Please indulge me. I have nothing better to do until grey day.

Hello all,

As it gets closer and closer to the December exam, I find myself becoming more and more anxious to do well. In between CC lessons and even after I'm done for the day, my brain keeps saying

"gotta pass" "gotta pass" "gotta pass". I know the LSAT is not a pass/fail test, but you all know what I mean. Going to law school is my dream, and my parents have been supporting me both emotionally and financially my entire life. I wouldn't have made it this far if they did not believe in me. Once I accomplish my goals, my family wont have to support me anymore, and I can finally return the favor. I just want to make them proud, but I am not exactly sure how to calm down to ensure I perform at my very best. Sometimes I even start shaking. All thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

Hey Guys,

I was wondering what the consensus was on adding something specifically about the school you are applying to on the personal statement. Like throwing in a final paragraph saying something like... this school would be a great fit for me because it has xyz...... It's showing how I would fit in with the school. Whats the consensus on this?

How long do logic games take to click? If I do enough and make sure I can memorize and do all the problem sets will I be better equipped for future games (not completely set, but better equipped)? I just can't do more then like 2 questions for each game and it is very discouraging. Any tips/advice? Obviously JY stresses practice, but during a video he's like "yea like try to get this done in 5 minutes".... when I was staring at my page and did 2 problems after 20 minutes.

Any advice? Or tips?

Hi everyone,

I have slowly realized that I probably won't be able to make the December LSAT; going through CC has taken me a lot longer than I expected, and on top of this, Canadian law school apps are due Nov. 1 and I really want to put a lot of time and effort into all my personal statements. I'm applying for admission in 2018. I'm only on invalid argument forms right now and I still have to do a lot more LR, all of LG, all of RC, and PTs.

There's a part of me that wants to write December anyway (and then re-write in Feb if I do poorly), but I really feel like I'll bomb it which won't look great on my record (I'm assuming). The schools I'm applying to accept the February LSAT, but I know a lot of people say it puts you at a disadvantage because you are competing for fewer spots by the time your marks come out & they review your apps etc.

When I spoke to schools on the phone, they made it seem like I wouldn't be at a huge disadvantage but it's not ideal; on the other hand, I've heard from applicants themselves that it's really not a good idea.

Does anybody have experience with this? Do you feel like it's actually a disadvantage? I only know one person who's gotten into law school using their February score of the same year. I can't decide if I should just go ham and push like crazy for December and risk having a mental breakdown, or take my time and have a better chance of doing well but possibly less of a chance of getting in...

Just a friendly reminder it's this week :) :) :| :( :'(

I'll be here for you all.

https://media.giphy.com/media/1BXa2alBjrCXC/giphy.gif

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on here, but I’ve been reading through posts every now and then for the past few months. So first of all, thanks to all of you for making this forum such a great source of wisdom and motivation. It’s really helped me out a lot over the last few phases of studying.

I was hoping people might have some thoughts and suggestions on how to structure the remainder of my prep time. For the past several months this point has just had a big looming ‘PT!’ marked - which is surely at least part of a good idea.

An idea of where I am:

I started studying in earnest back in January. Jan/Feb I went through all 3 Bibles. March/April I did the 7Sage CC. The summer mostly consisted of The LSAT Trainer, fool-proofing LG’s, and moving from untimed LR/RC to fully timed (BR of course). As of this week I am done with a giant slate of fool proofing on LG and starting to get back into shape on the other sections.

LG's are fool-proofed 1-38 & ABC. Planning to keep adding to that one section at a time.

My LR is going pretty well but is definitely what I’m most stressed about. I normally get to the last 2 pages of questions around the 25 minute mark, and finish at 33 with not a lot of time to go back and check. My past few scores (most recent to less recent) have been -4, -4, -0, -0, -1, -2, -1 (You can probably guess where I took 2 weeks off to finish up LG fool-proofing). It’s tough to see too much of a pattern in question type missed. Parallel questions of either type are definitely prevalent and MSS probably stress me out the most. But I’m also fairly likely to miss NA and SA which I am confident in (or anything else).

