Alex, 150 and working toward 170: a live LSAT coaching session
This is what LSAT Unplugged coaching looks like. Alex came in at low 150s, estimated 150 if tested tomorrow untimed guess, aiming for 170 plus on the June, or latest July LSAT. Steve Schwartz coached him live for about 23 minutes on Logical Reasoning, and the whole session and transcript are below.
The numbers here are where Alex started and the goal we set together in this session. Individual results vary.
- Student: Alex
- Score when recorded: low 150s, estimated 150 if tested tomorrow untimed guess
- Goal: 170 plus
- Target test: June, or latest July
- Situation: Works part time at his dad's family business with flexible hours, has 20 to 25 hours a week to study, balances prep with work and social life, meets with coach Michelle
- Focus: Logical Reasoning
- Worked on: strengthen questions, weaken questions, most strongly supported questions, inference questions
What we fixed in this session
This is the phase where the type of work matters more than the amount of work.
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 diagnosed that Alex was blurring the lines between strengthen, weaken, and most strongly supported questions and gave him the exact distinction between each question type.
I corrected Alex's habit of only doing untimed or loosely timed sections by telling him to add real timed 35 minute sections and full length timed exams to build pacing and endurance.
The plan: I redirected Alex away from spending study time on parallel flaw. That appears rarely on the test, and toward the big three of necessary assumption, inference, and flaw, plus strengthen and weaken.
Where the session landed: Alex agrees to a 3 part plan of fundamentals drilling, daily timed sections, and weekly full length exams, and says he feels great about it.
If your prep looks like Alex's did, that's fixable in one session.
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In Alex's words
I can usually get the answer if I have enough time, but I run out before the section ends.
Alex
Recently I've realized I'm not looking for the same type of answer, I'm looking for two different things, and finding that distinction between the two would help me get a higher score.
Alex
I feel like that strategy will 100 percent work but I didn't know how to go about it when it came to timed sections.
Alex
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 Alex's case: Alex was blurring the lines between strengthen.
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: necessary assumption questions, flaw questions, weaken and strengthen questions.
Student reviews and finished results.
Full session transcript
Recorded November 2025.
Steve: When you're looking to improve going from the 150s into the 170 plus range, there's going to be some high yield areas. One thing I want to figure out with you today is what those high yield areas are. This is Alex, and he's looking to go from the 150s to a 170 and above in the next 2 months. My name is Steve Schwartz and I've been teaching the LSAT for the past 20 years. Today Alex is going to bring me his biggest LSAT challenges and I'll help him address them as he looks to improve by 15 to 20 points and beyond. How's everything been going?
Alex: Everything's been good. Just studying, and finally met with Michelle, she gave me a lot of helpful tips, and going through the study program it's been going good. Had my ups and downs, but I feel like that's just part of the journey. I do feel like I'm improving a little bit every time I tackle these types of questions.
Steve: Fantastic. So tell me a little about where you're at right now. Where are you scoring?
Alex: Right now I'm scoring about 153, 155. Haven't really seen much improvement, but I feel like it's also because I'm really trying to refine my skills when it comes to knowing when to use the strategies. Sometimes when I use timed sessions I just don't know what strategies to use because all the questions are different, you're not going to have them in the same order. I feel like I'm able to understand the questions more, at least know what I'm looking for. I'm able to eliminate some and usually get down to two or three, and then sometimes I pick the right one, sometimes the wrong one. Narrowing it down tells me I have the right mindset, but I need to refine it more to get the right answer.
Steve: Got it. You're still in that stage of figuring things out, dealing with that grab bag of logical reasoning where they're throwing a bunch of different questions at you all at once, so you're getting the lay of the land.
Alex: Yeah.
Steve: If you had to put a concrete number on it, if you took the test tomorrow, what do you think your score would be?
Alex: I honestly think it'd probably be maybe like 150, just because of the time pressure. I feel like I need to work more on that, I really haven't put myself in exam mode. When I time myself I usually give myself 45 minutes or 40 minutes. I want to get the right answers, and if I just go into it kind of guessing I feel like I'm not really improving. I need to understand what it is that I'm reading so I can get the best result possible.
Steve: Got it, so you haven't taken strictly timed exams but you'd guess ballpark somewhere in the 150s. And what's your ultimate goal for test day?
