LSAT & Law School Blog

Mark Skoskiewicz

Mark Skoskiewicz holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a Major in Finance from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, (he received additional minors in Philosophy and History). At IU, Mark was an undergraduate economics instructor teaching supplemental small group sessions for the department’s introductory economics course. During his junior and senior years, he was a private economics, finance, and accounting tutor. After Indiana, Mark spent 8 years working for Marakon Associates before creating MyGuru in 2009 while earning his MBA at Northwestern Kellogg to make it easier for parents and students to find high quality yet affordable tutors. While Mark wants MyGuru to always be known as a source for excellent tutors, we also aim to be a thought leader on how to improve academic performance through shifts in mindset, well-defined study plans, improved study habits, and even stress reduction strategies. Mark believes these ideas are a powerful, critical complement to working with an expert private tutor. Mark currently shares insights, advice, and information about how to improve academic performance in MyGuru’s improving academic performance blog and in an eBook Plan, Prepare, Perform: A Personalized Approach to Test Preparation.

Recent Posts

10 Tips for Improving Your LSAT Score By 10 Points

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Fri, Jul 28, 2023 @ 01:57 PM

If you’re looking to apply to law school in the near future, then you’re probably already thinking about the LSAT. You may have even already taken the LSAT once or twice, or perhaps you’ve taken a practice test. If you have, you should know that your score isn’t static. You may have earned slightly different scores on different versions of the test. Not only will your LSAT score fluctuate somewhat from test to test, but you can also do a lot to improve your score over time. 

When students come to us wanting to improve their LSAT score, we often use a 10-point increase as a benchmark for an initial goal. Something we’ve notice over time is that most students fail to recognize A) how significant a difference a 10-point increase can make in your law school eligibility, and B) how much work it takes to increase your score by 10 points. 

The LSAT score ranges from 120-180. Scoring right in the middle equates to the 46th percentile, meaning you’re scoring better than 46 percent of test-takers. While 160 may not sound much different from 150, an LSAT score of 160 actually equates to the 82nd percentile. That’s a huge increase in your competitiveness compared to a 150.

While 10-point LSAT increases do require a serious investment of time and energy, they’re definitely not impossible. In this article, we’ll provide 10 powerful tips for boosting your LSAT score by 10 points.

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Tags: LSAT study tips, LSAT Prep, LSAT study plan, LSAT diagnostic test

Taking an LSAT Diagnostic Test

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Thu, Jul 20, 2023 @ 01:29 PM

If you’re planning on going to law school in pursuit of a legal career, then you must know by now that a major hurdle you’ll have to clear is performing well on the LSAT, which is the main admissions test used by law schools. Most aspiring lawyers spend months on their LSAT prep, and a whole industry has been built up around it, including LSAT prep materials, LSAT prep courses, and one-on-one LSAT prep tutoring. 

But no matter what path to conquering the LSAT you take, just about everyone has to start at the same place: the LSAT Diagnostic Test. The LSAT Diagnostic Test is basically a way of referring to your first attempt at taking an official LSAT test in an effort to gauge your starting position and to design your approach to LSAT prep. 

Taking this first step is difficult and often intimidating. The LSAT can be a highly challenging and demanding test, and getting in the right mindset just to sit down and take it can feel overwhelming. But there’s no way around it—if you want to maximize the results of your LSAT prep so you can earn the best possible score, you’re going to have to take an LSAT diagnostic test.

In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about taking an LSAT diagnostic test, including how to approach it, how to make sense of your results, and how to apply them going forward. 

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Tags: LSAT study tips, LSAT Prep, LSAT study plan, LSAT diagnostic test

Ultimate Guide to LSAT Ordering Game Diagrams

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Tue, Jul 18, 2023 @ 10:52 AM

If you’re prepping to take the LSAT, then you’re probably already aware that one of the biggest challenges ahead is learning to tackle the LSAT logic games. When you first start studying for LSAT logic games—which on the official test are called “Analytical Reasoning” questions—they can seem totally unpredictable and impossible to study for.

However, when you spend enough time with different LSAT logic game explanations, you might realize that the vast majority of LSAT logic games can be broken down into a few different types of games. This is one of the benefits of working with an LSAT logic game tutor. LSAT logic game tutoring can help you learn the most powerful strategies for tackling virtually any LSAT logic game.

The most common and most basic form of LSAT logic game is the sequencing game—sometimes called the ordering game. And that’s the one we’re going to cover in this post.

Here we’ll present you with a sample sequencing game, and we’ll walk you through the steps necessary to make sense of it and to answer all the questions accurately. 

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Tags: LSAT study tips, lsat logic games, LSAT study plan, LSAT ordering games, LSAT sequencing games

In-Person Vs. Virtual LSAT - 8 Questions to Decide Which Is Right for You

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Thu, Jun 29, 2023 @ 09:30 AM

Once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the LSAT changed its testing structure from in-person to entirely virtual. That means everyone who’s taken the LSAT for the last three-plus years has taken it virtually. Now, however, much of the world is returning to some semblance of normalcy, and the LSAC (the organization that designs and administers the LSAT) is following suit by bringing back in-person testing starting in August 2023.

