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Ilya's LSAT Diary: 143 to 163

Updated September 7, 2026 · Steve Schwartz

LSAT Diary, 2011

Ilya scored a 143 on his initial diagnostic and a 154 on the June 2010 LSAT, then retook in October after devoting a full month solely to logic games and reviewing every missed question. Studying just 2 to 2.5 hours a night around a new full-time job, he scored a 163 and aced the logic games section.

  • Starting score: 143
  • Official LSAT: 163 (October 2010)
  • Situation: Recent University of Virginia graduate who studied during post-graduation downtime, then retook the test after starting his first full-time job.
  • Written: 2011

In Ilya's words

I felt that my poorest section was logic games, and committed one full month... to doing only logic games.

Ilya

Review the logical errors you make immediately, and repeat the question until your brain can do it on autopilot.

Ilya

I ended up with a 163 on the October test, and aced the logic games.

Ilya

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. Ilya's is here because it ends with a number: 143 to 163.

Underneath the score, it's about retaking after a lackluster June score by dedicating a month solely to logic games.

Written in 2011. Logic Games comes up a lot; that section was removed from the LSAT in August 2024, so treat those parts as history. Everything else still applies.

Individual results vary. Score increases depend on starting point, study time, and effort.

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Ilya's diary, as written

Diagnostic to a 154 in June

I began studying for the LSAT in the spring semester of last year. I attended the University of Virginia and graduated in December 2009, so I lived in Charlottesville until my peers graduated in May and used my downtime (as I did not have classes to take) to study for the June 2010 LSAT. On my initial diagnostic, which I took before ever looking at an LSAT problem, I scored a 143.

Results: I got a 154 on the June 2010 test. On the full tests I took prior to the real one, I scored in the mid to high 150's, never getting higher than a 162. I remember feeling like I was not keeping up with my usual speed on the day of the test, and the experimental section really threw off my next section because I felt I did so poorly on it.

Refocusing on logic games for October

October 2010: I took 2 months off of studying and did not resume until August. I felt that my poorest section was logic games, and committed one full month (half of my remaining study time before the October test) to doing only logic games. I felt that a big mistake I made in my preparation for the June test was not paying enough attention to the errors I made. Instead of reviewing my logic errors on a Logic Game or a Logical Reasoning problem, I sometimes just figured that this problem would not repeat and thus I didn't have to worry about it. How wrong I was. This time around, I re-did logic games I hadn't initially accurately completed multiple times before I moved on, and this was a huge help (I ended up acing the LG section on the October test).

With the remaining month, I only worked on full timed sections or exams. I did 4 exams on Saturday mornings, and probably around 6 after work, so somewhere around 10 exams in total. I felt that really pushing myself to sit through all of these full tests was very important, as it improved my endurance for test day.

Studying nights and weekends around a full-time job

Time spent: since this was all done after I started my first full-time job, I was only able to study about 2-2.5 hours each night after work, Monday through Friday (plus a few Saturdays of test taking). However, I did not want to push myself too hard and burn out, especially because I had a strong foundation. The point of my strategy this time around was to refine my skills, which helped tremendously. This time around, my full-length tests were averaging in the low to mid 160's.

A 163 with logic games aced

Result: I ended up with a 163 on the October test, and aced the logic games. I did a little worse on the Logical Reasoning sections, but I attributed this to the stress of test day. The test location was also in my favor as it was a 3 minute drive from my girlfriend's house, and I was on a big desk with ample room as opposed to before when I had a tiny desk and needed to move papers around in order for them to fit.

Advice: my advice to anyone studying for the LSAT is: review the logical errors you make immediately, and repeat the question until your brain can do it on autopilot (this is especially true for Logic Games). As well, do as many recent, timed PrepTests as you can, replicating the conditions. This will improve your stamina and give you a better feel for test day. Finally, on the day of the test, if you have a particularly difficult time with a section, know that it's probably the experimental. Stressing about it after the fact can only hurt your score. Try to get it out of your mind and just move on.

More student stories: LSAT Unplugged reviews and finished results, all success stories.

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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