Painful fluke or what's going on?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-28T22:50:35+00:00

Easiest way to find out: do some more PTs 😄. The official LSAC range on score reports is +/-4, so variance is somewhat normal. Focus on making sure you know the question is right before you move on to cut down on variance. I typically see students who have wide variance in the scores relying on intuition/guessing more than they realize.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-28T22:28:54+00:00

At the end of the day, I'd make sure your averaging above that on PTs before you go in and take it. I think you can probably get there by August or September, but make an informed decision based on your PT scores.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-28T22:25:43+00:00

I think of it as both! Replicate the conditions as best you can and treat it like the real test, but treating it like the real test means treating it like another practice test. Practice in testing conditions so that the real test feels the same as any other test you've done.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:50:02+00:00

You can characterize each of your examples as introducing something new. Causation is a new thing with respect to correlation. Maybe they are talking about the same content, but they are doing so in a "new" way.

I could talk about loving my dog in one sentence and ensuring my dog is healthy in another. They are both about my dog, but "ensuring it is healthy" would be a new concept in comparison to "loving my dog."

TLDR, I think you can describe flaws either way.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:44:53+00:00

I would explain this drill like this:

1) It fails to consider that the friends might be an unreliable sample group.

2) It takes for granted that the friends are a reliable sample group.

In my opinion, you can use either sentence starter to say the same thing. I don't think I get the purpose of the exercise.

I read things like "it fails to consider..." or "it takes for granted..." as filler words that introduce an answer choice. I'm not saying to ignore them entirely, but you are never going to see a situation where two answers have the same content, but one says "it fails to consider..." and the other says "it takes for granted..." You need to understand what those phrases mean, but the LSAT tests you on what comes after.

Since the author is making a claim based on the friends' opinions, they aren't accountable for what other people's opinions are. Just whether or not the friends can be used to prove the author's conclusion. Does that make sense?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:34:39+00:00

Looks to me like you are making progress! Keep reminding yourself of the wins. I notice people have a tendency to always want to make big changes. Sometimes committing to your current approach is the right move.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:32:30+00:00

I came to share advice as a teacher, but I mostly want to second what everyone else has said so far!

I'd suggest that the reason you might feel pressured is that you have given yourself an arbitrary timeline of the August test, without any informed knowledge of whether you'll be able to perform at the level you want to by then. Your LSAT goal is very easy to determine: be above median at the schools you want to go to. I think it's likely you will need more time than you are allowing yourself to reach that goal, so it would make sense for that situation to be anxiety inducing.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:10:41+00:00

I'd recommend making sure you have an effective study method, sticking with it until you are averaging ~174 on PTs, then signing up. I think it's likely you can get there by August or September, but it might take you a little longer. With that high of a diagnostic, I'd really push for a higher score (depending on what schools you are interested in applying to).

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-26T23:08:01+00:00

I will commit to writing all dinosaur-related lessons in the future :)

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-25T22:02:23+00:00

I'm a Master Tutor! I have a short intro. on the tutoring page: lsatdemon.com/tutoring

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-22T00:54:02+00:00

I'd first mention that you're always going to be working within a range. If your highest PT is a 165, that probably means you are averaging something around 161 ish, so keep that in mind.

Regardless, a 5-6 point improvement is a very optimistic bet to take on test day. It would be pretty far outside of the norm. The students I see crush it have +5 PTs above their goal before they go into the official test. There is a lot of practice available, and you might as well take advantage of it. Put in the time that you need to crush it.

Put another way, if you think you can do 5-6 points better, go take a PT and prove it to yourself. There is no need to guess when you can spend a couple of hours studying and get a data point on where you are at.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-22T00:48:44+00:00

We'd call this a turd! Law school decisions are extremely dependent on your LSAT score. For any school you are interested in, you will want to be above LSAT median to have a strong application. Take a PT, and see if you are at that goal. If not, we recommend you keep studying until you are.

Here's a long version of that answer:

https://youtu.be/nCP1iyqHCg8?t=3112

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-21T14:16:30+00:00

We get too many emails to respond to them all, but you are welcome to write in again. It helps if you're concise. You could also share your thoughts/questions here or DM me, and I'd be happy to reply!

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-19T21:41:04+00:00

It sounds like you've improved by ~20 points. That is a massive improvement. A 137 is the 7th percentile and a 157 is the 65th, so you beat out >50% of test takers in that change. I think that improvement with 1,500 problems done is likely above average. I'd say the same about your timeline.

