Hi everyone! We recently launched an LSAT tutoring program designed to offer coaching and guidance from top instructors. I’m Raphael, and I’ll be doing an AMA with three of my fellow tutors on November 4th. We’re 99th-percentile scorers (with a 180 among us!) who love all things LSAT. We’re excited to answer your questions about the test, our own LSAT journeys, 7Sage’s new tutoring program, and everything in between.

See you Thursday!

See the AMA here (https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/30930/lsat-ama-w-7sage-tutors-starting-now-thurs-nov-4-7pm-edt).

Okay, kind of a long post but I am feeling super discouraged after getting October LSAT results and I'm scheduled to take the November test. I feel like I have gotten the absolute worst luck of the draw on LSATs and can't tell if I'm just being dramatic or not.

I've taken 3 LSATs so far, two of them two years ago, then focused on work until a few months ago when I decided to apply again and took the October 2021 LSAT...here's how each one went:

September 2019: aka PT88 and flowers game, a notoriously hard LSAT, and I was okay with my score considering it was a hard test, but I knew it didn't show my potential so I decided to take the November 2019 test.

November 2019: Show up to the test and the proctors never arrive, so our entire test center gets rescheduled BUT we have to do a paper test. I had not practiced on paper at all since all the tests had moved to electronic, so I ended up scoring 4 points lower because you can't see time remaining and I just wasn't used to the timing of filling out the scantron.

October 2021: I originally sat for the test on Saturday when it was interrupted and I waited 2 hours to be told it was going to be rescheduled. The test I originally had was 2 LG sections, which is my strongsuit, and the easier RC section. When I retook the test, I got back to back RC sections with the scored section (Mali and Paternalism) being the second of the two, as well as the Duets logic game.

I got the same score as my Sep 2019 test...

I just feel like all the tests have been stacked against me and it is so frustrating when some tests feel so unfair. I have been PTing in the low 170s but have had awful luck during all of my actual LSATs. Am I just being dramatic?

How do I stay motivated when it just feels like I'll never get a fair test administration?

Hi everyone,

I'm taking the LSAT on the 12th and I made a routine for myself and I can see why it can help get me in a more reflexive mindset for the day of the test and minimize anxiety. But I was wondering what I should do in terms of LSAT specific work. Should I put in an hour or two at the time that I'll be taking the test each day leading up? I've done about 50 PTs over the past 2.5 months so this would be a significant cutback and I think it might be a good strategy, but I've also heard people say take a few days off each day which I could also see being helpful because I do feel fresher after a couple day break. I'm thinking I might do a couple hours per day for the next 2-3 days, a day off, maybe 1-2 hours for the next 2 days, 2 days off, and then an hour each day the 2 days before the test. Any thoughts on that plan? I've also cut out alcohol and made sure my schedule has meditation and exercise built in which I think will help me. Thanks so much!

If I take a PT on lawhub, yet want the results on 7sage, how can I transfer them over? Is the only way to manually "take the test" on 7sage and bubble in my answers from Law Hub?

It seems as though my time here has officially come to an end. I've spent a lot of time with this test and on this website, and in a sad, mildly sadistic way, I think I'll miss them both. That said, I'm looking forward to enjoying my newfound free time and not dreaming in logic games anymore.

I'll spare you all a lengthy post containing my half-baked LSAT wisdom and will just invite you to PM me if you have questions or would appreciate some of the aforementioned semi-reliable guidance (I can also answer some questions in this thread if y'all have any). Thank you all for your discussion posts, answer explanations, and shared commiseration. The LSAT journey was an arduous one and I know my misery loved your company.

Best of luck to those who will soldier forth in their battle against the test, and a heartfelt congratulations to those who are also bidding a final goodbye to the LSAT.

Hi everyone! I recently got back a 174 on the October LSAT and some people reached out with questions about study tips, so I thought I would type up a comprehensive post about how I approached studying, as well as some section tips. Warning - I tried to be comprehensive but it ended up being super long - if any of it is unclear, definitely ask in the comments or PM me!

