I may sound like an old(er) lady before my time, but sometimes I just can’t understand the slang these days! Is “cray” the same as “crazy”? Something “sick” can be a good thing, while someone sick is decidedly not good… huh? And “random”: the kids seem to use it to describe anything unfavorable (e.g., “sucks”), but in my day (there I go again), something random was unexpected, unforeseen. Random could be good or bad or just a way to pick lottery numbers, but it always a toss-up.

As an LSAT instructor, I hear potential test takers describe the test as random, complaining that it “doesn’t mean anything” and shrugging that they will just “take a guess and see what happens.” But, again, at the risk of sounding like a grouchy granny, the LSAT is anything but random, sonny! It tests the specific skills that law schools look for in successful candidates (to-be-successful graduates and, later, successful attorneys) in strategic, time-tested ways. The LSAT is meticulously researched, designed, and test-run in sample groups to ensure that it is airtight: only a handful of questions have been recalled in the last couple of decades, and those were statistically analyzed to exhaustion.

So, instead of throwing their hands up and dismissing the LSAT as random, test takers should meet strategy with strategy. Consider the end game:  if the test is measuring the reading, analysis, and reasoning skills necessary to thrive in law school and legal practice, you should answer each question with an eye toward those desired skills.  Always consider “Why am I being tested?” and rise to that challenge by reading carefully, paying attention to detail, sticking to the scope of the problem, and following the path of logic. These LSAT study methods will help you take charge of this test, and your future in law!

]]> http://blog.the180.com/2012/09/18/random-act-of-acing-the-lsat/feed/ 0 http://blog.the180.com/2012/09/13/your-brain-on-lsat-test-day/ http://blog.the180.com/2012/09/13/your-brain-on-lsat-test-day/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2012 23:18:08 +0000 Stuart Kovinsky http://blog.the180.com/?p=804 When I was in college, someone thought it would be a great idea for everyone to go skydiving. We were all freshmen, so of course we agreed that it was the best idea ever. The following weekend we headed out to the closest skydiving school for what we dreamed would be a full day of arguing with gravity.

You can imagine our surprise when we found out that skydiving was a lot of prep work. A full 3 hours of the day was devoted to learning emergency procedures – what to do if your main chute didn’t open. The instructors drilled us and drilled us and drilled us until we would instinctively assume the position and pull our reserve chute in case of a mechanical error.… Read full post

When I was in college, someone thought it would be a great idea for everyone to go skydiving. We were all freshmen, so of course we agreed that it was the best idea ever. The following weekend we headed out to the closest skydiving school for what we dreamed would be a full day of arguing with gravity.

You can imagine our surprise when we found out that skydiving was a lot of prep work. A full 3 hours of the day was devoted to learning emergency procedures – what to do if your main chute didn’t open. The instructors drilled us and drilled us and drilled us until we would instinctively assume the position and pull our reserve chute in case of a mechanical error.  To this day, many years later, if someone were to walk up behind me on the street and shout “TOTAL MALFUNCTION” I would put my knees together, left arm up and pull, push and release the reserve chute. At this point you’re probably asking “what does this have to do with the LSAT?” Well, just like jumping out of a plane, the LSAT is a source of stress.

When we’re stressed out, all of our careful planning tends to go out the window (or the open plane door) and we revert to base instinct. Why did the parachute school instructor refuse to let us jump until our bodies naturally reacted to a malfunction by pulling the reserve chute? Because she wanted to ensure that, even if we did panic, our natural instinct was to do the thing that would save our lives.

What does that mean for your LSAT prep?

It means that you have to know your game plan so well that, even if your brain does take a short vacation during the test, your well-trained natural instincts take over and you still succeed. It means that you need to know the LSAT test-taking methods that will ensure your efficiency during the exam. It means that you need to be so well-prepared for the LSAT that, even if your proverbial chute doesn’t open on Test Day, you make a perfect landing.

How do you prep for the LSAT to make sure that you’ll be ready in case of emergency? Share your stories with us here!

