Here is my situation. I am currently in my third year. I was thinking to start studying for the LSAT next summer but i know that 3 months is not enough.. So should i take a gap year after I finish my studies? or is there a way for my situation to study for the LSAT and at the same time not to affect my studies in university? Also, I have all the preptests so which plan should i buy ?

Hey 7Sagers,

We're excited to announce that we have new drills for Ultimate+!

Questions by Type

In additions to LR drills, we now have RC and LG drill sets organized by type. Scroll down until you see "Drills from PrepTests 01 to 09 " or search "Type Drill" (using Instant filter) on your Syllabus:

https://media.giphy.com/media/3df2g6NAsrrMFqIuNq/giphy.gif

LR Questions by Type:

https://media.giphy.com/media/2uw20hWwsTjQqkP9JK/giphy.gif

RC Questions by Type:

https://media.giphy.com/media/1gTopFoHrniGxVohaC/giphy.gif

LG Questions by Type:

https://media.giphy.com/media/X9iXT2nxSRK2coMpJj/giphy.gif

LG Drills

In lieu of the Logic Games Bundle, we now have **All LG Questions Drill** for every 10 PrepTests. These are easier to print than the LG Bundle and we have sets for newer PTs.

https://media.giphy.com/media/1gQyg7eRl7yilOi9rP/giphy.gif

(Search "All LG Questions Drill" (using Instant filter) on your Syllabus)

I just finished watching a WSJ youtube video on harvards secret admissions criteria and how asian american personalities did not stand out enough for acceptance and it got my thinking about what kind lf students they want at their school. Especially from minority students and students that are less fortunate. As someone who checks both kf those boxes I find it difficult to make myself stand out, Ive never even left the US and my gpa is not where it needs to be. I was hoping flr the lsat to be my saving grace but now im thinking even a perfect score from a poor minority student wont cut it. Any thoughts?

Here are some thoughts from the LSAC Forum in NYC. Of course, this is all my own opinion based on today's experience and should not necessarily be taken as the word of God! No, I'm not that haughty...

First, the workshops were not that illuminating, at least for me. Perhaps if you're entirely unfamiliar with the process, there would be some benefit, but for most students, you'd use your time more effectively by chatting with the admissions officers.

Second, business casual is fine. For some reason, I was a bit apprehensive about not wearing a suit, even though I had seen posts saying that business casual was appropriate. However, although most of the admissions officers wore more formal clothes, a majority of the students wore business casual attire.

Third, bring a briefcase or bag with you. I cannot stress how important this is for you! Every school will give you an equivalent of a couple of trees worth of flyers and glossy magazines titled "101 reasons to come to UMichigan!" If you plan on taking them with you, bringing a sturdy bag or briefcase is vital. LSAC did provide the classic tote bag, however. So that will probably be enough for most people's needs.

Fourth, try to give a face to the name. In my estimation, the Forum can be used most effectively by building rapport with the reps in addition to asking specific questions. Use some humor particular self-deprecating. You want to move past the mechanistic speech each one of them have stored in their heads. One person whom I spoke to sounded like a robot mechanically answering questions with little thought or personality. Obviously, don't go overboard or try to be something that you aren't, but leaving an impression (even just that you're personable) seems important. I think thanking for coming to the forum and chatting with you is a great way to leave an impression. I asked the Yale Law admissions officer--with whom I spoke with for a while--for a selfie, and he happily acquiesced!! Don't be shy. Most of them were quite personable. Remember, they'll have all your stats when you apply, but they won't know you. Building rapport at the Forum can make your application stand out.

Fifth, comfort the 2/3 of law schools no one is interested in. The contrast was stark. It was like a speed dating event in which only one-third of the people aroused interest. I felt so sorry for the South Dakota Law School. I mean no one came over to them. So, do your good deed for the day and make them feel desired!

Hey there, fellow 7sage students. This is a collection of thoughts from chatting with others on 7sage and I thought it might be helpful to share.

Mentality and Getting Back on Track

First off, I want to say it's going to be ok. It's ok to lose to the LSAT some times. It's ok to concede and retreat, and recover to fight another day. The LSAT is hard and although some people on the forums surprisingly will consistently get 180s, most won't. I've talked to some of the sages and tutors on 7sage, and they all agree on this: that one of the most essential skills to take away from LSAT is the ability to walk away from defeat without giving up, and to be able to get up after taking a punch.