STUDY JOURNEY -

I began studying in March - I was home from college because of 'rona, and had a lot of time on my hands, which enabled me to study as my primary activity in addition to classes. My diagnostic was a 160 - I was solid at RC/LR (missing 2 and 5 on LR, and 5 on RC), but much weaker at LG (-10), so I had my work cut out for me. I come from a liberal arts/polisci background, so reading was my strong suit, and anything quantitative or puzzle-oriented was not.

March through May, I just worked through the core curriculum. I took careful notes on paper, and whenever I missed an LR/RC question, I added it to my "Wrong Answer Journal". This was absolutely critical for me - I wrote an in-depth analysis of each choice, why I thought I missed it, one portable takeaway, and what strategy I thought the test-writers were using to make a trap. This took forever, and was boring - but making this (and flipping through it when I was bored/before I went to bed) was incredibly important.

In May, I took my first post-CC PT, and got a 171, and then a 173 - I thought I would have this down in no time. But then my scores dipped, and settled primarily in the high 160s. I was consistently struggling with LG, rarely finishing on time or just getting blown out by hard games. This was where foolproofing came in handy - I created an excel sheet, and tracked my accuracy/time for sections. I would do a section, score it/watch the video, do it again, and then redo it the next day. Then, I'd do it one more time a week from then. I did this daily, with 2-3 sections a day. Doing this method with tests 1-35 (16-35 are CC, and 1-16 I broke into sections) helped me. I plateaued in the high 160s until June, but I eventually broke through it, and fixing LG through foolproofing was a large part of it.

A large part of the plateau was also due to isolated areas in LR/RC. I realized quickly that I was struggling on science passages in RC, and on strengthen/weaken in LR. Using the analytics functioning 7Sage was invaluable here to pinpoint areas of weakness. I then built problem sets focusing on those questions/redid portions of the CC (and, as always, used my Wrong Answer Journal religiously). I also read Loophole, which really helped me for strengthen/weaken.

By the end of June, I was in a pretty good grove - I was mostly in the low to mid 170s. But I would have off days sometimes, and occasionally revert back to high 160s, and never knew why. I signed up for the July LSAT, scored a 180 four days before the test, and assumed I was set. Then, on the first section (RC), I just completely blanked - I had tech issues with my Internet connection and then I just completely lost focus for the rest of the section - I couldn't regain it. I couldn't understand why this happened on the real day - getting flummoxed on section 1. My score came back - high 160s.

I got ready to take it in August - by now, I was PTing a solid 175 average, and figured I just had a bad day. August came and went, and it was similar - I felt jittery and nervous in section one (LG), and it threw me off for the rest of the test. Another high 160s.

I figured at this point that I had a solid grasp of the material - my PTs were high, but something was happening on the real day. What I learned to do here was to study less. I cut back the number of tests I was doing, started taking them as shorter flex tests, and began meditating daily. I also realized that on the real day, I was altering my routine in some ways (extra coffee, studying before the test, etc), and needed to just exactly replicate my practice test routine. I felt more locked in than ever - my PT scores before October were in the 175-180 range with a mode of 177, and relaxing played a key role. On the test day, I pretended it was just a practice test - I woke up, chatted with my family, listened to some Beethoven, and took it. I got a 174, up 5-7 points from my previous two takes, even with a slight test day penalty of 2-3 (sometimes, that penalty just happens on the real day - such is life).

SECTION STRATEGY

For the latter half of my studies, I was mostly in the mid to high 170s (usually around a 175-178 but hit 179/180 5-6 times). This was starkly different than the first half of my studies, which was mostly low 170s (but with some inconsistency and dips into the high 160s) - I think this was due to using a lot of material and, subsequently, creating section strategies that worked for me. What works for you might be different - but experiment! Try new approaches.

