The BriefA Blog about the LSAT, Law School and Beyond
Are you wondering about how our course compares against the competition’s?
You already know that we’re way more affordable than the other courses that cost thousands of dollars but let’s be honest: you care more about how effective our course is.
Don’t just wonder about it. Read what our students have said. Check out our course reviews.
We have over 50 unfiltered and unbiased reviews of the course by current and past students, many of whom have used other LSAT prep courses. They leave insightful detailed reviews of exactly how they think we compare to other LSAT courses.
Stop wondering who’s got a better LSAT course and take a look right now: http://7sage.com/lsat-course-reviews/
Did you know that 7Sage is a balls to the wall online LSAT prep system that is more exciting than watching a bear fight a robot shark?
Well, maybe not.
But it will help you get the highest LSAT score possible. And a high LSAT score is the single most important factor to getting into a great law school and raking in scholarships. By signing up for a 7Sage account, you’re making a smart investment in your future.
Here are just five of the great LSAT tools that you'll get with a free 7Sage account:
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Logic game explanations in HD video for every single LSAT logic game. Ever.
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Discussion forum where you can connect with over 1,000 other LSAT students. Share, learn, laugh, cry, and celebrate with our wonderful community of students and teachers.
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A preview of the best LSAT courses in all the universes, obviously
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iPhone app to perfectly proctor your LSAT Prep Tests. Android app is coming soon too.
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LSAT Grader to track every LSAT you take. Analyze your performance, learn your strengths and weaknesses, and target your focus for maximal efficiency.
Register now and get started in less than 15 seconds.
Are you getting ready to take the upcoming October/December LSAT? Enter to win one of two free LSAT Complete Courses or Upgrades! This contest is open to everyone including current 7Sagers.
If you're already enrolled in a course and win, you get a free upgrade to the next higher course. If you already have LSAT Ultimate, then you win the coveted Mystery Prize.
There are two ways to win. There is one prize awarded by random draw, and one prize awarded for collecting the most entries.
This contest ends at 11pm ET, August 24th.
Pro-tip: You can get unlimited entries! You get +18 entries for following the simple steps, +1 entry for every person that clicks on one of your links, and +5 (!) entries for everyone who enters the contest using your custom link.
Follow the steps, spread the word, and rack up tons of extra entries to boost your chances at the draw prize, and to shoot for the prize for the most entries.
(contest ended)
Update: We're happy to announce that Ryan S. and Denise L. won free courses in this giveaway - congratulations!
The waiting is finally over.
We just received word that the June 2013 LSAT exam scores are being released today!
The release happens in batches.
Share, celebrate, commiserate, on this June LSAT Score discussion thread.
When are LSAT scores actually released?
Almost always before the scheduled release date. Below, I'm listing the scheduled release dates v. actual release dates (for the past couple of years) to give you a sense of when you can expect to get your LSAT score back from the June 2013 LSAT. But, before that, here are some interesting
Summary Statistics
Average release date: -3.7 days (before scheduled date)
Average release date for June only: -3.2 days (before scheduled date)
Since the LSAC scheduled the score release for July 5, you can expect your June score either on July 2 or July 3.
Scheduled Score Release Dates v. Actual Score Release Dates
| Test date | Scheduled | Actual | Difference | Days after test |
| Jun 10, 2013 | Jul 5, 2013 | Jul 1, 2013 | -4 | 21 |
| Feb 9, 2013 | Mar 6, 2013 | Mar 6, 2013 | 0 | 25 |
| Dec 1, 2012 | Jan 4, 2013 | Jan 2, 2013 | -2 | 32 |
| Oct 6, 2012 | Oct 31, 2012 | Nov 1, 2012 | 1 | 26 |
| Jun 11, 2012 | Jul 6, 2012 | Jul 2, 2012 | -4 | 21 |
| Feb 11, 2012 | Mar 7, 2012 | Mar 6, 2012 | -1 | 24 |
| Dec 3, 2011 | Jan 6, 2012 | Jan 4, 2012 | -2 | 32 |
| Oct 1, 2011 | Oct 26, 2011 | Oct 24, 2011 | -2 | 23 |
| Jun 6, 2011 | Jun 29, 2011 | Jun 27, 2011 | -2 | 21 |
| Feb 12, 2011 | Mar 7, 2011 | Mar 4, 2011 | -3 | 20 |
| Dec 11, 2010 | Jan 10, 2011 | Jan 6, 2011 | -4 | 26 |
| Oct 9, 2010 | Nov 1, 2010 | Oct 30, 2010 | -2 | 21 |
| Jun 7, 2010 | Jun 28, 2010 | Jun 25, 2010 | -3 | 18 |
Nearly all LSAT experts agree that reading outside articles is helpful as prep for LSAT. In this lesson, I want to show you how to improve your LSAT score by doing that. Let's read this very interesting article from the Economist together. It's less than 400 words and it's about attractive women.
