Hi Everyone,

I'm new here (second day studying for the LSAT) and I'm just wondering how important the CC/theory is in order to progress? I'm a computer engineering major so I'm not really used to a lot of theory. Don't get me wrong, we of course discuss concepts and theories, however, the way I've been learning the past almost 4 years now is to jump in and start solving problems right away. If I'm struggling with something, the answer is almost always to just keep solving as many problems as you can until it clicks. This, by the way, has worked well.

All that to say, the LSAT is completely different than anything I've been doing for my degree, I honestly don't even remember the last time I was asked to read a passage and answer questions on it or solve a problem that didn't involve the heavy use of math.

But after doing a couple of untimed LR sections, I'm kind of getting the sense that just jumping in and attempting problems probably isn't going to work for the LSAT. This is kind of scary to me, it's something that's worked so well up until this point.

I've taken somewhat of a logic class before (discrete math) but the logic on the LSAT seems to be a much different type of logic than what I learned in that class, so unfortunately I don't know how much help that will be.

Anyways, just kind of wanted to reach out and see if I could get some opinions on how important it is to go through the theory lessons JY provides. I don't want to keep attempting LSAT sections and get discouraged by lack of improvement if there is indeed a better way.

Sorry for kind of rambling.

Thanks,

Ryan

@"Adam Hawks" @drbrown2 @TheDeterminedC

Guys, thanks for your help with my previous question about RC. I need more advice/assurance/tough love. My target score is 165+. Before deciding whether or not to write in June 2019 test, I wrote three PTs as diagnostic in the first week of study. I got 164(PT39), 171(PT45, supposed to be easy one), and 164(PT72). I thought that with ~25hr/week of study for 12 weeks, I should be able to hit my target score of 165+ safely. For some time, my goal seemed attainable. I did seven PT50s with average of 167(with only one below 165).

But now, I am getting more and more frustrated. Here are my recent PT scores with PT65 from today.

PT75, 167

LG(-2), LR1(-2), LR2(-4), RC(-6)

PT73, 165

LG(-2), LR1(-9), LR2(-3), RC(-5)

PT76, 162

LG(-2), LR1(-11), LR2(-4), RC(-7)

PT77, 167

LG(-4), LR1(-2), LR2(-4), RC(-6)

PT65, 163

LG(0), LR1(-6), LR2(-9), RC(-8)

For PT76 and PT65, RC sections were very difficult for me (i was not able to finish the last 2-3 questions). In both cases, an LR section followed. In both cases, I was lost during the LR: I spent a long time to finish the first couple of easy questions, I forgot about the strategies I suppose to implement (such as negation test for NA, etc.). The only thing I remember was trying to finish the questions. Well, I bombed the LR sections as well.

Besides wonderful suggestions about review/BR, any advice on how I should use the rest of two weeks more effectively? How can I prevent the after-shock effect of a particularly bad section?

Thanks.

My first few practice tests I have gotten two 161s. Although I do well on the LR and am sure I will do well on the LG when it comes time to take the test, I am having great difficult with RC. I cannot get through all of the passages in time. I usually only have 4 minutes left by the time I start the last passage. As a result I miss around 10-11 on the RC. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve speed without sacrificing accuracy?

I just downloaded the 7Sage app and I'm curious what to set the background and distraction levels to in order to simulate a realistic exam setting. I usually study in complete silence, but this isn't how it'll be when I take the LSAT in July. Any suggestions on settings would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I just took PT79 and got around 10points lower than my regular scores.

Hi guys, I’ve mostly been a lurker on the forum, but now that my cycle is officially over, I wanted to share a little bit about my LSAT journey and methods. It might not help, and I am no way attempting to plug my study methods. This is just for reference.

My LSAT journey started out in 2016 with the Blueprint Games book. I spent a whole semester on and off familiarizing myself with the games section and going through the book. I took a lot of notes (which in hindsight was not very helpful at all). Then, I learned about 7Sage and purchased the starter pack. At the time, I was still in school full time (STEM major) and working part-time as well, so not a lot of prep time for the LSAT. I was PTing around 160-164, and because I wanted to head straight to law school after graduation, I decided to take the test and wing it. Definitely do not recommend this. I did horribly and did not finish four of the five sections. There was a terrible game section that I believe was an experimental. There was a game about beer companies and different types of beer that I completely blanked on. Got my first score back, it was barely over 160 and it felt like my whole world was ending when I decided to take a year off to study and better prepare. Now looking back, the year was totally worth it, both in terms of the score increase and my mental health. I was able to focus on my classes and enjoy graduation without stressing about the LSAT.

