and I bombed it. I'm not shocked because I knew when I finished LR and LG that I wasn't solid in my understanding of the methods, rules, etc.

so, now that I know for certain that I can crush the RC section (it's always been a strong suit - I'm an avid reader) but I need serious help in the LR and LG sections, how should I proceed with studying? re-watch the videos? drilling both? flash cards? I'm taking the September test so I have a little less than two months to improve in these areas.

(I should add that I have not done BR yet - I have no idea what questions I got right or wrong, I just looked at the overall score and which sections I need the most help in. I will do BR tomorrow or Monday - my test questions are all circled and ready for it.)

Hello fellow LSAT studiers/7sagers, gust wanted to hear peoples thoughts on study habits for full time workers and those who are also married and studying. What are some of the schedules people stick to, study habits, or ave. hours one may put in weekday vs weekend? Also any guidance on ensuring your spouse gets attention while also giving you space and support one may need for studying for this crazy exam? Any guidance or advise on these topics would be much appreciated!

As for me, I intend on sitting for the January LSAT. I started studying at the beginning of this month and have been putting in 2 to 3 hours a week day (Mon - Fri) and 5 to 8 hours btwn Sat. and Sunday (aiming for 10 to 12 hours a week). Is this enough time?

-Thanks!

There is a group on here that are applying to Canadian Law schools if you want relevant info for schools / want advice from a Canadian perspective check out lawstudents.ca

I’m 38, a single mom of 2. Been out of school since 2000, finishing up my BA now I’m hopes to apply to law school in the next 2 years.

Anyone else in a similar position? How do you stay motivated? Any worries about juggling law school and a family? Do you think being older hurts our chances? I’ve been a paralegal for 9 years so I’m hoping that experience will help instead of hinder.

Hi all,

Last June I scored a 142 on a practice test. After reading about the LSAT for a week I scored a 148. I took the CC on here and scored a 153 on my first practice test. It has been really slow progress since then. Last month I was consistently scoring a 165-166. I am registered for the July exam and have gone back down to a 158-162 this month.

IDK if test day being so close has caused me extra anxiety or preptests 74-77are harder. I'm thinking about postponing my test to September but I'll be moving from Sacramento to Boston on September 1. That might be a lot to deal with.

I'm thinking of taking a few days off from the LSAT...

Any general advice or ideas on how to be positive? What do you all do when you're feeling this way?

If you have ever learned a new language, you know that after translating a new word, phrase, or sentence, you don't just stop there. You write that word, phrase or sentence down on a flash card and you DRILL it into your brain hundreds of times until you can recall its meaning instantly without thinking.

Similarly, when you are learning how to play basketball, you don't stop practicing your free throws once you get the ball in the net. Professionals spend hours shooting and scoring hundreds of free throws so that the motion becomes perfectly ingrained in their muscle memory.

Or think about learning how to play the guitar. Any guitarist knows that just because you have played a song perfectly once does not mean you are ready to perform. You have to play the same song perfectly over and over again before you can say that you have mastered the song.

But repetition doesn't just help you master a given phrase, skill, or song. By performing an action repetitively, you strengthen the capacities and skills you need to successfully perform that action. By strengthening those capacities, you will be better equipped to approach different actions that require the same skills.

Think about the basketball player. Once he has mastered the free throw he will likely be much better at shooting three-pointers, or from any distance for that matter.

Or think about the musician: by simply mastering one song, a guitarist becomes much better at plucking, playing specific notes, and keeping tempo. So even though he only knows one song, she will be much better equipped to learn and play new songs.

So what does this mean for the LSAT?

First, it means that getting a problem right once is not enough. The reason is that doing that problem over and over again CORRECTLY is how you build the skills and capacities you need to approach different and more difficult problems. The skills and capacities I am talking about include processing, comprehending, and retaining a lot of information. They also include understanding and manipulating logic and arguments. Simply solving a lot of different problems gives you no opportunity to develop these skills.