RC has been pretty similar. I’m more likely to bust on RC with a passage that just blindsides me for -4 or -5, but less and less all the time. More recent scores on that are -2, -1, -2, -3. Oddly Main Point and Purpose of Passage Questions seem to be the ones I’m most likely to miss along with a curve breaker question or two. I used to finish the sections by around 29-31 minutes with plenty of time to go back and check, but after my LG break that has crept up to 33 with one section I didn’t finish (-3). Hopefully it starts to slide back down now that I’m not neglecting the section as much.

I’m signed up to take the electronic field test this coming weekend and am planning to sit for the real thing in December, but am perfectly content to slide that date back to February. My sort of amorphous plan had been to jump in PT (60+ are all entirely clean for me). But does anyone have any suggestions on a balance of full PT vs. timed sections vs. reviewing CC material or any other thoughts on what might be helpful to squeeze out my last few points and gain some consistency?

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to being more active here as I finish up my prep!

Was wondering if 7Sage thought about the ability for 7Sagers to download the lesson videos and watch them without the lifeline of internet connection? The only reason (sufficient condition LOL) I ask is because I'll be without solid internet access for 7 months while deployed and would like to still go over lessons during down time. Any thoughts or has this been considered / implemented?

Hi, so I've been blind reviewing for a while now and completely understand what it is. In the past, when I take a PT, what I have done is printed off two copies and taken the PT under timed conditions with a random 5th section. Afterwards I would do the PT on the second copy untimed without having the answers from my first timed attempt in front of me since that can sometimes mess with me psychologically in various ways.

However, I've started to wonder if it would be better to BR by passage/game for RC and LG and by section for LR rather than doing the whole PT untimed as BR and not looking at the answers until I've answered all of the questions. The reason is that I've found that by the time I'm done with all 4 sections, I don't necessarily remember my exact thought process as I was going through my BR.

Basically my BR process would involve doing each passage untimed and looking at the answers just for that passage afterwards. This way I can see which questions I got wrong and look at explanations on the Powerscore/Manhattan forums while everything is still fresh in my head. I also think it will save me time because if I do my BR from start to finish, then when I finally look at the answers and see which ones I got wrong, I pretty much have to spend time re-reading each passage that I have wrong questions in.

The same idea would apply to LR by section and LG by games, though I feel like for me this is most important with RC since it is the section I struggle most with.

I'm interested to hear what you guys do and which method of BR you think is more effective/time efficient.

I switched to 7sage about 3 weeks ago, so still working on core curriculum. I am taking the dec LSAT and am currently PTing around 155 (154 was my raw score, I did not study much before 7sage like I should have). In order to get into my dream school I know I need a 163 and I should be golden (162 would probably also do it), I'm currently doing 2 PTs weekly, studying nightly, doing undergrad and taking care of my toddler. Do you think it is possible for me to improve my score 8 points by December?

I began college as a part-time student while working full-time; I took a few distance ed (online) classes through a community college in another part of the state. I eventually moved states and started attending another community college, which I attended for about a year part-time. I then transferred to my current university, where I have been a full-time student for 2 years (graduating in December). Overall, it'll have taken me 4 years to complete college, though a substantial chunk of that was part-time study.

Does this warrant an addendum? They'll see three undergrad institutions' transcripts, and I don't want them to simply think I'm lazy or something for going to school part-time. My grades were excellent at all three, so I'm not trying to make excuses there.

I recently made a post suggesting that 7sage update a certain statistical tool and that it would be useful for law applicants on this site. Afterwards I was blatantly and maliciously attacked with personal insults, and unfounded baseless assertions by a certain user @seekingperfection.

To keep a long story short, he pissed me off. So now I feel its my duty to expose this dude for repeatedly lying on this forum.

His claims:

My prediction: He has no degree, has never held a professional job, lied about his published papers, lied about his lsat score.

His responses will be one or more of the following:

So now I’m calling him out @seekingperfection – post a screenshot of your LSAT score, post links to your published works. You talk a lot. PROVE IT.

DISCLAIMER: If anyone is offended by this post, please disregard it. And please don’t report this, we are all adults here, no one needs parents on here telling everyone to “be nice” or goto bed by 8:00pm. This is all in good fun. But for those of you that have had contact with this user, I think this should be interesting.

So when do we think grey day will be? Will there be any delays with the hurricanes? Any idea?

