Ep 11: Tips for Conquering the LSAT with Accommodations

In this episode of Break Into Law School, I am joined by Jasmeene Burton-Martin, incoming Northwestern Law student, former boot camp student and current instructor at S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting. We will be talking about how to conquer the LSAT when you need accommodations. How do you prepare for the LSAT with text anxiety? ADHD? A learning disability? We'll discuss how to ask for the right accommodations, who to talk to, and when to make your request.

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Today we are talking about the LSAT. How can you conquer the LSAT? Especially if you are someone that is dealing with a learning difference, test anxiety or any other situation in which accommodations would be helpful. 

Welcome to another episode of Break into Law School. My name is Sydney Montgomery and I'm a law school admissions consultant specializing in working with first-generation and minority applicants. 

So let's dive in. 

I am ecstatic because today I get to share my stage with Jasmeene Burton-Martin.

Jasmeene was a former S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting student. She is currently a brand associate and she is a bootcamp instructor. She is a student at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She is also a fellow Princeton alumna, graduating with a degree in sociology and a certificate in theater.

I'm really excited that she is here to help us navigate the LSAT. She is an LSAT tutor with Tutoring by Jasmeene. Her website is super easy: jasmeene.com. On top of all of this, she is really passionate about education law, about creating policies and legislation that help affect and make a more equitable and accessible educational future for vulnerable students and families, which is something that is really near and dear to my heart, because I care a lot about equity and education.

So, without further ado, I am going to bring her up.

Hi, Sydney. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this and agreeing to share your expertise because I tell my students all the time. Listen. I am not an LSAT tutor. So there's only so much information that I can give, but you are an LSAT tutor, and you are also someone that cares deeply about access to first-generation and minority students and increasing representation in the legal world.

So I know that you are going to drop some amazing gems for us today, but the first thing I just want to do is ask if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I am the oldest of four and I think that's probably one of the identities that I hold most near and dear, because I think that, you know, when you're the oldest, you're always trying to make sure everyone is feeling supported and everyone has the nuggets to do better than you ever did.

And I think it really translates naturally into, why did I start tutoring? Why am I so passionate about education? It's cause you always want people to learn, not just from how you did, but from how they have been at previous points in their own journey and being able to drive the continuous improvement.

So I'm also originally from California, decided to move out to New Jersey to go to Princeton for school and then ended up here in Chicago. I was at the Illinois state board of education for a little bit, and just got such a big overview into how has policy working out here in the Midwest. And Illinois is actually doing some really big things with educational funding and all that jazz.

But I think education for me became an interest because my dad is actually a school counselor. And so always being in the room and seeing how much does time and knowledge of systems make impact for people who otherwise would, you know, be floating all around, having no idea what to do, what opportunities are out there. Then I think it's like a family affair. 

 That was amazing and that's great that you have that kind of counseling background in your family.

 I will ask you to talk a little bit about your law school application process. How did you figure out you wanted to apply to law school and what were your very first steps? Did you Google something? Did you ask a friend? How did you navigate all of the different pieces that you had to learn? Oh my goodness.

So I for a while was thinking about pursuing either a PhD in education or a master's in ed and so the summer before my senior year of college, I was taking the GRE, studying. And as I began getting into my senior research project, as I started talking to more professors about their path to academia, I was having some second guessing myself, lots of thoughts.

I had applied to do different teaching fellowships and actually had deferred my offer to take it up after I finished up the state board of ed. So that was my path. I think as I continued talking to people, as I saw more behind the scenes, I was realizing, you know, if you're going into education, a lot of time to be a professor, to be a policy advocate, you're getting really niche with your area, you can branch out and be a generalist if you're that stellar researcher.

And I wasn't really sure if I was ready to pigeonhole myself yet and get really concerned about one issue or another. So I decided let's see how this LSAT thing works. I was on Khan Academy, using it, taking practice tests. I had no idea what I was doing. And I said, well, if I can do decently on this test, maybe I'll apply to law school.

I took my diagnostic and I was like, well, this isn't terrible. What's going on? And so I had no idea where, what to do, where to start at Google search, and was overwhelmed by the amount of information that was there. It's truly the grace of God. I got an email through the Princeton alumni network and it had Sydney's face on it. 