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To enhance my latest running regimen, I have started to incorporate (mild, believe me) strength training. But this, too, is hit or miss: leg presses are usually a go-to, but I have the upper body strength of a stick figure. So, desperate for some affirmation of my athletic aspiration, I stick with the leg presses and squats and anything else that comes relatively easily.  Hey, confidence isn’t easy to come by when you’re struggling to even lift the bar in “barbell!”

This mistaken impulse to focus on just one aspect of training is also common among LSAT test takers: some play to their strengths by practicing only those question types on which they feel strength, but it is just as much of a misstep to concentrate only on areas of weakness. The problem with this approach is the same facing would-be gym rats like me: by devoting all of one’s efforts to only one part of a challenge, training (and, eventually, results) become unbalanced. As an LSAT test taker (and Kaplan student), I bucked the advice of my teacher to practice Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Logic Games according to their prevalence on the test instead of how I felt about each section. Naturally, my score dropped- thankfully, my Kaplan teacher was there to “spot me” back onto an evenhanded plan for prep.

Kaplan LSAT instructional and practice resources draw upon extensive research and strategic design to build a steady foundation of preparation. At the same time, they are fully customizable to fit each student’s individual needs and goals: the online Smart Reports system tracks students’ practice performance in order to analyze stronger and weaker areas and recommend efficient steps to maximize prep time and effort. Even further, Kaplan Admissions Consultants act as “personal trainers” for students facing the challenges of the law school admissions process, offering experienced, personalized advice on such hurdles as choosing programs, crafting personal statements, and building resumes.

Instead of working out only one half of my body (and ending up with Popeye proportions), I have to circuit train to reach my goals of strength, speed, and endurance. This same principle applies to LSAT test takers: by following Kaplan’s expert, purposeful methods, students are guaranteed to cross their own finish lines of success on Test Day and, down the road, admission into their law schools of choice.

Did you just look at the calendar and realize how soon the next LSAT administration, really is? Maybe you registered for the test some time ago and got caught up in work, school, family, or other fun. Or maybe you just made the decision to apply to law school and are signing up for the test now. Regardless, if you’re going to take the LSAT in a few short weeks, you’ve got some work to do. As someone who has coached several thousand LSAT test takers, and who is a pretty good procrastinator in my own right, here are my “must do” tips for you to make the most of your time between now and test day.

Six Last-Minute Preparation Tips

(1) Practice the LSAT (you can’t cram for it). With at least some of your college courses, you could overcome procrastination by cramming, finding out what you needed to know for the final and dedicating the whole day (and probably night) before the test to drilling it into your short-term memory. As long as you could recall the salient facts during the exam, you were good to go. But this won’t be case on the LSAT because, quite simply, there’s nothing to memorize. The LSAT rewards the application of law school skills such as incisive, critical reading and logical reasoning to a range of subject matter so wide there’s no way you’ll be familiar with all (or even most) of it. This is a test of what you’re able to do, not of how much you know. Realizing this changes everything. You can no more hope to master the LSAT by passively learning about it than you could hope to master the guitar by reading a book.

Make sure the course or materials you use have a lot of real LSAT questions, sections, or tests to work with. Just as importantly, make sure all of the questions and tests have clear, complete explanations so that you can review everything you get right and wrong. Getting into the batting cages and swinging away will help you become better at hitting a baseball, but you’ll make much faster and more reliable improvement if you have a coach there who can explain what you’re doing differently between the swings that made solid contact and those that miss.

(2) Discover your starting point. Right now, or at least as soon as you’ve finished reading this post, find the next available time to take a complete practice LSAT. You’ll need about three and half hours to take a full-length, timed test. But once you do, you’ll have a much clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and of what LSAT questions are all about. Again, having explanations available for all of the questions is an enormous plus. In some cases, you’ll realize that you simply misunderstood what the question was calling for. In other cases, you’ll realize that you selected a correct answer, but could have done so much more efficiently by recognizing a pattern or process that the testmaker uses over and over.