Alex: I am planning on taking the June or latest July LSAT. Now that I have recognition of the material, the different question types, I am going to start doing more of a timed exam mode, doing 35 minutes and trying to get through all the sections to see where I score. Before I just didn't feel comfortable enough to do it because I didn't know the material.
Steve: Got it. Once you have that foundation you'll be in a better place to take those practice tests and get the most out of them. But you're taking the LSAT in June, a little over 2 months away, so there's a bit of a race against the clock. One thing we're going to navigate is how we make that transition to full length practice tests while still making sure you have that strong foundation going in. How many hours per week are you able to devote to LSAT prep over the next few months?
Alex: I would say anywhere from 20 to 25 hours a week. I have that time to dedicate to it, that's usually what I study, but it's really hard. There are days where I'm in the flow and all the questions are easy, and other days where they're beating me with different question types. Like 2 days ago I did a section that was mainly accept questions, where you're not really looking for an answer but looking for what answer choices support it, so you can find the one that's not supporting it, like which one would strengthen it except this one, or which one would weaken it except this one. Going into a section like that tones down my flow, I need to think differently than what I was used to.
Steve: Right, back to that grab bag of everything they're throwing at you in logical reasoning. Just as the section is a little scattered and all over the place, we've got to get your prep refined with focus. I want you going into the test feeling confident you can tackle any question type. But when you're looking to improve by 15 to 20 points, there's going to be some high yield areas, and that's what I want to figure out today. Are you balancing your LSAT prep with any other obligations?
Alex: Work, and social life. Sometimes doing this is a little too much, you get drained mentally. There are days at the end of the night where I just can't do any more, I guess just going outside, working out, or going out to eat, anything to settle and refresh my mind.
Steve: Is work a part-time thing or full-time?
Alex: Part-time, it's really a family owned business, my dad's business, so he knows when I have to study but it's not something I have to be there for. Most of my time is dedicated to this, but sometimes it gets hard, especially on days that are so demoralizing.
Steve: Honestly, most of the other things you mentioned sound like they're more fun, seeing friends, exercising, getting outdoors, a family business job with flexibility. That all sounds like anything but LSAT.
Alex: Yeah.
Steve: I want to figure out how, out of those 25 hours a week, we can make them both enjoyable and impactful. There's a lot of different ways you could be studying, taking practice tests, working on foundation, working on logical reasoning individual sections, and some kinds of studying are going to benefit you more than others. Alex has been stuck in the 150s despite putting in the hours and feeling like he's improving. If you've been in that same range, it's not about raw effort anymore, this is the phase where the type of work matters more than the amount of work. Alex was doing untimed or loosely timed sections trying to get everything right. That's a smart move early on, but now it's holding him back. To break past 155 and push toward 160 plus, you've got to add pacing pressure, real timed 35 minute sections and real timed full length exams. That's where you start to build intuition, rhythm, and endurance, and that's the shift we're going to start making now. When you look at the LSAT as a whole, do you feel like there's any particular weak area that could be most impactful for you to focus on?
Alex: I would say maybe weaker questions right now, parallel flaw, but I know parallel flaw isn't on the LSAT too much so I try not to focus on that one so much. Mainly weakeners and strengtheners, because of most strongly supported versus strengthener, those are two different things, and I feel like recently I've realized I'm not looking for the same type of answer, I'm looking for two different things, and finding that distinction between the two would help me get a higher score.
Steve: Okay. Yes, distinctions on the LSAT are huge. Weaken versus strengthen, just like necessary assumption versus sufficient assumption, or must be true versus most strongly supported. The devil's always in the details, and parallel flaw might seem intimidating, but there are very few of those. When we're looking at the high yield way to get you 15 to 20 points, it's not going to be from mastering parallel flaw, that might get you another point or two. Focusing more on the common types will get you a bigger gain. Alex brought up something I see all the time, blurring the lines between strengthen, weaken, and most strongly supported. It's easy to do, the test makers love to disguise these questions to look similar. Strengthen questions ask, if this were true does it make the argument better. Weaken questions ask, would this make you doubt the argument's validity. Most strongly supported asks, which answer would be most supported by the passage above. Different logic, different goals, different mindset. Mastering these distinctions, especially under time pressure, is where you're going to gain your next 5 points in logical reasoning. Now, what about reading comp, how do you feel about that?