Hello all! I'm signed up for the September LSAT and have been testing in the lows 160s. It terms of preparation, I have completed 70% of the 7sage curriculum and have taken only 3 LSAT practice tests. I am already planning on taking the December LSAT because I am absolutely confident I can make at least a 168 merely by improving on LG, which is the part of the curriculum I have not gone over. I have also been missing around 3 questions in RC and around 8 across both sections of LR, so I know I could also make some improvements there.

Typically I would just say I'll withdraw from/cancel the September test, as I already know I plan to retake. However I am taking the LSAT abroad, as I'm in Europe at the moment (actually in a country that doesn't offer it, requiring me to fly to Paris to take the test). I made this whole plan several months ago, assuming I would be ready. Long story short, I'm not and I know that I am not performing at my score potential.

At this point, I can't get the money back on the flights/hotel/or test in Paris, so should I just go ahead and take the test, knowing I'll probably get a 162 or so? I am not planning on submitting my apps until January when the December results are out anyway. I've already read up quite a bit on whether the December LSAT is "too late" and have realized with a 170+ score, it really isn't. I also have read the policies of each school I plan on applying to in regard to multiple LSAT scores, and the general consensus seems to be they will consider the higher one, and give you the option of sending in an explanation if there is a big discrepancy between the scores.

Like all of us, it has been beat into my head to not take the LSAT until you feel ready for it. Is it irresponsible of me to just take it anyway and then explain the lower score away on my application?

Also, as an aside, I am now in a position where I could devote around 20-25 hours per week for the next two weeks to studying. I know predicting point improvement is hugely difficult, as it depends on the person, but do you think I would potentially raise my score another 3 points or so?

I really appreciate y'alls help. Just reading through the discussions here on 7sage is helpful, the community seems so genuinely helpful and pleased when other's succeed.

how many games should it take?

So I haven't experienced burnout yet and I've been pushing myself hours and hours and hours to reach my limit of studying until I can't. I notice that my competitive nature and the fact that I haven't hit my projected score has overridden potential burnout. I'm sure I will burnout soon, but I'm liking that my motivation is currently there. Hopefully it is because I'm aiming higher each time.

Hoping for an extremely productive 2 months before the test.

Need that 10 point jump!

Hello everyone,

So I should be finished the CC by next Tuesday. After that I was going to drill all of the LR and LG as a refresher before I took my first PT. Is anyone willing to help me make a schedule so that I drill and PT effectively for the December LSAT? I am hoping to at least PT 4 times before the actual test, and I'm focused more on quality PT'ing over quantity.

My friend Daniel wrote a great blurb about Canadian Law Schools and told me to share with whoever. I thought this would be a good place to post it!

"Daniel’s Great Canadian Law School Brain Dump

So I’ve been asked by a bunch of people about which law schools to apply to, how to apply, etc. So here goes.

Below is a scatterplot I made for a story I was working on for the10and3.com, which everyone should visit and read all the time because it’s a fantastic website. I went and plotted the median LSAT and GPA scores for each entering law school class in the top 50 US schools, and every single Canadian common law (read: not Quebec law) school in 2014. So some of the data’s a little old.

[insert graph here]

As you can see, these scores matter significantly more in the US than they do in Canada. On the top right hand corner, there’s Columbia University, with its unbelievably high entrance averages, and if I were to continue and plot the remaining 100+ US schools, it would form a pretty clear correlation. In the US, the top students go to the top schools, with very little deviation from the concept.

As you can see, it’s a little different in Canada. The top students are still going to the top schools, of course, but there aren’t really especially “top” schools in Canada in the same way. Instead, they kind of cluster into three categories that I’m about to go through. Since there’s so many fewer law schools (and they tend to be smaller here too), there’s good news and bad. The good news is that lawyers in Canada are considered to be some of the best in the common law (British Commonwealth) system, and a Canadian law degree can actually travel much more than most other ones. It’s also not as difficult to find articling positions in Canada (Western claims it has a 90%+ articling rate, but I’m highly skeptical of that), because relative to the US and UK, we graduate fewer lawyers a year. The bad news is that Canada is one of the hardest places to get into law school! As a result, there’s a bit of a cottage industry in law student tourism that I’ll get to in a bit.

But first, everyone’ s main question to me: Which school do I apply to?

