The LSAT is the test I know best. I first took it in December 1992 (I scored a 177, which was 99.9th percentile at the time1), and I’ve been teaching it since 2001, first in classrooms for The Princeton Review and later Kaplan, and since then on my own, one student at a time. In between, I did the thing the test is for: I attended UC Berkeley Law Schoool and then clerked for Judge Jerome Farris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. I mention this because you might reasonably want to know that your tutor has some idea where the road you’re on actually goes.
What I’ve learned in twenty-six years of doing this is not only about the test itself (though I know it about as well as anyone) but also about the people who take it: the specific ways that smart, hard-working people go wrong on it, and what actually fixes their problems as opposed to merely feeling like studying. The LSAT tests skills, not knowledge, and skills can be trained. Nobody is born knowing how to take apart an argument in a minute and a half; people learn it, and my job is to help you learn it faster and more thoroughly than you would on your own.
The test as it is now
The LSAT has changed more in the last few years than it had in the previous thirty, and a great deal of the advice floating around the internet and some of the books still for sale describes a test that no longer exists. So, briefly, where things stand as of this writing:
The multiple-choice test is four sections of 35 minutes each: two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comprehension section that count, plus one experimental section that doesn’t (it looks like one of the others, and you aren’t told which one it is). Scores still run from 120 to 180.
Logic games are gone. LSAC dropped the Analytical Reasoning section in August 2024, and nothing replaced it;2 the scored test is just Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension now. If your study guide has a chapter on games, it’s out of date in that sense and probably in other ways too.
Writing is separate. The LSAT Argumentative Writing task is done online on your own time, any time starting eight days before your test date. It isn’t scored, but every school you apply to sees it. Still, you shouldn’t worry; there is plenty of evidence that the writing has little or maybe even zero effect on your law school prospects.
And as of August 2026 the test is back in person for nearly everyone. For a few years you could choose to take it remotely; now nearly everybody takes it at a Prometric testing center, with remote testing available only as an accommodation for a documented medical hardship. This matters more than it might seem. A good deal of what goes wrong on test day has to do with the conditions, and we’ll practice under the ones you’ll actually face.
How I work
I don’t work from a script. Every big test prep company teaches from a written curriculum, which is fine as far as it goes, but a curriculum can’t know what you in particular are doing wrong, and figuring out what that is, is the whole point of hiring a tutor. So we start with a free consultation, and from there the work is driven by you: after each practice section or test we go through what you missed and (more important) why you missed it, and we keep at it until the misses stop showing up. Along the way you’ll learn techniques you won’t find in the mainstream books, some of which I developed myself over the years by watching what actually moves scores and what doesn’t.
One warning, so you know what you’re getting into: I’m direct. If your reasoning is sloppy I say so, and I’ll expect you to be able to hear it. My students tell me, pretty consistently, that this is what they need.
Results
My LSAT students have often seen dramatic score improvements, as much as 35 from first practice test to actual LSAT. I’ve helped people to two different 178s (be my first 180!), several 177s, numerous results in the mid 170s, and so on. Scores like those are worth real admission success, and real money: I’ve helped people get into every one of the top 14 law schools (the famout “T14”) and many of my students have reported parlaying their scores into scholarships as high as $75,000. And because the legal profession is so attuned to what school one graduated from, a couple of points on the LSAT can be worth five or six figures over the course of a career, making tutoring one of the highest-return investments you’ll ever find.
And the basis of it all: I know my stuff, probably as well as anyone else. “He’s a guru,” one student wrote. “Best decision I ever made.” Another called me “the master of this test.” Every review I’ve received, on Google and Yelp alike, has been five stars (so far; fingers crossed), and you can read all of them on my reviews page.
Getting started
These days most of my tutoring is over Zoom, which my students routinely tell me works as well as or better than meeting in person. (There’s more about that on the how it works page, and my rates are on the rates page.) The first step is a consultation, which is free whether it takes twenty minutes or two hours, during which we talk about where you are, where you need to be, and whether I’m the right person to help you get there. Text (usually best) or email me through the contact page.
- 99.9th according to LSAC at the time, anyway. High scores have become more common in the decades since, and today a 177 ranks “only” about 99.5th. I’m not giving mine back.
- Dropped, not replaced, whatever the prep-company blogs say. The classic test always had two scored Logical Reasoning sections; the games simply went away. I spent two decades teaching people first to tolerate the games, then to master them, and in a few cases actually to like them, so forgive me if I don’t celebrate.