I have previously lamented the fact that my current role prevents me from doing as much LSAT tutoring as I used to do, both while I was in law school and when I left Biglaw to start a start-up. While I was never a big fan of law school exams, I loved the LSAT.
So, in order to scratch my LSAT itch over the next couple of weeks before the LSAT, I am going to share some free advice about how to do well on the exam. Noah Hunter is an Austin based LSAT tutor who teaches people all over the country via Skype. At the bottom of each LSAT post that I do, he’s going to react to my advice and chime in with his thoughts, and then we will engage in a back and forth. Everyone takes the test a little differently so having more than one voice in each post should be helpful. My basic philosophy on the LSAT is that you don’t need to be real-world smart to do well on the LSAT, you need to be LSAT smart. And the good news is that becoming LSAT smart is a skill that can be learned.
Lesson #1: Don’t ignore the reading section. This is a mistake that way too many test takers make, and with good reason. Most people look at the LSAT and see two new skill sets they have to learn — picking apart arguments and solving games — and one skill that is more familiar: reading. Test takers think, “I know how to read, I don’t need to focus on this section. Not only have I been reading my whole life, I’ve studied for reading sections when I took the SAT a couple of years ago.”
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The first problem with this line of thought is that the reading actually counts more than the games simply because there are more questions. No games section ever has 28 questions, but some reading sections do. The other problem with that analogy is that it assumes (as all LSAT arguments do) that real-world reading is similar to LSAT reading. It’s not. Acing an LSAT reading section is a particular skill, one that is not necessarily connected to reading anywhere else in life. In fact, you could suck at reading, but still get a perfect score on LSAT reading. The problem is that the LSAT wants to trick you into thinking you should treat LSAT reading like all other reading, even though they are not the same.
So what’s the difference? You don’t read LSAT passages in order to understand them (that’s real-world reading), you read LSAT passages in order to answer a set of questions.
Understanding that truth should change the way you approach reading because you’re not trying to understand the passage, you’re trying to get just enough information to answer the questions. No one is going to quiz you on the different treatments of jazz music or check to see that you properly understood the impacts of bacteria on farm animals. This means that you don’t need to read through the section and make copious notes, you simply need to make a single note next to each paragraph that helps you remember what was discussed.
Also, you should never make the mistake of reading a question and trying to answer without looking back at the passage. Every single answer (not 99.9%, but 100%) can be found in the passage. Many test takers will try to answer based on their impressions after reading the passage about Navajo literary trends at the turn of the century instead of just finding the answer. Again, that’s treating LSAT reading like actual reading — they’re not the same thing.
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Okay, you’ve heard enough from me, I’ll now kick it to Noah Hunter for some of his wisdom on reading. As always, these aren’t live chats, they are real life conversations and you should follow along by clicking the button below.
Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at [email protected].