Alex: Reading comp I do great, maybe because of my undergrad degree, political science. I read some of the stuff and can retain the information, and I got used to reading material a lot of people wouldn't find really fun to read, but for me it's interesting. Sometimes some of my reading comp answers that I get wrong are tied to logical reasoning. Like yesterday reviewing a reading comp passage about Mexican American proverbs, the answers I got wrong were in some way tied to logical reasoning, quantifiers like some, most, more. The questions I got right were more tied to going back to the passage and finding the answer.
Steve: I know exactly what you mean. Some of the hardest questions in reading comp are actually somewhat analogous to logical reasoning type questions, so you can predict those will be the harder ones within reading comp. But the good news for your studying is that when you focus on logical reasoning, any gains you make are doubled because there are 2 sections of logical reasoning now, it's 2 thirds of the test. Plus if you get better at strengthen, weaken, or most strongly supported, there's a bit of overlap into reading comp too. Given what you're sharing, it seems the biggest leverage areas for you could be strengthen and weaken in particular, maybe inference too, focusing on logical reasoning given all the carryover it's going to have. One of Alex's biggest challenges was waiting to fully understand everything before taking timed sections. You're never going to feel 100% ready, the LSAT rewards people who learn in motion, not just in theory. Stop waiting to perfect every rare question type like parallel flaw, instead master the big three: necessary assumption, inference, and flaw, strengthen and weaken too. These show up the most and that's where the biggest point jumps happen. One way to study is drilling those questions by type in the logical reasoning sections within Law Hub, they're all categorized already inside the platform, and then separately doing individual timed sections to work on pacing.
Alex: Do you ask for a timed section in the exam setting, or a time section where we can adjust the time, maybe 40 or 45 minutes, what do you recommend?
Steve: When we say take a timed section, we mean do one individual section from a practice test in Law Hub under strict test day conditions, that's 35 minutes in one sitting with no breaks in the middle. Do you find yourself running out of time?
Alex: Yeah, I really do. It's really hard for me to get through a question in a minute, 30 seconds each. Right now I'm trying to focus on probably just getting the first 10 right and then improving on that, set a time limit and then if I have 10 minutes left focus on the rest. That's something I really don't know how to go about.
Steve: So we're seeing a couple things. One, drill strengthen, weaken, and inference in logical reasoning to focus on fundamentals and get your accuracy up. Second, pacing, doing individual timed sections and getting better at allocating your time. We want to knock out the first 10 questions faster, ideally in 10 minutes, building up a time bank you can apply to the tougher questions later in the section. I would never want you timing individual questions to a minute 30, some are easier, some harder, that's too granular and could be overly stressful. But as a benchmark, first 10 questions in 10 minutes is reasonable. Part of getting faster is developing your own natural rhythm, an intuitive feel for how long you can afford to spend. Spending about a minute on a question means reading the stimulus, reading the question stem, having your prediction, and spotting it in the choices, then moving on. As you do more of these it becomes more automatic, more subconscious.
One of the most important things Alex said was, "I can usually get the answer if I have enough time, but I run out before the section ends." That's the classic accuracy versus pacing trap, which is why I told him to build a time bank, 10 questions in 10 minutes, not because he has to rush, but because those early questions are often easier and he shouldn't waste energy second guessing what his gut already knows. That time bank gives breathing room later on the harder questions. If you're in the 150s and feel like you're working hard but still running out of time, this is probably your next unlock. Test is coming up in just over 2 months. How many practice tests would you say you've taken recently?
Alex: I would say like one or two in the past 2 weeks, not really in test conditions, just wanting to get a grasp of the material. But definitely, like you suggest, doing it in an exam setting, applying the suggestions, maybe dedicating the first 10 minutes to developing a time bank because the first 10 are easy, and then I always struggle after that, that's when you really notice the level of difficulty increase. I just didn't know exactly how to manage my time, that's the hardest thing about it, you have all these strategies, but how do you do it in a timed environment?
