Adam, 167 and working toward 174: a live LSAT coaching session
This is what LSAT Unplugged coaching looks like. Adam came in at 167, aiming for 174 to 176 on the August or September LSAT. Steve Schwartz coached him live for about 25 minutes on Logical Reasoning, pacing and timing, and the whole session and transcript are below.
The numbers here are where Adam started and the goal we set together in this session. Individual results vary.
- Student: Adam
- Score when recorded: 167
- Goal: 174 to 176
- Target test: August or September
- Situation: Working almost full time while studying about 3 hours a day; retaking after a 3 month break following a February sitting where he scored 167 but didn't get the law school outcomes he wanted
- Focus: Logical Reasoning, pacing and timing
- Worked on: Parallel reasoning, pacing on the first 10 LR questions
What we fixed in this session
Pace the easy to save the hard.
Steve Schwartz
This is one session, in the middle of the work. I've been coaching the LSAT since 2005, and every session runs the same way: find the real problem, fix the process, reset the plan.
I identified that a highlighting habit he'd recently added was slowing him down and eating into his pacing, and had him drop it and go back to his prior approach.
Reinforced the first 10 questions in 10 minutes pacing rule so he banks time for the harder questions later in the section instead of running out at the end.
The plan: I gave him 2 concrete matching tests for parallel reasoning, degree of certainty in the conclusion and the quantity or category term (all, most, some, few, none), plus the harder underlying general principle test.
Where the session landed: Adam says his 2 biggest takeaways are dropping highlighting and building a plan for budgeting his remaining practice tests.
If your prep looks like Adam's did, that's fixable in one session.
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In Adam's words
I feel now that I'm shooting for a higher score I'm trying to at least solve everything.
Adam
Honestly, I think it's kind of been a time waster.
Adam
I'd usually try to match the conclusions, and I think that's good advice.
Adam
Questions people ask about LSAT Unplugged coaching
What happens in an LSAT Unplugged coaching session?
The coach finds the specific habit that's costing points, fixes the process, and sets the plan for the weeks ahead. In Adam's case: a highlighting habit he'd recently added was slowing him down and eating into his pacing.
Who runs the sessions?
Steve Schwartz recorded this one. Every LSAT Unplugged coach scored 170 or higher on an official LSAT, and students are matched to a coach on learning style and weak areas.
Where can I see finished results?
On the student reviews page at unpluggedprep.com/reviews, with video interviews and official scores.
Learn the fixes yourself: Logical Reasoning timing.
Student reviews and finished results.
Full session transcript
Recorded October 2025.
Steve: Sometimes when students are running out of time toward the end of a logical reasoning section, it's because they're spending too long on the easier questions earlier in the section. This is Adam, and he's looking to improve his LSAT score from a 167 to a 175 in the next 3 months. My name is Steve Schwartz, I've been teaching the LSAT for the past 20 years. Today Adam's going to bring me his biggest LSAT challenges, and I'll help him address them as he looks to improve by at least 8 points. Before we jump in, just wanted to check how everything is going for you with the program so far.
Adam: So far it's really good, I'm liking the structure. When I took the LSAT before in February it was kind of just me on my own trying to figure everything out. I appreciate that you guys made the study plan for me, and I'm liking it so far.
Steve: Awesome, really glad to hear it. What kind of score are you shooting for right now?
Adam: A mid 170 score, like a 174 to 176. In February I got a 167, so it'd be a bit of a jump, but I think I can do it. I'm aiming to take it in either August or September.
Steve: Got it, so we've got about 2 to 3 months to get you another 7 to 8 points. How many hours per week do you think you could put into your prep between now and then?
Adam: I'm working almost full time, but I'm still trying to put in about 3 hours a day or more depending on the schedule, obviously some days off now and then. That's how it's been going so far.
Steve: What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now?
Adam: Consistency with my scoring. Before I was doing very well on logical reasoning, and I didn't do as well as I'd hoped with law schools, so I started studying again after about a 3 month break, and I haven't been doing as well on the LR section as I was before. I've actually been doing better on RC. I don't really know what changed, I'm struggling to retain some of what I learned before.
Steve: Got it. So are you feeling a little rusty?
Adam: Yeah, I think so.
Steve: How long has it been since you got back into it?
Adam: I took it in February and started studying again the end of May.
Steve: So we're speaking now about two, three weeks in.
Adam: Yeah, been about 3 hours a day or so for those two or three weeks.