After graduation, I tried a few different approaches to learning the LSAT. Velocity LSAT, LSATHACK, Powerscore, LSAT trainer, etc. In my humble opinion, and everyone is different, I think my score increase mainly came from perfecting the games section, and that I have to attribute that to 7Sage and Blueprint. I preferred using the Blueprint method when drawing diagrams for games and using 7Sage when it came down to reviewing the games. My diagramming technique ended up being a blend of 7Sage and BP, which I found super helpful.

The Blind Review method was very good for the LR sections, but didn’t really do much for me in RC. There were just always a few questions in reading comprehension that I got wrong regardless of how long I looked at them. I honestly don’t think I ever mastered RC, which is my my final score wasn’t as high as it could have been.

In summary, this is what I think worked for me:

NOTE: I would recommend trying to memorize the formal logic component like the back of your hand, but also understand that it is only a small portion of the points, and that grasping the skill of finding the conclusion/supporting claims and being able to figure out the logic gap is the most important part of LR.

It took me about three to four months of full time study after graduation to get to 177-178ish blind review scores. I averaged 170 during the last few PTs (PT80-84) and I barely made it over the mark on the actual test. Although I did hear multiple people say the test I sat was super super hard, I don’t really think it would have affected my score too much, maybe 1 0r 2 point upward fluctuation?

I don’t think my method was actually the best or the most comprehensive, and I honestly don’t know if I can say that I succeeded on the LSAT, but I did end up somehow getting accepted to Harvard (after much struggle and the most awkward interview of my life), so I think that it might be safe to say the LSAT is just one (albeit very important) component of your entire application.

Honestly, this is such a supportive place. Special shoutout to @"Leah M B" for answering so many of our questions. Hope everyone can get into their dream school!

So my average section performance according to 7 sage, is about -5.5 in LR -9.3 in LG and -7.3 RC. I've taken four practice tests this time around. I found 7SAGE and spent significant time on the fundamentals this time. Really boosted my LR score, although the harder questions at the end always get me. I first tried to study for the LSAT a couple of years ago and score a 153, despite scoring around 160 before. Could be nerves. Do you have any advice on what I should do the next two weeks? I know they say logic games is learnable but would I suffer from only focusing on that going forward?

I just started the Ultimate+ course yesterday and I'm wondering if I should be using some other study content along with 7sage or should I do that once I'm done with the 7sage core curriculum. The weekly hours for ultimate+ based on my schedule is already 45-50 hours/ Week so I'm just a little confused if I should be adding some other content with this. Thanks in advance!

I just started the core curriculum, at what point should I start using blind review?

If I should I be using it for the problem sets at the beginning, then how long should my timer be?

Hi everyone, i'm new to 7Sage and wanted to ask if there is a limit on how many copies we can print of the same PT?

Hi,

From January to March 2019 I studied using 7sage and ended up with a 169 on the March 2019 LSAT (which was a huge improvement over my Sept 2018 score of 157). I am extremely happy with my score, but decided to retake in July.

I have not studied in a month and a half, so these next two months I want to be as effective as possible. As of now I am planning to do roughly a practice test a week, followed by blind review, as well as fool proofing for logic games.

Any advice on how I can achieve this last bit of progress?

Also, how helpful is filming your prep test?

Thank you

Hi,

Is there a way to open up all the Blind Review fields with only 1 button press? Currently, I am individually clicking on the 100 question numbers before I can enter the Blind Review score.

l struggle with conditional phrases that include the word "or" and how to use them in a chain. l remembered learning about "or" in the truth tables and went back there, but is there somewhere else we learned about "or" that was more specific to chaining phrases?

The problem that reminded me today is from PT 36 (fruit stand).

Any thoughts or advice on:

Thanks!

I'm planning on starting the prep ASAP and taking the test in Sep/Oct. Is it recommended that I first go through the free trial and take a diagnostic test or should I just start with the course?

This is completely subjective, but from your experience what are some of the hardest sections you have encountered? I want my to test myself on the most difficult the LSAT has to offer. For example, I felt the Logic Game section for Test Prep A was tough as was the Reading Comp for 38.

Hi all, Is anyone experiencing the same thing as I did. My videos do not play and it seems is across the board. I was unable to play the video on Quiz 3 in "finding pseudo sufficient assumption last night. I had also randomly tried other videos, and they don't play either. This morning too. Thanks,

The digital tester is in public beta! Everyone can use the digital tester for any PTs they have access to on their account.