I ended up using most of the materials available through 7Sage/LawHub. I did PTs 1-16 as individual sections, 16-35 through the CC, and then 35-89 as full PTs (I skipped around a bit but eventually got to them all). I did 3 tests a week initially (Weds Fri Sun), but cut back to 2 when I started to feel stressed and burned out. Consuming all of this material was essential for me to really gain a level of comfort and familiarity with the test that helped me build section strategies

LG - honestly, nothing fancy here for me. The games repeat over and over again, so the real secret is just doing all of them (or as many as you can). I started out -10 or worse, and got to a consistent -0/-1 just by doing games daily - you can too! In terms of specific strategies, I was always big on splitting into sub gameboards/solving as much upfront as possible. I also would not erase inferences - I would sketch a new board for each question, so I could look back at previous work. I would also begin with questions that fed new rules/conditionals, so I could have more boards available for the open-ended questions without new rules.

For timing, I would try to get game 1 in 5 minutes or less, and then get to game 3 with 22 minutes left on the clock. I always tried to get to game 4 with 13-15 minutes if possible to prevent myself from running out of time (after a few really scary game 4s in some of the 30s/40s, I never wanted to risk not having at least 13-15 minutes for a nightmare game).

LR - this was where developing a timing strategy was essential for me. I never struggled with finishing on time, but I would get stuck on hard questions and fall into a rut, not being able to figure them out. This often happened for hard strengthen/weaken questions. I watched a video on 7sage (I think by @CantGetRight) about timing strategies/post CC exercises, and he recommended a confidence drill where you go through an LR section by mostly just picking your first intuition without checking your work or second-guessing. The objective is to see how accurate you can be, and better test your confidence threshold for a right answer. I tried this, and realized that I was shockingly accurate on questions 1-10 when moving quickly/without second-guessing. I also started to realize that when I skipped a hard question and came back with a fresh perspective, I would be far more likely to get it. This was the basis for my timing strategy - I started speeding up on questions1-10 (30 seconds per question, to finish 10 within 5-6 minutes), and skipping any question once I spent over 45-1:00 on it. The result was that I would finish 14-15 minutes early, but with several (like 5-7) questions flagged that I wanted to spend more time on. I would then have ample time to approach those with a fresh perspective. This helped get me from missing 3-5 to a consistent -0 or -1 on LR by the end of my studies.

RC - This was my worst section by far at the end of my studies - I would go anywhere from -1 to -3, and it just depended on my day (vs a -0 or -1 in LG/LR). While I was a consistent -0 or -1 on LR/LG, RC was always the wild card. But I did improve a bit - I had improvement from the -4/-5 I started and, ultimately, if you want a mid-high 170, it's a game of inches. A few things helped. First, doing more sections. RC is similar to LG in that there is repetition - wrong answer choices are wrong for similar reasons across sections. Wrong answers will often lack textual support and trade on your assumption about a topic, while right answers may pull something from a fragment of a sentence you totally glossed over. Second, pay attention to whether the question is most strongly supported or explicitly stated - if it's the latter, you need to find a line that very, very clearly says the thing - there is not really room for inferences. Third, I spent more time with the passage upfront. I realized that I could breeze through the questions when I really got the passage, so I started reading it twice - first time through I would take notes (summarizing each paragraph and an overall summary of the piece), and the second time through I would just read it without notes to understand tone and the big picture. This would take me around 3 minutes total, but saved time with the questions.

MISC TIPS

1] Don't burn out. I genuinely enjoyed studying for the LSAT, and treated it like a game - LG was a set of fun puzzles, RC was a chance to learn cool new topics, and LR was brain-twister exercises. If I hadn't had fun, I never could have made it through 89 tests worth of material. Yet, I burned out too sometimes - if you find yourself burning out, cut down the number of tests you're doing weekly. Watch a movie, take a day off, etc.

2] Find a study friend! I was fortunate that my best friend was studying for the test alongside me - we took every PT concurrently, and would review together that night - it made the journey so much more fun.

