You took your diagnostic test and you're not within 5 points of your diagnostic score. So should you postpone the LSAT (and take it in October) or should you start busing your butt and try to jump 15 points?
My short response - push it to a later date. Many folks want to (need to) believe in miracles. But the likelihood of jumping more than 5 points on the LSAT in one month is highly unlikely. Year in (and year out) I discourage students from trying to cram during the last month, I tell them the same thing I'm about to tell you. But they always retort, "Dave, I work really hard." If only that's all it took.
It should be no mystery to you, the LSAT cannot be crammed (contrary to what some prep companies tell you). Working hard is a VERY important element to LSAT success. But speaking purely from a psychological/mental-health perspective, it's not good to be studying 24-7 non-stop a month before the "most important" test of your life. 99.9% of my students who eventually rock the LSAT are the ones that go into it calm and collected, together and composed - a mental state, which cannot be achieved when you're cramming day and night simply to raise 10+ points on your LSAT.
Don't go down the ugly path of wigging yourself out. It's important to take a step back and be realistic. Talk to your LSAT tutor/instructor. Get their honest opinion. And please make an informed decision.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
180 Degrees LSAT Prep
1. What is your company's name and where is it located?
My company's name is 180 Degrees LSAT and it's located in Brooklyn, NY. However, I also teach in Manhattan, and the surroudning areas.
2. What is your web address?
www.180degreeslsat.com
3. What makes you such an awesome LSAT instructor?
I treat each of my students as individuals. I recognize that the LSAT is a test that is testing not only student's skill, but their level of confidence, anxiety, and general state of being. I recognize that the LSAT is a skills-based test, and the best way to improve skills is through effective practice. I recognize that the LSAT requies a worldview that is completely different, and necessarily so, than the one we use in our every day life.
Anyone can sit down and go over problems withsomeone, but no problem appears on the LSAT twice. Although many issues are repated, the LSAT can always include novel issues. Even if the test has no new issues, problems can be presented in so subltle or unusla a way that it can confuse many people taking the test. My job is not to answer the problem for you, it's to teach you the underlying logic so that even if the problem is presented in an unusual way you have the skills necessary to answer the question.
4. Why do you think most students choose you over behemoth test prep companies?
I would say for two reasons. The first is that a lot of my students have already tried a behemoth test prep company and it hasn’t worked for them. The large class sizes, the cookie cutter methods, and the unqualified teachers leave a lot of students no better, and sometimes worse off, than before they started. They take those classes, unfortunately, and then come to me when they don’t work and oftentimes it can take more time to teach a student who has been to other classes than someone who has never seen the test.
The second reason is that many of my students are attracted to the holistic way I approach the test. I try very hard to teach the individual who is sitting next to me and to treat them differently from the “average student”. This is why I prefer to teach one-on-one tutoring (although I may expand into classes in the near future because I recognize that many people cannot afford one-on-one tutoring). This approach to tutoring can create some really amazing results and that shows in my students scores.
5. How did you first get into this gig?
After I took the LSAT in 2005, I just started teaching for a little extra money on the side. I found I enjoyed it so kept doing it. After I graduated law school, I realized being a lawyer wasn’t really my thing and that I loved teaching and was quite good at it (or so they tell me).
6. Did you go to law school? If so, where?
I graduated from NYU Law in 2010
7. What do you love most about your job?
I love how it’s a combination of therapy, philosophy, logic, problem solving, and just pure unadulterated critical thinking. To really improve someone’s score you need to figure them out and learn exactly why they are picking the incorrect answers they are. The human mind is infinitely complex and trying to figure it out is a constant challenge. I once had a student who I worked with briefly who had been brain damaged in an accident and had multiple issues surrounding it. It was incredibly interesting to look at how she was thinking in comparison to how other individuals think. I just took on a student who is blind. These novel issues are what make the test fascinating to me. Solving the problems on the LSAT involves critical thinking for the student, but figuring out what people’s weaknesses are involves critical thinking on my part. As I get more interested in the LSAT as an institution, I am exploring not only how to improve peoples scores, but also why demographics are correlated so strongly with LSAT score. There are numerous demographic traits that cause discrepancies including income level, race, undergraduate major, school choice, geographic region, and countless others. These differences have been studied, but not in a comprehensive way. Trying to figure out why these demographic traits are so strongly correlated and what that means for teaching individuals from these backgrounds is my next project.
