Law School Admission Test Prep | Worst LSAT Prep Mistakes

Hey guys, welcome back. If you're new to my channel, I'm Angela Vorpahl of angelavorpahl.com and the Law School Network Facebook group. And on this channel, I help law students learn the strategies to take control of your law school career so that you can build a lawyering life on your own terms. You guys, if you've been around here for a while, know that we focus a lot on how to be a successful law student and how to be a successful lawyer. But one of the steps that you have to take before that journey begins is to study for and take the LSAT. And yes, there are a lot of different ways to approach the test, a lot of different ways to study, but across the board, there are also a lot of common mistakes that students make. So in today's video, we're going to be diving in to the most common LSAT studying mistakes and what to do instead. And to help us walk through it is Steve Schwartz. Steve is the CEO and founder of LSAT Unplugged. He is a longtime professional LSAT coach and the author of several LSAT guides. You guys may know him from the LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel or the LSAT Unplugged podcast. So please help me welcome Steve. Steve, thank you so much for being here. Thanks so much for having me on, Angela. It's great to speak with you again. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited to dive in to this. So we're talking biggest LSAT studying mistakes that you see people consistently make and what to do instead. So let's go through and walk through them one by one. Yeah, sure thing, Angela. Thanks so much. I've prepared the eight most common LSAT prep mistakes I typically see from students. The first and probably the biggest one is only allowing two to three months to study. A lot of people underestimate just how difficult the LSAT is. In reality, it typically takes at least five to six months to reach your fullest potential. And it's worth it given that the LSAT is the biggest factor in the law school admissions process. Number two biggest mistake is taking an LSAT diagnostic test without studying. A lot of folks recommend this. In my experience, a lot of students actually find it's discouraging and it burns through valuable practice material. Instead, I recommend that you build a strong foundation first before taking practice tests to later get a sense of where you truly stand. Mistake number three, studying out of random books you borrowed from a friend like LSAT for Dummies. Don't do that. Those books are full of mistakes and they're unrealistic. Instead, use real actual official LSAT prep tests and well-reviewed quality resources. Now some of those might seem pretty expensive, but recently with the rise of low-cost online courses, they can actually be a lot more affordable than you might think. Mistake number four is doing all your prep out of books. The LSAT has changed. It's now online. You take it from home and the best place to do actual LSAT practice tests is through LSAC's Law Hub. This gets used to the exact look and feel you'll experience on test day. Mistake number five, a lot of law students and future law students are gunners and they want to take practice tests every single day, but this unfortunately leads to burnout and prevents you from allowing the time that you need to review in depth. So I instead recommend that you take a practice test only once or twice a week and then on the days in between, you can review those practice tests in depth, everything you had trouble with, everything you got wrong, but we're not sure why, and you could also take a day off here or there. Mistake number six, taking the actual official LSAT before you're ready just to see how you'll do. Instead, I recommend you only take it when you're feeling fully ready and likely to achieve your fullest potential. Mistake number seven, getting stressed about or stuck on a previous question or section when you've already moved on. Don't get bogged down and think it's the end of the world. Every question is worth the same and no one particular question will make or break you. Instead, practice mindfulness, learn to let go and move on. All questions are worth the same amount. Finally, mistake number eight, thinking that on test day, it's all about this one test. I know the LSAT is important and a lot's riding on it, but the LSAT's offered nearly every month now, so you can always retake it. Think about the future tests that you have on the horizon. If you're taking it in November, you also have January available to you. If you're taking it in January, you also have February available to you, and law schools don't average multiple LSAT scores. They only take the highest, so there's really no downside to retaking, and so those are my eight. That is so incredibly helpful. Thank you so much, and just hearing you walk through those, I realized that I made several of those mistakes when I was studying for the LSAT. So one of them was not realizing how long the study process takes, and thank goodness I found a program that backed it up six months, but I would not have known that you were supposed to start studying in January for a July test. That was news to me. I think the other mistake that I personally made too was not factoring in, like you said, the possibility of taking it a second time. So luckily I started early enough so that I could take the LSAT a second time, but yeah, at the time, I didn't factor in that extra studying time and then the ability to take it again in September or October, and that was a total game changer for me as well. And the other thing that you brought up that really resonated with me is sort of the trap that people fall into with wanting to take practice exams over and over and over to kind of get that high of your score and seeing it go up and up and how that really sacrifices a lot of the heavy lifting that happens in between taking practice exams, because I see that a lot with law students as well. And so I know you've been doing this a long time. You've been an LSAT coach for many, many years. Is there anything about students that are particularly successful other than not these mistakes that you can kind of just see inherently in them or in their attitude or their approach to the test that you think really helps them kind of break out of the pack? That is a fantastic question, Angela. I think that a lot of the students who are most successful, they actually learn to love the process. Rather than seeing the LSAT as something unfair that doesn't test anything important, try to highlight the similarities between what you see on the LSAT and what you'll actually be doing in law school. Drawing those parallels can actually make the process weirdly kind of fun, even though obviously nobody wants to be doing this. But in reality, interpreting these arguments that you see on the LSAT, seeing the fact patterns that you see in a logical reasoning question versus in law school, it actually isn't that different. And if you can respect the exam for just how complex it actually is, you'll end up doing a lot better. Oh my gosh. I love that. I love that energy and I love that approach. And if you had to leave students who are about to start studying for the LSAT and begin that process with one piece of advice, one takeaway, what would you tell them? I would say, well, the LSAT's important. It does not define you. It does not say anything about what kind of lawyer you'll be. It does not say anything about who you are as a person. It's important. It does relate to law school, but it's simply a means to an end. So I hope that you take it, rock it, and move on with life. Not like me where I'm still doing this. Well, I just have to say that your students are so incredibly lucky to have you. You're an amazing resource. Guys, I'm going to drop all of Steve's links in the description below. You can find him on literally every social media platform. So definitely check out his stuff and he's just so full of amazing advice. Steve, thank you so much for being with us today. This was fantastic. Thanks, Angela. Pleasure to be with you. And with that, that's it for this week's video. If you haven't joined Law School Network Facebook group, make sure to do that in the link in the description, and we will see you in the next video next week. All right, guys. Bye.