Steve: Let's talk about LSAT rust. You take a few months off, come back expecting to pick up where you left off, and you're missing questions you used to crush, your pacing's off, doubt creeps in. This is exactly what happened to Adam, and it happens to almost everyone who steps away from LSAT prep for more than a week or two. But rust is normal, it's not failure, it's just physics. If you stop going to the gym for 3 months, you don't walk back in expecting your personal best on day one. For students who've recently taken time off, we build a bounce back phase into their study plan, targeted review revisiting the question types that feel most rusty, easing back in with timed sections before full exams. If you had a solid foundation before, the bounce back period is usually pretty fast, maybe 1 to 2 weeks of smart, consistent work, and you're back to baseline, often stronger than before. What's the number one area you're feeling the most rusty in within logical reasoning?
Adam: I don't know, I'm just missing questions I shouldn't have missed when I look back at them. Before I was missing 2 or 3, now it's more like 5. Parallel reasoning has been a bit of a struggle, and speed, getting back into doing the questions quickly, has been difficult too.
Steve: Okay, so speed overall, you'd say?
Adam: Yeah, that's been a struggle.
Steve: Are you running out of time as you finish the LR section?
Adam: Yeah, before I was pretty consistently finishing all my questions, now I'm rushing on the last few and maybe not answering one or two.
Steve: And you said parallel reasoning too.
Adam: I feel like now that I'm shooting for a higher score, I'm trying to at least solve everything, not just get everything right.
Steve: Of course, we want you getting everything, we want near perfection given you're looking for a top score. For some folks I'd say don't worry about parallels as much until you've mastered everything else, but at a 167 you already have a solid understanding of virtually every type, so parallels could be a good area for some attention. But even before that, I'd look at your pacing overall. Sometimes when students are running out of time toward the end of a section, it's because they're spending too long on the easier questions earlier on. Do you think that could be the case for you?
Adam: Before I was going through the first 10 questions in 10 minutes and that was working well. Recently I've been highlighting more, and I think that might be what's taking more time.
Steve: So you've introduced highlighting recently, on a few types of questions. Are you finding it helpful?
Adam: Honestly I think it's been a time waster, I think I'm going to go back to how I was doing it before.
Steve: Yeah, that's the same thing I was thinking, crazy idea, we introduce something, it's not working, so let's just stop doing it. It may just be that if you stop highlighting, you get that time back and that helps you speed up.
Highlighting is one of the sneakiest time wasters on the LSAT. It feels productive, you're reading slowly, marking what matters, staying engaged, but it's often just a fancy way of procrastinating, giving the illusion of control without improving comprehension or speed. That's what happened here, Adam added highlighting thinking it would help lock in key ideas, but instead it made everything take longer, his pacing tanked, his confidence dipped, and he was spending more time choosing what to underline than understanding the argument. We always ask our students, is this strategy helping, or is it just something you hope is helping? If your score is going down and your stress is going up, it's time to cut the fluff. In Adam's case the fix was simple: go back to what worked before, ditch the highlighting, trust your instincts. Don't be afraid to admit a strategy isn't working, even if it felt smart, that's what high performers do, test, evaluate, adjust.
Adam: A lot of people say the LSAT is a lot of pattern recognition, a lot of the questions are kind of the same. Other than going over your mistakes, is there any other way you'd recommend for noticing the patterns while I'm taking the test?
Steve: Pattern recognition comes from exposure built over time. The more questions you complete and review, the more patterns you expose yourself to. For someone aiming for a 160, they only need to know the most common patterns, correlation, causation, necessary sufficient confusion. Aiming for 170 plus, you've got to become familiar with the less common methods of reasoning that show up maybe once every 5 or 10 exams instead of every exam, so you need a larger pool of questions you've been exposed to, for that muscle memory, so on test day you're not thinking through a new question for the first time. What makes me faster at the LSAT is that I've done these so many times, whenever I see a new question I automatically know how to navigate it because I've been down similar roads before, even if the surface topic is different, the underlying method of reasoning is the same.
The benchmark I advocate is doing the first 10 questions in 10 minutes, because those are the easier ones. Average allotted time is roughly a minute 25 per LR question, so if you do the first 10 in one minute each, you're saving 25 seconds per question, which adds up to roughly 5 minutes you can spend where they're truly needed, on tougher questions later with more tricks and traps.
