Your score is a product of so many factors--your understanding of the material, your speed, even how accurately you bubble answers--but in the end it all comes down to whether you studied the test from every angle and put in the time necessary to get the results you want.

The most important part of understanding a student is knowing where they're at in terms of preparation. We'd talk about what they know about the test, whether they've studied at all before, and if they've ever taken a practice exam. What happens next really depends on what the student and I decide they should work on--be it fundamentals of a question type, drilling questions under time pressure, or using existing strategies to tackle advanced questions.

The most important step for a student in becoming an independent learner is getting a foundational understanding of how to approach each question type. Once that's been laid, the student can drill and build on existing strategies, a process that will help them adapt to exotic or confusing questions on the actual test.

Set a goal, like getting into XYZ School of Law. Lay out how that needs to be accomplished and what score might be necessary. When things get tough, picture achieving that goal and understand that every extra minute studying gets them a little closer.

Identify why the student is struggling. Reduce the question to its most basic components, and have the student walk me through how they're approaching it. From there, find the tricky concept and talk it out with the student.

Reading comprehension can be tough, but at the end of the day it's improving understanding of the passage and being able to read dense material quickly. If it's a particular type of reading question that's giving the student trouble, we'll work to better understand how to answer it.