Using blind review maximizes the usefulness of taking PrepTests by helping you to zero in on what you need to study further and make improvements on before taking your next PrepTest in order to increase understanding and ultimately increase your score. Conducting a thorough blind review requires a lot of time but skipping this step would be a big mistake as it would render the PrepTests you take much less effective study tools. Thus, you should complete a blind review for every LSAT PrepTest you take – you will see the time you invest in your review pay off in terms of score increases.
Step 1: Take an Official LSAT Prep Test
Take an Official LSAT Prep Test, simulating the test day experience as much as possible. That means the Prep Test should be a timed, four-section test that includes an unscored experimental section. For more on this see How to Take an Official LSAT PrepTest.
As you take the test under timed conditions be sure to flag any questions where you are unsure of the answer. This includes questions that you skip and guess on.
Step 2: Complete Questions Without Timed Pressure
Review the questions that you flagged without timed pressure. Be sure to keep track of your original answer choice selections under timed pressure and the updated answer choice you select without the timed pressure.
Step 3: Check Your Answers
Check your answers against the correct answers. You should have two sets of answers to check against – the set of answers you selected under timed pressure and the set of answers you selected after reviewing the questions that you flagged. Your first score tells you how you would do on test day. Your second score, or blind review score, tells you how much you understand.
Step 4: Review and Categorize Incorrect Answers
While a raw and scaled score are great indicators of your current understanding of the test, in order to improve you need to take a deeper look into your test results. In order to identify the question types you need more work on you need to review and categorize your responses. There are six different possible categories for each question.
1) Questions you did not flag and got correct.
-These are questions are your strengths. You know how to confidently identify the correct answer. Additional work on these question types would only be beneficial if you have extra time after practicing category 2 question types.
2) Questions you flagged, stuck with your answer choice after reviewing, and got correct.
-You would have gotten these questions right on test day but perhaps you are spending more time than you need in being confident in your answer. Additional work on these question types would be beneficial if you have extra time after practicing category 3 question types.
3) Questions you flagged, changed your answer choice after reviewing, and got correct.
-You would have gotten these questions incorrect on test day but without timed pressure you can get them correct. This shows that you understand the question but now well enough to get it correct under timed pressure. Additional work on these question types would be beneficial if you have extra time after practicing categories 4-6 question types.
4) Questions you flagged, changed your answer after reviewing, and got incorrect.
-You correctly identified that you had difficulty with these questions but even without timed pressure you are not able to select the correct answer. You need more work on these question types.
5) Questions you flagged, stuck with your answer choice after reviewing, and got incorrect.
-You correctly identified that you had difficulty with these questions but even without timed pressure you are not able to select the correct answer. You need more work on these question types.
6) Questions you did not flag and got incorrect.
-You did not know that you did not know these questions. You need more work on these question types.
Step 5: Drill Questions/Get Instruction
The blind review process is great for helping you to identify which question types you need more work on. Once you have identified these question types it is time for you to improve your understanding. Focus on questions that fall into categories 4-6 first. If you have additional time you can practice question types from categories 3, 2, and 1 in that order. If you are enrolled in a course you should reach out to your instructor for guidance on how to improve. You can increase your understanding of the question types you need to work on by drilling them and seeking help from an expert instructor.
Step 6: Repeat
Congratulations! You have practiced taking a timed Prep Test, identified questions that you need more work on with blind review, and improved your understanding of the strategy for those questions by drilling them and/or reaching out to an expert instructor. The next step is to repeat this process again to get more timed practice, test out your ability on the questions you have been studying, and identify areas that still need more work. This studying method is time intensive but it leads to higher scores. Remember, a higher score can mean admission to higher ranked schools and more scholarship money (less debt). The time you spend studying for the LSAT will pay off. You got this! Happy studying!