3] Take care of yourself. I was averaging a 174 before my first take, and a 175 before my second take, yet I scored 5-7 points lower on each test. It's because I was stressed out and worried about failing, which resulted in some serious test day penalties - I really recommend meditation, not studying much the week of your test, and treating your real day just like a practice test (don't change your routine at all!)

4] Shake off your off-days/lower PTs. I once got a 180 one test, and a 166 the next. Progress isn't linear, and everyone makes mistakes or has weaker days - getting high scores (and, subsequently, consistent high scores) is really hard, and it won't happen overnight. Give yourself months and a lot of tests to iron out aberrations and find a consistent pattern.

For those of you who got a disappointing score - I was there too. I thought I would never hit my PT average, and that I wasted my time studying. But don't give up - if you got it in practice, you CAN get it on the real day. Just be ruthlessly analytical in figuring out what went wrong, and work to fix it - if you do, it will work out. You're going to be a great lawyer someday, and this test won't stop you. You're going to kill it.

I took the October LSAT and scored about 5 points lower than my PT's. I know I can get into a law school with the score I received and my high GPA however, I've decided to take the test again in January. Any advice? I struggle the most with logic games and I become frustrated because I feel like it will never click for me. How should I go about studying this time around? Do I go through the curriculum all over again? I'm feeling super discouraged. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Admin Note: @chaplin___, one of our friends does voice acting so we thought it would be fun to have him read your original post:

https://soundcloud.com/112833/self-affirmations-before-test-day

thought I'd share some self-affirmations with those taking the Flex this weekend:

I've studied hard and worked diligently and persevered in spite of setbacks, and I will continue to push forward because I am capable and I have a strong grasp of the fundamentals.

I am in control of the LSAT. I am the pilot of this plane.

I am calm and I am collected.

I have tremendous potential to excel and I am confident in my own skills.

I have faith in me. I believe in myself.

I deserve kindness and gentleness and I will take care of myself no matter what happens.

I have a bright future ahead of me and I am excited for it.

I am ready for my future.

I've been studying for this test for the past 2 years and have taken it 3 times already (154 -> 156 -> 164). The score I got yesterday is 164 and I want to take the Jan test to increase my chances for some of the schools. Does anyone have advice on how to improve your score if you have no more fresh PTs left?

I've went through PT's until 80 twice, and 80-90 once. I definitely remembered some answers when I was studying for the Oct test tho, so I'm not sure what I can do to improve. I can definitely perfect my LG and maybe my LR by drilling Qs, but RC will be tough to improve on since I remember every single freaking passage lol.

ps. my best section is LG, worst is RC

Hello 7 Sage Community,

I would like some advice on how to tackle November LSAT and land in the solid 150s. Goal is ideally 155+ for this cycle.

What are some study tips I could do to maximize points from now until test day?

Hoping to apply right after November score is released.

Thank you and best of luck :)

Hey Ya'll,

I had been PT'ing in at my goal score for the month of October (over an average on about 5 tests and numerous individual sections), and had been getting pretty solid section splits. I took one practice test last week, and dropped by 5 points, and now I'm getting a few bad section scores, especially on RC. My rational mind is wondering if this is nerves, burnout, or exhaustion. My inner critic, though, is telling me that maybe I don't have the skills after all, and that I've been getting lucky the past month. Does anyone have any advice or experience with why this might be happening, and how to make sure this doesn't happen on test day?

For context, I've been averaging about -2 or -3 on LR, and -4 or -5 on RC. Last few sections have of RC have been especially rough (-10, -8, -4, and -6).

I just canceled my month by month subscription for next month, but if I wanted to start again later, will my data be saved or am I starting new?

I am looking for a way to copy paste LR stimuli and answer choices into a google doc to create a comprehensive wrong answer journal. Is there any way (7sage or otherwise) to be able to do so? 7sage won't let me copy paste.

If the people who record the videos for 7sage can read this...omg please speak slower and not so close to the microphone lol! It's like you combine one word and make it into three because you want to get the questions over with. And saying "this is a really easy game...".........yes, it is easy for you because you are teaching it...we are learning it so it may not be easy for some yet.