My first piece of advice here is to ignore the tables on the internet that you’ll find that detail the average entrance grades and the like of Canadian schools. They’re usually wrong and really don’t tell much of the story (entrance averages on their own are dumb – you need them with the standard deviation and some idea of how normal their distributions are). The next thing is to ignore the Maclean’s Ranking guide. Maclean’s again only tells a small part of the story, and they tend to skew towards schools that focus on training academics – not much weight is put on things like global reach, firm hiring rates, class sizes, and student experience. What’s freely available online is also quite a bit out of date.

As I mentioned earlier, there are more or less three clusters of schools.

Tier One – The Tough Ones

These schools are ridiculously tough to get into, because they have the highest entrance averages (which I gleaned from their 2013 or 2014 prospectuses, not stupid internet tables), and tend to attract competitive students.

Toronto – unquestionably the best law school in Canada, with entrance averages that seem to rival the top US schools. The good news is that graduates tend to be the first ones hired on Bay Street to play Harvey Specter and wear $5000 suits. The bad news is that tuition is now about $30,000 a year. So you go deep in a financial hole, to hopefully pull yourself out of it sooner rather than later. Also, living in downtown Toronto is really not cheap. So get used to commuting on the subway. Not really the Specter lifestyle for your three years. The school’s good at just about every type of law too, and there isn’t a textbook in this country that is at least co-penned by one U of T prof. U of T only looks at your best three years of undergrad when determining your marks.

UBC – Also an extremely competitive school, with very high entrance averages. Part of UBC’s allure tends to be that it’s probably the best value degree in the country, with a comparable standing to U of T but quite literally half the price tag – BC froze their grad school tuition rates a few decades ago and it’s now made their law schools incredibly attractive. As an added bonus, there are only three (relatively small) law schools in the heavily populated province, and so there’s a good chance that you’ll find articling positions upon graduation. Vancouver living isn’t too cheap either. UBC ignores your grad school marks and will drop your lowest undergrad marks when calculating GPA.

McGill – This is a bit of a strange case, because McGill tends to have very high GPA averages but relatively lower LSAT scores. This is mostly because it teaches both English common law and Quebec Code Civil, and their Civil Code program doesn’t require students to write the LSAT (duh, because it’s in English). So the LSAT score it posts is a little misleading, and there’s quite a few students who are at the school that never wrote it. Nonetheless, if you have any interest in practicing Quebec law, this is absolutely the best school to do so. McGill also has, in my opinion, the best school brand in the country, and anywhere in the US and Europe will know, and be impressed by, a McGill graduate.

Tier Two – The Great Mushy Middle

Once we’ve dealt with the three really big, famous, and fancy law schools, then we need to deal with everyone in the middle. Unlike in the US, where schools are carefully streamed into certain scores, there are a core group of six schools in Canada that claim identical entrance averages – usually a low A-, and an LSAT of 162. Someone with a ton of time on their hands might apply to them all, but an astute reader and stats nerd (like me!) can figure out that even with the same averages, they are not all alike; each school has a tendency to pick students with a certain ‘mixture’ of the two. Furthermore, students with pretty strong grades might get two or three acceptances, and so each school has a tendency to specialize in certain fields of law. So some research, and knowing your own grades, will give you a pretty good idea on where to go.

UVic – Picks students in probably the most straightforward way. It just looks at your LSAT and GPA and then takes those with the best combo. Since the school gives 50% of its consideration to your LSAT grades, it has a tendency of picking students with higher LSATs relative to their GPA – someone with a B+ average but a 165 stands a very strong chance of going here. They also make you write a personal statement just because. Goods: smallest class size out of the six (only 110 students!), and focuses on public law, mostly environmental and Aboriginal laws. Also the cheapest law school in the country, with a tuition of around $10,000/year. Bads: not great international exchange opportunities, and as pretty as Victoria is, the school is kinda parked in the centre of a 1960s subdivision.

Western – Puts a ton of emphasis on your personal statements, and seems to care about the LSAT more than a number of other schools. In 2015, it claimed an LSAT average of 163! It also completely ignores your grad school marks. Goods: second-smallest class size of the six (170), and designs their program so first year students take all of their classes with the same 20 students. Has a fantastic exchange program and is considered to be the second-best school in the country for business law, behind U of T. Bads: relatively expensive ($20,000/year), and London, Ontario.

