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Archive for the ‘LSAT Advice’ Category

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Just got a frightening alert from one of my LSAT students. Please spread the word if you know anybody taking the June 2013 LSAT!

Hi Nathan,
You may want to tell your students to check their LSAC accounts frequently. I just logged on to mine, and found out I had been unregistered for the LSAT. Luckily it was an LSAC mistake and I was able to re-register. I wouldn’t want that to happen to someone else and have them not realize until it’s too late!

Wow. Thank God this student was on top of things.

Continue reading ‘Alert! Student accidentally unregistered for June 2013 LSAT via LSAC mistake’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on May 14, 2013 at 4:07 pm under LSAT Advice.
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I don’t believe in complicated “techniques” for the LSAT’s Reading Comprehension. Actually, I think most of the “strategies” being taught to LSAT students are at best hot air, and at worst counterproductive. (I’ve seen students so attached to underlining, for example, that they carefully underline 90% of the passage and by the time they’re done they have no effing clue what the passage actually said.) It’s not an art project! For me, Reading Comp is a simple two-step process. Ready?

Step one:  Read.  Step two:  Comprehend.

Continue reading ‘Reading comprehension strategy’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on March 21, 2013 at 5:33 pm under Frequently Asked Questions, LSAT Advice, Reading Comprehension.
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Another painful test-day story. But I still don’t think this student should cancel her score. Explanation follows the letter.

Hi Nathan,

I am still trying to figure out how the October LSAT went… It started out well but after the 15 minute break the sunshine got really intense and the asshole proctors wouldn’t close the shades. I’ve had 3 Lasik surgeries in the past 5 years and all the surgeries have made my eyes hypersensitive to sunlight. To make a long story short, My eyes started to go black and I started to get a migraine. 

So that was shitty but the worst part was definitely the logic games! I am not a logic game master by any means, but I ALWAYS kill the first 2 logic games and get through the first few questions in the third game. I have no idea what happened on the October 2012 test, but the first game was a bitch. I don’t know if it was my eyes being fucked up or if I was just having a mental breakdown but I was blank. I was forced to be the idiot that skips the first game! The second game was fine and I feel okay about the third. After the 5 minute warning I went back to the first game and tried to make some educated guesses but God only knows how that went. 

I feel like I should cancel this score. I fucked up on sections that I usually feel great about. I don’t want to risk having a super shitty score on my record. I’ve found that most law schools will take your higher school and ask for an addendum explaining the situation but USF Law is one of the very few schools that still average the scores. 

Ahhh I don’t know what to do!!

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 8, 2012 at 5:52 pm under LSAT Advice.
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A silly mistake, with no permanent tragic consequences, but in the moment this must have felt horrifying:

Hi Nathan,

Just took the LSAT yesterday. I did something really stupid. I had my wristwatch on. I have worn it everyday for the past 4 years and that day, I simply forgot to take it off. A supervisor saw it during the break and wrote me up. He gave me a written notice called Violation of Law School Admission Test Center Regulations. It states… “digital wristwatch on during break, noticed by supervisor.” Action taken: “Not Dismissed.”

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 7, 2012 at 10:37 pm under LSAT Advice.
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Question from a student taking tomorrow’s LSAT:

I have a procedural question. The LSAC instructions say to allow up to 7 hours for the test. I’m trying to figure out when (and how) to have snacks to keep my energy up…should I reasonably expect it to last that long, or is that more of a cover-your-ass worst-case-scenario advisory than an assessment of how long the test typically takes?

Short answer:  Yeah, really.

Continue reading ‘7 hours for the LSAT? Really?’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 5, 2012 at 6:13 pm under LSAT Advice.
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Question from a student:

I’m taking the LSAT this Saturday, so I’m not sure how much I can improve by then. I’ve been taking a diag every day for this last week and I’m getting perfect games and missing 5-8 for both sections of LR combined.

My worst section is reading comp, and I’ve tried everything (focusing on 3 passages and throwing out/guessing on the last one, disregarding content and outlining structure, marking up the passage/minimal notations, reading the questions first… everything!) and I’m still missing 10-15. For half the answers that I’m missing, it’s usually a 50/50 answer, where I’ve narrowed it down to two, and always always always pick the wrong one! Even when I understand the passage and feel confident about picking the correct answers, I end up missing a good portion of this section.

I read “Cheating the LSAT” for October 2010 and the way you approach RC questions makes it seem second nature, and that’s something that I just can’t seem to get down.

Do you have any tips on how I can improve on reading comp this Saturday? Any help would be much appreciated!

Wow. Thanks for the email… lots to talk about here. Let’s take the issues one at a time.

Continue reading ‘RC is killing me… help!’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 4, 2012 at 8:43 pm under LSAT Advice, Reading Comprehension.
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Short answer:  You need to immediately remove “I’m a bad test taker” from your vocabulary. I don’t believe it’s true, and I know it’s counterproductive for you to keep saying it. So knock it off. Now.

Continue reading ‘I’m a bad test taker–what should I do?’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 28, 2011 at 6:29 pm under Frequently Asked Questions, LSAT Advice.
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Every time scores come out, I get a few emails that sound something like this:

“Hi Nathan.  Scores just came out, and I got a 158.  Should I retake?”

The answer, as usual, is “it depends.” It depends primarily on whether that 158 is a good score, or a bad score, for you. And there are a couple other considerations as well.

Continue reading ‘Should I retake the LSAT?’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 25, 2011 at 8:56 pm under Frequently Asked Questions, Law School Admissions, LSAT Advice.
2 Comments.

I’ve gotten this question at the beginning of every class I’ve ever taught. I’ve even had students who have said “since I always narrow it down to two and then pick the wrong one, I’ve started choosing the one I didn’t want to pick in the first place–and now I still pick the wrong one.” Ouch.

What’s going on here?  Well, you might not like my answer, but I’m not going to bullshit you. On the LSAT, if you think you always narrow it down to two answers and pick the wrong one, you’re simply fooling yourself.  You’re operating under an illusion. The sooner you understand this illusion, the sooner you’ll get down to the business of understanding your mistakes and picking more correct answers.

Continue reading ‘On the LSAT, why do I always narrow it down to two answers and pick the wrong one?’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 11, 2011 at 7:49 pm under Frequently Asked Questions, LSAT Advice.
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Short answer:  Probably not.

Longer answer:  It depends… but probably not.

Continue reading ‘Should I cancel my LSAT score?’ »

Posted by Nathan Fox on October 2, 2011 at 9:38 pm under Frequently Asked Questions, LSAT Advice.
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