Revaluating solved papers, multiple mock tests and more: LSAT India 2023 toppers share how they aced the exam

The results of the latest edition of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) were recently released, giving clarity on admissions to some of the top private law schools across the country.

Bar & Bench spoke to the toppers of the LSAT India June 2023 edition to understand the strategies they adopted while preparing for the exam.

Devyansh Atharv, a resident of Kolkata, emerged as the topper of the LSAT India 2023 exam conducted in June.

Having attempted the exam in January and in June, Devyansh shares what his journey looked like.

"It wasn't until September 2022 that I made up my mind about pursuing law. Purely for LSAT, I did not start till about 10 days before the January session of the LSAT exam this year. That is when I started taking tests specifically attuned to LSAT. I feel like the skill set that LSAT requires is not something that you can just develop in 10 days. It’s more about the habits you’ve developed over the years, reading habits and vocabulary in general." 

Speaking specifically on his preparation, Devyansh said,

"For the June session, since I had much more time on hand after my Board exams, I took about 10 practice tests and that seemed to be enough. Every practice test I took, regardless of whatever my score was, the most important part was going back to the questions I got wrong and delving on my thinking process when I attempted that question. What I should’ve changed; what I should’ve tweaked to get it right next time. That’s what makes the most difference, recognizing your mistakes and acting on them. You don’t have to take several tests mindlessly if you just take a few with proper dedication."

Sharing his approach to the exam, he said,

"What I kept telling myself is that regardless of how hard it feels, it’s just 3-4 months of hard work and after that, the dividends will pay. You can’t just rely on motivation to get you through all the hard work. You have to be disciplined, balancing school work, balancing coaching and everything.

More than my preparation, I think what helped me is my familiarity with English. I’ve been reading books and watching movies all my life."

Reminiscing his determination to score a higher percentile in the June edition as compared to his performance in the January edition, he said,

"After the first mock test I gave while preparing for the January session, I was surprised by the score I secured. After a few mocks, I started to realize that I can do really well in the test. On the day of the exam, I woke up early and read a newspaper so that I could get in the mood to sit for a two and a half hours exam. 

I did take admission In Jindal Global Law School and also got scholarships from the January session. The only real aim I had was if I scored above 99%, my scholarship would be higher. Getting Rank 1 of course is a bit of an overkill. Since I didn’t have much to worry about and nothing to lose, it went easier."

Attributing his success to his mentor and family, Devyansh said,

"My mentor Rajneesh Singh helped me a lot throughout the preparatory period. He would call me whenever I needed help. He is the biggest orchestrator of all this, and of course my family and everyone else."

Speaking about her preparatory roadmap, Gauri shared,

“I started about a month ago before the June edition of LSAT 2023. I started doing the Super Prep and all those materials they provide on the LSAT Council. I did about 9-10 mock tests, analyzed them properly, did a lot of questions from those LSAT USA books, and did a lot of analytical and logical reasoning, basically practiced a lot for a month. I bought one or two books additionally, but most of them were online resources. All of this helped.”

Attributing the assistance provided by her mentor Rajneesh Singh, Gauri said,

“Rajneesh Sir was helping me with CLAT in July 2022. He used to give particular tests and papers every night to do and rank us on the basis of that. He helped a lot with my consistency and whenever I had any doubts or anything, he was very vigilant about it. He would text you in two minutes with whatever doubts you had, even during the last 10 days when I was preparing for my LSAT.”

Speaking of the difference between CLAT and LSAT, Gauri said,

"LSAT has analytical reasoning. CLAT has more quantitative math. Analytical reasoning is more paragraph-based. I solved more than 100 of those paragraph-based questions. I think LSAT, compared to CLAT, had a higher level in terms of reading comprehension and logical reasoning.”

As advice to future aspirants, Gauri shared,

"Consistency is key. Everybody says that, but it’s genuinely true. I only prepared for a month, but if you do it properly even for a month, it’s more than enough.”

Hailing from Kolkata, Reyaa attempted the exam in January as well as in June. Sharing her journey through both the attempts, she said,

“For the January session, I barely had any time because I had CLAT on 18th December. I had been studying for 6 months for CLAT, so I had to take at least a short break. I studied for 15-20 days before the January session. Honestly, the same goes for the June attempt too. Since I had already prepared for the first attempt and secured a percentile of 98.32%, I felt there was no way I would score higher than that.

But it was only after speaking with my CLAT mentor that I realized even in the last 15 days I can make a difference. I think it’s more about quality than quantity. It doesn’t matter if you’re studying for 8 hours a day or 10 hours a day. It’s more about the focus, the concentration and the precision you study with. What Rajneesh Sir taught me is that more important than solving numerous questions is reviewing and analysing them…That’s how I went about it.”

On the methodology adopted while going about LSAT prep, Reyaa shared,

“I didn’t solve any complete LSAT mocks before any of the LSAT sessions, but I solved a lot of sectional tests. I used the material which was provided to me by Rajneesh sir. We have four sections in LSAT. I had practiced numerous sectional tests for them. Sometimes I would sit, put a timer and solve two or three sections at a go. The material was mostly LSAT India questions from previous years.

Before the June session, I also solved LSAT USA question papers which contributed a lot to developing my comprehending abilities. Moreover, Rajneesh sir always recommended that we solve the GMAT reading comprehension and critical reasoning. So I practiced that a lot and that helped develop my focus and concentration and the tolerance to read any kind of content.”  

As advice to future aspirants, Reyaa said,

"In my opinion, it's always quality over quantity. Your quality of prep will lead to the development of your skills. Whenever you are studying for the LSAT, always remember to analyze the questions and review them well.”

Briefly sharing about his journey preparing for LSAT, Arunav said,

“I was preparing for other law entrance exams since 2 years. Though the LSAT questions are a bit different, they are still quite similar to the verbal reasoning sections present in most exams, and it has an element of analytical reasoning which is reduced in other exams. 

For LSAT, I started about a month ago and I was mostly solving the sample papers that are provided and the RCNCT sections of the GMAT paper. For analytical reasoning, I used the MK Pandey book. It was not a huge amount of preparation. I think it's a very intuitive exam. If you focus on just improving your logical reasoning skills, it’s an exam that you can definitely crack. I teach logical reasoning to CLAT aspirants as a part-time job. So my logical reasoning skills have been sharpened by my teaching experience. I definitely think that if you teach a subject, you get better at it, rather than just studying it."

Speaking about the nuances of his LSAT prep, he said,

“There’s this one thing that people fail to do, given that even CLAT has now become mostly a reasoning-centered question paper. They have reduced the number of questions to 120 and the three sections that remain highlighted are English, Legal and Logic. I did not treat these sections differently. For me, they are the same section, they are all about reasoning with a different flavour.

It’s important to sharpen your core reasoning skills. It’s very common to see that people who have prepared for almost 2 years for this exam do not have a clear grasp of what an assumption is in an argument, what is a conclusion in an argument, or what an argument is. Argumentation theory is not very well understood. When I was preparing material for my classes, I delved into argumentation theory as a whole  and tried to understand what an argument is…Having clarity on these concepts is what helped me in the reasoning section.”

As advice for future LSAT aspirants, Arunav said,

"One piece of advice that I would definitely give is to take genuine interest in any subject matter. I think that is what makes a difference between a good aspirant and a great aspirant.”  

The author would like to thank Soumanasya Sengupta, penultimate year law student, for his assistance in compiling this article.