For me, after I get a hard punch in the face, I usually need some sort of external stimulus, and that's usually a book, a friend, or maybe just a good old bottle of whiskey, just something that will help me ice the bruise, but remind me why I'm doing this in the first place. I remind myself that I actually like the LSAT, and going to law school. I profoundly look forward to the challenge and opportunities they offer, and additionally, I am confident in my persistence, and that my persistence will yield results. And I believe those qualities apply to you as well. Constantly remind yourself of your intrinsic motivation and that you can overcome the LSAT. But like I said, even with these two internal factors, I still need a little external help. So build a support system for yourself. My favourite books for this are: The meditations, by marcus arelius, Prinicples, by ray dalio, A man's search for meaning, by viktor frankl. Or podcasts, like this american life, serial, or one not even related to law. Essentially, they just remind me to stop being a whiny little bitch and take it like a (wo)man. If that's too much commitment, then feel free to talk to me, or make a post about it on the forums, and the others and I will be happy to help you get back on track! If you didn't notice, under my earlier vent about my big drop, a lot of peers gave very helpful advice and cheered me on. You can do that too =). We're here for each other.

Also, remember that time is limited, and running out, and remember that regret sucks more than trying your best and failing. I've regretted so many things in my life, that at this point that I am intimate with it and can feel it just by closing my eyes, and can use it to motivate myself so that I won't have to feel it again. If you don't want to feel regret, then let your actions prove that. We have 3 weeks left (if you're taking november), and that's very little time; really only 2 weeks left, since we're not suppose to study hard on the last week. So just put everything into these last two week, so you won't have to regret anything. There is an added benefit of feeling a lot less stress when you go into a test knowing you did everything you could, whether or not you will able to achieve a specific score.

Back on Track and Stronger than Before

It's ok to regress sometimes, but with that said, there's definitely no excuse not to learn something from your defeats. In fact, I welcome terrible defeats, because it'll be easier for me to recognize my mistakes and weaknesses than under normal conditions. Ask yourself: have you noticed any patterns or trends in your recent PTs that differ from previous PTs? Using the LSAT analytics, or just by tallying the mistakes yourself, you should be able to find some obvious weaknesses in your skillset.

That's step one, recognition. Step two is both the more straightforward and difficult part. You have to drill.

For some people, just redoing the core curriculum for the question types that they're weak on will fix the problem, but doing it right is the hard part. It's not perfect, but this is how I drill: I aim for perfection in drills, to do 5, 10, 15, or 25 hardest questions in a row, timed, and get none of them wrong. How do you get there? By taking it slowly and incrementally. I'll further break this down into smaller parts:

First, start with easier questions, and do them timed.

Second, BR them, but here's the important part: don't just BR them the way you normally would. Instead, now that you're not timed, take your pencil and, whenever you can, write down how you would pre-phrase the answer, write down the exact reason why you think the answer you chose is the right answer, and, if you can, also write down why you think a trap answer is attractive, but ultimately wrong (and ignore the obviously wrong answer choices). (Now, I see a lot of people doing this in the comments under questions, and that's great, but few people do it correctly. For reference, 7sage alumn, Accounts Playable, does it well)

Third, watch the video for any questions you circled or got wrong, but when you're watching it, don't just follow along; instead, I want you to actively engage with and try to anticipate and predict how JY would explain the question as he goes through it, and take notes on how his actually explanation conformed to or differed from your prediction. This is an important part of my mantra of: anticipate the JY, feel the JY, become the JY. Quite a few 7sagers have come out to say that they've started to think like JY, and I believe they probably used a similar process.

Fourth, move up a difficulty (according to the question bank), when you have gotten 10 or 15 questions of that difficulty correct in a row... or at least if you feel like you've gotten there, and repeat the steps.

Fooled by Randomness

Consistency is hard; it is a goal. But don't be discouraged because you're inconsistent. Just a few weeks ago, one of my test was 10 points below my average score, and even ignoring that test, my score has an upper/bottom spread of +/-3. I think over time, luck plays a part in the score too. Sometimes, you get a hard science or law passage that just destroys your mojo for the whole test, and other times, everything just goes your way. If you think about what the LSAT is, a large part is really just a game of probability. To illustrate this, here's an example:

Even if you can BR 180, I suspect that under timed conditions, you would consistently have anywhere from 10-12 questions that you're not 100% certain about. You've eliminated 3 answer choices, but are left deciding between two. On average, that's a -5/-6, and on a good day, it can be a -3, but alternatively, on a bad day, that can be a -10. That's almost a 10 point score difference purely from luck. On top of that, we have to consider the variability of mood and physical conditions, and that's another few points that you can't really control. So expect inconsistency, and focus on the factors that you 'can' control. Remind yourself that being nervous about such things that are out of your control is meaningless, and hopefully that will help sooth the stress.