People think pattern recognition is some kind of sixth sense, like you either see the logic or you don't, but what's really happening is they've seen it before, over and over. That's the secret, it's just reps. For students aiming for the 170s, we don't give tricks or hacks, we build recognition the old fashioned way, showing them hundreds of arguments, flaws, and answer traps until it's second nature. That's what Adam was working on, reimmersing himself in the patterns, not just reviewing mistakes but seeing how similar logic shows up across different questions. Eventually you'll start to notice, oh, this is like that correlation causation trap from test 148, or that trap answer is worded just like the one I missed last week. Runners don't get faster by reading about sprinting, they just run. Same here.
Now, on parallel reasoning specifically, since you mentioned it's worth covering: there are two big patterns to look for when matching stimulus to answer choice. First, the degree of certainty in the conclusions should match. If the stimulus says "always," the choice should say "always," if it says "never," the choice should say "never," they may use a synonym but they should line up. Second, the category or quantity of things being discussed, all versus most versus some versus few versus none. If it's "all" in the stimulus, it should be "all" in the choice. They can also add qualifications, like "all people who take the LSAT" versus "all people in the world," the more qualifications, the more specific, the more carefully you've got to look. How's this landing with you?
Adam: That's similar to what I'd do, I'd usually try to match the conclusions, I think that's good advice.
Steve: Yeah, these are general tricks that will only get you so far. Degree of certainty is easy to look for, so the LSAT isn't going to reward you that much for it, it might knock out 2 out of 5 choices. The category of things being discussed might knock out another one or two. The harder tool to apply, but more fruitful, is the overall underlying principle of the argument, forming an abstraction of the argument as a general principle and applying that meta level analysis across all 5 choices. Easier said than done, but that's the ideal way to go about it. If you're in a hurry the quick tricks get you somewhere faster, but understanding the general principle is what carries you all the way.
Parallel reasoning questions have a reputation for good reason, they're long and feel like a trap inside a riddle. But once you know what to look for, it's one of the most beatable question types on the LSAT. The problem is most people try to match by topic, "yeah, this feels kind of similar," which is a losing strategy. What works is being methodical: start with the conclusion, match the level of certainty, if the argument says "must," don't pick an answer that says "might." Then look at the structure, are we reasoning from a general principle, a conditional chain, an analogy. Then check quantity terms like some, most, and all, they're not interchangeable. You don't have to do 50 of these to improve, just do 5, but do them slowly and deeply, write out the structure, talk it out loud.
Adam: With the LSAT being reworked, there's only like 50 something practice tests, and I've already taken quite a few because I'm retaking it, about 15 to 18. There's only like 30ish left. Should I be worried about running out of questions before I get to test day? That's something I'm a little worried about, studying every day, wanting to be exposed to questions, and there's not so many left.
Steve: Fantastic question. There are additional questions you can access aside from the full practice tests, but you're right to be careful about how you use them. There are currently 58 numbered exams in LawHub, 101 through 158, but there are additionally drill sets and individual sections in LawHub as well. My recommendation would be to save the numbered exams for full exam sittings, and outside of that do drill work and individual sections.
Adam: Would you ever recommend non-official questions to get a larger question base?
Steve: I don't think you need to resort to that, I'm pretty wary of going beyond anything official. Between the 58 numbered exams and the drill sets and individual sections, you've probably got something like 7,000 questions available, that should be more than enough. I'd rather you redo official LSAT stuff than go beyond it. A lot of students worry, well, I've already done every numbered exam, but imagine you've done all 58 plus all the drill sets and sections, if you redid them would you get perfect 180s? Probably not. Even if scores would be inflated from having seen it before, if you're still not getting perfect 180s, especially getting the same questions wrong multiple times and choosing the same wrong answer multiple times, which happens more than you'd think, that alone reveals the lesson hasn't been fully learned, and you go back and make sure you actually learn it.
Adam: Do you think that could be useful to do before I reach that point, going back and redoing an old exam to see if I still miss the same questions?
Steve: Yeah, that could certainly be useful. You can avoid using up everything too early by budgeting them out. If you have X number of exams available over Y period of time, count backwards. Say you wanted to do exam 158, the newest one, 2 days before your official LSAT, then 157 four days prior, 156 seven days prior, and work back on the calendar for the next 60 or 90 days between then and now. Then you see where you have to start now to avoid burning through them too early, and intersperse drills and sections in between.
