r/LSATHelp • u/Either_Armadillo_407 • 12d ago
HELP ME PLEASE
Hey everyone! I’m preparing for the November LSAT and would appreciate advice on improving over the next month.
I scored a 155 on my first LSAT, and my practice scores have stayed mostly in the mid-150s. I’m using LSAT Demon, and my LR accuracy is generally 68–70%. My weakest areas are Necessary Assumption, Weaken, Must Be True, and Parallel Reasoning/Sufficient Assumption.
My main challenges are comprehension, focus, timing, and second-guessing. I sometimes struggle to identify the conclusion or retain what I’ve read, though rereading slowly often helps. I can also spend two or three minutes on one question and run out of time before the final few questions.
I work full-time, so I’m trying to balance timed practice, targeted drilling, and thorough review. With about a month until the November 11 LSAT, how should I structure my studying? What helped you break out of the mid-150s, especially with comprehension, timing, and Necessary Assumption or Parallel Reasoning questions? HELP ME 🙃
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u/Great_Lawyer_4792 10d ago
Biggest thing I'll say here is that you should really only be worrying about doing an hour to an hour and a half of studying per day. Your efficiency plateaus immensely after that, so it becomes a case of diminishing returns. Hope this helps!
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u/AzendCoaching 10d ago
Strong suggestion: focus on Must Be Trues and Sufficient assumptions. (Pause on necessary assumptions/weaken for now). Reasoning: must be trues and sufficient assumption are airtight questions. The answer is 100% solid (almost like math - but not math, just logic). And practicing your airtight logic will often mean you can circle the answer with greater confidence and faster speed earning you time to work through those harder necessary assumption and weaken questions.
Hope this helps!
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u/keystonelsat 9d ago
Hi! I improved from a 160 to 171 in a month, and then scored a 176 on my next attempt. The biggest thing for me was focusing on drilling accuracy and comprehensive review - staying with questions no matter how long they take. You only need about an hour a day for a couple weeks to make significant improvement which is what worked for me. I only have 3 students at a time, so you could be my third if you'd wanna cram in. $75/hr but the first hour is free no strings attached. DM me if you have any questions or are interested!
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u/GlenAtKaplanLSAT 5d ago
Hey there. Right off the bat, it feels like you have done some pretty honest self-reflection about your strengths and weaknesses. I think it might help to break your list of things to work on into two buckets: expertise and performance. It feels like you've been focused on expertise, i.e., knowing the question types, analyzing individual questions, etc. With performance, on the other hand, it's clear that you've identified challenges - focus, timing, 2nd guessing, etc. - but I'm not sure what you've done to address those. At the highest level, you have good instincts about mixing untimed "mastery" practice and timed section or full-length practice, but my question is whether you are reviewing those differently. If you're going over your timed practice with straight question review, you're not getting everything that you could out of it. At Kaplan, we have units and LSAT Channel workshops on section management, which includes timing, guessing and skipping strategies, and just plain building confidence and efficiency. Even with untimed practice, make sure that you are reviewing with explanations that walk through not only how to get the correct answer, but also through the steps top scorers follow to get there at max velocity, without hesitation (or the dreaded re-reading). That's my top-level view. Happy to follow up with any questions you might have here or in PMs. Cheers!
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u/LSAT180CoachAlex 9d ago
The detail that stands out is that slowing down helps you understand what you’ve read. I’d build your remaining prep around figuring out where that understanding breaks down, then practice applying it under time pressure.
Start with small untimed sets of five to eight LR questions. For each argument, explain the conclusion and supporting evidence in plain English before evaluating the answers. For a passage that presents facts without an argument, explain how those facts relate. During review, identify the specific misunderstanding that led to your answer before watching an explanation. “I understand the explanation now” needs to become “Here’s what I’ll notice next time.”
For Necessary Assumption, ask what the argument needs to take for granted. Negating a serious contender can help you test whether the reasoning depends on it. For Sufficient Assumption, ask whether adding the answer to the premises guarantees the conclusion. Keep those tasks distinct. LSAC’s official sample questions illustrate both.
For Weaken, identify the evidence-to-conclusion connection and look for information that makes that connection less convincing. For Must Be True, require an answer supported by the given facts without adding assumptions. For Parallel Reasoning, summarize the structure before comparing choices, including the direction of any conditional relationship and how strongly the conclusion is stated. Matching the topic won’t establish a match in reasoning.
With full-time work, I’d start with four weekday blocks of about 45–60 minutes. Use two for untimed LR and careful review, one for a timed LR section, and one for reviewing that section and practicing RC. Use a longer weekend block for additional practice and review. Fit in a full practice test when you have time to review it thoroughly.
During timed work, practice recognizing when you’ve stopped making progress. Make your best selection, flag the question, and return if time allows. For second-guessing, require a specific reason to change an answer, such as a missed qualifier or an unsupported inference. Feeling uncertain by itself doesn’t tell you which answer is better.
I’m a full-time LSAT tutor and licensed attorney, and I improved from a 142 on my first official LSAT to a 180 on my second. I offer a free 20-minute consultation if you’d like help identifying your priorities for November. Feel free to DM me.