In short, my first radical claim is that taking a PT and conducting one BR basically does nothing to improve your skills. It's because doing something once or twice just isn't really practice.

But there is more.

When studying, your focus should not be on developing the skills you need to approach the LSAT. Since you get these skills through repetition, my second radical claim is that YOU SHOULDN'T BE WASTING YOUR TIME ACTUALLY SOLVING THE PROBLEMS. When you approach a new LSAT problem (LG, LR, or RC), look at the answer and the explanation and make sure you understand the question, the stimulus, and why the answer is right. Then repetitively review the steps you need to take to correctly solve that problem. This is how you will get better at reading, solving games, or LR problems.

Finally, you should focus on practicing the same problems a lot, and not be trying countless new problems. If you can master (and by master I mean that you have almost memorized) 5 PTs, you will have done so much more to build LSAT skills than by simply taking and reviewing once 50 pts.

So yes, what I am telling you to do is print out one PT, circle all the answers before looking at the questions, read the explanation as you go through each question and answer, and then PRACTICE each problem over and over again until you get to the point that each answer feels intuitive, obvious, and incredibly easy.

That is how you study for the LSAT.

I have been telling everyone that I will be going to law school this year (including someone who is going to the same school I plan to go to as a 1L)... what can I tell people to not look stupid for waiting a year? Everyone thinks I'm starting this september. I know it doesn't matter what they think... just looking for a good excuse to not look stupid. Or a reason to maybe hold off a year, even if they think I got in.

Hi, everyone! I have been lurking on the boards for a while, and want to finally reach out and say hello. A little about me ... I'm a military spouse living in Japan, and prepping for the October LSAT (when it is offered here in Asia). I started studying in January of this year, using the Powerscore books, which did help some. My very first PT was a 155, and after 5 good months of studying, I tend to score in the mid 160s (my last PT today was a 166). I am starting the 7Sage CC in hopes of really maximizing my score on the October test. We will leave Japan next May, and my goal is to be ready to start law school in fall 2019. I am older (I'll be 36 at the end of this month) and mother to one amazing daughter, who is 9. My husband's time in the Air Force is winding down, and pretty much works out that his last 3 years of service will be the 3 years I'll be in law school. I'm excited...I'm terrified...I've got all of the emotions! But I really have appreciated this community, and had already started to incorporate some of the techniques in my studying. I decided to spend these last 3 months giving it my very best effort by following the curriculum so that I can rock it on test day.

Nice to "meet" y'all and I look forward to participating in the forums and learning/sharing with you!

I'm trying to sell my LSAT Workbook trilogy as well as the official LSAT preptest books. Anyone know where I can see them? I paid a lot of money for these and barely wrote in them so they're basically brand new. I've already taken the LSAT and want to get rid of them. Thanks!

Hey 7Sagers,

For a limited time, you can pick up PT84 for $5.97 here:

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

This comes with the printable DRM e-doc 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 PT84.

J.Y. is leading BR calls for LR sections of PT84:

https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/16810/pt-84-br-sessions-with-j-y-lr-sections-only

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.

Hi-

I'm planning on taking the June 2019 LSAT and am trying to decide which materials to buy. I've taken 1 diagnostic test and scored a 152 on it, and am looking to score in the high 160s for the actual test. Starting in September I will be a full time undergrad student and so am considering in between the Premium package and the Ultimate package. My dad thinks that I should just get Premium that way if I dislike the course I can find a different one but if I like it then I can just extend it. I agree but also just don't know if I have the time during the semester to go through the full course. Any suggestions?

When it says "very high" what does that mean?

For example, the necessary assumption section has 21 problem sets... Do you do all of these before moving on to the next section?

I'm in my senior year at FSU, and I'm currently taking 2 classes at school this summer, as well as working 20 hours a week, and doing this. Is anyone here strapped - or was strapped - with a similar workload? If so, how much of the cc are you able to complete in a week? If you've finished the cc, how long did it take?