Article summary
First, we're told that the conventional wisdom/hypothesis holds that attractive women should get ahead in the workplace. Why? Because people project positive attributes like sensitivity and poise onto them. Indeed, this conventional hypothesis is backed up with empirical evidence in the form of studies that show that attractive women are promoted more often.
Naturally, we think that this same advantage attractive women have in securing promotions would be present in securing job interviews, no?
As it turns out, new research reveals otherwise. The new empirical evidence suggests that attractive women who applied to jobs with a photo had to apply to an average of 11 jobs for every one interview offer. Contrast this with the exact same applicant who applied without a photo who only needed to apply to an average of 7 jobs to get an interview offer.
What's going on?
A new hypothesis is submitted: The dumb blonde hypothesis. People must think that prettier women are dumber. But, this hypothesis is immediately shut down. Prior to the study, these photos were rated on perceived intelligence and attractiveness and no correlation was found.
A better hypothesis is submitted: The jealousy hypothesis. 93% of Human Resources departments are women and they are the gatekeepers to interviews. They are discriminating against attractive female applicants.
Isn't this fascinating? Okay, but more to the point, from this passage, we can build many Logical Reasoning questions. Some of you seasoned LSAT students probably already sense an LR question looming on the horizon. That's a good sign!
Resolve-Reconcile-Explain question
RRE questions commonly introduce two seemingly conflicting ideas. The two ideas could be hypotheses, phenomena, or data. To build a RRE question out of this article, the passage would read:
It is generally accepted that attractive women get promoted more often but a new study finds that attractive women who submit photos with their applications to new jobs have less than half the interview rate than the same candidate who does not submit a photo.
Which one of the following, if true, would best resolve the apparent discrepancy above?
Within the article, we can find two resolutions (i.e., correct answer choices). First, we can say that people tend to think that prettier women are dumber. Second, we can say that employees who are gatekeepers to interviews are mostly women and women tend to be jealous of other beautiful women.
Weakening question
To make a Weakening question, we simply have to move some pieces around. The stimulus would read:
A new study finds that attractive women who submit photos with their applications to new jobs have less than half the interview rate than the same candidate who does not submit a photo. This shows that people generally think that prettier women are dumber.
Which one of the following, if true, would best weaken the argument above?
Within the article, we can find two answers. First, we can say that these photos were previously rated on perceived intelligence and attractiveness and no correlation was found. Second, we can offer an alternative hypothesis that says employees who are gatekeepers to interviews are mostly women and women tend to be jealous of other beautiful women.
See if you can build your own Strengthening, Descriptive Weakening, Weakening, or Resolve-Reconcile-Explain questions.
Or check out other Economist articles. Their science articles are written like LSAT questions.
[This is an excerpt from our full course. Previous Lesson - Blind Review Part 8]
Blind Review Summary
While you’re studying for this very difficult test, it’s important to keep your morale high. One of the most demoralizing things is to not see improvement despite effort. While sometimes this is unavoidable - for example, you’ve hit your ceiling - most of the time, students don’t improve because they are not studying the right way. Using the Blind Review guarantees that at least you’ll be practicing the right way. At least you’ll get to rise higher and higher and actually make contact with your ceiling and possibly even have a shot of piercing your ceiling.