8. Could you please share with the world on of your most memorable LSAT (horror/fun/heart-breaking) stories?
I always talk to my students about the anxiety that the LSAT causes. In part, this is because of an old student of mine. She had completed 3 courses from a major test prep company and in that time her score only went down. They kept letting her re-take the course since her score wasn’t improving, and it just kept sinking. She wanted to go to law school so badly and had such a hard time with the test that whenever she opened a book it made her cry. The first time we met in a Starbucks, I remember sitting down and talking to her about preliminaries and then being shocked when she started sobbing as soon as we opened up a book. I thought I had offended her somehow, but she explained to me that it was just the effect the test had on her. It’s very humbling to watch that happen. Stories like that reminds me of how much of an impact I have on people’s careers and lives. Having that much impact means that failure isn’t an option and that whenever I teach I need to give it my all.
9. What is the most frequently asked question that you receive from your LSAT students, and what is your response?
I get asked a lot if I can help people improve their time. And my answer is no. I can’t. What I can do is help you learn the material better, help you think better, and help you to learn what the prompts mean. This will allow you to answer questions faster and naturally improve your time. But it’s extremely difficult to improve your timing just by focusing on timing. My point here is twofold. The first is that although time is an incredibly important part of the test, the way to improve on time is by improving your understanding of the test. The more you understand the test, the faster you will go. The second point is a point many individuals make, that all the information to learn the LSAT is out there and available so there is no need to hire a tutor. And they are right. The answers to all the questions are out there. But do you know which questions to ask?
10. (Just for fun) if you could be anything in the world (besides an LSAT guru), what would you be? Why?
I would be either a social worker or a Philosophy professor. I love delving into people’s minds and figuring out what makes them tick, how they think, who they are. I would be a Psychiatrist but after law school I am done with school for quite a while now.
My company's name is 180 Degrees LSAT and it's located in Brooklyn, NY. However, I also teach in Manhattan, and the surroudning areas.
2. What is your web address?
www.180degreeslsat.com
3. What makes you such an awesome LSAT instructor?
I treat each of my students as individuals. I recognize that the LSAT is a test that is testing not only student's skill, but their level of confidence, anxiety, and general state of being. I recognize that the LSAT is a skills-based test, and the best way to improve skills is through effective practice. I recognize that the LSAT requies a worldview that is completely different, and necessarily so, than the one we use in our every day life.
Anyone can sit down and go over problems withsomeone, but no problem appears on the LSAT twice. Although many issues are repated, the LSAT can always include novel issues. Even if the test has no new issues, problems can be presented in so subltle or unusla a way that it can confuse many people taking the test. My job is not to answer the problem for you, it's to teach you the underlying logic so that even if the problem is presented in an unusual way you have the skills necessary to answer the question.
4. Why do you think most students choose you over behemoth test prep companies?
I would say for two reasons. The first is that a lot of my students have already tried a behemoth test prep company and it hasn’t worked for them. The large class sizes, the cookie cutter methods, and the unqualified teachers leave a lot of students no better, and sometimes worse off, than before they started. They take those classes, unfortunately, and then come to me when they don’t work and oftentimes it can take more time to teach a student who has been to other classes than someone who has never seen the test.
The second reason is that many of my students are attracted to the holistic way I approach the test. I try very hard to teach the individual who is sitting next to me and to treat them differently from the “average student”. This is why I prefer to teach one-on-one tutoring (although I may expand into classes in the near future because I recognize that many people cannot afford one-on-one tutoring). This approach to tutoring can create some really amazing results and that shows in my students scores.
5. How did you first get into this gig?
After I took the LSAT in 2005, I just started teaching for a little extra money on the side. I found I enjoyed it so kept doing it. After I graduated law school, I realized being a lawyer wasn’t really my thing and that I loved teaching and was quite good at it (or so they tell me).