(3) Keep your study balanced. The LSAT always contains four scored sections: two sections of Logical Reasoning (~50 questions), one of Reading Comprehension (~27 questions), and one of Logic Games (~24 questions). Many test takers will discover that they’re weaker in one of those sections and try to improve their score by focusing exclusively on this one area of opportunity. The fact is that all 101 questions are scored equally and adding four right answers to your strongest section will help your score just as much as adding four right answers to your weakest one. The sample study schedule below takes this into account.

(4) Avoid concern about that “one weird question.” For those of us who follow the LSAT, every test administration seems to produce one or two outstandingly difficult or unique-looking questions. We’ll argue about how best to crack these tough little puzzles and where they fit within the standard taxonomy of question types. Some self-styled LSAT gurus will even try to make their reputation by showing off a trick or two for the weirdest examples. But in reality, these outliers have a small impact on your score, especially when compared to the standard questions and games that show up in large numbers on every administration of the test. Someone like you, practicing with limited time before test day is far better served by gaining confident mastery of Assumption, Strengthen/Weaken, and Inference questions, Sequencing games, and the standard Reading Comp passages and questions than by seeking out obscure question types, even if those oddballs seem like the hardest problems to solve. You need a teacher or material that knows the test inside out and can guide you to the most valuable question types so that your practice is guaranteed to turn into points on your official LSAT.

(5) Target efficiency, not speed. There is no denying that timing is the greatest challenge the LSAT presents for an enormous number of students. You will, at some point in your practice, say “I could get every one of these if I just had more time.” (If you doubt me, just come back and read this again after you’ve taken a couple of tests.) In response, most test takers try to read faster or cut corners in their analysis. This is a big mistake. Most of the wasted time on the LSAT actually comes from rereading and second guessing. Test takers patient (and practiced) enough to read an argument one time, analyze it, and predict the correct answer before testing the choices will easily outperform someone who tears through the argument, but has to reread it as they consider choice (A), and then (B), and then (C), and then (D), and so on. The same is true in Logic Games, where the highest scorers may take as much or more time to sketch the game’s setup and make its entire string of deductions as they do to answer its set of questions. Gaining mastery and confidence will make you more efficient, and in the end, allow you to outperform haphazard test takers who are trying to simply work faster, not smarter.

(6) Stay positive – a few more right answers can make you a much stronger applicant. For as much as pre-law students talk about the 120 to 180 range of LSAT scaled scores, the same students often have little insight into how those scores are calculated. Without getting into complicated algorithms – and trust me, you do not have time for that before the October LSAT – the chart below points out some eye-opening information.

Raw, Scaled & Percentile Scoring

You will receive not one, not two, but three scores on Test Day:

• A raw score (0-~101), the total number of scored questions answered correctly translated into…
• A scaled score (120-180), the score by which law schools will evaluate your candidacy; and
• A percentile score, comparing test-takers across various testing cohorts

Since there is no wrong answer penalty on the LSAT, you score is determined solely by the number of questions you answer correctly. On a typical test, approximately 57 right answers will produce a score of 151 and land you squarely in the 50^th percentile, better than half of all test takers. If you add just five correct answers, you’ll move to a 154 and be in the 60^th percentile. To a lot of students, that jump of three scaled points (from a 151 to a 154) doesn’t sound very impressive, but when you consider that around 130,000 people take the LSAT each year, that increase means that you’ve passed around 13,000 competitors, applicants potentially vying for the same school(s) you’re trying to get into. Notice that each time you add four or five correct answers, you make a comparable leap past the other test takers. That should tell you just how much you can accomplish, even with the limited time before the next test. It should also underline how important it is to get additional correct answers wherever you can on the test, including sections in which you’re already relatively strong.

Sample LSAT Practice Schedule

Here’s a sample schedule for someone practicing for the LSAT with limited time. It assumes that you have between two and three hours per day to spend on LSAT practice. You can adjust the schedule to account for your own availability, but follow the balance of practice activities and note the section-specific focus for different days of the week.

