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Study Plans · Lesson 4 of 6

Making every practice test count

After this lesson, you can design a full length practice test to test out real strategies and turn every practice test into review data instead of just a score.

6 min video, plus notes and 1 practice question below

In this lesson

• Treat a full practice test as more than an endurance run: use it to test out specific strategies, like answering logical reasoning questions in order versus hardest first, under real timed conditions
• Test your reading comprehension passage order directly in a practice test, for example tackling the dual or comparative passage first or last, rather than guessing which order suits you
• Simulate your worst case section order on purpose, since the current LSAT can stack up to 3 logical reasoning sections back to back if the unscored section is also logical reasoning
• Use a full practice test to check whether question type work you did in isolation, like parallel reasoning or necessary versus sufficient assumption questions, actually holds up once timing and endurance are added
• Log and review every wrong answer, and every lucky guess, as data, pinpointing whether the miss came from the stimulus, an unfamiliar question stem, or the answer choices

A practice test is for testing strategy, not just running the clock

A full practice test isn't the only thing that should be in your prep plan. You should also be reviewing foundational material, drilling questions by type, and doing individual timed sections to work on pacing. What a full practice test uniquely gives you is the chance to try out different techniques under real timed conditions, so you can figure out the actual strategy you'll use on test day itself, not just what you assume will work best.

Of course you're also building endurance every time you sit for a full practice test, but treating endurance as the only goal wastes the setting you've built. A full length, timed run is the closest thing you have to test day itself, which makes it the right place to settle real questions about your approach rather than leaving them to guesswork.

Test your question order and passage order on purpose

Should you answer logical reasoning questions in the order they're printed, or tackle the hardest ones first? Rather than taking someone else's answer, try it yourself. 1 practice test or 1 timed section is usually enough to show you what works and why, since you'll be able to compare your accuracy and your pacing directly against how you normally approach the section.

The same logic applies to reading comprehension passage order. Should you work through the 4 passages in order, or handle the dual or comparative passage first, or save it for last? Test it out directly and watch what happens to your accuracy and your pacing, rather than guessing based on how it feels in the moment.

Simulate your worst case section order

The current LSAT has 2 scored logical reasoning sections, 1 scored reading comprehension section, and 1 unscored experimental section that could be either logical reasoning or reading comprehension, with no logic games. Your worst case is that the unscored section is logical reasoning too, meaning you could face 3 logical reasoning sections back to back somewhere in the exam.

On test day you don't get to choose the order sections come in, so use practice tests to deliberately run that worst case, 3 logical reasoning sections stacked, reading comp first, reading comp last. If you can experience your worst possible test day scenario before it's actually test day, it stops being a surprise and starts being something you've already handled once.

Check whether isolated question type work actually holds up

If you're not fully sure your review of a specific question type, parallel reasoning, must be true, necessary versus sufficient assumption, has actually stuck, use a full practice test as the real test. Put yourself in a timed setting where endurance is also a factor, and see what your results actually look like there, not just in isolated untimed drilling where there's no pressure and no fatigue working against you. A question type you've mastered in isolation but still miss on a full practice test is telling you something real: the gap isn't in your understanding of the type, it's in applying that understanding under pressure, and that's a different problem with a different fix.

Treat every wrong answer as data, and review it

A practice test doesn't just hand you a score. It produces a stack of wrong answers and lucky guesses, and every one of them is a data point about how you perform under timed, endurance tested conditions. Skipping the review throws that data away before you've gotten any value from it.

For each miss, pinpoint where the error actually lived: a misunderstanding of the stimulus, an unfamiliar question stem, or the answer choices, a tempting wrong one, an unappealing right one. Ask why you made that specific mistake and what you'll do differently next time. Keep reviewing this way, and your scores tend to climb as test day gets closer, while skipping it just means repeating the same mistakes on your next test.

The short version

• In your next practice test, deliberately swap 1 habit, like question order or passage order, and compare the result to your usual approach instead of assuming it works.
• Once this month, run a practice test in your actual worst case section order, 3 logical reasoning sections back to back, so it isn't the first time you've faced it on test day.
• After every practice test, sort your wrong answers into stimulus, question stem, or answer choice errors before you move on to the next one.

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