- Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:51 pm
#44790
You bet, wrjackson1! The best advice I can give is to slow down. Like, a lot! Speed is no use if it is not accompanied by accuracy, so resist any urge to rush and instead move at a slow and meticulous pace, reading carefully and taking nothing for granted. This is a very lawyerly skill, by the way - you cannot do well in practice by skimming contracts, statutes, and case decisions, because that's when you make costly mistakes that can lead to great big problems for your clients and great big claims against you for malpractice. Start working now on being fussy and detail-oriented, like a good lawyer needs to be, and you will find yourself making fewer reading errors.
Worried about your time? Don't be, because accuracy comes first, and with higher accuracy in the reading phase will come faster and more confident selection of correct answers, and less time wasted on wrong answers.
Try this - take a look at the last practice test or timed section you did, and count how many correct answers you got. Now, do another practice test or section, and this time plan on only answering that many questions. You got 12 right? Then next time make it your goal to go slowly and meticulously through the first 12 questions of the section, so that you get every one of them right. You'll be no worse off than you were, and in fact you will be better off, because then you will guess on the remaining questions and get some of them right just by chance. Your score will improve, which is the goal!
Slow down to your most accurate pace. Read carefully, because your score - and your grades, and your job prospects, and your career and your long-term financial well being - depend on it.
Proceed with caution, and good luck!
Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT, GRE, ACT and SAT Instructor
Follow me on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/LSATadam