There’s still time to prep comprehensively for the next LSAT administration.  For many accelerated preppers, our fully mobile-enabled LSAT Advantage – On Demand course is a terrific option, featuring a personalized, prioritized study plan, every released LSAT question with explanations, powerful reporting and our higher score guarantee.  Additionally, we have many On Site, Classroom Anywhere and Private Tutoring options still available.  Check out kaplanlsat.com for more information. 

Part 2:  Logical Reasoning 

It’s the first day of your new job in the big city.  You grew up on the other side of the country and you’ve never been here before – in fact, you just arrived this morning.  Work starts in 45 minutes and you certainly don’t want to make a bad impression and be late.  Do you:

(1) drive around aimlessly and hope you get lucky; or

(2) break out that map you downloaded the night before and go directly to the office?

The choice seems clear – you definitely choose option (2) and consult the map (well, OK, unless you’re a typical guy with a genetic aversion to directions).  You’d be amazed how many people, in the context of the LSAT, choose door (1) instead.

To be fair, it’s not completely those misguided test takers’ faults that they read aimlessly – after all, in logical reasoning the stimulus always precedes the question stem and we’re trained from a young age to start reading at the top of the page.  In fact, you should be happy that many LSAT test takers are inefficient, since that gives you a giant competitive advantage.  You just have to make sure that you’re not meandering down the same path to inefficiency.

In logical reasoning, that means always reading the question stem before reading the stimulus.  The question stem is your lifeline – it tells you what your task is so you know exactly what to look for as you read.  Further, it often provides extra clues to help you avoid the trap answers designed to punish people who make specific and predictable mistakes.

So, while you’re studying make sure that you learn to recognize the common stems so that you can instantly identify question types.  Doing so might involve stem drills – taking a logical reasoning section and seeing how quickly you can identify all 25 or 26 questions (don’t actually do the questions, just read the stem and write down the type).  There actually aren’t that many question types on the LSAT (about a dozen in logical reasoning, with a few variations), so there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be able to identify any LR question in under 10 seconds – leaving the lion’s share of the time for actually answering it.

To get you started, here are some of the most common keywords to help you identify the 5 most common question types in logical reasoning:

Assumption:  assumes, presupposes, assumption, presupposition

Strengthen:  strengthens, supports

Weaken:  weakens, undermines, casts doubt, calls into question

Flaw:  flaw, vulnerable to criticism, questionable, error of reasoning

Inference:  inferred, suggests, must be true, concluded, supports

One final note:  as you can see, “support” can appear in both strengthen and inference questions.  You’ll learn to attack those questions completely differently, so it’s vital to correctly identify which of the two you’re facing.  Here’s the big differentiator:  For strengthening, you’re always looking for an answer that supports the stimulus; for inference, you’re always looking for an an answer that’s supported by the stimulus.

Thanks for reading our 2-parter on question stems!  As always, don’t be shy about sharing your own experiences and asking questions about anything related to the LSAT.  ’til next time…

It’s fair to say that many, if not most, LSAT test-takers don’t find studying for the LSAT the most fun they ever had. Many dislike it with an intensity that’s only slightly less than that of a thousand fiery suns. When pressed, their explanation often boils down to “it’s just not relevant to how well I’ll do in law school, much less how I’ll fare as a lawyer.”

The conception that the LSAT won’t really help you in law school is based on a misperception, one we can fix by comparison to a learning a foreign language.

If you want to become fluent in a foreign language, it takes a lot of hard work. You’d need to sit down with your cassette tapes, textbooks, etc. and put in a lot of hours. But in the end, you’d have the ability to have a conversation without translating each and every word in your head, slowly and awkwardly trying to say even the simplest phrases.  It’s the fact that you fought through and translated hundreds of similar sentences that allow you to speak Italian without having to wade through each word – it’s as if it’s now second nature.