Maybe it's just me who feels this way...but whew.

Was averaging 168 a month out before the October exam and got a 158, worse than any PT I had taken after September began. I quickly cancelled since I was lucky enough to buy score preview, but I am very humbled right now. Going to keep working hard for November and possibly January for my goal score of 170, but I'm fighting inner dialogue that I'm not capable of reaching my goal. For any of you who underperformed in this iteration: I genuinely empathize with you and am sorry that you're going through the motions of processing that right now. We just have to stay true to the grind, take care of ourselves, and live to see another LSAT :)

Hi all, for those who have already taken the test, do you recommend taking the LSAT Writing Test before the regular test or after? I can see pros and cons to both options!

I'm signed up for the November LSAT. I'm scoring 155-159 on them. I have an internship that starts on January 6th so I cannot take the January LSAT because I will be busy. If I choose to take the January one, then I'll have to cancel my internship but that means I'll get a better score. Or, I'll have to push myself until test day and keep the internship. I am so nervous I won't get a good score though. Can someone please offer some advice?

My title says it all, but does anyone have insight if withdrawing a LSAT registration count towards the 3-limit in a testing year? I have taken the LSAT twice and prefer more time to hit my target score instead of rushing to take it a third time.

The official website says, "withdrawing your registration will prevent an absentee notation from appearing on your LSAC file, but you will not receive a refund."

Other LSAT prep services have mentioned no adverse effects if one withdraws.

If anyone could help clear this up, it would be appreciated.

Hello all! Was the June 2021 LSAT part of the previous testing cycle or the current one? I took the June 2021, October 2021, and will be taking November 2021. In case I need to take the January 2022, my eligibility will hinge on whether or not June 2021 counts towards this or previous year’s testing cycle (given the 3 times per cycle testing limit). I’d appreciate any insights!

What is a more difficult feat. Obviously some are more intuitive at RC than others, but for the average student who has difficulty lets say -8 LR and -8 RC.

Let me preface with the fact that I'm SO grateful for my 170 and worked really hard for it! However, given my LSAC GPA (3.73) it looks like I'm still under both medians at most of my top choices/dream schools. I'm already signed up for the November test since I planned to use it as a back-up if things went bad in October. But now I find myself in this awkward place with JUST below median numbers. I guessed on a few questions on the last game of my October test (twas a tough one), which makes me feel like I might've left some points on the table. I'd realistically only be looking to marginally improve to a 171 or 172 (not really shooting for 175+). That being said, who knows, my score could go down.

For context, I'd really like to end up at NYU, Northwestern, Michigan, or Georgetown. I have 3 years of work experience at a law firm, am a first-gen student, my UGPA was a 3.86 because it didn't include study abroad courses (LSAC did), and I think I've got a pretty good personal statement and diversity statement (but so does everybody).

Long story short: to retake or not to retake? Any advice would be helpful, as none of my friends or family understand my dilemma.

Is 7sage missing a question type in logical reasoning? Evaluate the Argument Questions

Hi all! I am going through it right now trying to figure out what would be best thing to do so any advice would be welcome. I took the October LSAT and did not do as well as I had hoped. My GPA is better than the median for all of the schools that I am looking at but my LSAT score is about 4-5 points away from the median LSAT score. I am signed up for the November LSAT but I'm not sure if I can raise my score up to the 4-5 point mark... Would it be better to push it back to January and apply later or take my chances on the November LSAT and hope for the best. This would also be the 3rd LSAT I am taking. Good luck to everyone also taking the November LSAT!

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I am confused. The LSAC.org says that "The test will have three scored sections — one section each of Reading Comprehension, Analytical Reasoning, and Logical Reasoning — and we will return to our pre-COVID practice of including a fourth, unscored variable section that will allow us to validate new test questions for future use and ensure that they are free from any form of bias. But I read other forms and they said there are 5 sections as 2 LR, 1 LG, 1 RC and 1 unscored section. So are there 4 or 5 sections totally?