Lisa's LSAT Diary: 150 to 175
LSAT Diary, 2010
Lisa, a busy consultant and nonprofit board member years removed from school, built a strict daily study routine around Steve's 3-month schedule, raising her PrepTest scores from a cold 150 to the low 170s. She later confirmed she scored a 175 on the actual LSAT.
- Starting score: 150
- Official LSAT: 175 (December)
- What she used: Steve's 3-month LSAT study schedule, self-study with PrepTests
- Situation: Older test taker returning to studying after years away from school, running a consulting business and serving on multiple community boards.
- Written: 2010
In Lisa's words
My first PrepTest, before opening a book or having any idea what I was getting into, was a 150.
Lisa
I found myself standing in line with all the other ziploc baggie holding folks... The difference was, I wasn't nervous.
Lisa
I got my LSAT score yesterday and was thrilled to find out that I got a 175.
Lisa
Why this diary is here
I've been coaching the LSAT since 2005. From 2009 to 2021 I ran the LSAT Diaries on my blog: students wrote up their own prep and I published it as it came in, rough edges and all. Lisa's is here because it ends with a number: 150 to 175.
Underneath the score, it's about building a disciplined study routine as a busy professional, years after last being a student.
Written in 2010. Any Logic Games references are from the old format; that section was removed in August 2024. Everything else still applies.
Individual results vary. Score increases depend on starting point, study time, and effort.
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Lisa's diary, as written
Part 1
Building a plan after years away from school
Because it's been more than a few years since I attended school for anything other than learning a new language or how to develop film, I knew I needed a solid game plan as I approached the LSAT. After searching for LSAT study plans, I found LSAT Blog with Steve at the helm giving practical and useful advice to all comers.
I soon found myself loaded with nearly every LSAT PrepTest. The 3-month LSAT schedule provided by Steve went up on the wall in my breakfast nook along side the growing list of "Don't Forget These Words", and stacks of reading material took up residence on the nearby buffet. Like most folks, I have a busy schedule. I have a consulting business and volunteer on a city commission, an agency task force and serve as the boardmember for a local non-profit dedicated to improving the education of our children.
It's possible I went a little overboard when I got rid of the television (ok, it was only partially functional to begin with) and realigned my schedule to give myself Sunday afternoon off. Each day, I would get up early enough to give myself 4 hours before work to study. As soon as I started taking full PrepTests, my evenings would mean sitting with the answer sheet and a stack of paper to work through missed questions rather than heading out with friends.
Early in the process, I spent a couple of weeks visiting family, with a hundred pages of prep tests to keep me company. No trashy novels for this visit to the lake. Luckily for me, my family is full of late sleepers and didn't realize I was sitting outside as the sun rose, pencil continuously working.
Six tips that worked
My first PrepTest, before opening a book or having any idea what I was getting into, was a 150. Leaving me plenty of room for improvement.
I worked my way through the PrepTests and with each timed full test was pleased to see my scores rising until I pulled a 172. While I don't know my actual score yet, here's the advice I would offer:
1. Focus: clear the decks of all other obligations and make your preparation the main thing in your life. There's plenty of time to party/sleep/read after the exam and you'll just kick yourself if you slack off and don't do as well as you would like.
2. Review: when you have an incorrect answer, just mark the question wrong as you're scoring. Then, go back to all those you got wrong and rework each one until it makes sense. Use one of the many resources available online to see the analysis performed on those you got wrong.
3. Visualize: check out the site where you are taking the test. If you know the specific room great, if not, check out likely rooms and call the site administrator to ask if they know the specific room. Visualize your day of routine, arriving at the site, settling in, opening the test and working easily through the exam.
4. Play: organize individual games into like sets, that is, put all the Grouping or Linear together and motor through them as a set. Repetition works.
5. Read: don't let the reading comprehension section scare you. The stories change but the setup and questions repeat. Learn to love the word "historiography" even if you can't pronounce it without embarrassing yourself. Enjoy the RC sections, they are fascinating if you can set aside the reason you find yourself glued to them.
6. Fun: whatever mantra you need to remind yourself that what you are learning is fun and interesting, do it and remind yourself when you get out of bed, while brushing your teeth and just before falling asleep.
Calm on test day
On test day, I found myself standing in line with all the other ziploc baggie holding folks and I was reminded of other big tests. The difference was, I wasn't nervous. I'd practiced and was comfortable with my timing and scores. I'm generally not into visualization, it feels a little too woo-woo for my tastes but I had done it on the theory that it couldn't hurt and it might help. As I sat in the test room waiting for every last seat to be filled I was relaxed and comfortable, watching as others were nervously chattering away, fidgeting or tapping their feet.
