What To Do These Last Couple Weeks

The next LSAT is less than two weeks away. The most important thing to remember is that you need to stay calm and keep happy. Remember, you've been working hard during your LSAT prep, studying smar,t and dodging all of the exam's red herrings and tricks. Now, what next?

First thing first: it's time to prepare your test room. If you're taking the test remotely, you'll want to make sure your equipment is up to snuff, and the room you plan to take the test in doesn't have any forbidden items that will delay your exam. For more info on taking the exam remotely, check out this portion of our webinar on the digital LSAT.

If you plan on taking the exam in a test center and you haven't driven to your testing center at least once, why not go on a test drive? It's important to keep yourself as centered as possible on the day of, so freaking yourself out getting lost on the way to your LSAT is something you should definitely avoid.

But what should you be doing study-wise? At this point, you should have a solid foundation. Your approach to each type of Logical Reasoning question, Reading Comp passage, and logic game should practically feel like second nature. Ideally, this next week should be dedicated to honing in on the details — fine-tuning and checking all the nooks and crannies of your LSAT knowledge. Let's go through a very quick breakdown of things to review in each section.

For Logical Reasoning, you'll want to triage the concepts and question types you'll need to review and practice most urgently in these last weeks. You want to prioritize question types that: (a) you do already not answer as consistently or quickly as your target score requires, (b) show up frequently enough to make a meaningful impact on your score, and (c) you need to answer correctly to achieve your target score. For instance, someone who wants to earn a 160 on the LSAT should review intermediate-level Errors in Reasoning questions if that person is not answering almost all of them correctly. That type of question has all three of the above qualities. However, the same person won't need to prioritize reviewing brutally difficult Flawed Parallel Reasoning questions. At most, only one of those will show up on the exam. One can earn a 160 even if they just skip that question. You can assess your priorities through practice exams or timed sections, as long as you review these carefully.

For Reading Comprehension, it's crucial that you have your plan of attack for each passage dialed in. You should know not only know your plan, but you should have practiced it repeatedly. Your plan included how many times you read the passage, how you write notes and highlight as you read, how you identify the main point, how many times you look back to the passage as you answer questions, and how you use CTRL+F. Like Logical Reasoning, you can triage which question types give you the most trouble and make minor adjustments to your reading plan to give you a better shot at answering those questions correctly. Having trouble with the questions that ask about the passage's organization and the role of certain paragraphs and details? Perhaps you can start making brief notes on the role of each paragraph as you read the passage, using those to help you answer such questions.

For Logic Games, your process should also be solidified at this point. You should know how to set up any of the common game types, how to symbolize every common rule, and how to construct scenarios based on all of the common scenario cues. If you miss more questions or take too long on a certain type of game or question, it's time to go back to the lab and cook up some new techniques to solve that part of the Logic Games section.

But remember, no matter the section, every question on the exam is worth one point. Don't waste your time on questions that will take a lot of time or are confusing. No matter your target score, you can always skip at least a few of those questions, mark down a guess, and then come back to them if you have some time at the end of the section. Don't waste your time trying to figure out a hard question when easy and medium questions are ripe for the picking. It's not a race. Accuracy is more important than the number of questions you get to.

And most importantly, remember to breathe. The day before your exam, I encourage you to take a break. If it makes you nervous not to study at all the day before, then do a couple of untimed sections, but stop your studying latest by 3 pm. Take the rest of the day to relax. You know, as well as I do, that those last few hours are better spent easing your mind than tiring it. If you're counting on those last few hours to make or break your score, then we've got bigger problems. It's more productive to wind down the rest of the day than to tire yourself out. You've worked hard during your LSAT prep. Take a breather. Stay confident and calm.

Happy studying. And good luck!