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LSAT Diaries: How I Surpassed My Goal Score While Working Full-Time

When it comes to the law school journey, everyone has their own story, but there’s one big challenge most of us have to tackle: the LSAT. In this new series, our Blueprint LSAT alumni share how they crushed the LSAT and made their law school dreams come true!

Have you had feelings of imposter syndrome creep up while prepping for the LSAT or applying to law school? Find out how former Blueprint LSAT student Bemnet overcame those intrusive thoughts while balancing LSAT prep with a full-time job to achieve a 98th percentile LSAT score! 

Going Down the Law Path

I first thought about pursuing a legal career when I was about 15 years old and interning for a full-service law firm in the town that I grew up in. I really enjoyed challenging my critical thinking skills by learning more about the very different cases the attorneys across various specialties worked on. After years of working for more law firms and exploring other fields, I felt confident in my decision to pursue law at 22 years old.

I have seen first-hand how a lot of communities have been disenfranchised by the law. I am excited to be an attorney that provides a support system for my clients through a justice-oriented lens. I hope to work on transformative cases that improve people’s ability to utilize the law to access the resources they need.

Tackling the LSAT As a Non-Traditional Student

I self-studied for several months through various textbooks and online resources. I took an exam after my first wave of LSAT studying and felt like I could do better if I had more targeted practice in my weak areas.

At the time that I took my diagnostic exam with Blueprint [LSAT], when I scored a 157, I felt quite burnt out from studying. This score was a dramatic decline from where I had averaged earlier in the year.

Structuring My LSAT Prep Changed the Game

I choose Blueprint for several reasons. For one, the company was ranked quite highly on the test prep review and comparison websites I researched before enrolling in my course. I also appreciated the flexibility of the virtual classes, as someone who was working full-time while studying and had a bit of an unpredictable schedule.

Having more structure to my test prep journey through a fixed number of modules, classes, and lessons helped me to build a clear study plan and develop a healthy work-life balance around it.

I think changing my study habits in this way was a big reason why I was able to obtain a 16-point score increase and achieve a 173 on exam day.

Finding My LSAT Community

The other students in my Blueprint 170+ Course were one of my favorite parts of the experience. Our classes were late in the evening in my time zone and sometimes it was hard to gather motivation for our 2.5 hour sessions, but they injected their positive energy through our live chat box.

My Blueprint LSAT [instructors] were great about answering my specific questions during our live [classes]. When I needed additional explanations on certain topics outside of class, the office hours sessions were also quite helpful.

Linette cares so much about her students and was always very passionate about ensuring her explanations were improving our understanding of the LSAT. Farzin’s encouragement to develop strong pattern recognition skills and shift my focus from fixating on individual questions, stimuli, and passages to understanding the core concepts behind them was a big reason behind my dramatic score increase.

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What My LSAT Score Means for Me and My Law School Applications

Working with Blueprint helped me to surpass my goal score. Having an LSAT score in the 98th percentile, I feel as though I put forward the strongest law school applications as was possible for me. My score also helped make me a competitive candidate for merit-based scholarships at many schools.

My LSAT score is a reflection of how diligently I studied to effectively demonstrate my intellect and study skills to the law schools I was applying to. Having an LSAT score that is at or above the median scores for many of my top schools helps relieve a lot of my imposter syndrome about whether I am a strong enough applicant to get accepted. I think it also shows that I am ready and able to handle intense workloads in law school.


A competitive LSAT score can open many doors! If you’re ready to see some real results, we can help you reach your law school goals! Whether you want the flexibility of a Self-Paced Course or prefer to navigate the LSAT with instructors in a Live Course, we have the study method that fits your learning style. Start for free today and get access to tons of free LSAT prep resources!