You have little sparks of intuition residing somewhere deep in your sub-conscious. Through Blind Review, you will identify those sparks and cultivate them into flames. With that flame, you will burn through LSAT questions.
This is how you practice the LSAT. If you’re doing it any other way, you’re doing it wrong. If this is how you’re doing it, then there’s nowhere to go but up.
I highly recommend using the 7Sage LSAT Grader to score and track your LSAT PrepTests. It lets you enter your actual AND blind review answers. Then it does all the work of tracking and analyzing your blind review for you!
[This is an excerpt from our full course. Previous Lesson - Blind Review Part 7]
Analysis for skipped questions
Skipped questions
These questions were skipped over. You didn’t have time to attempt them. But, during Blind Review, you did all of them.
If you got it right, then great. This question is potentially within reach. Why did you initially skip this question? Would it have taken too long for you to answer? Perhaps you should have skipped another question that was more difficult and spent your time to attempt this question instead. Next time, you will be better at deciding which questions to attempt and which ones to skip.
If you got it wrong, then you made the right decision to skip this question. It wasn’t just a matter of being pressured by time. Even during Blind Review, with all the time in the world, you still got it wrong. Questions like these are candidates for skipping during a timed run.
Action:
1. Watch the video explanation for this question
2. Talk to other students about it
3. Talk to your instructor about it.
4. Cut this question out and keep it. Review it every so often.
Continue Reading - Blind Review Part 9
[This is an excerpt from our full course. Previous Lesson - Blind Review Part 6]
Analysis for circled questions with change
Changed answer
These questions were circled. But, you decided to chose a new answer.
If your changed answer is right, then great. Reinforce your reasoning that got you here. You just taught yourself and really understand this question now. At first, under time pressure, you went with your intuition and chose incorrectly. But, during Blind Review, you were able to see the error in your intuition and you’ve chosen the right answer. You’ve guided your intuition towards the right direction. Because you corrected for this mistake on your own, you have internalized this lesson better than if an instructor told you why you were wrong. Good job! You’ve made progress. Next time, you’ll be able to tackle a similar question faster and with more accuracy. This is the result that we’re looking for!
If your changed answer is wrong, and your original (pre-Blind Review) answer was right, then you must immediately shatter the reasoning you used during Blind Review. Your original spark of intuition was right, though you didn’t really know why. After all, you did manage to convince yourself that your intuition was wrong and you changed the answer. Oops. Now is your chance to examine that intuition. See if you can figure out why your intuition was right in the first place.
Action:
1. Watch the video explanation for this question
2. Talk to other students about it
3. Talk to your instructor about it
4. Cut this question out and keep it. Review it every so often.
If your changed answer is wrong, and your original (pre-Blind Review) answer was also wrong, well, here you need help right away. You really don’t understand this question. Questions like these are candidates for skipping during a timed run. But, during review, you should try to understand them.
Action:
1. Watch the video explanation for this question
2. Talk to other students about it
3. Talk to your instructor about it
4. Cut this question out and keep it. Review it every so often.
Continue Reading - Blind Review Part 8
[This is an excerpt from our full course. Previous Lesson - Blind Review Part 5]
Analysis for circled questions with no change
Didn’t change answer
These questions were circled. But, you decided to stand by your original answer choice.
If you got the question right, then great. You’re golden. You’ve made sure that it wasn’t because of chance that you got this question right. On top of that, you’ve reinforced your correct reasoning for choosing your answer and for eliminating the wrong ones. That’s reasoning that you will confidently carry forth into other LSAT questions.
If you got the question wrong, then you’re learning. What you’ve figured out is that it wasn’t just a matter of being pressured by time. Even during Blind Review, with all the time in the world, you still got it wrong. You really don’t understand this question. Questions like these are candidates for skipping during a timed run. But, during review, you should try to understand them.
Action: You will immediately shatter whatever reasoning you used to justify your choice, then
1. Watch the video explanation for this question
2. Talk to other students about it
3. Talk to your instructor about it.
4. Cut this question out and keep it. Review it every so often.
Continue Reading - Blind Review Part 7