So I’ll admit that I always seem to rush things once I finally get started. I graduated with my AS degree back in 2000 and now I am finishing my BA. I started classes this summer with a full load and hope to be done in 18-24 months.

I’ve been focused on trying to take the LSAT in January 2019, but does that even make sense? If I can’t apply until after summer 2020 at the earliest does it make sense to try and test so soon?

Maybe I should focus on classes and studying as much as possible right now, and test next summer- which would give me plenty of time to re-test if need be.

Any suggestions?

I am one of the older "wiser" (haha) LSAT takers and I started studying full time in October. I have been out of college for 30 years (yeah you read that right)... My goal was to score in the low 160's to get into my state law school that has great social justice / legal aid clinics and is the most affordable for me (I will have 2 kids in college in September!).

I was progressing steadily but then hit some crazy inconsistent scores in May with some of the later PT'S after hitting the low 160's a few times. I was slightly panicked and did not know what to expect sitting for June, but I managed to keep my wits about me and go in fairly focused. I did not hit my goal (just under) but kept the score to be sent with my super late application for this fall. Well, not only did I get in but with a hefty and totally unexpected merit scholarship. SO! All this to say a hearty thanks to 7 Sage - the curriculum is the best out there and the community is really an invaluable part of beating the head game that makes the LSAT such a brutal experience. And to those of you not shooting for a 170 or a T-14 school, keep at it and don't get discouraged when it all feels overwhelming and impossible. If I can do it, you definitely can do it. Shout out to the old-timers who like me are starting in September, good luck!

Hi all,

I was registered to do a PowerScore in person class in less than a week, because I really like the self study books and thought it would be good for me. However, exactly a week before the class was set to begin, I received a phone call saying the class was canceled due to lack of attendance. Pretty shitty of them. However, I immediately signed up for 7sage Ultimate instead, which I think will end up working out better for me, in the end.

My question now is should I start from the very beginning of the CC, or what? I've been studying hard for about 2 months now (and overall, much longer than that), with the PowerScore books. I started from the beginning of the lessons two days ago, and quickly became discouraged because in a sense, it felt like I was starting from the very beginning again. I became frustrated.

Of some subjects, I feel I already have a very good understanding. That being said, of others, I need to improve mine, because I've plateaued at 157 for awhile now. Really sucks. What should I do? My aim was to take the September LSAT. The only PowerScore self study guide I didn't have was the Reading Comp one, so maybe just start from that for the beginning? But I still feel I need to have a much stronger understanding of Logical Reasoning? Help! Feeling frustrated and a bit lost.

Hello everyone.

I'm feeling a little bit lost here. I took the June 2018 LSAT and I didn't get the score I wanted. Prior to that I read all of the Powerscore bibles and did a bunch of practice tests. I was scoring better on the practice tests than I did on the actual LSAT so when I got my score I was shocked to say the least. Now I've started studying for the September test with 7Sage and it's great but it feels redundant to watch all of these lessons when I kind of know most of it already from previous prep. Does anyone have any tips for me to maximize my usage of this course without feeling like I'm wasting valuable time, because September is right around the corner. Also I'm enrolled in the starter pack. Thanks in advance for the advice!

Is there a way to make the analytics accurate (total percentage ) if you only do certain sections from a test . For example for pt 52 I did 2 sections but it scored the ones I didn’t do as incorrect .

I just got a 159 on the international June test

My diagnostic was 163. I had been PTing around 173. I am careful with checking bubbling and have not misbubbled in the past. I remember making sure the bubbles lined up with question numbers as I took the exam. I walked out of the test feeling reasonably good.

I did test with a 2B pencil, not a normal #2 pencil, because in the country where I took the exam, I couldn't find any normal #2 pencils. I don't know if this might've messed something up? Or something else?

I just don't get it. Even on my worst test days, I never scored in the 50s. Ever.