 Her shining face is in my email inbox and she said, let's connect if you have questions about the law school admissions process. I figured, you know, this is the black woman who also shares some core identities. I have, you know, within the school, within being black and a female who's passionate about educational equity.

Let's just connect and see if this makes sense. I think that that was really how we got started in terms of knowing, okay, how do I make a school list? How do I get clear on my reasoning for going to go? Cause clearly I'm passionate but can I articulate it? And I think that articulation process was also really freeing for me.

I'm like, okay, now I know what my mission is. I can give you my elevator pitch. Sure. Having it in my back pocket is something that I can say, yes, this is what I'm doing. I have my focus and now people can see it and resonate. I can be excited knowing what exactly I'm saying. That was such a pivotal point.

Sydney saved me. Well, I think it's true what you said about really knowing what you're doing, your passion. That's something that I spend a lot of time working with my students on is drilling down to that Why Law statement. Because you need to know why you're going to law school.

 I think that was something that I really worked with you on because you are someone, like a lot of people, who had so many interests and you're like, I could do this. I could do that. I could do that. I could do that. And I was like, oh, okay. But you can't do it all at once. So let's try to figure out what are the synergies between those desires and how can we really come up to your core

why? And I think you did a really beautiful job of doing that. I want to back up a little bit though, and talk real specific about your LSAT.

You said you started with Khan Academy, you took your diagnostic. What was your experience going through the LSAT and what did you discover while studying that just really resonated and applied to you? Yeah. So again, I approached the LSAT from the perspective initially, let me see if I can do well enough on this, then I'll go to school.

And I think a lot of people fall into that.  Which, you know, don't weed yourself out, let schools tell you that there's a better fit somewhere else. Don't ever count yourself out. If you think that there is a possibility there that you really, really could do some impactful work in the law.

So when I was studying, I initially spent a few months really, and I think this was me giving myself limiting beliefs and capitalizing on them, but I was just like taking tests. I was doing all the drills that were available on Khan Academy. And I started in the 150s and actually  went down quite a bit because I was just iterating with nothing in mind.

 So something that really became clear to me was I didn't have strategies. Even if it was a focus for the week. Like, what do I want to practice this week? And what do I want to keep in mind? But I'm doing my logic games, when I'm answering logical reasoning questions. And then my mentors and Sydney included were trying to convene and think, okay, how can we help you actually get to a score that's going to give you options?

 It's going to give you some financial aid rewards or open up your school selection. We need to really think about placing you strategically that get to your educational goals. So I ended up taking a commercial course that I loved. I took

Robin Singh, Robin and his amazing techniques. I loved TestMasters so much because what it really gave me was a structure. And I think that was the big thing that I had been missing so far. It was just knowing what to do. And then also having the lectures in a style that worked for me.

So I am somebody who needs to repeat a lot of information over and over. And so having video lectures where they were pretty free-flowing, I could click through, go back and repeat. I'm so thankful that I was studying during the pandemic where the only option was virtual, because having that repetition, absolutely critical.

 I also loved about test masters was the idea that you're focusing in on how to approach the questions and building a strategy. I think that's the other big thing, too. You have to have a strategy overall for refining your practice and knowing what you're doing, but even on the question level what is your approach to a strengthening question?

Can you boil it down and articulate it to give you guidance and really cut down your time? As I started realizing, okay, this is all about knowing your rules, like what are your personal rules for each question. That really started to help me increase my confidence lineup, I knew the material a lot better and then ended up taking the August Flex in 2020 and totally surprised myself. It was a journey. It was definitely a journey, but I think, you know, don't be afraid to seek out help in building structure because I think that's where a lot of people really panic.

And then you feel like you're spinning your wheels. 

Yeah, I think that's so important. Structure is really key. I've talked a lot about creating timeline and really having a plan and part of that plan is maybe a course that has that structure because that can be with your essays or that can be with the LSAT, if you just sort of start, " oh, I'm just going to study" or "I'm just gonna write", then like a month goes by and you realize you haven't actually made much progress and then another month goes by and you realize you don't really know what you're doing. And then another month goes by and you've lost so much time and time is so critical in this process.

