognizable types, and every passage is built from three levels: claims (substantive or evaluative statements), claim groups (arguments, descriptions, explanations, or perspectives), and paragraphs (each performing one of five functions: Introduce, Claim, Support, Challenge, or Resolve). Identifying these building blocks helps track overall meaning.

Common passage patterns:

• Argumentative passages make a case — Critical (attacking a position), Defensive (defending against attack), or Constructive (proposing something new)
• Descriptive passages explain: what something is, how something works, how something changed over time, or covering an artist/work/movement
• Dual passages pair two texts whose relationship is itself part of what the questions test

Each passage has 5–7 questions that are broadly similar to LR questions. The primary difficulty is accurately understanding the passage in the time given.

Preparing

Materials

You need access to official PrepTests — actual released LSAC exams available through LawHub Advantage at $120/year. This is a separate purchase from any third-party course.

For the prep approach, two factors matter: budget and how you learn.

• Self-study — books and self-paced courses; least expensive but requires self-direction. Most recommended books: PowerScore Bible Trilogy, The Loophole by Ellen Cassidy, and the LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim. Most recommended self-paced courses: 7Sage and Blueprint. I personally recommend PowerScore over the other two books, though the Loophole is very good for grammar and reading comprehension. I'm not a big fan of the LSAT Trainer.
• Live classes — 7Sage Live, Blueprint Live Online, LSAT Demon; add external structure and real-time instruction at higher cost. The most commonly recommended is 7Sage — fairly comprehensive with good production quality. I'm less familiar with Blueprint and not a big fan of LSAT Demon.
• One-on-one tutoring — most individualized option; makes the most sense when you've plateaued or need more direct guidance than a course can provide. When choosing a tutor, look for someone who has done well on the test and has enough experience to identify your specific problems and communicate solutions effectively.

Macro Study Plan

Take a diagnostic first: a cold, full-length official LSAT through LawHub before any prep. Your diagnostic is your starting point — don't get anxious about it.

Rough timeline based on improvement goal:

• ~5 points → 1–2 months
• ~10 points → 3–6 months
• 20+ points → 6+ months

Working professionals: plan for 4–6 months at minimum with roughly 15 hours/week for significant score increases.

Also, think about what you bring to the table. Do you read often, and is it challenging material? Good reading skills are foundational for this test — analogous to being in shape before trying out for a sport. How organized and disciplined are you? How resilient? The test is difficult and covers a lot of ground; these basic skills make the process go more effectively.

Prep moves through three stages:

1. Fundamentals — learn how the test works and build core reasoning skills through course material and question-type study. Rushing fundamentals to get to practice tests is one of the most common and damaging prep mistakes.
2. Drilling — targets specific weaknesses; should be untimed so you're focused on understanding the concepts and developing the right approach to questions and passages.
3. Timed practice — timed sections first, then full practice tests to build integration and stamina.

When starting timed practice, give yourself more time than allotted at first, then gradually reduce it as accuracy improves. You'll continue drilling concurrently since timed sections will reveal which question or passage types are giving you trouble.

How to Study

The key distinction is active vs. passive practice.

• Passive — reading/watching explanations without synthesizing what you've learned; just reading explanations for questions you got wrong.
• Active — more engaged; redoing questions you got wrong, making detailed logs of why you picked what you picked and why you eliminated what you eliminated, building outlines and flashcards.

Make sure your studying is active.

Blind review — after any timed work, flag uncertain answers, re-attempt every flagged question without the key and without time pressure, then check. The gap between timed and blind-review performance tells you whether time management or concept understanding is the problem — knowing which lets you focus more effectively.

Error logging — a running record of wrong answers covering why the right answer is right and specifically where your reasoning went wrong. Patterns across entries feed directly back into drilling priorities.

The actual learning in LSAT prep happens in drilling. Most students over-rely on full practice tests. If you're doing more full tests than drills, you're probably not improving as fast as you could.

Registration, Test Day, and After

Registration

Everything is done through a free account at lsac.org (JD Services portal). The LSAT is offered approximately 8–9 times per year; registration deadlines fall about 40 days before each test date.

Approximate costs:

• LSAT registration — $248
• CAS subscription — $215
• CAS report (per school) — $45

Fee waivers are available in two tiers based on income; apply at least six months before your target test date.

