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Interview with Steve Schwartz, Founder of LSAT Blog and LSAT Unplugged [Show Summary]

In this episode, acme LSAT tutor Steve Schwartz discusses the upcoming changes to the LSAT and their implications for law school applicants, the GRE vs LSAT question, his meridian tips for LSAT prep, and his growing treasure trove of LSAT prep resources — everything from free guides and videos to private tutoring.

How to Ace the LSAT [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Steve Schwartz of the LSAT weblog and the LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel. Steve graduated from Columbia University in 2008. In loftier school and college he tutored diverse subjects and besides helped prep examination takers for standardized tests, including the LSAT. All the same, he actually began to focus on the LSAT when he was applying to constabulary schoolhouse. He founded the LSAT Web log in 2008 and never looked back. Today, eleven years afterwards, he has helped thousands master the LSAT, get into law school, and sometimes secure scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Steve, how did you lot get involved with LSAT examination prep? What's the back story? [2:04]

I was considering law schoolhouse myself and had a very rude awakening with my first diagnostic test when I scored 152 which is right around the average score. Slowly and painstakingly over an entire year I brought my score up to 175 on test day. Once I did that friends started request for help, and information technology grew and grew from at that place. I institute I really enjoyed didactics the LSAT once I came to primary it.

Before we turn to your coaching, I'd like to discuss the changes taking identify in the LSAT earth. First, what'south happening this summer? [3:01]

At that place are many changes coming, but the biggest one is that the LSAT is finally transitioning to a digital format – it is the concluding remaining grad level exam to go digital. Starting in July they volition be distributing it via tablet, though initially with half notwithstanding receiving paper and pencil and the other half digitally. LSAT will choose the format for the student and won't tell them in advance in order to do a controlled study. The plan is to transition to 100% digital this fall. The content for the digital format will remain the same, the only thing changing is the style of delivery.

Any changes to LSAT prep in anticipation of the digital LSAT? [4:15]

There are a lot of changes. Students used to writing on a folio with diagrams then along volition no longer exist able to do that. You lot will have bit newspaper on the side but with the tablet you won't be able to describe on the screen with the stylus. Y'all also only see one question at a fourth dimension instead of being able to view them as a group, so students will need to click back and forth inside a set of questions.

When should an applicant take the GRE instead of the LSAT? [5:34]

For the vast majority of schools the LSAT should be the focus. I recently spoke with the UCLA admissions dean, and they only took 5% of applicants with GRE scores, which tells me that with extraordinary applicants they are willing to overlook not having taken the LSAT, but for the vast majority, and certainly the average applicant, they yet want to see the LSAT.

I don't retrieve the GRE will take hold like information technology has say for MBA programs because pre-police force students don't like math. For rankings we don't know how GRE scores will factor in. For at present you lot know that if your LSAT score is in a higher place the median you are more likely to exist accustomed. LSAT scores too have a very potent correlation to first year law schoolhouse grades, which so correlate to bar passage rates, which law schools intendance very much about. So bottom line, in pretty much all cases I would recommend taking the LSAT over the GRE.

There are lots of test prep companies out there. What does your coaching bring to the market place that information technology previously lacked? [8:59]

Well for one affair it is me personally education every class, working one on ane with students. I likewise release almost everything I exercise for free – it's all out there on the website, YouTube, podcast, you lot name it, so you tin come across exactly what it is like to work with me earlier signing up. I don't know anybody else out there releasing free samples, so to speak.

What are a few elevation LSAT prep tips? [10:x]

Most people don't spend enough fourth dimension devoted to LSAT prep. Well-nigh people want to plan two-iii months as that is how long they studied for the Sabbatum. The LSAT is much more difficult and requires much more of you lot, and is weighted much more heavily in the admissions procedure than the Sat, then 5-six months should be the average to achieve full potential.

Some other piece of advice is to non take exam subsequently exam – the existent growth comes from a detailed review process. Don't have practice tests as well early. Beginning work on accuracy, by time and past type of question, and then pace each section, and in the third stage practice endurance to simulate exam day.

How near tips for the solar day earlier and the twenty-four hour period of the exam? [11:28]

The day before I wouldn't do anything at all. Rest, relax, have information technology easy – at this point you either know it or you don't. The day of the exam wake upwards early on (though you lot should accept already proficient going to the test center on another day!), make certain you are packed and set up to become (ideally having done this the night before), bring warm-up practice questions, and avert other people that could stress you out.

What practice you see in your crystal ball for your LSAT coaching and Internet properties? [12:35]

I am starting to play around more than with live in-person classes, and at present that I am comfy on camera I am interested in seeing what works, experimenting with unlike models. People don't want to read so much anymore and so I am trying to give them what they want in a format they want. With YouTube and podcasts, people can take reward of passive time (on the drive home, while cooking, at the gym, etc) to larn things.

Whatsoever plans to expand into GRE? Other test prep? [13:38]

I tin can't come across myself shifting. I love the LSAT and I don't think that will change, and I also don't run across the GRE being a major factor similar it has become in other fields. I don't have any plans to go anywhere else.

What would y'all have liked me to enquire that I didn't ask? [14:01]

The review process is something I could talk about. You want to take examination sections, but before checking the answer primal and moving on, engage with the problem more if it gave you problem – was it the timing or the content that gave you trouble? What was tempting about the wrong respond choice and what pushed you away from the right reply? You want to see the traps of encouragement to the wrong answer, and getting a sense of blueprint is really useful.

In that location has been a driblet in bar passage rates since 2008 and there has been tremendous shrinking in the constabulary school marketplace. Practice you feel there is a correlation of whatever kind between the apply of the GRE, average LSAT scores, and bar passage rates? [16:09]

I don't remember it'southward related to the GRE since again information technology is such a small percentage of applicants. I think it has much more to do with the number of people applying to law school. Schools still need to fill up seats and because they are getting fewer applicants they might be excavation deeper in the butt, accepting students who might not exist able to pass the bar in the end. The reality is that some students maybe shouldn't have gone to police school in the offset case. If yous tin can't break 150 then law school might not exist correct for you – you lot don't want to drib out or maybe non pass the bar. With the LSAT at present being offered ix-10 times a year at that place is no alibi not to take information technology once more. If you get a low score, just care for it like the exam is a strange linguistic communication and take the time to improve it rather than write an addenda. The proof is in the pudding!

Related Links:

• Steve's Interview with Accepted's Christine Carr
• LSAT Weblog
• LSAT Unplugged podcast
• LSAT Unplugged YouTube Aqueduct
• The Law School Admissions Guide: 8 Tips for Success, a gratuitous download
• Accepted's Law School Admission Consulting Services

Related Shows:

• Law School Admissions: What You Need to Know
• Emory's Juris Primary Program: Constabulary for Non-Lawyers

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