Hope this helps =)

Hi all,

I'm retaking the LSAT in November. I sat for the September test and received a 162. I prepared really ineffectively and only took about 10 PTs altogether with virtually nonexistent BR. I've since changed those habits. I want to break 170 and I know that my main problem is logic games.

During recent PTs, I'll often go -5 to -7 on LG simply because I've run out of time and can't answer all the questions in the last game. Combined with my performance on LR and RC, I end up with scores in the mid to high 160s (most around 167-168). When I BR, I go -0 on LG and my score is in the high 170s with the occasional 180.

Is it possible to improve enough on speed in LG to shore up the points by the Nov. test? Is it too late to start fool proofing? Should I push the Nov. test to a later date?

what do people think of digital?

Any thoughts on this school? It's obviously a amazing often clocking in at #7 in the USNWR rankings. I decided to apply here. I lived in NY for 11 years, and never met a person who went there. I half jokingly thought U Penn Law didn't exist, until a month ago when I had my first encounter with a real life U Penn recent graduate. Thanks a lot!

We're excited to announce the 7Sage podcast! The podcast will cover various LSAT strategies, law school admissions, life in law school, and more!

Subscribe to our podcast:

iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Google Play Music | SoundCloud

We've released three episodes:

We will be releasing two more episodes in the next two weeks. And then we'll be releasing one episode a month.

Update: Two more episodes (4 and 5) released!

Update: Episodes 6 and 7 released!

hi all, I am taking the November test coming up in a few weeks (cry) and was looking for a little advice. I have been taking PT's and now I see that I need to review some LR question types. Should I try and review the CC for those few types while I am still taking my PT's? Or don't take another PT until I have reviewed at little? I am doing great in LG and not so hot in RC, so I feel like if I get some of the troublesome LR types down then I will feel much better.

Also RC sucks big time, and trying to figure out a good strategy for myself - advice on this topic also greatly appreciated. On my last two PT's I have strived to only complete 3 passages and try to get as many correct as possible, but still don't know if that is the most effective/beneficial for me...

Admin note: edited title for clarity

In the PT phase of my prep. I take a PT on the weekends. Then BR and watch videos. I have been taking an additional PT during the week (usually a mid-week evening) but I am finding I am drained after work.

I am curious what others have found to be most effective in their experience. During the week, do you take a full PT after work? Or do timed sections of new (or old?) PTs? (either followed by rigorous BR of course)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Could someone please type out their strategy as to how to attack these questions? They give me the most difficulty .Thanks!

Is there much known about how scores differ between an unpublished/international LSAT compared to the typical one done that has a curve? If less people take it would that not mean that a raw score/scale score on an international test isn't completely comparable to one done in the US?

I know we used to be able to. Does anyone know if we still can or if that's changed?

Thanks!!!

Having graduated and started working, I am slowly edging out of the tutoring/LSAT community (surprised I stayed so long). But while I'm still here and as I have a little free time over next week or so (and as I see a bunch of posts re: PSs): if anyone wants me to read their Personal Statement and provide feedback (won't edit, just general comment/reaction), feel free to PM me or e-mail at islandoflsat @ gmail and I'll try my best to get to it

Super pumped that I hit my goal score (168) today! But now im lost on what to do for the next three weeks before the november test. Obviously, I'll try to continue an upward trend - I'm already planning on taking additional PTs, BRing them and then reviewing, but should my strategy change at all? Should I continnue to focus on my weak spots? Or take more mental breaks and focus primiarly on testing? If someone found themselves in a similar situation and could weigh in, that would be really helpful.

My breakdown for this test (PT81)

LG -0

LR -5

RC -6

Hey 7Sagers,

For a limited time, you can pick up PrepTest 85 (September 2018 LSAT) for $5.97 here:

https://classic.7sage.com/addons/

This comes with the password-protected PDF of PT85 and a +1 month extension to your account.

Once the explanations are available, they will automatically be added to your account if you have access to PT85.

Please note that you must be enrolled in a Starter, Premium, or Ultimate course to add this PT on. Ultimate+ automatically has this PT added on.

The sale will end on Sunday, November 25.

I take the LSAT November 17th and I just finished all of the core curriculum. Should I just straight into taking the prep-tests now and doing the blind reviews? Or should I do all of the LG drills first, then do the prep-tests?

Admin note: edited title for clarity

For the easier questions in the practice set, I tend to get them; however, once the difficulty picks up, I start missing them.

Any advice to start getting the harder questions right?