After the exam was the big shock for me. When I stepped out into the sunshine planning for that evening's festivities, I was faced with the parents of nearly every test-taker inside. I'm pretty sure they were as shocked to see me holding the same ziploc they'd packed for their kid as I was to see them. After all, I am older than most of the parents.
Update: a 175
I got my LSAT score yesterday and was thrilled to find out that I got a 175. I really want to thank you for all the information you put on your blog and for offering the 3-month-study schedule that I followed. There's not enough I can say to thank you.
Part 2
The window by my desk looks across the snow-covered roofs of dozens of houses in my sister's subdivision in south-central Wisconsin. When I first began studying for the LSAT, the roofs were not covered with snow, rather the trees were covered with leaves: green leaves, then shades of orange and red. Now the leaves are gone, and my comfortable schedule of getting up, studying for the LSAT, making dinner for my husband and sister, watching The Office, and going to bed, has ended. The December LSAT has come and gone, and I'm left reluctantly facing the real world again.
Trading a job search for LSAT prep
Last year, my husband and I celebrated Christmas in Taiwan (where houses are condos, crowded together in multi-story buildings, and not a flake of snow is to be found). The season was marked with excitement: despite having no idea whether any of our plans would turn out, we had decided to go ahead and leave our jobs in the spring, travel around Europe for three months, and move 13 time zones away to Wisconsin, where I grew up. We turned our backs on the security of jobs or even a good back-up plan because we both knew that the time had come to move on.
Eight months later, some of our plans had fallen through but new and unexpected ones had emerged. Like my plan to go to law school, and our plan to live with my sister and brother-in-law until we found jobs. I soon discovered that studying for the LSAT was much more rewarding than looking for a job. After all, when I finished a PrepTest, I was only a minute away from a score. I never heard back from most companies I sent resumes to. Yet a strange dichotomy emerged: somehow I could regularly snag scores of 172 and up on PrepTests and yet couldn't seem to figure out how to get someone to notice my resume. As strange as this may sound, the LSAT had become a method of procrastination.
Finding patterns in logical reasoning
And procrastinate I did. I followed the 3-month LSAT study schedule. I took 20+ PrepTests. Slowly, PrepTest after PrepTest I began to see patterns in logical reasoning questions, the section I most needed to improve. The correct answer for necessary assumption questions, a weakness, started to take on a certain "feel." I came to relish sufficient assumption questions for the relative simplicity of "connecting the dots" to make the conclusion work.
I improved my speed and accuracy on long parallel reasoning or parallel flaw questions by carefully diagramming the stimulus and then mimicking that diagram with dots and arrows beside each answer to see if the argument followed the same flow. I wrote out why the correct answer was right for every logical reasoning question I got wrong.
What studying again as an adult felt like
When the actual LSAT came in December I was confident and ready. The LSAT had truly "become my friend." The LSAT had restored my confidence in my academic abilities. Six years of work had made me wonder if I had the mental stamina to "hit the books" again.
When I started studying, I realized two things: the college student in me was long gone, and that was a good thing. As a college student, studying was simply something I did. As an unemployed professional, studying was an investment that could possibly see a return as scholarship funds. As a college student, the world and all its choices lay ahead of me. As a married woman pushing 30, I was becoming more deliberate about my choices because I realized they come with an opportunity cost.
Waiting on a score, then a 175
Now I am left waiting for my score, finishing up my applications and finally facing the job market. Just this past week I lost an opportunity to work at a law firm as a paralegal because I honestly answered pointed questions about my future plans. Realizing that my honesty would probably close the door on any full-time, permanent positions, I am now looking for temporary jobs. Fortunately, the people in staffing agencies seem to think there is a place for out-of-work editors and I already have a promising job lead. In the meantime, if you need something proofed, let me know.
Update: I got my LSAT score yesterday and was thrilled to find out that I got a 175. I really want to thank you for all the information you put on your blog and for offering the 3-month-study schedule that I followed. I was unsure at first about using so many preptests as a part of prep, but quite a lot of advice I found seemed to support that, and now I am very glad that I decided to go that way and study on my own. After a while, it seemed that I had reached some sort of "plateau," but I really do think that consistently working on my weaknesses and studying each test (each question) thoroughly helped me to improve so that the last 5 or 6 tests before the LSAT my average was at 175-176. How I was able to actually score my average despite test nerves, I don't know, though I do have to thank LSAC for giving the December LSAT such a generous curve.
There's not enough I can say to thank you. I absolutely recommend self-study for anyone who has the initiative and discipline to keep at it. I think I was able to do better through self-study rather than a program because I had to depend on myself and not a teacher for my test prep.
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