Compare that to someone who tries to learn Italian just by memorizing every single page of a phrasebook. They might be able to have a few simple conversations, but certainly they don’t “know” Italian in the same way someone who focused on learning the entire language does.  They still have to take it word by word, phrase by phrase – slowly and awkwardly.

Many student’s dislike studying for the LSAT because they think you just have to memorize a phrase book – learn the “tricks.” Bad news- there’s no phrasebook that you can use to get a great LSAT score.  Good news – when you develop an LSAT skill like analyzing arguments, you really learn it, and it’ll stick with you. Not just for success on the LSAT but in law school as well.  The skills you learned for Reading Comp – identifying points of view, etc. – will translate directly to analyzing cases in law school.  It isn’t a trick that allows well trained LSAT takers to figure out which co-pilot flies with which pilot, it’s well-honed skills.

At the end of the day, an argument is an argument. For example, becoming a fluent speaker of “argument” will help you to naturally spot flaws instead of spending time hunting them down (time you may not have), regardless of whether the flaw is in an argument about herbal tinctures on the LSAT, a case you’re reading your first year of law school or a judge giving biased jury instructions.

So, the next time you look at an LSAT problem and say, “that’s irrelevant to law school or a being a lawyer,” I hope you will respond to yourself and say “maybe, but the LSAT skills I’m learning are helping me learn to think like one.” And if you’re still unconvinced the ability to extrapolate and compare seemingly random connections is lawyerly – check out two of the most important cases Justice Roberts cited in the Affordable Care Act decision: one about growing wheat and one about being a loan shark (Wickard v. Filburn and Perez v. United States).

Here are tips three and four… 

Bad Habit #3:  Not committing to your study schedule.

 You want to be a lawyer.  You WILL be a lawyer.  Don’t be that person who has an achievable dream and throws it away due to lack of effort.  The LSAT is the key to getting into law school (and also a big part of saving a lot of money on law school tuition), so make it a huge priority. 

Summer is upon us; if you’re sane, there are probably a hundred things you’d rather be doing than studying for the LSAT.  However, for the next few months (or however long you have to study), you need to be that kid inside her living room, diligently practicing the violin while forlornly watching her friends play outside on the street. 

Further, as any of you who work out know, it’s not enough to simply say “I’m going to get to the gym 4 times this week” – that person probably only gets to the gym once or twice; those who decide “I’m going to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8am” achieve their goals.  Similarly for the LSAT, you need to set up a detailed schedule.  Book appointments with yourself to study.  When setting up your LSAT study schedule, be realistic and flexible.  Here are some study schedule tips: 

•  Start by taking a blank monthly calendar page and putting in all of your non-LSAT “written in stone” commitments, e.g. work, school, family events and social outings.
• Next, fill in LSAT study sessions in the blank spaces.  Try to make appointments of 90-180 minute duration (although even a 15-30 minute mini-session can be a great time to review strategies and previous work), only setting aside larger blocks of time for full-length tests.
• Decide what you’re going to do in each session. Make sure that you rotate through all 3 LSAT subjects, with extra time devoted to logical reasoning (it’s worth half your LSAT score!).  Don’t ignore one of the big 3 for more than 2 days in a row.
• Once you’re about 6 weeks away from the LSAT, start taking one test per week – ideally at the same time as the actual LSAT (e.g if you’re taking the LSAT at 9am on a Saturday morning, then take your practice LSAT exams at 9am as well).  The last time you should consider taking a full LSAT is 3-4 days before your real LSAT.  (If you have less than 6 weeks to study, then of course you need to adjust your full-length planning.)
• Remember Big Tip #2!  Always schedule ample time to review your work. 

Big Tip #3:  Make a study schedule and commit to it!

Bad habit #4:  Letting stress get in the way of your success. 

Let’s face it, stress is a part of the LSAT process.  You take a practice exam, you have a bad day and get a low score and all you can think is “I’m going to live in my parents’ basement for the rest of my life.”  Dealing with stress is a huge topic in itself (and will be featured in an upcoming blog entry!), so I’m just going to touch on it as it relates to studying. 