Queen’s – tends to take students with very high GPAs and less impressive LSAT scores. It tends to train students with a focus of pushing them towards legal academia, and most of their professors are known more for their writing than their teaching. Goods: strong public law program and academia-focused faculty – tons of textbooks are also written by Queen’s professors. Bads: I’m skeptical of some of the students they seem to let in – people will get into the program with a 4.0 GPA in a relatively simple undergrad, but then a garbage LSAT score (158, in this circumstance)

Dalhousie – Another GPA-focused school. Much like UVic, it calculates almost entirely its marks from GPA and LSAT, but puts a much bigger weight on the GPA side of things. Claims to choose applicants by reserving a good number of spots for Nova Scotians. Has a really neat combined MBA/JD program, which can offset the ridiculous tuition that would accompany an MBA/JD program. Goods: it’s Halifax. It tends to dominate law firms in Atlantic Canada, and I’ve heard that it’s relatively easy to get work out there, if the firms are hiring. Bads: I hope you like rain!

Osgoode – Despite its name, this is York University’s law school. The school itself is on York’s campus, not in Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto. Don’t let them try to trick you otherwise! This school, like Western, puts quite a bit of emphasis on the personal statement. Goods: focus is a strange combination of business laws and criminal law, as the school churns out tons of Crown prosecutors and defence attorneys. Bads: York is a savage hellscape in North Toronto. My brother describes the campus as “a 1960s concrete bunker in a sea of grass.” This is one of the largest law programs in the country (~300 students), and it is famous for an extremely competitive atmosphere amongst the students. It’s the second most expensive law school in the country, about $27,000/year last I checked.

U of A – I literally know nothing about this school, other than it’s in Edmonton. So you’re on your own here.

Tier Three – The Regional Schools

There’s a demand for lawyers just about everywhere in Canada, but obviously, they tend to gravitate towards big cities (read: Toronto and Ottawa). So there’s a number of smaller universities around the country that offer a law program specific to the province that they’re in. Usually, these schools will have lower entrance averages, but they cover for this by giving preference to applicants from the area around the school, as encouragement to keep the lawyers in the area. I’ll just list them, because this is starting to take awhile to write all this out, and this paper has already gotten way longer than I anticipated.

Lakehead, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Thompson Rivers (brand new!), UNB, Moncton, and I probably missed a couple but you get the drift.

The Curious Case of UWindsor

For the life of me, I’m still confused how this university got a law school, but oh well. The law school itself is really and truly not a bad place, even though it gets a ton of flack from lawyers and other applicants. It’s considered to be the ‘lowest’ Ontario law school with the least reknown. The school doesn’t publish its entrance averages, which to an extent demonstrates its own point. But the school does have some really neat programs – there’s a joint-degree program with the University of Detroit Mercy, which will let you graduate with both an American and Canadian law degree, letting you practice in both countries. It also has a very strong social work and JD program and is considered to be a great school for studying family law.

The Curious Case of uOttawa

Very strange things have happened at this law school. About five years ago, on an admissions error, the school accidentally let too many students into the program. They never fixed it (obviously on purpose). Now the program is 310 English law students and 80 French ones, creating a whopping 390 students a year, and giving it the title of the largest law school in the country. Like McGill, uOttawa offers both English and Quebec law programs, in both languages. Like McGill, only the English program writes the LSAT, so they don’t publish their LSAT averages, though it’s commonly understood to be lower than the six schools listed in Tier Two. They specialize in public policy law, and I believe they’ve also got a part-time program available. What’s scary about this school is that it used to be one of the very best law schools in the country, but, over time, it has actually fallen in reputation and rankings pretty much universally. So buyer beware.

Daniel, my grades and LSAT score aren’t good enough for these places, what are my options?

In my opinion, law school is really really tough and a lot of work; there’s a reason why schools are always so selective about these sorts of things, because it’s really not for everyone. That being said, there are other options, indeed, IF you really really really really really really really really really really really really really want to pay a fortune.

In general, there will always be a law school in the US that will take you, no matter what. But you likely need some sort of scholarship, because these degrees usually cost around $60,000/year.

New Zealand and Australia are also expensive options. Bond University in Brisbane actually offers Canadian law courses, and it’s common for Canadian students to go there, get part of their degree, and then transfer back into Canada to finish it. Each course you take will cost you between $5000-7500 though.