I really need help. I received my BS in '13 and received a 138 on the June 2013 LSAT. Got a 136 in June 2014 and 134 in 2015. My GPA: 3.86

I do not know how to study. Also, I am dyslexic, so reading fast is very difficult. Any advise?

Hello again 7Sage fam,

I am very interested in immigration law/family law clinics, but not all schools I am interested in applying have these clinics. How important are clinics? Would it be better to attend a higher ranked school w/o these clinics of interest, or attend a lower ranked school with clinics where you can get valuable experience in?

I'm personally really drawn to these lower ranked schools because I think it would be awesome to get that experience, but I understand that other schools have ranking to their advantage.

It would be great to hear some perspective from some current or past students who have had experience with these clinics.

Thank you!

One thing I have been asked and am starting to take note of is goal setting on LG. Generally speaking, LG is looked at as a section very amenable to improvement. I believe this is rooted in the fact that upon first encounter, for many test takers LG is the weirdest section of the exam and that unfamiliarity translates into a lack of correct answers on one’s diagnostic or first attempt. It is often after one has gained familiarity with the games and developed a systematic strategy to approach the games where one starts to see their scores improve.


This post is dedicated to those who are what feels like a lifetime of prep away from their goal score on LG. It took me over 2,000 games to get from where I was (maybe 1 or 2 questions correct on the entire section), to close to where I want to be (a -1 for the whole section). I’m writing this for people who are -10,-12,-8 or even -5 on an LG section.

Let’s pretend you as the reader are attaining a -10 on a fresh, timed LG section and you want as your goal a -3 come test day. From someone who has put in so much work into the games, what do I recommend?

The first thing I recommend doing is figuring out precisely where your current problems are emanating from, is it a failure to make inferences? Do you occasionally misread rules? Is your understanding of conditional logic weaker than it should be, ie, not as sharp/quick/confident as it should be? Are you failing to keep track of your game pieces in a cogent way and therefore you have missed “floaters” or MBT placements? These are some of the possible places where errors might be introduced into our approach. The first step I recommend here would be to record yourself doing a section and review and watch the video on 7Sage for the game and see precisely where you failed to do something. Note here that you want to focus on the big things you missed, there might be smaller, stylistic differences between how you and MR. Ping set up a game board, sometimes, this is not a problem, other times it might be, in short, we are looking for substantive areas that are missed and not stylistic areas per se.

Next, use the filtering option on 7Sage’s question bank to find three or four games similar to the one you messed up on from a section of exam history you have dedicated to drills: for many this section of exam history is PT 36 and below: 35,34, etc, for me, my fool proofing/drilling “bundle” at this stage was PT 49 and below. Do these games several times along with the game you missed questions on. Look for similarities between the games on a deep level, how many rules chained together along with the inherent constrictions of what the game board allowed, for an inference on an in and out game? Where did you know to look for s possible inference? One small clue I will dispense here is that if you want to search for inferences after or during the writing of your rules: start with a piece mentioned in more than 1 rule. If a single piece as multiple restrictions/rules attached to it, there might be an inference attached to that piece!

All of this is outlined by 7Sage and by 7Sagers. Where I want to go with this post is , where to next?

After you’ve done the supplemental drills, located and hopefully fixed an issue, the next section you take (5,6 maybe 7 days later because you’ll be consciously drilling away the issue you discovered) your goal for that section is to not get a -10 or more missed questions. Your goal for that section is a -9 and maybe even a -8. The goal here is proximate: to be slightly better than where you were, meaning you have fixed something small and in addition to that kept everything else consistent. -9 here is a victory, you’ve survived and are no worse for the wear.

A quick detour: I’m reminded here of the first Pacquiao vs. Marquez fight. A thrilling match. Manny Pacquiao is, even to people who don’t follow boxing, one of the all time greatest fighters to ever live. Certainly (for my money) the greatest left handed fighter to ever live. Manny Pacquiao posses one of the greatest combinations of speed, precision and power ever. Tremendously physically gifted. But Marquez is brilliant, he knew he was outmatched in the physical areas of boxing and had to rely on what boxing experts call “ring generalship” or “boxing IQ.” In their first fight, Marquez got very badly knocked down several times in the first round: about as bad a start one can get fighting Pacquiao, who jumps on wounded opponents with precision like no other.

The fight was an inch away from being stopped by technical knock out. The round ended and Marquez went back to his corner: not defeated and deflated, but curious as to what he could do better the next round. Sure enough his corner started noticing things that he was doing wrong: not enough head movement, not enough jabs etc. From each round forward Marquez started implementing those things into his approach, one by one. His goal in the second round: stay alive and don’t get knocked down again. His goal in the third round: shake out all those cobwebs and start moving your head. Inch by inch all those things that got him into trouble in the first round, were being removed from his approach. He started winning rounds!