Here’s your stress-relieving mantra:  “The only questions that count are the ones on Test Day.” 

So simple!  So elegant!  So true!  Making mistakes in practice is actually good, as long as you learn from them.  The definition of a bad mistake is one that you doom yourself to repeat because you refuse to change your test-taking habits.  On the other hand, if you make a mistake, figure out what you did wrong and modify the way you approach the LSAT, then that mistake has actually increased your score! 

Big Tip #4:  Make mistakes happily. 

I invite you to share your study tips (Dos AND Don’ts) with us by leaving a comment.  

Have an LSATilicious July and I’ll see you again in August!

You may be wondering why there’s a picture of a man rocking a 70′s mullet drinking from the Stanley Cup in an LSAT blog.

Our stylish friend in the picture?  He’s partaking of the time-honoured tradition of Stanley Cup winners, drinking champagne directly from hockey’s most coveted prize.  As a Torontonian I’d have loved to have provided a picture of a Maple Leaf drinking from Lord Stanley’s cup, but I don’t think photography was even invented the last time the Leafs won.  So, that picture is from 1974, when the Philadelphia Flyers won.  Those Flyers (affectionately known as the Broad Street Bullies) have a special place in my heart; they may not have been the most talented team in the history of the NHL, but they were certainly among the hardest workers.

The importance of hard work brings us to the LSAT and your LSAT study schedule.

In addition to talking about great study habits, I want to warn you off of some disastrous ones. In this two part series, I’ll focus on the “Fearsome Four” and, more importantly, their antidotes.

Bad Habit #1: Timing yourself in the beginning.

There are three levels of LSAT practice: mastering skills, improving timing and improving endurance.  Too many LSAT test-takers start with timing – trying to get faster before they have mastered the skills necessary for increasing their LSAT score.  However, it’s vital to start by acquiring a deep understanding of how the LSAT works, something almost impossible to do when you’re under the gun.  The savviest LSAT test taker starts by focusing on the minutiae of the exam – the differences among question types, the different methods required for the different sections, the common traps inherent in each question, etc. – before worrying about picking up speed.

Big tip #1:  start with untimed practice, focusing on understanding how the test works.

Bad Habit #2:  Not analyzing Mistakes.

I don’t throw out a lot of quotes in the classroom, but here’s one from Einstein (who didn’t write the LSAT, but who was still a pretty smart guy): “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

A very common mistake made by LSAT test takers is to do a bunch of questions, check how many they got right, then immediately move on to the next batch of questions.  Some studiers just take practice LSAT after practice LSAT.  Bad students – no donut!  Thoroughly reviewing all of your work is key to your success on the LSAT.  Not sure how to effectively review your work?

Here are some tips:

If you got a question wrong, identify your error by asking yourself:

• Did I fall for a common wrong answer trap?
• Did I misidentify the question type?
• Did I misunderstand the passage?
• Did I misinterpret a rule or formal logic statement?

If you got a question right, ensure future success by asking yourself:

• Did I get it right for the right reasons? (or did I just get lucky when it came down to two)
• Did I get it right as quickly as possible?
• Do I understand exactly what I did and can I repeat it?

The best LSAT studiers spend as much time reviewing as they do answering questions and always end a study session by asking:  What did I learn from these questions that I can apply to future, similar, questions?

Big tip #2:  review, review, review!

Your study habits are critical to your LSAT success.  Hopefully you’ve found these tips helpful.  Stay tuned for tips Three and Four in Part Two!

As you contemplate whether you should retake the test, you need to consider your past performance but you also need to consider:

Will you have the time and peace of mind that you need to effectively prepare for the October administration of the LSAT? 

After all, some of you who significantly underperformed on the June LSAT did so primarily, if not simply, because you needed more LSAT preparation or you were not in the right mental state on or around test day.  So while perhaps you really should retake the exam again, if you’re probably not going to be able to get what you need in terms of preparation and peace of mind for the October test, there’s a real question as to whether this will be the right time for you to retake the exam.

