Q: How important is my LSAT score?
A: For good or ill, your LSAT score is the most important part of your application. The hierarchy of importance goes: 1) LSAT, 2) GPA, 3) personal statement.
Most law schools tend to weigh LSAT in a 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 ratio versus GPA. Which is ironic, given that most students work for 4 years on their GPA but only a few months on the LSAT.
Consider these numbers from the University of Texas School of Law: 4746 people applied to UT Law last year, of whom 1302 were admitted. Of those 1302, only 37 had LSAT scores lower than a 160, but 104 had GPAs lower than a 3.5. You have much a much better chance of getting into a great law school with a low GPA than with a low LSAT score.
(And if you're curious: there were 2708 people who applied to UT Law with GPAs above 3.5 and LSAT scores above 160. Of those 2708 applicants, 1172 were admitted. So it's not *just* about LSAT score. But LSAT is still the most important consideration.)
Q: Why are your prices so low compared to other test prep companies?
A: At other major test prep companies, you're not just paying for private instruction. You're paying for executive salaries, advertising, and corporate offices. The chairman of Kaplan Inc. made $4.9 million last year. Great for him. But how does that help you?
At ATX LSAT, every dollar goes towards your education, your self-improvement, and increases your chance of getting admitted to the best law schools in the country. We keep our overhead to a bare minimum, and most of our clients come to us via word-of-mouth.
Compare our pricing with that of other test prep companies for a 15 hour tutoring package:
ATX LSAT: $555
Kaplan Test Prep: $2,599
Princeton Review: $2,325 (basic) - $4,650 (premiere)
Powerscore: $1,825
Invest in yourself, not executive compensation. Sign up for your free 60 minute consultation today.
Q: What are the difference between taking an LSAT classroom course versus private one-on-one instruction?
A: Classroom courses are fine. But at the end of the day, group instruction is geared towards the lowest common denominator and allows for very little deviation from a prescribed curriculum and a set schedule. You can only move as fast as the slowest student. And one student with too many irrelevant comments can derail the classroom experience for everyone.
In private instruction, you don't suffer those constraints. If you're doing fine on reading comprehension, and would prefer to devote your time towards the analytical reasoning (logic games) portion of the test, you have that option. If you want to slow down or speed up depending upon the material, you get to make that call. If you can only meet on Wednesday afternoons or Saturday mornings, we can work around your schedule.
Financially, we want to make individual instruction costs competitive with classroom instruction. The largest LSAT prep company offers 22.75 hours of impersonal classroom lessons for $1,399. For $875 with ATX LSAT, you can get 25 hours of personalized one-on-one instruction (see pricing for details).
Q: Do you also offer admissions consulting?
A: Absolutely! Our single goal at ATX LSAT is to get you into law school. Your LSAT score is the most important part of your application, by far. But both GPA and the personal statement weigh heavily in any admissions decision. That's why we offer a holistic approach in making sure you have the best, most competitive application packet possible. That can include resume review, personal statement editing, and help in soliciting letters of recommendation.
Q: How far in advance should I begin my prep?
A: Ideally, 12 to 16 weeks before the test, with a maximum prep time of about 24 weeks. Prep too short, and you won't be able to learn the skills necessary to this very difficult test. Prep too long, and you'll start to see diminishing returns and increasing frustration.
Q: Where will our tutoring sessions take place?
A: Typically one-on-one sessions take place in local coffee shops, libraries, or university buildings. Online sessions take place via Skype or FaceTime. Whatever is the most convenient and comfortable for you. Online sessions can be done from anywhere in the world. You can add us on Skype at richardjahillary.
Q: What materials are provided with my tutoring package?
A: We provide your lesson book and materials as PDFs, to keep costs to a minimum. All in all, you'll received about 5000 pages of material. Obviously, you're not required to read 5000 pages to get a great score. But we want you to have every available resource.
Q: What's your approach to teaching?
A: The LSAT is the only graduate school admission that doesn't require you knowing *anything*. All the other tests--be it the GRE or the MCAT or GMAT--require a certain mastery of vocabulary and math. Not the LSAT. The LSAT only tests the way you *think* about the material. Those who do best on the LSAT tend to come from a mathematical or scientific background. Most people applying to law school, however, tend to come from a liberal arts, government, or communications background. That means a good deal of the formal logic that underpins the test will be unfamiliar.
We want our students to understand why the questions on the test are presented in this rigid, formulaic manner. Because once one understands why these questions are presented in this way and the underlying legal mindset they are supposed to test, it's easier to master the questions themselves. We want to place our students in the mindset of the test makers, because once you can understand their motivations, the entire test cracks wide open.
Working one-on-one allows us to hold you to a standard that might even exceed your own expectations. You're going to law school: one of the most grueling, exhilarating, brutal 3 years of your life. We expect you to work hard. We expect to occasionally endure frustration and setbacks. And we expect that sometimes, we'll have to tell you that you're not working hard enough.
Remember: you can take LSAT after LSAT after LSAT, but that doesn't teach you anything. All of the learning on the LSAT comes in the review of questions, not the taking of tests. A lot of individual instruction will be a guided review of material that's been completed outside of our meetings. And we want you to know the best way to address any questions under the time and space constraints of the test.
Q: How is the LSAT scored?
A: The LSAT usually has 101 scored questions and is scored on a scale of 120 to 180. After you take the test, you receive back three distinct scores: your raw score (how many questions you got right), your scaled score (a number from 120 to 180), and your percentile score (what percentage of candidates scored below your score).
A 50th percentile score would mean you did better than 50 percent of test takers, having gotten 55 out of 101 questions corrected, for a scaled score of 151 out of 180.
A 99th percentile score is the highest possible percentile score (you can't do better than 100% of test takers, because that would mean you'd done better than yourself). That would mean you got at least 90 out of 101 questions correct for a minimum scaled score of about 173.
Q: When is the LSAT administered?
The LSAT is administered 6 times a year: January, March, June, July, September, and November.
You are permitted to take the test as many times as you want (but it’s not advised that you do!). Most law schools consider only your highest score, but they do see your lower scores. You can register for the test at LSAC.ORG. See links for more details.
Q: How much will my score improve?
A: Unfortunately, that's the one question we can't answer. And we know it's the question you'd most like answered. The LSAT is scored on a scale of 120 to 180, and we've had many students start in the 120s and end up in the 170s. A more normal increase, however, would be about 10 to 15 points.
Also your improvement will depend a lot upon where you begin. If you started with a score of 130, you'd be in the 2nd percentile. If you got 10 more questions correct, you'd have a score of 139 and be in the 11th percentile. However, if you started at a 151, you'd be in the 50th percentile, and if you got 10 more questions correct, you'd have a score of 157 and be in the 71st percentile.
As you can see, in one case 10 more correct answers moves you up 9 percentile points, and in the other it moves you up more than 20 percentile points. Depending upon where you start on the curve, the same number of additional correct answers can have a different effect on your score.
Q: Who will I be working with?
A: All of our students work with Richard. He was Kaplan Test Prep's #1 rated veteran LSAT instructor in the United States from 2008 to 2015, before starting his own company. He has taught nearly 4000 students, all of whom saw an improvement in their scores. Check out his bio for more info.