6. Did you go to law school? If so, where?
I graduated from NYU Law in 2010
7. What do you love most about your job?
I love how it’s a combination of therapy, philosophy, logic, problem solving, and just pure unadulterated critical thinking. To really improve someone’s score you need to figure them out and learn exactly why they are picking the incorrect answers they are. The human mind is infinitely complex and trying to figure it out is a constant challenge. I once had a student who I worked with briefly who had been brain damaged in an accident and had multiple issues surrounding it. It was incredibly interesting to look at how she was thinking in comparison to how other individuals think. I just took on a student who is blind. These novel issues are what make the test fascinating to me. Solving the problems on the LSAT involves critical thinking for the student, but figuring out what people’s weaknesses are involves critical thinking on my part. As I get more interested in the LSAT as an institution, I am exploring not only how to improve peoples scores, but also why demographics are correlated so strongly with LSAT score. There are numerous demographic traits that cause discrepancies including income level, race, undergraduate major, school choice, geographic region, and countless others. These differences have been studied, but not in a comprehensive way. Trying to figure out why these demographic traits are so strongly correlated and what that means for teaching individuals from these backgrounds is my next project.
8. Could you please share with the world on of your most memorable LSAT (horror/fun/heart-breaking) stories?
I always talk to my students about the anxiety that the LSAT causes. In part, this is because of an old student of mine. She had completed 3 courses from a major test prep company and in that time her score only went down. They kept letting her re-take the course since her score wasn’t improving, and it just kept sinking. She wanted to go to law school so badly and had such a hard time with the test that whenever she opened a book it made her cry. The first time we met in a Starbucks, I remember sitting down and talking to her about preliminaries and then being shocked when she started sobbing as soon as we opened up a book. I thought I had offended her somehow, but she explained to me that it was just the effect the test had on her. It’s very humbling to watch that happen. Stories like that reminds me of how much of an impact I have on people’s careers and lives. Having that much impact means that failure isn’t an option and that whenever I teach I need to give it my all.
9. What is the most frequently asked question that you receive from your LSAT students, and what is your response?
I get asked a lot if I can help people improve their time. And my answer is no. I can’t. What I can do is help you learn the material better, help you think better, and help you to learn what the prompts mean. This will allow you to answer questions faster and naturally improve your time. But it’s extremely difficult to improve your timing just by focusing on timing. My point here is twofold. The first is that although time is an incredibly important part of the test, the way to improve on time is by improving your understanding of the test. The more you understand the test, the faster you will go. The second point is a point many individuals make, that all the information to learn the LSAT is out there and available so there is no need to hire a tutor. And they are right. The answers to all the questions are out there. But do you know which questions to ask?
10. (Just for fun) if you could be anything in the world (besides an LSAT guru), what would you be? Why?
I would be either a social worker or a Philosophy professor. I love delving into people’s minds and figuring out what makes them tick, how they think, who they are. I would be a Psychiatrist but after law school I am done with school for quite a while now.
Free LSAT Prep Options
Although LSAT prep courses and tutors do a great job at preparing people for the LSAT, not everyon can afford their services. If you fall in this category, then the following tips and advice are for you. There are plenty of ways to obtain free (or cheap) LSAT prep.
1. Prelaw Advisor. The first place to begin is your college's prelaw society or prelaw advisor. Your prelaw advisor may have organized LSAT courses for free or at a price much cheaper than the commericial courses.
2. Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO). CLEO is a part of the American Bar Association (ABA). It probably has the most extensive prelaw program designed for first generation lawyers. In addition to providing invaluable and cost-effective LSAT prep options, CLEO provides assistance and guidance in every step of your Road to Law School.
3. LSAT Alumni. Folks who have already taken the LSAT and successfully matriculated at a law school have no need for their LSAT books/materials. Ask them for the books/materials. Some companies forbid former-students from "selling" or "giving away" their books. So if you're going to solicit old/used books, do it off the web - preferably in-person.
4. Public Library. Your local public library most likely has copies of LSAT prep books. Take advantage of your taxpayer resources! BTW, if you're using LSAT books from your public library, don't be that douche-bag who writes in them.
5. LSAT scholarships (from LSAT tutors!). Professional LSAT tutors occasionally offer unbelievable scholarships. My guess is that most behemoth test prep companies can't do this (despite their vast riches) because it's plain bad economics. But smaller, self-employed professional tutors can give of their own time (without having to deal with burecratic BS). Ask your LSAT tutor if he/she has scholarships available.
If you know of any other free LSAT prep options, please share!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)