The questions in the previous post and the above question will be key to getting many of you off to a solid start in thinking through whether you should retake the LSAT in October.  But, keep in mind that depending on your particular situation, there may be additional questions that you’ll need to ask yourself.  For instance, a few of you who are confident about having the time and peace of mind necessary to prepare for the LSAT in October may not have thought about the killer upper level courses that you may have scheduled for the fall semester.  And while the LSAT is mega-important to your chances for law school admission, we don’t want you bombing out of your courses!  In fact, we want to see applicants maintain, if not increase, their GPA’s during the fall, and then send those final grades to admissions when they’re confirmed (which is usually after they’ve submitted their applications).   This is yet another issue to think about.

We also want to assure you that we know that there are other types of scenarios to consider.  For instance, some of you who prepared for the LSAT appropriately and achieved the exact score you were aiming for may now be thinking, “gee, I now think that I can score even higher and make myself a stronger candidate for even more competitive programs.”  This could be a good reason to retake the exam in October, if you’re weighing all the issues properly.

So, to retake or not to retake?  This is often among the most challenging questions that someone can face during an application year.  But as long as you ask yourself the right questions, you’ll be much more prepared to make a confident, and ultimately, a wise choice.

Every summer – without fail – this turns out to be one of the most often-asked questions that I get from my law school applicants.  (Actually, it wins out by only a hair over the, I’ve taken the October LSAT – should I retake it in December, question.)  It can also be one of the most challenging questions to answer correctly.  Indeed, although some decisions to retake the LSAT are no-brainers, many situations result in the closest of judgment calls.  For that reason, even as a law school admissions expert, I’ll often have an applicant forward questions to his or her LSAT instructor before weighing in with a final opinion.   And in many cases, I may not even offer a final opinion, but instead a carefully reasoned list of advantages and disadvantages.

There are actually many reasons why one could make a reasonable decision to retake the LSAT in October.  As you consider the particulars of your own situation, it is important that you think through a range of potentially relevant factors.  Here are some questions that are especially important to many law school applicants who face this challenge:

• Did you attain a score that is lower than what you’re truly capable of achieving? 

Perhaps you were injured or ill.  (I know of an applicant who was hit by a car on the way to the LSAT, but still took the exam anyway – a very bad move!)  Maybe you were in a bad state of mind.  (Sometimes a recent personal misfortune, such as a financial struggle or the death or illness of a relative can hinder one’s performance.)  Or maybe there’s a simpler explanation for your score:  you didn’t prepare as much as you should have, your girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with you the night before the exam, or you just completely froze up the moment the proctor announced that the exam was underway.  These are just a few of the reasons why you may have underperformed on the June LSAT.  And you know what?  They’re all understandable explanations for a lower than expected score.  But, did you truly underperform on test day?

When helping an applicant think through this question, I find it crucial to ask for details, such as how the person was scoring on LSAT practice tests prior to the exam and what his or her scores were on other types of standardized tests.  If it’s clear that you underperformed on the June LSAT, you might want to think about retaking the test in October.  But, hold on a minute.  Don’t jump the gun.  There are still other types of questions that you need to sort through before finalizing your decision.  For instance …

• By how much did you underperform?

If your LSAT score was significantly lower than what you are capable of achieving, then that will add weight to the option of taking the test again.  By the way, when I say “significantly,” I mean, at least three or more points.  Three or four points can be a lot – in fact, for those scoring in the 140’s, it can be the difference between getting into law school or getting shut out by every school that you apply to.  At higher scoring levels, three or four points could help edge you into a slightly more competitive school.  So, if your answer to this question is, “yes, I significantly underperformed,” you should start feeling more certain about getting ready to retake the LSAT in October.  But not so fast!  We’re not done yet.

Stay tuned for the second half of this discussion – where we’ll continue to discuss the question – should I retake the LSAT in October?