Carter, 148 and working toward 165: a live LSAT coaching session
This is what LSAT Unplugged coaching looks like. Carter came in at 148, aiming for 165 to 168 on the November LSAT. Steve Schwartz coached him live for about 12 minutes on Reading Comprehension, and the whole session and transcript are below.
The numbers here are where Carter started and the goal we set together in this session. Individual results vary.
- Student: Carter
- Score when recorded: 148
- Goal: 165 to 168
- Target test: November
- Situation: About a month and a half until test day, feels strong on logical reasoning, reading comprehension is the main gap
- Focus: Reading Comprehension
- Worked on: reading comp global questions (main idea, primary purpose, author's opinion), reading comp inference / most strongly supported, law and humanities passages
What we fixed in this session
I never recommend doing the hardest thing first. Always do the hardest thing last.
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 Carter's time loss in reading comp comes from jumping back and forth between passage and questions instead of building an accurate skeleton on the first read.
Prescribed a paraphrase drill: rewrite a handful of old law and humanities passages in plain language, split screen or by hand, to prove real understanding.
Clarified that must be true inference in logical reasoning is 100% guaranteed by the argument, while inference in reading comp is looser, more of a most strongly supported answer.
Where the session landed: Carter says the plan makes complete sense and confirms it answered all his questions, no changes shown yet since it is a planning-focused session.
If your prep looks like Carter's did, that's fixable in one session.
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In Carter's words
It might be a trust thing too, I'll look at my summary or skeleton and think, is that really what it was saying, and jump back into the passage anyway.
Carter
That does sound almost exactly what I need to do.
Carter
It's really hard to flag a question then try to come back, you can't really do that in RC at all.
Carter
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 Carter's case: Carter's time loss in reading comp comes from jumping back and forth between passage and questions instead of building an accurate skeleton....
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: must be true questions, Reading Comprehension, passage structure.
Student reviews and finished results.
Full session transcript
Recorded December 2025.
Carter: The pieces I'm struggling with the most are just in the reading comp itself. I think I'm still struggling on, not understanding it, but just getting down the skeleton of it. When I'm originally reading through the passage, I still struggle on breaking out the paragraphs themselves and figuring out how to get the most out of it and make it the most effective moving into the questions.
Steve: Got it. So getting an accurate understanding and summary of the passage paragraphs before you go into the questions.
Carter: Correct.
Steve: Okay. Tell me for context, your current score, and your goal score, and when you're taking it.
Carter: Current score, I got a 148, and I'm looking to get into the mid 160s, so 165 to 168ish.
Steve: All right, so roughly a 20 point increase. And your target test date?
Carter: November.
Steve: November. So we've got about a month and a half to improve 20 points. That's a lot, but is reading comp your number one area right now? Are you feeling pretty good on LR?
Carter: Yeah, feeling pretty good on LR. That's what I've noticed, especially compared to reading comp. If I isolated logical reasoning and took reading comp out of it, I'd be pretty close to my goal right now. So it's really reading comp that's holding me back.
Steve: Good to know. Are there specific topics in reading comp, if we look at the four major buckets, natural science, social science, humanities, law, any of those in particular?
Carter: I'd say I've gotten caught up on law and humanities the most, just from the density itself. I don't struggle getting through the passage, but I jump back and forth a lot between the questions and the passage, which kills my time.
Steve: Okay, so you have to go back a lot to the text, and law and humanities in particular give you more trouble.
Carter: Yeah. Some of the verbiage in the passage itself, I'll misinterpret a sentence, and then I feel like I have to go back and reread the whole thing to really understand it.
Steve: Have you ever tried breaking down individual passages as an exercise, taking a passage and rewriting the entire thing in simpler language, paraphrasing it?
Carter: I have not yet. I've just drilled the actual passages, gone untimed, and tried to break it down as much as I can before moving into the questions. I haven't tried taking a passage and moving it into my own words separately.
Steve: Take an older passage from LawHub, not in a timed context. Split your screen, passage on one side, a Google doc on the other, and paraphrase or summarize it in your own words. You could also use a physical notebook. The goal is to practice distilling the passage in your own words, to prove to yourself you truly understand it.
Carter: Okay. When doing that, is it basically rewriting the entire passage, or trying to do it in condensed form where you're just pulling the reasoning out of it?
Steve: As a drill, rewrite the entire thing. Not for weeks and weeks, just a half dozen passages, focused on law and humanities. My second thought is to get you out of the weeds of the details and extract only the main idea, the primary purpose, the author's opinion. Take some old passages and summarize in your own words the central point. If they could leave you with only one thought, what would it be?
