I often see people panic about Blind Review (BR) on the LSAT. People will often say, "OMG my PT score is a 150 but my BR score is a 160! What gives??" or "I have been Blind Reviewing for MONTHS and I haven't been seeing progress! What is going on??"
Are you one of these people? Don't worry! It will be okay. Just like many other things when it comes to the LSAT, some things don't work for everyone. Let's talk about what Blind Review is, why it might not be worth your time, and what you can do about it.
What is Blind Review?
Blind Review is an LSAT study method many people use to review the questions they were uncertain about on Practice Tests. In general terms, this method involves reattempting LSAT questions you are uncertain about, and finding concrete reasons on your own of why each answer is right or wrong before checking explanations.
On the surface this seems to be a good method of prepping for the LSAT and many people have benefited from it. To be clear, Blind Review is MUCH better than not reviewing practice tests at all. However, it is NOT for everyone. Let's discuss why...
Why Hasn't Blind Review Been Working For Your LSAT Prep?
Reason #1: Blind Review does not actually tell you much, yet people interpret far too much from it.
Let's say you watched a movie, and then you were quizzed on it. Then, let's say you watched the same movie again and got the same quiz again. Do you think you would do better the first time or the second time? Clearly, you would do better the second time. Whether you realized it or not, you would have remembered certain details from the movie or questions on the first attempt that would have helped you on the second attempt.
The same thing applies to the LSAT. If you attempt the same question twice, you will almost certainly do better the second time around because now you know in advance some of the answer choices and you will pick up on certain additional details from the passage.
Yet when people see the disparity in their scores, they will think they "should have" gotten that score or that they already have the skills, and they get confused as to why their score stagnates despite a higher Blind Review score on LSAT practice tests. Also, when they get a question incorrect the first time but correct the second time, they just chalk it up to a careless mistake.
Remember--in your LSAT prep, a mistake is a mistake, whether it was careless or not. If you make a careless mistake on a practice test that is not high stakes, what makes you think you aren't at risk of making the very same mistakes in a real testing environment, when you have higher anxiety and more pressure?
This doesn't mean you need to beat yourself up about your mistakes on the LSAT. It just means you need to take them seriously, and even if you got it right the second time, you still need to review and identify the flaws in your process.
Reason #2: It May Just Mean That You are Rushing
A supposed advantage of Blind Review is that it can let you know how you would have done on the question if you took your time and engaged with the question.
But as discussed in my previous post Why Your Logical Reasoning Score is Not Improving, that is what you should already be doing on your LSAT practice tests to begin with. I can't stress this enough. If you are rushing through questions and then doing thorough Blind Review, it won't help you much because you will end up skimming again on the administered LSAT, which inevitably leads to careless errors.
This is part of the purpose of taking Practice Tests. It's not just to see what your LSAT score would be. It's to train yourself to be able to focus on the questions in front of you in the face of time pressure. Seeing that you would have gotten the question right if you had focused on it doesn't tell you much.
Reason #3: It Could Reinforce Bad Habits on the LSAT
If you think about it, Blind Review is testing yourself twice without any feedback. You will still need to review the question to make sure your reasoning is correct after these first two attempts, meaning you are unnecessarily giving yourself more work.
To make things worse, you could be using a flawed approach each attempt, meaning you could be reinforcing those bad habits. If you read my other blog posts, you would know that a HUGE component of improvement on the LSAT is replacing bad habits with good ones. How is this done? Through REPETITION. If you were trying to change how you walk, it would take many, many steps to make that change because your previous way of walking is so ingrained. If you repeat the same question and make the same error on the LSAT, you are simply perpetuating those bad habits by continuing to "walk" incorrectly.
Reason #4: It Can Lead to Limited Beliefs on Your LSAT Potential
I have heard some people claim that their Blind Review score is their true potential LSAT score, and that it shows how much they could improve. Not only is this not true, I believe it is not useful information.
First off, many people start the LSAT without any experience to logic games or logic in general. They have so many concepts to learn, and there is no reason why the Blind Review score would not improve over time if they study correctly. In fact, I have seen many of my students end up scoring significantly higher than their Blind Review scores.
Even if this were true, how does this help with LSAT prep? It will only cause you to have limiting beliefs about yourself, and seeing the BR score as a cap to your improvement could be very demoralizing and become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
So...What Should I Do Instead?
If BR does not work for you on the LSAT, make sure to utilize a method that provides immediate feedback. Do NOT wait a day or two before reviewing LSAT questions. Try to do them right there on the spot. And repeat those questions. After not seeing significant progress using BR myself, I came up with a new study method, which I call the "Prompt Review Method" (so creative...I know!). This is a method I used to help myself and many of my students improve 15+ points. In a nutshell, here is how you should review:
Do a single question and IMMEDIATELY check the explanations
REDO the question (from start to finish) utilizing the process provided in the explanations. Continue to repeat until it becomes second nature to you.
Move onto the next question and repeat steps 1-2
Mark down the questions that especially gave you trouble and do them again a day or two later
There will be a more in-depth overview on how to review LSAT Logical Reasoning questions, so stay tuned!
Stay Motivated!
Sincerely,
Impetus LSAT
I hope you found this post helpful. Subscribe for more blog posts Check out more study resources and/or LSAT private tutoring Check out my Instagram page Check out my YouTube channel