So I think that point about structure was really key. For students that are trying to figure out what else should I do? What kind of study plans should I create? Especially for students that maybe have test anxiety or a need accommodations, what are the things that they should look for in a course? Or how can they help figure out what the best plan of action is going to be?

Yeah, that's a really great question. There's so many different courses and resources out there. There are so different tutors, so many different books. I mean, I would ask yourself, you know, what kind of learner are you? Are you somebody who needs the audio?

Are you someone who needs to see it on paper. Are you somebody who needs someone to walk you through chunk by chunk? And I would probably make a laundry list of what works well for me, what do I wish I had? And maybe what doesn't work so well? And then try to like suss out the different programs and different books. It's okay to shop around.

I think often, you know, this process of studying can become really expensive. We feel like, oh, look, I bought this book. I need to work through this book. It's okay to say, oh, this book really is not doing it for me. It's not conversational enough. It's too dense. I'm going to try something else. Like you can always return a book if you buy it.

Right? Just keep the receipt or trade with people. That's also something that you could do. You know, do you study better in groups? Do you study better by yourself in an isolation, like with the videos repeating? That was definitely me. I get super distracted. If you're somebody who has trouble really reflecting on, like for reading comp, for example, where the information in the passage can come from to solidify your answer, like that's a really great feature that they have in Blueprint, is to highlight specifically, where is the reference.  

Whereas in TestMasters, you would get a video afterward explaining verbally how that looks. So it's okay to contact companies and look at their support pages. Look at the videos they have on YouTube and see, how do they present information? That's a really great way to go about it.

There's also a lot of options for folks. You know, if you have the fee waiver. I think are big things that people throw out there on, on Facebook and all the different forums, Reddit. Those are, you know, for people who need the consistent practice. Everyone probably needs practice in some way, but do you need focus practice on question type specifically?

Have you built that strategy? Do you need it to be more guided and focused in iterating to get that result and have your strategies? Or are you somebody who naturally thinks that way? And then also say, you know, thinking about once you have a structure, how much accountability do you need? Are you a self-starter?

Are you like me and you kind of struggle if you don't know what to do. I would ask yourself if you're finding resistance, you're struggling. If you're feeling really downtrodden, ask yourself, you know, what's contributing? What in an ideal world do you need? Do you need more time?

Cause if you're going to say, "oh, I need more time to study." Might be a good idea that shift your schedule and think, how do you build on that time? If you feel like you need somebody to guide you through questions, maybe seek out a tutor, who's really going to say, okay, did you do this?

Can we make this a little more concrete for you and keep you accountable? A lot of the things you're feeling, we can react to them and panic and kind of hide or we can say, "okay, what does that indicate that I need for this process?" And then you can think about solutions once you articulate your needs.

 I think it's so important to think, what do I need? If you're somebody with testing anxiety, or if you have an accommodation, I have massive testing variety, full disclosure, thinking about how does that show up for you? Because a lot of it is going to come down to how do you strategize? Courses might give you some tips and tricks here and there, but the odds are, you know, talking to a general population, you might not find something that really fits for you in terms of helping you calm down.

Some people, it's mantras. Some people, it's deep breathing. But thinking about how does my anxiety show up or if I'm having trouble focusing, what does that look like? Try different things. Maybe this week, you're going to try taking the deep breath before you get to the question. Maybe you're going to think about, if I'm getting distracted, I'm going to take one sentence at a time and thinking with the question in mind, what's the point? Just thinking about what are you experiencing? Why are you experiencing it? And maybe how can you address it?

 I love that. There's so many good gems that you just dropped. One of the things that I really loved was trying it out, right? I think that there are a lot of programs. You mentioned TestMasters, LSAT Demon, the LSAT Lab, they all have these places where you can try it out for free.

I think it's really good to think about. 

 And I had the same L set score. We're twinning. Um, and you know, Robin Singh got me all the way there, but I know they have live classes. I don't know as much about them, but I know that they do have live classes if you're someone that needs to go see someone live like a teacher. I also know that LSAT Demon and LSAT Lab both have those live classes. I know LSAT Lab has a monthly thing that includes a once a week lead tutor. So figure out what those support networks are. I know that LSAT Demon also has the accountability study groups.