CAS (Credential Assembly Service) collects transcripts, processes letters of recommendation, recalculates your GPA on a standardized LSAC scale, and sends a compiled report to each school you apply to. Transcript processing takes about two weeks. Register for CAS at least four to six weeks before your first application deadline — schools won't receive your score report until CAS is complete.

Test Day

In the final week, take one full timed practice test early in the week, then stop. The final week is too late to patch gaps. Sleep matters more than most students account for — consistent 7–8 hours across the final week has a real impact. The night before: handle logistics. Test morning: eat normally (protein-heavy meals tend to give more sustained energy; carb-heavy meals can cause a crash), keep caffeine consistent with your usual intake, and use breathing techniques to manage anxiety. I use box breathing (inhale 4 sec → hold 4 sec → exhale 4 sec → pause 4 sec) but find whatever works for you. During the test: one question at a time. Mark genuinely hard questions and move on. Three minutes of anxiety on one question costs you on every question that follows.

After the Test

Score Preview ($45 before testing, $85 after) lets you see your score before releasing it. You have a 6-day window to cancel after seeing it. Cancelling does not hide the score — cancelled scores appear as "C" on the CAS report every school receives. You have 5 attempts within the current reportable period (June 2020 onward) and 7 lifetime; LSAC removed the 3-per-year cap in 2023. Law schools use your highest score; multiple scores or a cancellation generally don't require explanation.

The retake decision comes down to one question: is a meaningful improvement achievable with a concrete change to your prep? The clearest signal is an official score 5+ points below your recent practice average. A retake without a real change to your approach tends to produce similar results.

Most schools use rolling admissions; the optimal submission window is October–November. The earlier you apply, the more spots are available — later in the cycle you're competing for fewer. If you're planning to retake, either wait for the result or apply in parallel and notify each school explicitly about the pending score.

I hope this overview helps — like I said, everything covered here is expanded in the individual posts on my site and I recommend you check it out for more details.

So I'm taking the test in August. Got a 163 initial diag, hoping to get as close to 180 as possible. Just finished reading the Powerscore LR Bible and started on 7sage. I don't know anyone else studying for the LSAT right now and want someone to talk about this with who is also taking the test in August, preferably someone with a similar initial diag and goal who is also doing 7sage. Thanks in advance.

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I just got my Bachelor's this weekend. My GPA is 3.88 (just missed Summa by.02). My practice test in January was 137, and I had to finish at home. I'm 47, Autistic (Asperger's), with Tourettes and ADHD in addition to that. My handwriting speed is also that of a 4th grader. I usually get accommodations for testing, but not sure what I can do for the LSAT.

I managed to save my data for any tutors that I might find. I mainly took the practice test to get a baseline reading. However, with the previous post I just saw here, is that format change going to be significant to the point of nullifying the previous practice test?

As you guys would say, am I cooked?

Hi,

I could really use some help studying for the LSAT, I haven’t been able to get above a 148 even with a tutor. If you’re willing to help me please reach out.

Hello everyone, as the title says I will be hosting classes on the upper west side of Manhattan

The study location will be the main conference room of my building – there are TVs available for us to connect to and drill together in person. There will be some structure to it, and I will also allow for structured one on one or group learning time.

Any score is welcome- please reach out to me if you’re interested.

Also, if you have a score over 170, please let me know that as well.

I am offering this entirely for free in order to prepare for June and August.

There will be a WhatsApp group created regarding this group. We will meet two times a week.

Most LSAT experts agree that taking practice tests is an extremely important part of LSAT preparation. Not only do they give you a sense of the endurance and pacing aspects of the exam, but they can also help you better understand which concepts you need to focus on. However, like any tool, they can be used incorrectly. This is why so many people end up frustrated after taking many practice tests with nothing to show for it. In this blog post, we will discuss six common mistakes and how to prevent them.

Mistake #1: Using practice tests too much or not enough

Practice tests, while useful, can be very draining and require a lot of endurance. Taking too many practice tests without breaks in between can lead to burnout. Also, taking practice tests back-to-back prevents you from taking the time to review, which is where you will learn from your mistakes. The improvement comes between practice tests as you learn from your mistakes, not from the tests themselves.

On the other hand, some people never take practice tests either because they are waiting for things to be perfect or they are afraid to see the results. But if you never take a practice test, you are very likely to be thrown off by the real exam. Taking individual sections or drills will not be enough to emulate the endurance and time pressure of the test. Even if you don't feel ready, take a practice test just to get an accurate representation of where you are at. Ideally, you should aim to take at least 10 practice tests leading up to the day of the test.