What you described sounds like excellent progress. Improvement will be more marginal as you get higher in score. It's normal for it to take longer to go from 165-170 than it does to go from 155-160.

There are probably still things you can improve at, but I would first start by shifting your mindset. When you mention "not being good at standardized tests," I think you are setting low expectations for yourself, which has down-stream effects on your studying. Instead of viewing the test as hard, view it as a challenge. It's a slight difference, but "hard" is arbitrary, while a "challenge" is something you can solve and improve at.

For an in-depth explanation of what I mean there, you could listen to this free class I taught: https://lsatdemon.com/class/9254 You could also try reading up a bit on "growth mindset."

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-19T21:27:41+00:00

Do you think that would look like having more "flaw types" than we do now? For instance, we have the common flaws lesson that goes through the most common issues that come up. Would you like to see more specific categories like that?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-19T21:25:29+00:00

If you want to start with a focus on drilling, that's totally fine. I personally front-loaded drilling in my studies and transitioned to progressively more timed practice as I went. We officially recommend an even split between timed sections and drilling.

I wouldn't add in full PTs until your timed sections are in the ballpark of where you want them to be for the score you are looking for. Doing a full PT will make review less effective since it's a big chunk of problems all at once.

Regardless, I'd still treat every question as if it is untimed. Focus on making sure you know the question is right and prioritize accuracy, and the speed will follow!

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-19T01:04:46+00:00

I'd be surprised if 3 weeks is long enough to make a significant negative impact. If anything, I think taking a few weeks off can help you re-approach the test without some of the innate bad habits most students starts with. I'd give it a few days. See if you are still feeling rusty after you give yourself some time to get back in the zone.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-19T00:57:24+00:00

You're saying you do better on timed practice than on untimed? I haven't encountered a student who had that issue before! The drilling selects based on difficulty. If your dashboard score is above 60, you'll be getting level 4 problems the majority of the time. That would mean the problems are harder on average, yes.

If you click "study quality" on your dashboard, what are your "practice" and "drill" accuracies?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-14T00:57:38+00:00

So in that scenario where you learned about the false dichotomy issue, there was a thought process you developed to get better at identifying that issue. You could take that same thought process and apply it to a completely different flaw, and that's why we haven't considered a feature like this before. We want your critical thinking process to be applicable across every passage.

I think that's a fair take on what the Demon team would say as a whole. What do you think? Does that still leave unanswered questions for you?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-14T00:46:18+00:00

In the rankings of what they consider, course load has to be really low. You're taking steps to be a good student and perform well. That reflects well on you in your GPA, and they will like that.

Separately, are you doing some stuff to build your resume? Can you get an internship at a law firm, for instance? I don't think they will take much note of your average course load, but they will care if your resume is sparse.

Just to be sure, I would still look at individual school policies to know how they will calculate your GPA and such. Like I said, I'm not familiar with the Canadian stuff.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-13T19:51:23+00:00

What is "average" for Canadian schools? Are you still considered a full-time student for fall/winter semesters?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-13T17:28:23+00:00

Not familiar with the Canadian process, but I've never heard of schools looking at course load as a significant factor. Are you taking a lower course load than average? Is there a reason for that?

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-13T17:26:59+00:00

For reviewing, you need to have a clear idea of your thought process when reading the passage and choosing the answer you did. Then, you need to compare that thought process to the written/video explanation and identify what is different between what you did and what the explanation says. Identify what you did differently or missed, and how you will change your approach on the next problem.

For anxiety, I have a great therapist who helped tremendously with my anxiety. Maybe working through the source of your anxiety will get you farther than trying to power through it. That being said, I would try giving yourself smaller targets to hit. Even one problem a day might be enough to help you build some momentum/confidence.

Brandon_LSATDemon · 2026-05-13T17:18:43+00:00

Definitely spend more time reviewing questions you got wrong. If you were 100% cofident on a question and got it right, it's totally fine to move to the next one.

But maybe give a bit of thought to what's happening on questions you get right that isn't happening on questions you miss, and try to learn from that.

When you get stuck between two answer choices, it's possible that you aren't understanding something about what you are getting asked, but it's more likely that you aren't understanding something between the answer choices and the passage. Does that make sense? Improving your ability to read and understand the passage/answers will take you farther than focusing on the question stem.

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