Carter: No, that makes sense.
Steve: And with these skeletons we've talked about, could you read a passage and note where the details are, so you can go back and find them when you need to, to help solve specific questions?
Carter: That helps too, and I think that's what I've been trying to do, but I need more practice, because I still end up jumping back and forth. It might be a trust thing: I'll look at my skeleton and think, is that really what it was saying, and jump back into the passage anyway. I think it's learning to trust myself that I'm taking the knowledge from the passage and moving forward with it.
Steve: Trust your initial read of it. But I wouldn't want you taking so many notes that you don't feel comfortable going back, because notes also take time. If you have the muscle memory to know the details are at a particular part of the passage, you can zoom right back and capture the phrase you need.
Carter: Okay, that makes sense too. One other question around that, since there's a different mindset between LR and RC, do you have any tips on how to break from going through a logical reasoning section to switching into an RC question or section?
Steve: They're more similar than different. A reading comp passage is just a really big logical reasoning stimulus, the difference is you potentially have more viewpoints. In LR it's one argument, one major conclusion; in RC you might have a couple of parties with different positions.
One small distinction: in logical reasoning, a must be true inference is 100% guaranteed by the argument. In reading comp, inference is looser, more of a most strongly supported answer, incredibly likely but not necessarily 100% guaranteed. There's always support in the text for a given choice, but the definition is looser in RC.
Carter: Okay, that definitely makes sense. So a good practice strategy moving forward is to break down five or six passages in my own text, basically try to rewrite the whole passage to prove to myself that I'm taking what the passage is actually saying, and then go back, break down the skeleton, and work on the overall picture.
Steve: Exactly. Three ideas: first, take old law and humanities passages and explain them like you're talking to a 5 year old, simplify it. Second, look at old passages but instead of rewriting the whole thing, predict only the main idea and solve just the global questions. Third, with your skeletons, keep notes minimal, just note where the details are so you can find them fast. It's okay to go back if you can go back quickly and target it.
Carter: Okay, that does sound almost exactly what I need to do, because that's where it'll come down to. Some passages, all the dots will connect and you'll be able to fight through it, but with others you don't even know where to begin, and then the entire section falls apart.
Steve: We all have topics we like or dislike. One more thought: immerse yourself in law and humanities. There are 58 numbered exams, roughly 400 released passages. You won't get to all of them, but take some of the oldest ones and just read them, in place of whatever else you'd read or watch, passage after passage, actually understanding it.
Carter: No, that's also a good idea. Just get familiar with how they actually write.
Steve: How they write. Can you understand it? Can you get the main point? Can you see how they start going one way, but then pivot and go the other way instead?
Carter: Definitely.
Steve: There's a limited number of patterns they use, but the more you can expose yourself to them, the more comfort you develop, so when you see a new one on test day, you have the muscle memory of having seen many others like it before.
Carter: Some test day strategies too, since I haven't dove into that. Is there a recommendation on how to approach reading comp, since the number of questions per passage varies? Do you knock them out in order, or if you spot a humanities passage, save it, or tackle a science one first instead? Any recommendation there?
Steve: Good question. I generally favor doing passages in the order given, since it takes time to decide otherwise. But if you spot a humanities passage and don't want to deal with it, save it for last, build momentum, and lock down the easier points first. Never do the hardest thing first, always last, so you don't get bogged down and never reach the easy ones, and don't kill your morale getting stuck. Do what's easier first, save humanities for last. Watch out, though, they'll sometimes trick you, like a passage on the theory of science that isn't really science. If you recognize the trick and still want to save it, that's fine.
Carter: Okay, definitely. That's one of those things, in one of my practice tests I quickly learned it's really hard to flag a question and come back to it. You can't really do that in RC at all.
Steve: No, in RC it's not worth it, you lose the context. Logical reasoning is a different story. In RC, tackle the questions while you're still in that set. If passage one has questions one through seven and you want to skip number three, do the rest, then come back to it. But don't jump to passage two's questions and come back to number three later.
Carter: No, that makes complete sense.
Steve: Okay, cool. Anything else?
Carter: No, I think that answered all my questions. Thanks.
Steve: Awesome, Carter. It's a pleasure. Keep me posted on how things unfold.
Carter: Yeah, sounds great. Thanks, Steve.
More coaching sessions: Zabdi, 141 to 155, Abigail, 147 to 160, Leah, 153 to 170, Dominic, Alina, 157 to 170. Student results and reviews.
I've written free explanations for every question in LSAT PrepTest 159, 158, 157, 156, 155 and 154, with the right answer and why each wrong answer fails. All LSAT explanations are here.
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