Steve: You get faster at anything by understanding it more deeply, so it becomes more automatic and you're no longer thinking through every single step consciously. Just like learning to drive or ride a bike, at first you overly focus on every step, but after doing it 10, 20, 50 times, it becomes automatic. If you did 2 timed sections a day, over 25 days you'd have done 50 sections, and by the end it'll feel a lot more natural. There are 58 numbered exams in Law Hub, 101 to 158, plus a handful of drill sets, so there's no shortage to work from. You have 20 to 25 hours a week and a lot of flexibility. If you put the social stuff on the back burner a little, not never see friends or go outside, but to a certain point, that could mean 4 hours a day, 5 days a week to get to your 20 hours. Overall, if you up the timed portion of your work, I understand wanting to get accuracy high, but it's not enough to get the questions right, you've got to get them right under test day conditions, which means getting the pacing down and the endurance factor, doing 4 sections back to back. Alex hasn't been taking full practice tests under strict timing, and that's okay if you're still in the foundation building phase, but now, with the test coming up fast, it's time to flip the switch, gradually shifting into full timed conditions, not by jumping in cold but building it up through individual timed sections. Think of it like training for a marathon, you don't run 26.2 miles your first day, you build up to it. Do you have a plan right now for how you'll do timed exams going forward?
Alex: I really don't, pretty much what you suggested, trying to develop the time bank, get through it as fast as possible, and doing that strategy of knowing the question type, having a prediction, and trying to find the prediction in one of the answer choices. I feel like that strategy will 100 percent work but I didn't know how to go about it when it came to timed sections.
Steve: Okay, so going forward, to get you from the 150s up to the 170s, 15 to 20 points in the next 2 months, I've put the path forward into 3 different buckets. One is more fundamentals, which you've already recognized you need, for strengthen and weakening questions in particular, maybe inference as well. That comes from watching course lesson videos on the LSAT Unplugged platform where we cover those question types in depth with theory and practice questions, and doing drills of those question types in Law Hub with real practice questions. You can also bring specific questions from the exams that give you trouble to Michelle. That's fundamentals, focusing on logical reasoning. Second, more timed work, individual timed sections. Given you can study 20 to 25 hours a week, doing 2 sections a day most days should be doable, aiming to get 50 sections under your belt to get the pacing down. Third, get into a rhythm with full length timed exams, at least one a week, probably 2 a week given your schedule, but I don't want you to burn out, so if you have enough time to review in depth you could go up to 2 a week. This gives you more exposure to the timed setting and endurance practice too, and your timing will improve as you get more exposure, getting into that rhythm of doing the first 10 questions faster, ideally in about 10 minutes. If you're looking for that 15 to 20 point increase, it's going to come from these 3 things: accuracy, pacing, and endurance. Most people either spend too long in the foundational phase and neglect timed work, or only do timed exams and never get the theory down, so whichever one you're lacking, do the other one.
Alex: I definitely feel like I'm in that first one, where I just want to know the theory, but it really is difficult to have all the theory down. So I feel like getting at least the theory down for the ones I'm going to see the most is the most important thing, because I focus on question types I'm really not going to be seeing much, like parallel flaw. I think, like you said, just focus on the key ones, assumption questions, strengtheners, weakeners, and most strongly supported, which are questions I'm going to see. Getting those right and as accurate as possible, then focusing on my pacing on those, and whatever time I have left over then focus on the ones I'll see less and try to get those right toward the end.
Steve: Perfect, you could circle back to parallel flaw later in a month maybe, but let's nail down the biggest areas first. Here's the plan we built for Alex to jump from the mid 150s to 170 plus. First, accuracy: drill strengthen, weaken, and inference questions until he's getting 80 to 90 percent right untimed. Second, pacing: do timed logical reasoning sections daily, building that 10 question time bank early. Third, endurance: add in at least one full length timed exam per week, more if time and energy allow. Alex has 20 to 25 hours a week to prep and a flexible schedule. He's got the time and now he's got the structure. How do you feel?
Alex: Yeah, I feel great, I honestly feel great about it. I love all the material that's there, it's really helped me think about things in a different way. If I didn't have all this material it's really difficult to think about something you don't know how to go about. Seeing people's different strategies or the way people think about it differently, sometimes it clicks easier for me than a different strategy, and I just like all the variety and the options.
Steve: Awesome, cool, I'm glad it's helping. Keep at it, if you have any questions or need anything, just reach out and let me know.
Alex: All right, awesome, Steve, thank you so much.
Steve: Of course, my pleasure, Alex. Have a good one.
Alex: All right, thanks, you too.
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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