 

However, the LSAT has also opted to continue offering the virtual testing option. This means that LSAT-takers are now faced with the choice of taking the test in-person and taking it virtually. So how do you know which option is right for you? In order to help you figure that out, we’ve come up with a list of key questions you should ask yourself to help determine whether you should take the in-person LSAT or the virtual LSAT.

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Tags: LSAT study tips, "LSAT at home", LSAT study plan, in-person lsat

10 Tips for Avoiding Burnout While Prepping for the LSAT

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Wed, Jun 28, 2023 @ 09:30 AM

If you’re dreaming of a legal career, then you already know just how impactful your LSAT results will be on your education, your job prospects, and everything else. There’s a good chance, then, that you’re doing everything you possibly can to study for the LSAT, including devoting all your time and sacrificing things like sleep, exercise, and fun. This level of intensity is supported by the online “grind” culture of aspiring lawyers and other professionals who insist you should be devoting every ounce of energy to studying if you want to succeed.

However, such an approach is highly misguided, and is all but guaranteed to lead to study fatigue, burnout, and possibly even collapse. Rather than prepping constantly, you should be focused on prepping healthfully, intelligently, and well. In this article, we’ll offer ten tips for achieving a balanced LSAT prep regimen so you can avoid burnout and actually maximize results. These tips are based on actual evidence gathered from a study of grad students studying for standardized tests.

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Tags: LSAT study tips, study fatigue, study burnout

One Month LSAT Study Plan

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Mon, Jun 26, 2023 @ 11:06 AM

If you’re an aspiring lawyer, then you probably know that the LSAT is one of the most important stages in your journey to a legal career. Getting the best score you possibly can on the LSAT will determine what law schools you get into, how much financial aid you receive, and even what kinds of internships and jobs you qualify for. 

With so much on the line, many people devote several months, or in some cases even a whole year, to their LSAT prep. But not everyone has the kind of time. Sometimes people find themselves with only a few weeks to prep for one of the most important tests of their lives. 

The LSAT is famous for being impossible to cram for. So if you don’t have that much time to prep, does that mean you should just give up and accept whatever score you get? 

No! With the right approach, it’s possible to significantly improve your LSAT score in as little as a month. In this article, we’ll take you through the one-month LSAT study plan, so you can make the most of the time you have. 

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Tags: LSAT study tips, LSAT study plan

A Guide to the Different Types of LSAT Logic Games

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Thu, Jun 01, 2023 @ 09:00 AM

 Ask just about anyone taken the LSAT what the hardest part of the test was, and there’s a pretty good chance they’ll say it was the Logic Games. If you’re prepping for the LSAT and you’ve already started struggling with the Logic Games, you can at least take comfort in knowing that just about everyone who takes the test goes through the same challenge.

But the truth is, Logic Games don’t have to be especially hard or intimidating. What makes them stand out is mostly just that they’re unfamiliar to us. They don’t necessarily require a level of skill or intelligence that most people don’t possess. But our minds naturally stop processing information well when we encounter information we’re unfamiliar with.

The good news is that you can develop familiarity with the LSAT Logic Games pretty easily if you try, because they all tend to fall into one of a small number of types. In this article, we explain what those types are and how to recognize them. Once you’re able to correctly identify which type of Logic Game you’re dealing with, you’ll be able to draw on the stablished strategies for that game type.

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Tags: Law School Admissions

Which Law Schools Should You Apply To?

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Thu, May 25, 2023 @ 09:09 AM

For many aspiring law students, the LSAT can be such a major hurdle that it blocks out almost every other dimension of the law school admissions process. But let’s say you’ve finally finished going through the process of studying for and taking the LSAT. You’re probably longing to sit back and relax, but there’s still a ways to go in your law school admissions journey.

One crucial next step will be officially deciding which law schools to apply to. With nearly 200 ABA-accredited law schools in the US alone, this is can be an extremely daunting and complex decision. That’s why we’ve prepared this article, which can serve as a primer to help you make the best decisions for yourself about which law schools you should apply to. 

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Tags: Law School Admissions

How to Get a Scholarship to Law School

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Fri, May 19, 2023 @ 09:00 AM

Most students who apply to law school are driven by some combination of the desire to build a career where they can do meaningful work in the world, and the hope of being paid well in the process. However, as law schools become increasingly expensive, simply attending law school represents a major financial hurdle. Many law students leave law school with over $100,000 in debt, all to attain the degree that will allow them to start earning money as lawyers.

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Tags: LSAT Prep, Law School Admissions, Getting in to Law School

Taking the LSAT Remotely—What to Know and What to Consider

Posted by Mark Skoskiewicz on Thu, May 04, 2023 @ 09:15 AM

For decades, the LSAT has been one of the stablest and most consistent institutions in the landscape of higher education. The test’s structure, subject matter, and format have remained largely the same over that time. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced even the LSAT to adapt.

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Tags: LSAT tutoring, LSAT tips