Your goal is not to collect LSAT exams, it's to master them. We see students get down to their last 5 practice tests and freeze, stop doing full length exams and ration questions sparingly because they're scared of running out. That mindset kills your progress. What we recommend is a simple test budgeting plan, count backward from your test date and schedule each remaining exam, no guesswork, no panic. Between full exams, do targeted sections and question sets. Reusing tests is totally fine, if you didn't get a perfect score the first time, you've still got work to do, that's fair game. A test is only used up when you've squeezed every drop of insight out of it, a full review with missed question analysis and pattern tracking. Most people barely scratch the surface before moving on.
Adam: Regarding budgeting the exams, a lot of the live sessions will go into one of the exams or a section and discuss it, and that's very useful, but also worrisome in that regard, since I'm exposing myself to a few of the questions. I don't think it's too troublesome though.
Steve: You can also pick and choose which sessions you attend, we post the agenda in advance so you can avoid burning through something you may want to reserve for later. If you want to join a session, you can do that exam or section in a timed context prior to class, so you've already done it, measured your results, and then go into the session to get clarity on whichever questions you had trouble with.
Adam: That's a good idea, I didn't think of that.
Steve: Let's talk about one of the simplest, most powerful LSAT pacing strategies: first 10 questions in 10 minutes for logical reasoning. Why? Because the first 10 are meant to be faster, more direct, less weird logic, fewer tempting trap answers. If you're spending 2 minutes per question early on, you're already behind, using up too much time on the easier questions at the expense of the harder ones that need it. Pace the easy to save the hard. You don't need to rush, but you do need to finish them efficiently. When Adam started doing this, instead of panicking at question 21 with 6 minutes left, he had breathing room to slow down and think more clearly. It's one of those small adjustments that makes a massive difference without more studying or a new strategy guide, just awareness and discipline. Nine times out of 10, it's early questions that should take 30 seconds dragging into 2 minute marathons.
So to recap the action plan going forward: we're going to stop highlighting, since we introduced that change and it ended up being a net loss, which is okay, better to learn now than on test day. I always recommend trying things out a month or two prior to test day so you can course correct. We talked about going faster on the easier questions, and not highlighting should help build up that time bank. We talked about a couple of strategies for parallel questions specifically, and you're right not to leave any points on the table. If you can shake off the rust, get your speed and pacing back on logical reasoning, and clear up parallel reasoning, which is probably 3 or 4 per exam, that alone should get you back into the low 170s at minimum. Then we work on pacing and endurance from there and take a practice test or two a week.
Adam added highlighting to his strategy, probably thinking it would help him track arguments and stay focused, a totally reasonable idea, but over time it ate into his pacing, and when he cut it out his confidence and speed shot back up. That's a crutch strategy: feels smart, feels like a safety net, but quietly costs you time, energy, and momentum, and you usually don't notice until it's too late. We always recommend students test every tool for real world impact under timed conditions, not does this make me feel more organized, but is this helping me actually get more questions right faster under time pressure. Adam realized that when he ditched the extra annotations and got back to raw, clean reading, his instincts kicked in again. Strategies are like training wheels, useful until they're not, and the moment you realize they're holding you back, it's time to let them go. Before we sign off, Adam, what would you say is the biggest insight you got from our call today?
Adam: I'd say it's the stop highlighting thing, because I tried to introduce that since I'd seen a lot of people talk about how it's useful to them, and I thought maybe that could take me up a level, but it's not working for me, so I should stop doing it. Also the discussion about making a plan for how I'm going to use my practice tests. I think those were the two most important insights.
Steve: Awesome, sweet, I think that's a good plan going forward. Of course, if you have questions or need anything, you can always reach out. And you've been joining the sessions, right?
Adam: I wasn't able to make it to the one on Thursday, but I've joined all the others.
Steve: Oh, great, so you're attending pretty consistently, finding them helpful?
Adam: Yeah, I am finding them helpful.
Steve: Great. Have you ever considered getting more personalized support, working with anybody one on one?
Adam: Probably not right now.
Steve: If you ever do decide you want to go that route, even just for a handful of sessions, we could always set you up with one of the instructors, if you see someone in class you like, no obligation though.
Adam: Yeah, I could definitely see myself potentially doing that closer to test, maybe once or twice.
Steve: For sure, if you ever want to go that route, you can always email or text us and we'll set you up.
Adam: Okay, thank you so much.
Steve: For sure, Adam, it was a pleasure, reach out if you need anything, always happy to help.
Adam: Nice to meet you too.
Steve: You too, have a good one, take care.
More coaching sessions: Zabdi, 141 to 155, Abigail, 147 to 160, Leah, 153 to 170, Dominic, Alina, 157 to 170. Student results and reviews.
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