UK law schools are designed quite differently, where students can actually go and enter them directly out of high school. There are some good ones (holla at Oxford), but there are also some real shitty ones. Because of this direct from high school component, the entrance requirements are quite a bit different and I’m not entirely sure how they work.

Finally, there’s India and South Africa. The schools exist and do have some good reknown. But again, I’d imagine it would be extremely tough to transfer your degree back to Canada.

What did you do?

I made a couple small mistakes in my applications. When I applied, I had about a 78-79% average depending on the school calculating it, and I only ever wrote the LSAT once, and scored a 162. I applied to Dalhousie’s MBA program (but not their JD), UVic, Western, uOttawa, UWindsor, Lakehead, and Queen’s. I got my first acceptance in early December for uOttawa, I heard from UWindsor in January, and then UVic and Western at roughly the same time in April. I was waitlisted in January at Lakehead, with the understanding that I would get a spot in the school if they could not fill it with Northern Ontario students. If I were to do it again, and based on how my marks were, I would have likely not bothered to apply to Queen’s, and instead applied to Dalhousie. I chose Western over UVic mainly because my interests lay in civil law, not public law, and job prospects are very strong for Western grads.

More than anything, don’t go into this thinking that you’re going to be so much less intelligent than everyone else. There are definitely still some dolts in my class.

I hope this all helps! What a great way to kill an hour instead of doing actual work."

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view8/20140127/4963909/you-need-to-study-your-grammar-son-o.gif

Hey everyone, I hope your LSAT studies are going spectacular!

It's no secret that English grammar is very dynamic, weird, and convoluted even for the native speaker. Besides the helpful grammar section in the 7sage curriculum, outside review should be implemented in your studies to help get awesome results in your PT/BR performance. I once read a comment from @"Cant Get Right" that really put this all in perspective for me. It was on a post about relearning grammar and he said, "Just recognizing that is a great start. The logic repeats itself over and over and over. They just don't have a lot of options on the logic. So what they do is they disguise that material with grammar. At a certain level, it really does become a test of grammar. Mastering the logic is far from sufficient to ensure a good score On the hardest questions, the difficulty is often not the logic at all, it's the grammar. So this is definitely worth a large allocation of your study time."

So please make it a point to take time outside of your prep to truly understand the logic behind grammar! For anyone interested, I've found this free online grammar course that will take place on February 27,2017:

https://www.edx.org/course/english-grammar-style-uqx-write101x-3

Let's do dis!

Thanks for feedback!

Any idea when PT82 will become available for purchase? How soon after that can we expect explanations from 7Sage? Might this happen before the December test date?

Can anyone recommend the Manhattan Prep LR for supplementary material? I've been through the CC already and I am wondering if the Manhattan Prep LR will complement/reinforce what was taught in the CC. Also factoring in that I am signed up for the December test giving me about 8 weeks till then. I am in the PT phase and I just want to gauge what you all think about this and if it is even worth it at this point. Thanks!

Just wanted to give some hope for other people. Today I took my first timed PT in about a month (I've already FP LG and am now drilling LR). A month ago I got a 161; today - 170! It was PT59, which as far as I know may be the easiest PT ever and my score may drop back down to 160 next week.

Fool proofing works. I got a -1 on LG (granted, there were no odd ones). I'm now going to drill LR even harder. Somehow I have to get my RC up, so if you have any advice please share! I'm shooting for a 170+ in December, and with two months to go it's looking like I might actually have a decent shot.

BR is still slightly confusing in the sense that I'm not sure if the first time around (when I'm doing question sets) if I'm supposed to be timing myself. Or am I supposed to take as much time as I can since I'm still in the CC stage? I'm currently doing my Question sets timed and then doing BR after.

Is it less than beneficial to time yourself so early when you're just learning concepts? I don't quite know how to approach this?

Why so confusing?? ?

Oftentimes, when I sit down to take a practice section or a PT, I tend to psych myself out. I try not to care about the score or how many questions I get wrong, but just trying not to care doesn't really work for me. What are some things you tell yourself or do to get out of your head and genuinely not care about how you do on the test?

I'm not talking about where you don't take the questions seriously--but you take the test in a way where you don't care about doing well in terms of the score, but care about taking the test in a strategic way and just doing your best.