I remember doing my first night of CivPro homework as a 1L with zero lawyers in my family. I called my parents weeping: “I studied French, Latin, and ancient Greek, and I still have no idea what any of these phrases are supposed to mean!”
Self-study and private tutoring are excellent companions. Struggling with the questions on your own teaches you intangibles about your unique way of thinking and the test-taking process, while tutoring gives you the precise tools you need to compete with other smarties in the standardized exam Hunger Games. They are often pitted against each other, but the truth is that self-study and private tutoring are like peanut butter and jelly—successful separately but even better when combined. (If you don’t like the combination of peanut butter and jelly, I’m sorry to say, you can’t be helped.)
There’s no shortage of advice on how to improve your LSAT score. A fair number of score improvement methods tend toward the draconian, from “take two practice tests every single day” to “create a Kafkaesque reward-punishment system” to “start studying four years before we started having this conversation.” That sort of attitude might work—I have no idea, and I will, thankfully, never need to find out.
Every good tutor you ask will tell you that it’s essential to incorporate practice tests into your LSAT study routine. Taking a practice test can be revealing whether you take it before you study or after you’ve gotten some context. You might be the type of person who wants to maximize your self-study before you look to a tutor for help. Alternatively, you might have a throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach, and you are looking to get started yesterday.
“Logic games?! But didn’t the LSAT get rid of those?!”
In a sea of study-related services & products vying for our attention, it’s difficult to tell what’s going to best help any particular one of us get the most out of the test prep experience. Some of us swear by flashcards, while others live by the practice test; some of us think that we learn better visually, others by ear, others yet by mnemonic device.