👋 Hi, Welcome to LSAT Dialogues

Studying for the LSAT and applying to Law School can be a lonely and frustrating experience. Hearing stories from others about what worked (and what didn’t) can make the process better, though.

Today, we chat with an Anonymous Student about how she finally conquered the LSAT despite test taking anxiety and ended up at a top 3 law school.

Stats:
3.78 at a top 5 Liberal Arts University
173 LSAT

When did you decide law school might be for you?
Right before I graduated. I took a diagnostic and scored 152. Then I studied for a year, I took a course. Then I had my first ever panic attack during the test. Tears were dripping down my face. I didn’t know what was happening. I couldn’t finish the test. I just stared at the paper. It was scary – I felt so bad for the girl sitting next to me. 

What happened?
I was so tired. Before the test, I added a couple extra shots of espresso to my coffee. I just wanted to be extra alert and the caffeine triggered the anxiety I was already feeling. I had a panic attack.

I had to do it – I couldn’t wait another year. I was working a terrible job at a nonprofit. There was so much manual labor – I was shipping a bunch of packages. Making $16 an hour. I was always exhausted. 

I was so obsessive about it. Every weekend I would do a practice test. Studying every day. 

What happened the second time?
No panic attack, but I ended up getting a 160. That was a bummer, more time had passed. I really felt stuck. I made some progress at the beginning when I learned the basic concepts, especially in logic games. But then I was flat for a long time. I had already spent the money on a class. I felt like maybe my brain just doesn’t work the way that the exam did. Maybe there are just some people like me who just can’t or won’t do super well. 

What changed?
I ended up working with you and I think just having someone encourage me and believe in me that I had the ability and skills to do well was helpful. I also did a ton of blind review – I took every available practice test. I could eventually feel what the right answer would be and that allowed me to go really fast. 

Third test?
A car alarm went off all night outside my apartment the night before I took the test. I didn’t sleep. I sat for the test, still, and got a 166. I got more than half the questions wrong in reading comp. 

That’s kind of insane – you must have done really well in LR and LG. Yeah, so the feedback you gave me was immediately retake the LSAT, don’t wait. I took it that final time. At that point I had already been exploring other options. Maybe God was trying to tell me I should get an English PhD. 

So walking into the fourth test, I was much more nonchalant about it. I ended up getting a 173.

Where did all the self-imposed pressure come from?
My parents are immigrants. I’m an immigrant. My dad is a waiter. There just weren’t that many options for us. And, coming from a culturally conservative background, there was pressure around marriage. It didn’t mean anything that I had gone to a really great liberal arts college. So, I felt like my parents saw me as a failure. It felt all consuming in the moment. It wasn’t until I went to law school and had really great health care that I could finally get the care I needed. 

I thought the only way for me to succeed was if I memorized every single LSAT question ever. In retrospect that was kind of psychotic. 

What a lonely and stressful ordeal – and feeling like you had to do it all on this exact timetable 
I started to see how miserable I was making myself. And like, it got to a point where I was so self critical – I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I don’t deserve all of this. If I really deserved the privilege of going to a great college, I would have made something of it by now. I was desperate for the next gold star. You lose so much of yourself. And eventually I was like it was not worth feeling like this. 

What was it like when you finally got your score?
I remember looking at the screen and I let out a scream. I couldn’t believe it. That was the exact number I had always pictured in my mind. The exact number that had felt so unattainable and fantastical. I cried. I bought myself a large green juice as a treat. I felt a massive sense of relief. I knew I was going to get into a top law school. 

What would you go back and tell your 22-year-old self? 
Yeah, you have so much life to live, and there are so many ways to be the person you want to be. It’s fine if it takes me a while to get there, to get to whatever version of myself that I want to be. 

Also, progress is not linear. Focus on the process and it’s not a reflection of you as a person. 

Larkin Robson Commentary

It’s kind of crazy how the LSAT is like the out for so many students. I recently just had a student who was going to get kicked out of the country unless they could get into law school, essentially. The test is stressful enough on its own and then you layer on stress from external factors. It’s tough. 

I push students to try (as much as possible) reduce the pressure around the test. It sounds like this student ended up doing that - they almost resigned themselves to not going to law school. They started exploring other options - maybe law school wasn’t for them. And then that’s when it clicks - she scored 7 points higher. 

The first time I took the LSAT I overperformed my practice tests because I didn’t even really want to go to law school. I wasn’t sure. I felt free when I was taking it. 

What’s the take away here? How do you put things into perspective? Should everyone explore other options and have a back up plan?
This is kind of a cop out but every person is so different. What works for one person might not work for another. Part of my job as a LSAT tutor is almost to serve as therapist and unpack a student’s relationship with the LSAT. I think being okay with not doing well on the test - because you have other options, you can take it again, etc -  is generally helpful. It frees you up to do your best.

How do you balance the intensity needed to study hard and put the time into the prep with the need to go into test day somewhat relaxed?
I don’t have many students who aren’t self starters. I tend to have the opposite problem - students who work too hard. I have no interest in making you study for forty hours a week. That’s not helpful. You have to do it in a way that you’re refreshed and present. 

Most of my students are from or in New York City. I love New York but New Yorkers are crazy. They have this mentality that I can just work my way through it. But you can’t brute force the LSAT. 

What did you think about the caffeine induced panic attack?
People will ask me if I should take adderall for the LSAT. If you take it every day, then yes. But if you don’t, it’s probably going to make you anxious. Anything that makes you anxious is going to be amplified by the pressure of test day. Same thing for caffeine.

About Larkin

While other tutors and test prep companies try to force students to approach the LSAT using a generic one-size-fits-all schemata, Larkin focuses on each student as an individual, building on the skills and modes of thought they already have. His collaborative and unique approach has yielded big results over the last decade and a half as he routinely helps students get into Harvard, Stanford, Yale and the rest of the T-14 (often with big scholarships).

If you’re feeling stuck or don’t know where to start, reach out.
[email protected]

About Morgan

Morgan Barrett has apprenticed under Larkin since 2018. Since starting as a tutor, Morgan has used Larkin's methods and approach to help students get into Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, Penn, and numerous other top schools, often with large scholarships.

While Morgan has helped students of all experience levels achieve their goals, he specializes in helping students who have a decent grasp of the basics but are feeling stuck. If you've taken a course or self-studied but are struggling to break into the mid 160's or 170's, often Morgan's individualized skill-based approach to the test can provide the catalyst to break through to the next level.