When you're ready to take a PrepTest, click on "Blind Review, Score and Review" for the PrepTest you want to take:

https://media.giphy.com/media/fwckUjTCXrRYlDY9Bx/giphy.gif

Note that you'll only have access to the PrepTests included in your course. Free users have access to the June 2007 PrepTest only.

Alternatively, you can also go to Analytics. Then, select the PrepTest you'd like to take and you will see an option to take the PrepTest digitally, like this:

https://media.giphy.com/media/LRHsfGjAooamlIUK0v/giphy.gif

Since the tester is still in beta, please let us know if you notice any issues. We're actively monitoring this thread and improving the tester.

Thank you!

Hi fellas,

I’ve been studying for the paper version of the LSAT and have very used to certain notation strategies for RC and LR that unfortunately cannot be done on the digital LSAC. I’m sure a lot of people are in this same boat

I’m starting this thread to ask: how are you adapting? What notation strategy do you find most intuitive?

I’ve tried: highlighting the conclusion with yellow. Underlining premises.

Nothing beats being able to circle indicators etc and drawing them back to important points though. And still can’t figure it out for RC.

Anyway, what has worked best for you? Hopefully, our collective sharing of strategies might be able help each other work through the transition!

I would like to study 15-20 hours per week and sometimes struggle to keep focused. So I created a group me Lsat accountability group if anyone is interested in joining sign up for Group Me and inbox me your number. Let's help each other meet our LSAT goals.

Anyone else have no life and is about to lose all friends because of LSAT?

I am curious how others balance studying and personal life?

I’ve noticed my PT score gets significantly lower when PT is the first thing I do in the morning. (Confirmed by the two PTs this week:P) There was 10 points difference between the one I did at 8:30am sharp, and around 11am cause I was lazy and BRed LG from the previous PT on the day of the next PT. Surprisingly I scored a lot lot better after BRing LG before PT, which took me around two hours.

Would two hours of pre-studying before the test be too much for the actual test? I found it helpful but at the same time I’m only doing 4 sections, so it might be different on the real thing. Maybe get too tired by 5th section?

I’m thinking about implementing warm up to my pt routine, so would like some suggestion on what’s the optimal amount.

So wish the tests were all at 1:30PM... why lsac... even proctors wouldn’t want to wake up before 7AM... nobody should be forced to wake up before 7am... just wish everyone’s lifestyle would shift a few hours later so we (more like I,) could be more happy and productive. It’s not like we still live in a time where we have to align our everyday life to sunlight... no more...

Hi all,

I applied to several other schools, but I narrowed it down to these 4 schools:

Texas Tech (no scholarship offer yet) *COA is about $26k/year

U of Denver (a little less than $$, 2.3 conditional)

SMU (WL)

A&M (WL)

I am a Texas native, but I would be ok with moving to Colorado or staying in Texas for law school and work. I would not want to be in Texas forever though, I'd love to experience and work at another state at some point. I feel like staying in Texas for law school would be the safer route since I am more familiar with the state and have family here. I'll also have close to $50k in savings before I begin.

One thing that puts me off about U of Denver compared to Tech is after calculating my debt from the accesslex website, I think i'd have around $50-70k more debt at Denver and the average salaries for first year grads from Tech and Denver are about the same, according to their stats. Thoughts between Denver vs Tech? Any help would be appreciated! :D

Just finished all the lessons. Would the best thing for me to do is to take PT after PT?

Is 2-3 PT a week good or too much? I study a min of 5 hours a day and I’m hoping to get a score of 169 in September.

Also, when should I start drilling the lessons again?

For anyone who is close to done with their prep, did you follow the schedule 7sage generates perfectly or did you tweak it? I started the free trial last week (5 months from my anticipate test date) and I was wondering if the schedule is comprehensive enough. I am shooting for getting the Ultimate. I like this prep the best out of the other ones I have seen. I can pull off atleast 20 hours per a week to prep as well.

For those who are far along in their LSAT journey and used 7Sage to get there, what do you wish you knew before starting the core curriculum? I'm open to tips, tricks, general reflections, etc. I'm going to (officially) start my LSAT journey in a few weeks. I'm taking 7 months off to do nothing but focus on studying for the January LSAT. I love hearing from folks who have more experience than me. What do you wish you knew when you were starting out? Excited to be a part of this community!