Practice tests should be used as a tool to develop consistency and endurance, not as a direct tool for improvement. Start by taking tests as a tool to determine your current performance and drill the individual concepts or question types that give you the most trouble. Once you are scoring near your target, you can start ramping up the number of practice tests you take.

Mistake #2: Not Sticking to Actual Test Conditions

Students will often tell me they stopped in the middle of a section because they got discouraged or an unexpected situation came up. But this is precisely when you should be pushing through. There very well may be times where you will feel this way during the real exam, but you will not be able to stop and retake the test.

Additionally, people often perform way better than they felt, and certain sections may feel difficult while the remaining sections feel much easier. Just because you feel like you aren't doing well in a section does not mean you bombed the test. Practice pushing through even when things are not going in your favor.

It is also very important to stick closely to timed conditions. Fortunately, now that the test is online, the end of the section is automated. But avoid giving yourself an extra minute or two when taking practice tests. A little bit of extra time can significantly impact your overall score and give you a false sense of security. We want at least some practice tests to be an accurate representation of what score you can expect.

Mistake #3: Checking the Clock Too Often

Checking the clock can be tempting. After all, when you are in the middle of a section, you want to know how much time you have left. But as a result, you may end up wasting valuable time if you check the clock too frequently. The time it takes to check the clock, find where you left off and reset your thinking process becomes way too costly. As a result, people end up panicking halfway through the section.

This may sound crazy, but I recommend practicing without looking at the clock at all. After all, there is no way to regain the time you lost, and seeing how much time you have left can lead you to start rushing, which will only lead to careless mistakes on questions you may have gotten correct if you maintained your composure. Also, as you continue practicing this way you will develop an internal clock where you can almost sense how much time has passed.

But if you absolutely need to check your time, it's important to set very specific checkpoints to do so. This way, you avoid the temptation to sporadically check the clock. Here are my recommended checkpoints for each section:

Logical Reasoning--After a set of 10 questions

Reading Comprehension--After each passage and corresponding question set

Mistake #4: Burning Through the Most Recent Tests

The more recent tests are most similar to what you can expect on the day of the test. That doesn't mean the older tests are useless, but ideally you should save at least some of the most recent tests leading up to the test.

At the same time, people often claim more recent tests feel harder or different, so you don't want to get blindsided by these tests just a couple weeks before the real LSAT. For this reason, I recommend sprinkling in one recent test every few weeks. Then the final 3-4 weeks of your prep should be devoted solely to recent exams. Use the older tests for drilling specific concepts.

Mistake #5: Not Analyzing Your Results

The LSAT is largely a pattern recognition test. There are structures, inferences, and trap answers that show up time and time again. And if we are consistently making mistakes, it is likely there are patterns in our mistakes as well.

Rather than just trying to understand why each answer is right or wrong, it is beneficial to understand what types of questions or concepts you are consistently having issues with. This can bring to light skill sets that need improvement and will help you focus on your weaknesses, which in turn will help you improve faster and more efficiently.

Mistake #6: Rushing

People often rush, especially as they start to run out of time. They think they need to hurry up and complete the question so that they have enough time to complete the others.

But think about how many times you go back to a question and think to yourself 'If I just had a little more time, I would have gotten this question correct.' What ends up happening is you get nearly all of the remaining questions correct due to careless mistakes when you could have at least gotten an extra two questions correct if you had just spent a few extra seconds on them. When you are running out of time, you have to choose between the lesser of two evils--either you don't answer all of the questions and at least get some additional questions correct or you likely get all of them wrong. As counterintuitive as this may sound, the better approach is to be willing to sacrifice a few questions for the sake of accuracy. If you have questions remaining and only a minute to spare, blindly guess on the remaining questions. Then review them after the test and find ways to answer them more quickly for the next time.

Best of luck!

I offer content like this on r/LSATStrategies

I am super confused and super disappointed with how I got this score. During my first blind diagnostic, I got a 135 because during the breaktimes I was scrolling through my phone and at points thorughout I was blindly answering the question without reading it. During my second attempt, I was committed and didn't do anything else for the time, I watched two videos and went to an online seminar about the LSAT. But it seems like while my LR went up by a point or two, and unfortuantely RC down during the second time. I felt more time constraint during my second time and I am honestly quite demotivated as I had intended to apply for the 2027 cycle and take my LSAT in September. But with this? I'm not sure even how to move forward