You should start taking practice exams at regular intervals after you’ve covered Flaw questions in the modules. This will ensure that you’ve covered enough material to make sitting for an exam worthwhile. It’s also a good time for you to re-experience taking the entire exam since it will have been about 1-2 months since your first go at it (this may vary depending on your timeline)

After you have taken your second practice exam, you will want to take a practice exam roughly every one to two weeks until the end of your prep. As you get closer to your exam day, transition from biweekly to weekly practice exams. Aim to take at least 8-10 full-length practice tests before your real LSAT, but generally speaking, the more you take the better as long as you give yourself enough time between practice tests to do a complete/thorough review and do some targeted QBank practice to work on your biggest areas of opportunity.

The workspace should be clear except for items you’re allowed to have with you during the LSAT.

Phones and other devices should be out of the room or silenced.

Pets should also be out of the room since their cuteness (and perhaps barking and scratching) is incredibly distracting.

No music should be playing in the background.

You should not read aloud since you won’t be able to do so on test day. (Many don’t realize this and it comes as a shock a week before the actual exam.)

You should let friends, roommates, and/or family members know that you’ll be unavailable and will need a quiet environment for a couple of hours. Bribes might be necessary.

Take the practice exam at the same time of day you plan to take the actual test. If you don’t know when that is yet, take it when you are most rested and mentally alert. Never practice tired!

Optional but helpful: you should eat the same breakfast or lunch, and follow the same morning routine you will have on the actual test day. This is just a way to eliminate any superfluous stress, and you’ll be training your mind and body to be ready for the main event.

Without looking at the question content, type, or answer choices, write down the questions you missed on a piece of paper. You can also include any questions you flagged for further scrutiny, even if you ended up getting them correct.

Retry the ones you missed without timing yourself, and check to see if you got it right or wrong on the second try.

Incorrectly eliminated the correct answer: Why did you fail to recognize the correct answer as correct? Was there a problem with the strategy you used to approach the question? Did you misread the question? Are there ways that you can make a better anticipation that would lead you to the correct answer on subsequent questions?

Incorrectly selected the wrong answer: What about this answer choice was alluring for you? Why is this answer choice specifically incorrect? Does this wrong answer fit an expected pattern for the question type? How can you strategically avoid or eliminate this answer type on future questions?

Why you missed the question

How you can refine your strategy for the question

Specific actionable steps you can take over the next few weeks to improve your approach to the question

Incorrectly identifying the question type

If you didn’t identify the question type correctly – or if you’re in the habit of just generally trying to answer the question posed without classifying it – identify the specific words in the prompt that should have alerted you, and write them down. Then review the Blueprint strategy for that question type and write down the steps you will take to answer those question types in the future.

Failing to recognize specific language in the stimulus

You should be looking for different things depending upon the question type, but here are a few examples: If it’s a Must Be True question, then you should be looking for diagrammable language and/or strong statements in the stimulus. If it’s a Sufficient Assumption question, then you should be looking for a term that appears in the conclusion but not in the premises. When you figure out what you should have been keying in on, write it down.

Not anticipating the answer before diving in to the choices

It’s important for both speed and accuracy that you have an idea of what the right answer will look like. Otherwise you’re likely to get lost in the choices and forget what is important. Anticipation depends on question type, so review the strategies for anticipating answers in the question types you miss, and write them down.

Avoiding common incorrect answers

Just like the second and third step, this depends on question type. For each question type, there are criteria the right answer must meet, as well as common ways answers don’t meet those criteria. For example, the fact that an answer falls outside the scope of the stimulus – refers to something not stated in, or inferable from, the stimulus – is disqualifying for a Must Be True answer, and many wrong answers are wrong on that account. Once you’ve reviewed what common incorrect answers are likely for that question type, write it down.

Ignoring incorrect language in the answer choices

Just as we need to pay attention to certain language in the stimulus, we also need to pay attention to the language in the answer choices. For example, depending on the type, strength of language is important. We err on the side of weaker language for soft Must be True, and we look for stronger language in Strengthen questions. Once you’ve reviewed these, write them down.

Failing to correctly identify the conclusion of the argument in a stimulus

When dealing with arguments in the stimulus, our first job is always to find the conclusion. If we get that wrong, then everything else we do will be wrong too. If that has happened, review common conclusion indicators, i.e. keywords, shift words, “ly” words, etc. and write them down.

Diagramming Errors

While we may not use diagramming that often, when we do it is incredibly helpful. If you made a mistake in diagramming a stimulus, or in recognizing what you were supposed to do with the diagramming given the question type, review this and spend more time practicing your diagramming.

Failing to note/Misunderstanding the primary structure

Noting how many points of view are in a passage is key. If you fail to do so, you are likely to miss the main point question, its primary purpose, as well as other questions where knowledge of this structure helps guide our anticipations.

Ignoring/Missing author presence and tone

Being able to recognize the presence or absence of the author is essential to doing well on a passage. Remember, if a claim is being made and it isn’t attributed to anyone else, that’s the author talking. Look for “ly” words and other adjectives that indicate how the author feels about the topic. These can be super subtle, so taking a step back after reading the passage and asking yourself how you would describe the author’s attitude about the topic can help.

Poor tagging/highlighting

Correct tagging and highlighting are instrumental in doing well on RC passages. If you missed tagging or highlighting something, i.e. POV, secondary structure, attitude, conclusions, make sure you go back and see why or how you may have missed it. Reflect on how you can catch these elements in the future, and write it down in your journal.

Failing to anticipate answers

Again, timing pressure might lead you to skip this important step, but you have to resist the temptation to do so. Anticipating before you look at the answer choices is key, and should be done whenever possible. Tagging and highlighting help with this, so it’s another reason to hone those skills.

Avoiding common incorrect answer choices

You often see the same types of incorrect answer choices in reading comprehension, and learning to spot them and eliminate them is super important. For example, the “mash-up” answer choice that contains a lot of the same words and phrases that were in the passage, but not in the right context or irrelevant for the question being asked. Also, being able to weed out answer choices based level of logical force is key.

Failing to match the tone of the answer choice to the tone of the passage

Along with number five, some answer choices can be eliminated on the basis of tone, so it is important to notice that tone in the passage and eliminate answer choices that conflict with it. If the author was ambivalent about a certain theory, for instance, then an answer choice that is overly positive or negative would be out of contention.