How to Study (and Not Study) for the LSAT
The LSAT is a test of skills, not a test of knowledge. It tests mental skills like analysis and logical reasoning under tight time constraints. Some are more behavioral, like selective attention and maintaining focus under pressure.
As a fast-paced, skill-based test, the LSAT has more in common with a competitive performance of a sport or artistic discipline than a typical exam. Like a competition in judo, chess, snowboarding, or ballet, mastering the LSAT takes structured practice.
But not all kinds of practice are equal. Too many aspiring lawyers plow through practice test after practice test. Their scores improve, to a point. Then they hit a wall before losing confidence and motivation. As self-doubt creeps in, they find it harder to focus on the test. Panic sets in. They begin to loathe the LSAT and resign themselves to being “bad at tests.”
After all, practice makes perfect. Isn’t that what all children are all taught? But that can’t be true. You won’t become a chess master just by playing more games of chess than your opponents.
Go Beyond Practice
The field of performance psychology has produced a rich literature on how to practice and learn a complex skill. One of the top experts in the field is Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor and Conradi Eminent scholar at Florida State University. Over several decades, Ericsson meticulously studied thousands of expert performers from seasoned London cabbies, to top ballet dancers, to music prodigies. He sought to uncover why some concert pianists, elite athletes, and other performers continuously beat rivals who have similar physical abilities and practice schedules.
Ericsson concluded that few skills involve innate talent, despite popular opinion. Practice time and genetics are not the key variables that distinguish the best from those who fall short. Instead, what matters is a set of techniques he calls “deliberate practice.”
With practice, you can achieve a better-than-average LSAT score. But if you want to master the LSAT, you must practice deliberately.
What is Deliberate Practice?
Deliberate practice is purposeful and informed. It requires practitioners to:
Build skills cumulatively, from basic to advanced
Define incremental goals to achieve certain gains
Work at the edge of one’s comfort zone, with full attention and effort
Use established methods and experienced teachers to learn systemically
Make adjustments in response to feedback
Take the example of two swimmers. One works with a coach to learn proven techniques, identify and correct bad habits, and carefully review tapes of her competitions to find weak points. She focuses on aspects of the sport that are hard for her, like managing her breaths and leading with her non-dominant hand. She methodically and slowly pushes her limits by setting and achieving goals and finding new ways to shave seconds off her time. At first her speed is inconsistent and she often gasps for breath, but in time she swims with perfect form like a dolphin.
Meanwhile, the other swimmer puts the same amount of time into his practice. But he simply swims laps, over and over, trying to beat his time. His muscles strengthen but he’s still limited by his weak points.
Which swimmer improves the most? Which swimmer will be best able to handle the stress of a competition? Which swimmer would you choose for your team?
When you study for the LSAT, which swimmer do you most resemble?
[Next Read: When Should I Take The LSAT?]
Applying Deliberate Practice to the LSAT
To ace the LSAT, your practice must be purposeful and informed. You must do five things:
Work with expert feedback. You can get such feedback from a tutor, mentor, online app, or a prep book with detailed explanations. Even if you study on your own, you need a way to diagnose what you are doing wrong and how to self-correct.
Methodically build your skills. You cannot tackle the hardest LSAT questions without first breaking down the fundamentals into simpler, more manageable parts and mastering those one at a time. Once those basic skills become second nature, advanced tactics as intimidating as diagramming formal logic will be effortless.
Focus relentlessly on your weaknesses, using both timed and untimed section practice. Devote most of your efforts to the questions that are hardest for you until they become your strengths. If you zip through random practice tests, you won’t encounter those curve balls enough to understand how to hit them out of the park.
Don’t beat yourself up about getting questions wrong. Get excited! Every wrong answer is a signpost pointing to where you need to focus your efforts. Joshua Waitzkin, a world champion of both chess and martial arts, calls this “investing in loss.” The only test that matters is the last one you take. Every misstep in the lead-up to that test is part of the process, not a reflection of your own potential.
Carefully analyze your past performance. Look beyond what kinds of questions you got wrong to understand what you may still not understand, what you can improve upon, and how to turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Mastering the LSAT is more about the habits you build than the practice tests you take. That means keeping up good habits, and avoiding bad ones.
LSAT Study Habits to Avoid
Ceaseless drilling. Quality matters over quantity. Get over the childish belief that punishing yourself with extra practice shows how serious you are. Real serious test-takers spend as much time going over tests as they do taking them. Review wrong answers and invent new ways to avoid repeating your mistakes. Notice the questions you got right but lost too much time on, as well as the questions where a trap nearly lured you off-track.
Being fussy about your conditions. It’s better to practice briefly but consistently than it is to practice in long spurts under ideal conditions. You can’t control the conditions of the test, so get used to taking the test when you are tired, distracted, demotivated, or out of sorts. Think of a runner who goes out every day, no matter the weather.
Doing only timed practice. Athletes spend a lot of time training in slow-motion, breaking down every movement into a series of small steps. Likewise, before you can whip through all the deductions in a complex multivariable logic game, you must know how to make every deduction correctly. Untimed practice is the best way to build basic skills. When those skills become intuitive, speed will come naturally.
Obsessing About Practice Test Scores. The only LSAT score that matters is the last one you take. Until then, judging yourself on every misstep will cause you to avoid taking the risks you need to grow. Experimentation sometimes leads to hilarious failures, but in the long run it will lead to new insights that increase your score. If you bomb a section, laugh it off and try something different next time. Invest in loss, like an Olympic athlete testing out new moves long before busting them out when it matters.
Putting It All Together
Mastering the LSAT takes time and effort, but it doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Some test takers can study themselves with freely available online practice tests, while others find classes, tutors or online courses helpful.
The most important thing is that you build up the habits that keep your skills growing. Notice what thoughts, actions, conditions or study tools keep you enthusiastic and on track. Drop whatever isn’t serving you.
Slowly and surely, consistent and deliberate practice will bring your target score within reach. The human brain is a skill-building machine. Given the right inputs, LSAT questions will become so automatic that it will be hard to remember how it felt when you first began.
[Next Read: Managing Test Stress Before and During the LSAT]