Should I pay $100 to handscore, even though that $100 will make money quite tight for me (but not as tight as doing the test all over again)? Or should I accept that this happened and move on and take the test next year (can't take it again this year because I can't afford to and I don't have the study time available at this point)?

Hello - Is there a way to download the analytics you get after you score a PT? I would love to have an Excel spreadsheet with all that data so I can sort it on my own to see what I can focus on, etc.

Hey all,

I just completed PT 51-- and I have a huge gap btw my Timed and BR Score. It seems I'm mostly struggling with LR and RC.

*LR

Section 1

Timed - 15/25

BR - 24/25

Section 2

Timed - 18/25

BR - 24/25

*RC

Section 3

Timed - 20/28

BR - 25/28

*LG

Section 4

Timed - 22/22

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated - especially with respect to LR and RC. Thank you so much!! Very grateful.

Just got my LSAT score, I gave it for the second time and scored a 165. My first attempt was a 157. I'm not satisfied with my scores since my PT average was a 175, but I have severe anxiety problems and had to rush to the bathroom twice during the test because I felt like I was going to throw up, so this score was only natural. I'm planning to give it again (my last and final try), but Asia has only two more test dates for this cycle- October and January.

October is a tad bit early in my opinion, but I can make it work. I don't need to go over the CC again since I've thoroughly studied it twice now. I'll just start PT-ing from this Saturday.

I was curious if January was too late for this cycle. I'm also worried about burnout, since this will be my third time and I'm already very disheartened. Thoughts?

I just want to celebrate with y'all. I'm writing the July LSAT, and the last few weeks have been bleak. I hit a high of 169 two weeks ago. My next 8 PTs dropped as low as 161, and my average went even lower than it was before I hit the 169. Finally, after changing up my study methods, I finally hit a 169 again on Thursday. So I waited to see if this was a fluke or if I could sustain my progress. My practice test from last night hit my all time high of a 173 under testing conditions. Of course I'll be focusing on my average test score, but I'm incredibly excited to hit (and exceed) my goal of 170 on a PT for the first time.

I've benefited so much from what others have shared. I figured I would take a moment to share the things that I have found the most helpful since I've recently seen a lot of people posting about being in the same situation.

Like so many others have said, you can't just take PT after PT after PT if your score isn't improving. When I was trying to take as many PTs as I could in a week, my score didn't improve. Only when I cut back on PTs and instituted other ways of practice and review did I start seeing improvements.

I was bombing RC because I wasn't spending enough time on the front end. After I started spending 3 or 3:30 on the passage instead of 2:30 or 3, the questions flew by and with better accuracy because I was so much more familiar with the passage.

My attention span was horrible, especially during LR and RC. So, I started meditating and using my phone less. I'm the kind of person who checks their phone every 5 minutes, and by cutting back on that I trained my attention span to be much longer than before which improved my comprehension SO much. I even made sure that when I was doing something like watching a movie or eating, I wasn't constantly getting distracted by my phone or laptop.

I read the economist to feel more comfortable with science, technology, and economics passages that I'm not familiar with. (The plight of the liberal arts major, am I right?) I practiced making low resolution summaries, figuring out the authors point of view, predicting the course of the article, and analyzing the relationships between paragraphs. It seems like people have mixed feelings about this strategy, but I found that my RC got SO much better when I do this regularly.

For LR I cut out 7 practice tests worth of questions and put the answers on the back. I then sorted them by question type to drill as flashcards with immediate feedback. LR went from -11 to as low as -4 (total) when I did this.

Just thought I'd share. Good luck to everyone else getting ready to take the July test!

Over the course of 2 years I took the LSAT 3 times and studied my ass off. I spent countless hours learning, reading this forum and taking PT's... I had an excellent tutor @Sami (even though I'm a bad student). I wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributes to this forum, Sami and 7Sage as a whole.

End result: I got about $450 a semester shy of a full ride to my choice law school and couldn't have done it without you guys.