Go Deeper on Each Mistake

Updated September 30, 2024

Studying for the LSAT isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be.

Whether today’s your first day studying (welcome!) or you’ve been grinding it out for a year or more, the formula is simple:

1. If you’re not sure what to do, start with any LSAT question.
2. Don’t be afraid of timing yourself. Mix in timed sections regularly, but don’t race the clock.
3. Thoroughly review each mistake, and ask for help when you need it (that’s today’s lesson).

If you just do these three things, you’re set. I’m not kidding.

Wait, do you want the LSAT to be hard?

In that case, I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t study with us here at LSAT Demon. We believe that the LSAT is easy and that our most important job is to show you how easy it can be. (Don’t take my word for it. Hundreds of happy Demon students say the same thing.)

That doesn’t mean you don’t have to work hard. Of course, you do. But it’s critical to work smart while you work hard—otherwise, you’re just spinning your wheels. So today I want to talk about that critical last step: how to get the most out of your study time by properly learning from your mistakes.

All too often, students do question after question without learning anything as they go. They do a question, miss it, look at the answer key, say something like, “Oh, sure, D, yeah, that’s a better fit,” and move on to the next question. Let me tell you something:

On the LSAT, ain’t no such thing as “better fit.”

The right answers on the LSAT are 100% right, and the wrong answers are 100% wrong. If you check the answer key, look at it for five seconds, shrug your shoulders, and move on, you haven’t learned anything. You could have just skipped the question. The LSAT repeats itself. I guarantee that you’ll get burned on an identical issue next time it pops up.

Sometimes students do test after test like this, for month after month, making zero progress. It would be funny if it weren’t such a tragic waste of time.

“Better fit” is just a lazy excuse for not understanding. If you study with us, you’re going to make real progress, every single time you study, because we’re going to focus on actual understanding. So what’s that look like?

Whether you’re doing a single question using the LSAT Demon’s Smart Drilling feature, a timed practice section, or a full timed test, we’re going to dive deep into each of your mistakes:

Test J is now Test 123

1. Why is the right answer right?
   • How, exactly, does it answer the question?
2. Could we have predicted this answer?
   Frequently, we can nail the correct answer on LSAT questions before even reading the answer choices.
   • Did we take the time to make a prediction?
   • If not, why not?
   • If we did, what was our prediction?
   • Was it close, or totally off the mark?
3. Why didn’t we pick the correct answer?
   • Was there something in it that scared us off?
   • How will we avoid this mistake next time?
4. Why is our wrong answer wrong?
   • How, exactly, can it be conclusively eliminated?
5. Why did we pick this incorrect answer?
   • Was there something in it that attracted us?
   • Did we even read the whole thing?
   • Did we even understand what the question was asking, and what this answer was saying?
     • It should be impossible to pick a wrong answer if we understood it and understood the question—wrong answers are objectively wrong.
   • How do we avoid this mistake next time?

See what I mean about going deeper?

It takes two mistakes to miss one question.

Not only did we miss the right answer choice, but we also picked a wrong one. The reason experts don’t miss LSAT questions is they refuse to make both of these mistakes at the same time.

Now let’s talk about getting help. If you’re struggling to understand exactly why the right answer is right, or why the wrong answer is wrong, LSAT Demon has your back.

• Every official LSAT question is accompanied by thorough written and video explanations. When you miss a question, take all the time you need to review these explanations before moving on to the next one. Many have more than one explanation, so you can approach the question from different angles.
• Every question in the Demon is accompanied by an Ask button. If you can’t reach perfect clarity with the existing explanations, just jot down a question—our team of tutors will respond within 24 hours with help.
• For Premium and Live subscribers, we offer live classes on Zoom throughout the week. Our students are encouraged to ask any question at any time—showing up and asking questions is your primary responsibility in class. If you’re brave, unmute yourself and shout it out. Or if you prefer, you can ask questions in the chat. Either way, we’ll sort you out. We’ve created a vibrant community of LSAT teachers and learners, all eager to help one another reach a full understanding of each question.
• If you need to go deeper on a given topic, such as “Sufficient vs. Necessary” or “Parallel Reasoning questions,” we have comprehensive lessons on every conceivable topic. Our teachers will guide you to these lessons based on your questions.

If you’ve been struggling for weeks or months without making progress, the odds are good that you’ve been working inefficiently. You’ve been doing test after test, pulling that 120-180 slot machine lever over and over, hoping for a higher number, fruitlessly wasting your time. Stop it.

To move forward with a new, effective approach to the LSAT, just go do one question right now. If you only have time to do one question, that’s fine! Go deep on that one question, and you’ll have made more progress than if you’d done an entire test and skimped on the review.