So if you're looking for something that also comes with a built-in community, when you work with me in a bootcamp or one-on-one, you'll get an accountability pod. You'll get that support. If you're not working with me, but you still want that support, then ask to see what are some of the other things that come with the test prep?

Can you also get community? Because I think community is everything, it's really big. 

I think on that note too, don't be afraid to ask. And I think some people have developed this skill because it is a skill and other people I know, I'm still learning how to just ask questions and ask what's available.

When it comes down to it, this is such a process where advocate for yourself. And even if it's saying, what do you have available? Can I try this? Whether it's a commercial company or whether it's a tutor. Like, do you have samples? What would you recommend that I look at? Almost everyone's got YouTube videos that you can look back on.

Almost everyone has like an info page and FAQ's, and you can get face time to chat with somebody and say, "Hey, I have these concerns. How do you address it?" Totally make sure that you're shopping and asking questions that are going to give you the answers you need. 

And it's okay if the things that you need change a couple months from now, it's totally okay. Because it's a process where you start by content building and really getting to know like in the weeds, what does this question do? And later, it's going to become about strategy. How do you do that even better and quicker?

 How do you really shift your mindset? Courses are really good for the content. And I think, you know, ultimately some people self coach and some people seek out coaches. It's okay to shift. Just always pay attention to what you need and I think it'll get you where you need to go.

Absolutely. Speaking of what you need though, and paying attention to that. I know I'm very open about the fact that I have ADHD. I was diagnosed well after law school, so much sense looking back on it. And I know that's something that you and I actually share and there's this misconception that you can't be a achieving student and also have ADHD or learning difference.

And we were both the poster child for why that doesn't make sense, but you work a lot with students on getting accommodations for the LSAT exam. Can you tell me the top three things that students need to do if they're trying to get accommodations or even also maybe top three mistakes that students make. How can we nail this accommodations process?

I don't know if I would classify it as mistakes, but I think people don't realize that they can ask. I think that's one of the most well kept secrets, unfortunately, is that. I think, I don't know how many times, like I'll talk with folks and I'm like, okay, well, what do you feel like you need an ideal world?

If you had a resource, what would it be? It's time. Well, why do you need time?  I just feel like I waste so much time, like panicking. You might have test anxiety. I don't want to tell people to liberally just diagnose themselves. But if you think about what's available, there's things, you can get breaks. Like five minute breaks is a really easy ask.

You can even get accommodations if you have a broken arm, things like that. So I would just say, look at the accommodations page and see, is there something that might help you?  And if you don't see it on the page, I encourage you call ALSAC, talk to your doctor, therapist, see if, given what you're experiencing, is there something that's a reasonable accommodation, they have to give you reasonable accommodations, on these tests, that they can build in for you. Just know that you can ask.

I feel like so many people, especially if you're the soon to be the first lawyer in your family, or if you're a person of color, we do not ask for these things. Statistics show that we are excluded from a lot of these asks and it's just we're excluding ourselves.

So go forward and ask. I would also say you want to make sure that there is legitimately something that warrants your ask. So you're going to need a doctor's note, some kind of professional, a therapist is totally fine if you've got anxiety or something else going on, but also know it doesn't have to be just mental health, physical ailments too.

If you're somebody who I don't know, injuries. Like there are accommodations for those to be able to get up and move during your breaks or to have an extended break. If you're somebody who has vision issues, you can ask for a print, like paper version. These things are there to make sure that you're spending your time and your energy on the test, and you're not managing yourself.

Like it's only equitable for you to have the full time everybody else would have. It's just for some people, it looks different. So make sure that you have a provider that's willing to write you documentation. And I would say ask early, because a lot of times doctors, therapists, they usually need some time to get these requests in.

So sometimes it's not our fault. Like, oh, I just didn't realize I could ask, ask them, try to lead with, okay, here's my filled out forms. Here's what I'm asking for. Try to make it as simple as possible for them. Try to do it as early as you can. You do have to be registered for the actual test to be able to submit your accommodations request.

