Education
Show summary: LSAT expert Steve Schwartz shares how to prepare for the new online LSAT exam. Steve Schwartz, who’s spent 12 years helping thousands master the LSAT, breaks down what test-takers need to know about preparing for and taking the new online LSAT-Flex. Show notes: What test-takers need to know about the LSAT-Flex! The March and April LSATs were canceled. What are applicants to do? Take the GRE? No way. LSAT-Flex to the rescue! Our guest today is Steve Schwartz, of the LSAT Blog and the LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel. Steve graduated from Columbia University in 2008. In high school and college, he tutored various subjects and also helped prep test-takers for standardized tests, including the LSAT. However, he really began to focus on the LSAT when he was applying for law school. He founded the LSAT Blog in 2008 and never looked back. Today, 12 years later, he has helped thousands master the LSAT and get into law school and sometimes secure scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars. How is the LSAT-Flex different, in format and delivery, from the old LSAT? [2:01] The biggest difference is that it's online and students are doing it from home. The main reason for that, of course, is we're speaking during COVID-19, stay-at-home orders, quarantines, shelter-in-place, and so it wasn't possible to do it in person, so they've moved pretty quickly to allow students to do it from home. And what about the content of the LSAT-Flex? [2:24] The content is the same, except the amount of content is different. So you still have your logic games, logical reasoning, and reading comprehension, but now on LSAT-Flex, you have only one section of each, whereas in the old in-person LSAT, whether paper and pencil or digital, you had five sections—four scored plus one experimental, and the four included two logical reasoning sections rather than one as we have now in the LSAT-Flex. Are they changing the scoring as a result, or keeping the same scale? [2:52] It will still be the same scale. So students will still receive a score on the band of 120 to 180, but there are fewer scored questions—only 75 scored questions rather than 100 scored questions, so each question is worth more. Are they going to count the logical reasoning section twice somehow because there are now half the number of those questions? [3:13] That was my big question as well, and fortunately LSAT did tell us that, in fact, they will not double-weight logical reasoning. So each section will be worth approximately the same, which leads you to ask, why was logical reasoning ever half the exam if they're willing to do an exam that does not include that? I think it's simply the requirements of the platform, the requirements of administering a remote exam, and shortening the length of it from five sections to now only three sections, which can be done in about two hours. Should applicants adjust their preparations if they're taking the LSAT-Flex? [3:49] They certainly should. You're doing it two hours, three sections, not five. Logical reasoning has diminished in importance. Logic games and reading comp have relatively increased in importance. Endurance matters a little bit less, but it's a lot more important to be warmed up and ready to go the second it starts, because every question counts more. https://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-law-school-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ Does that mean it should be faster? Should applicants focus more on the games than they did on logical reasoning before? [4:16] Yes, it does. If logical reasoning was not your strong suit, the LSAT-Flex will be more up your alley. Regardless of where you are, spend less time on reasoning than you otherwise would have, more on games and reading comp, and also simulate your practice tests with three sections back-to-back, no break, only two hours, and make sure that all your test day prep is based on taking it at home: at your comfortab...