Blueprint classes for the June LSAT are underway—most students are a few lessons in at this point. If you’re studying for the June LSAT, let’s talk about what should and shouldn’t be important at this point.

Blueprint classes for the June LSAT are underway—most students are a few lessons in at this point. If you’re studying for the June LSAT, let’s talk about what should and shouldn’t be important at this point.
Reading Comprehension is probably the most ignored section of the LSAT. People tend to think something like, “I’ve been reading since I was five. If I can’t get it by now, I’m just gonna have to live with it.” But, Reading Comp isn’t reading as usual, so putting in the practice does pay off. Reading Comp’s peculiarities are most evident from the Comparative Reading passages. You get two passages and a single set of questions related to one or both passages. When’s the last time you had to go through something like that reading, say, the Huffington Post?
It’s just words, right? WRONG. If you’re planning to take the LSAT, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve taken other standardized tests before — the SAT or ACT, perhaps even the GRE or GMAT. These tests all have one thing in common: reading comprehension. On the surface, all reading comp looks pretty similar. There’s a
Interesting question, if coarsely phrased. Very few students finish any of the sections on their first practice exam, but with Logical Reasoning and Logic Games, after a few months of practice, most can get to the vast majority if not all of the questions in the time provided.
When you finish a 3.5 hour-long practice test, the last thing you want to do after scoring it is to go over the questions you got wrong. But reviewing practice tests is ridiculously important. It’s as valuable as taking the practice tests in the first place, if you go about it strategically.
First of all, don’t review your test right after you score it. You’re tired and frustrated – at least in my personal experience. I recommend reviewing each test the next day.
There is a lot to learn for the LSAT, from diagramming conditionals, to memorizing flaw categories, to wrangling with combo games. The December LSAT is fast approaching, and hopefully students taking the test next month will be familiar with most of the material at this point.
With less than three weeks until the June LSAT, it’s time to buckle down on studying. This week we’re offering one important last-minute tip for each LSAT section. Today, we talk about Reading Comprehension; stay tuned for Logic Games and Logical Reasoning!
Reading Comprehension is the most familiar section on the LSAT. Everyone taking the test already knows how to read (I assume). They answered reading questions on the SAT. They read the newspaper (kidding). So, as most people start studying for the LSAT, they feel like RC is one area they don’t have to worry too much about.
Which is good, of course. But the tradeoff is that people often feel like there are few good ways to improve. Fatalism about your RC score tends to set in, especially as your test day approaches.
Today, all across the US and Canada (this is an LSAT blog, after all), many people of Irish heritage and not-one-bit-Irish heritage alike will celebrate St. Patrick by wearing green, drinking things that are green but aren’t normally supposed to be (If I must drink something green, make it a Chartreuse and soda), and generally carousing about town getting utterly plastered.
Nonetheless, it makes for a good excuse to discuss the role of luck in the LSAT. For the most part, the LSAT is a predictable test. Practice tests will generally give you a good gauge of where you stand. But at the margins, chance can play a role on LSAT test day. Here are some ways it can factor in.
How Luck Plays a Role on the LSAT I: The experimental section
The February LSAT is coming up this weekend, so as usual it’s time for us to predict what delights it’ll hold. I’m honored to take over the LSAT predictions (I didn’t know you were allowed to do it if you’re not named Matt), but I also feel lucky: since the February LSAT is undisclosed, no one will be able to prove me wrong. It’s a nice way to start off, as I get my powers of clairvoyance back into shape.
2014 February LSAT prediction I: Logic Games
The December LSAT had a harder than usual Logic Games section. None of the games was all that bad on its own, but only one was truly easy. Of the others, one was standard but hard, one was a bit unusual and moderately hard, and the last one was typical and moderate.
On the February LSAT, I’d expect a return to the recent trend: one killer game, with the other three being easy-to-moderate and fairly standard. The December LSAT had two rule substitution questions, whereas usually there’s no more than one. Expect a break from those.