Family & Supporters

Over the years, parents have become increasingly involved in their adult children’s LSAT study. Accordingly, I have included the following information about LSAT study and law school admissions to ensure that everyone understands important aspects of the process.

Score Improvement. Because the TPG program is the most thorough LSAT program on Earth, we expect our students’ scores to decrease before those scores increase. I realize that this seems unintuitive to those who are not familiar with thorough LSAT study, so please understand the following.

The number of LSAT concepts is enormous. To complicate matters, the testmakers (TMs) have developed countless ways to hide and intertwine LSAT concepts via convoluted language. Thus, students need repeated interactions with the concepts to work through TM tactics. We facilitate these interactions with Practice Tests (PTs), Test Reviews, Speed Drills, Slow Drills, and individual help.

When students first attempt to use LSAT concepts under time pressure (Practice Tests & Speed Drills), they typically use some concepts well, but use others in cumbersome, counterproductive ways. At times, the advantages created by the concepts that a student uses well are completely outweighed by the concepts that he or she uses in cumbersome ways. Initially, this yields a score very similar, even lower than, the students Pre-Program (diagnostic) test score. Of course, that is bad news. However, the good news is that the student is earning the score in a very different way. The student is using some concepts well and the student is learning valuable lessons about using the concepts that did not go well for them.

Also, when a student picks a wrong answer choice (WAC) in an early PT, he or she may have missed the question for literally five reasons. When a student corrects three of the five mistakes, the student will still pick the WAC because of the two other issues.   This means that the student has made progress in using the concepts, but that progress will not immediately be revealed by a score increase.

These dynamics frustrate and confuse LSAT students because they know that they understand concepts, but their scores do not show that progress initially.

Score-Focus v Content-Focus. Over the years, I have learned that a student who comes to me regularly to discuss his or her score will have lesser score improvement than a student who comes to me to discuss failure points – a term we use to keep students focused on concepts. As I described above, practice test scores tend to mask very significant progress that foreshadows future score improvement. Typically, significant score improvement shows up days or even a couple of weeks after the student really starts to become more fluid with the concepts.

A score-focused student creates two problems. (1) Every bit of energy and time that they spend obsessing about their scores takes time and energy away from addressing the reasons that they are picking WACs. So, they are wasting time and energy. (2) They develop toxic mindsets. One recent student decided that she needed a certain score to earn admission to Berkeley Law. At a certain point in the program, she told me, “Every time I pick an answer [on a PT], I think, ‘I better get this right, or else I am not getting into Berkeley.’” Those thoughts not only distract students from the complex logic on the test, but also maximize test anxiety, which completely debilitated the student.

Well-meaning family members tend to ask about PT scores to show interest and caring. However, those enquiries are typically counterproductive. In fact, dozens of my former students who felt that parents’ score enquiries have sabotaged their mindsets have taken the LSAT a second time WITHOUT letting their parents even know about the second LSAT. These students have expressed an enormous sense of relief from not having to report back to mom or dad and that relief allowed them to perform at maximum levels. So, rather than asking a student about his or her score, you should ask him or her to describe an LSAT concept to you, possibly one that the student has recently started to use well.

Individual Help. We offer individual help via Open Study Time (OST), which is available to our students five days per week. Sunday OST times vary, but the times on Monday through Thursday are typically from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm Central Time. Students can click on the OST link on our online calendar, which will take them to Zoom OST. During OST, Amanda and I literally wait on Zoom with our headsets on for students to ask questions regarding any aspect of their LSAT or application process needs. I mention this here because some parents call me to enquire about getting individual help for their students by paying extra for individual tutoring. Literally, 100% of the time that a parent has called in this regard, the student has NOT attended OST at all. Rather than offering to pay me more money for a special session with your son or daughter, please encourage him or her to attend OST for that extra help. You already paid for it.

Dabblers. Some students dabble in LSAT study rather than to fully engage.

Recently, I reviewed activity logs from my web platform, which tracks every click made by my students. I pulled an activity log for a student who is keeping up nicely with a little over a month remaining. That student had 2,049 clicks in 2.5 months. Another student, one I would call a dabbler, had 164 clicks. While clicks are not a perfect measure of activity, the stark difference between these numbers is very telling. The dabbler also had gaps of 7 days, 12 days, and 13 days, showing no activity for those periods. Dabbling does not yield LSAT success.

Undergraduates get away with a lot of dabbling, more so than ever before. Multiple recent studies show that undergraduates spend significantly less time studying each week than ever before. Other data show that the vast majority of undergraduate professors give out A grades to any student who seems to try — yielding grade inflation that would blow your mind if you attended college at any point prior to 2010. These dynamics reward college students for lesser work and even induce them into taking that level of effort into LSAT study. For this reason, I do not blame a student for initially approaching the LSAT with less effort than necessary. Dabblers are simply using study strategies that most undergrads have used to earn great undergraduate GPAs in recent years. So I refuse to call them slackers and you should not use that term either if you discover that your adult child is not fully committed to LSAT study.

When a student dabbles in LSAT study they tend to realize that their approach is not working. Optimally, the student realizes this early enough in the study process to catch up. If they do not realize this early enough, then they will need to push their test date back.

My Role. 

• During the initial consultation and during my weekly Huddles, I talk about the details of the proper level of commitment to reinforce the idea that one should not treat this program like they treat undergraduate classes.
• Almost daily, students come to me regarding their effort level or just better ways to study (I am available for this conversation via OST, email, text, or phone). I have very productive conversations that tend to keep or get students on track. I actually love this dynamic because a student needs to want this guidance to accept my guidance.
• I do NOT attempt to pressure students into doing the work that I have already told them to do. Years ago, I would text and email dabblers to prod them. This did not work and created resentment at times. Essentially, this created extra work for me that did not really help students. Law professors will not do this either.
• I do NOT call out students for no-showing to scheduled events or for their failure to utilize resources. Law professors will not do this either.

Student Role.

• Students have the responsibility, as adults, to put themselves in front of us by attending scheduled events regularly.
• Students have the responsibility to approach us with their questions and concerns.
• Student have the responsibility to take a very active role in their own success.