If you haven't picked a date yet, but you know this is on your mind, it's a conversation you want to have. Start the conversation with your providers early, just so that way they know what's going on and can be prepared to write that for you. You don't want any surprises at the end when you're registered for your tests and then counting down the days.

 Awesome. So make sure that you're asking, make sure that you're thinking about what you need and thinking about what those different accommodations might be and what would make it an equitable situation for you. And the second part is still ask, but like make sure you ask the right people.

 Make sure that you're asking them early and on time with your paperwork filled out. What would be a third best practice for students that are looking to get accommodations? 

So I would say something that often comes across my email is folks who are saying, okay, I did this thing. I'm writing about this terrible experience I had. I was like, this is context, but you know tell them what you need and don't feel like you have to explain and just excuse everything away, but get to the point.  What are you asking for? Detail it clearly so ALSAC can see it. And then say you know, if this is your ailment, this is your condition, how are these going to actually help you?

A lot of people leave that out in their initial drafts of their requests. And ultimately, if you look on ALSAC's reasons why they deny requests, people will spend so much time writing about a terrible experience they had, but they didn't actually answer the prompt. What accommodations do you need and how is it going to actually help you?

 And I think going into the process, knowing what you're asking for, knowing that you're talking with your providers and getting their feedback on that, it can really help you to think, okay. If I put that at the beginning of my statement, that'll guide everything else that I include and save you some work as well.

I would also say, you can mention that you didn't have accommodations in high school or in college. I was diagnosed with anxiety and got accommodations for like testing things my senior year of college. And that was sufficient. I could say, okay, my freshman year, I didn't have these things.

I was diagnosed and then we realized that actually made a huge impact for my whole last year. That's helpful context to have. Or if you're saying, you know, maybe you were diagnosed after college. I was actually diagnosed with ADHD in April. So well after I've taken everything, but you know, that's okay.

We can say, here's what my experiences were before I took the LSAT or I took college exams. Here's my experience. But now that I know that I have this diagnosis, here's what I'm doing to mitigate it, but here's where I still need help. I think this will be really helpful on the exam.

If you can provide these reasonable accommodations versus, you know, oh, this is how this works. Like, it's unfortunate. Like this is a harder process for you. But unfortunately, sometimes ALSAC is trying to read so many things, they want to know, your ask, and then why.

So I would just put that at the beginning and use that to guide your process. 

That was so helpful. Putting your ask and the reason why the accommodation will help you at the beginning of your request is probably going to like that one piece of advice is probably going to change so many people in the way that they approach their accommodations.

 I think that you were so helpful in just delineating. It really is about making the ask, being clear, asking the right person, asking on time and answering the prompt. I think that's so important. 

We're so grateful you've just dropped gem after gem after gem about the LSAT, about navigating accommodations, about your essays, about your "why law", about confidence and mindset. Where can people contact you? Where can they find you or learn more about the work that you do?

Oh, my goodness. So I do have a website, if you want to go to jasmeene.com. A contact form there and learn a little bit more about me. If people want to talk about bootcamp things, or you can reach out through Sydney's website as well.

Let's talk about boot camp. Let's talk about all the things. Feel free to get in contact. Would love to hear from you, answer the questions, would love to meet with you in boot camp. It's a fun time. I also want to make sure that you plug the fact that you offer free reading comp classes, because that's how committed you are to equity. You've got a lot of free content that is so, so, so helpful. So even if you're listening and you're not really sure like how the finances are working out, make sure that you definitely get into some of that free content, because it is amazing and it's such great value.

Jasmeene, thank you. Thank you for all your wisdom and your guidance. I know we're going to have you back and I can't wait to see you soon. 

This was another episode of Break into Law School with Sydney Montgomery. 

Want to learn more about how you can work with me? Visit my website at www.smontgomeryconsulting.com or follow me on instagram @smontgomeryconsulting.  

Make sure that you rate and review this episode, if it was helpful to you. And if you're looking for even more inspiration, check out my podcast, Mindful Prayers for Students, where I provide encouragement, mindfulness, and prayer on your academic journey.