Sometimes we are going to get knocked down by an LG section, much like Pacquiao knocked down Marquez. But we’ve got to get to what went wrong and the next time we do a section (round) we implement that skill. Round by round Marquez started implementing all these things! And when the 12 rounds were over, it was a draw! A guy who had been knocked down three times in the first round by one of the greatest fighters to ever live was able: inch by inch to get back into the fight! If you’ve bombed a section: find one of the issues and drill it away. Bring that lesson into your next section, next time find another issue and drill that away! Marquez wasn’t looking to knock Pacquiao out in the second and third round, that would have been too much of a mountain to climb, Marquez was looking to win inch by inch. In your next section, don't look to crush the section and move from -10 to -2, instead look to turn that -10 into a -9. There are enough sections out there to implement this strategy across time.

Take a 6 minute brain break and watch the highlight:

So once you’ve improved by 1 point and you’ve improved something specific, it’s time to thoroughly review that new section, what went wrong and what went right? Your first goal is to stay consistent and your second goal is to improve upon that consistency. Consistency is improvement: for Marquez, consistency not getting knocked down again was an improvement! Drill via the question bank for the next week: your new goal is a -8 or maybe even a -7. Rinse and repeat, every 2 points in improvement taking an additional 3-5 days to drill the supplemental material along with the game in question. We do this because as you get better and better the problems might become more nebulous. Meaning, where once your improvement rested upon confidence in conditional logic, now your improvement relies on not making the inferences quick enough. Everything is great, it's just not fast enough to net a score improvement. These issues are going to take a bit more time to improve, but in the meantime you have hopefully attained a new normal when it comes to your score: a -7!

This is what I mean by LG goal setting: your process of diagnosing what is wrong and keeping the good things and fixing a single issue is a game of inches. I see many people not happy that they haven’t gone from -11 to -2. For some people-myself included- thats not how it works for us. A -11 to a consistent -7 is amazing progress and is something great to improve upon. More specifically, going from a -11 to a consistent -7 is tremendous. We want structure our goals piece by piece with games. People don’t climb Everest in one shot, they climb 200 feet and camp out, 400 feet and camp out, the next day there is a storm and their goal is: don’t lose an inch, stay where we are (consistent) and then they climb 200 feet and camp out when the weather is better.

Inch by inch, when we add up all of our progress, we will make it into that -2/-1 range, as long as we are honest with our mistakes and implement the solutions consciously. I should add in closing here that for many, this is not a linear process, there are going to be setbacks, but as long as we are focusing on sustaining where we are and building upon the foundation: improvements should come.

For further questions, feel free to reach out to me.

David

Hello 7sagers,

I am looking for some advice. Currently i'm booked to take the November LSAT but i'm about 70% complete (mid way through games) with the core curriculum. What should i do if i want to be ready for the test next month and expedite the amount of time for testing and blind reviewing? my previous score was a 151

I have taken 30 PT's and completed the LSAT Trainer Program, and purchased the starter package at the start of the month with the hopes of boosting my LG and LR scores. I have taken the test last February and in June, scoring 162 and 163. Can anyone give me some pragmatic advice for what I can skip on the CC if I am happy with my RC score and pretty happy with my LR score? I'm only 30% through and am planning on taking the test for the third and FINAL time in November.

My current regimen is 2 hours of CC and 1 hour of drilling sections/foolproofing on weekdays, and taking full PTs and doing BR on Saturdays and Sundays.

I'm averaging about 166 currently, but know that my score on the actual test will be somewhat lower. My main problem has been bad time management on Logic Games, as I can get perfect or -1 on the section untimed, but run out of time by the fourth problem set about 50% of the time.

For the people who will tell me to postpone, and that every single lesson on the CC is absolutely critical to bumping my score 3 to 4 points, this test and anxiety over it have consumed every waking moment of my life outside my full-time job for close to a full year now. I refuse to let it ruin another holiday season. Please don't try to reason with me on postponing, I am fully aware I could score higher if I postponed, but am looking for a pragmatic answer from someone who has been in a similar position.

Hi all,

I took the Sept LSAT and came up slightly short of what I would have liked to score. Due to some complications I was unable to take the Nov one, and had to sign up for the January LSAT. Is it possible for me to apply to my fall back schools right now as I would likely get in with the Sept LSAT and then wait to apply to the better schools after I retake in January (assuming my score improves), or would I be locked in at my fall back schools. Thanks for the help