LSAT Prep

Understanding the Deeply Flawed Myth Of Using AI for LSAT Prep

Posted on by Mark

AI is all the rage these days. In some cases, the hype is justified. In other cases, the hype is overrated. And when it comes to LSAT Prep, the hype is downright counterproductive. In a nutshell, the idea behind AI for LSAT Prep is that you can be “spoon-fed” LSAT questions that are at your level, allowing you to progress with questions suited to how far you have progressed. Sound good? Read on for why this hype over LSAT Prep is not only unhelpful, it is downright counterproductive.

The Relationship of Tom Sawyer to LSAT Prep and LSAT Question “Drilling”

For those who read Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer as a kid, one memorable scene stands out: Tom Sawyer whitewashing a fence. The other kids laughed at him because poor Tom had to perform the tedious and laborious fence-painting task. But, by pretending that painting the fence was a fun and joyous activity, Tom ultimately convinced the other kids to pay him money to do the task for him.

One of Mark Twain’s gifts as an author was his ability to create scenes that identify timeless acts of human nature. The fence-painting scene in Tom Sawyer is an example of that: i.e., people getting you to pay money for something that benefits them but is not in your best interest.

All of that brings me to the use of AI tools for LSAT “drilling.”  Various LSAT Prep services will tout AI tools that “scramble” LSAT questions out of their natural order for you to practice drilling by question type, alleged level of difficulty, etc. To a limited extent, “drilling” Logical Reasoning (LR) questions by question type may be a good way to start your LSAT Prep for some students. Indeed, I use that as a preliminary tool in my ScoreItUp courses. However, using AI tools for LSAT “drilling” is like LSAT Prep on training wheels: it may be somewhat helpful at the beginning, but detrimental if used long-term.

Three Basic Premises of LSAT Prep

To understand the significant downside of using AI tools for LR question “drilling,” let’s begin with three straightforward premises:

  1. When preparing for an exam – especially the LSAT – it makes sense to do a lot of practice under the same test-taking conditions as the real exam.
  2. After learning the “logic and legal reasoning” skills underlying the LSAT, you should aim to take a lot of practice LSATs  – using real, previously administered LSAT PrepTests – in the same test-taking conditions (first untimed, then timed) as the official LSAT. This is especially true if you are aiming for a high LSAT score (160-180).
  3. There are a limited number of real LSAT PrepTests to study from and to practice with.

The Necessity of Taking Lots of Timed LSAT PrepTests

One thing has become very clear to me after teaching LSAT Prep for over two decades: you should try to take a lot of timed practice LSATs before taking the real thing.Two key problems occur when you use AI tools for LSAT Prep practice:

  1. The LSAT PrepTests that the AI tools used to create these “drilling” sets can’t be used effectively to take simulated, full-length practice tests because you already have seen and worked through many of the questions. That is a much bigger downside than you might think. For example, if you wanted to take LSAT PrepTest 135 as a timed practice test but had already seen 20 percent of the questions in the past from “drilling” LR questions, PrepTest 135 would be much less useful (and not a good indicator of your progress).
  2. Using AI tools for LR “drilling” (i.e., “question scrambling”) is an artificial form of spoon-feeding you LSAT Prep: unlike when you take the real LSAT, LR “drilling” allows you to know what type of question to expect in advance, thereby making the LSAT Prep process artificially easy.

A More Effective Approach To LSAT Prep

A more effective approach for LSAT Prep students aiming for a high (160-180) LSAT score involves using a limited number of older LSAT PrepTests to learn the fundamentals and for LR question “drilling,” and saving the rest of the PrepTests to practice in simulated test-taking conditions. Once you have an understanding of the question types and the basics, you can (and should) practice extensively with LSAT PrepTests (untimed, then timed) using LSAT PrepTests in their original (unscrambled) order.

ScoreItUp courses are designed to present LSAT Prep to you in precisely that manner. After all, the first rule of the Hippocratic oath should also apply to LSAT Prep services: Do No Harm!