So I just got my December LSAT results back, and as expected, I didn't do very well (155), I knew right after that exam that it hadn't gone great. I choked on the logic games section, and underperformed on the LR. I need some advice on whether I should take the February one, or wait until June... Essentially my situation is as follows:

I am from Canada, and my GPA is slightly lower than the median for most people applying to law schools here. The average applicant has an A- average which is 80-83% (with a 162 LSAT), mine is a B+ 77%, or so (differs from school to school but this is just a snapshot). This isn't from lack of ability (I got straight A's my final year of university), just lack of focus or motivation my first few years. I already paid for a handful of applications for this coming admission cycle and obviously would like to go somewhere but I am not sure if I should put myself through 1 month of extreme stress with a large chance of not getting a high LSAT mark (163-165) I currently need (and blowing another LSAT write). From what I have learned in JY's course, crushing the LSAT is a habitual process that most people get to from months and months of constant repetition and practice. I put in a couple months of full time studying but clearly that wasn't enough.

A handful of people have recommended that I register for classes at the university I graduated from as an unclassified student and take a year of classes that I am interested in (I am a huge history/politics buff) to bring up my GPA. On average, Canadian law schools tend to weigh GPA slightly higher than the LSAT. I shot myself in the foot by not becoming absolutely stellar at LG's, I was averaging 16/23 on the 8 PT's I took before my actual write. Assuming I did well in all these classes, It would alleviate some LSAT pressure.

The only downsides to waiting until June is that I wasted $800 on applications since February's LSAT is the last score accepted for admission in Fall 2017, and I delay my law school aspirations a bit (I am currently 26 years old).

Anybody who has advice, opinions, or general comments....please let me know!

FML.

-7 LR

-3 LG

-10 RC

(crying inside)

So, I just checked my application status for GW and it says my future lsat score has been received. Does this mean the scores are out for schools? I don't see anything on my LSAC acct; my application was on hold for my test scores.

Hi everyone,

I hope those of you who sat the Dec. LSAT killed it!!

I had applied to schools well before my Dec. Lsat with just a September score and had notified schools that I will be retaking in Dec. Now that my Dec. score is in and my LSAT score isn't pending anymore i'm wondering if I should nudge the admissions office to make my application complete. How fast or slow are they in updating files...does anyone have experience with this? My 2 options are to either ignore it and let them do their thing or notify them about my Dec LSAT and let them know that I don't intend to retake in February. Let me know what you guys think!

Thank you.

So I am sure many of you are sitting in anxiety and fretting over the what ifs as much as I am right now waiting for the score to be released. My advisor is a wonderful professor and a lawyer himself. As he said, welcome to the profession; it's a lot of money to take tests and a lot waiting. Well, I guess there is a silver lining in all of this. I am very blessed to be graduating my university a semester early with a 3.8. My whole life I have been a good student. I never really had to study until college. Granted I would study prior to this, but I have a very good memory and a lot came naturally (except math and science). Alas, when I took the SAT that was not my thing. I have never been so wonderful at standardized tests. It just is something that is an internal battle for me. The test anxiety gets to me.

Now coming to the LSAT...my new enemy. I began studying with Kaplan and took a course last May. I studied for 5 weeks and in my eyes "bombed" the LSAT. I was devastated. I probably should have listened to my gut and put off until September like a good friend of mine did. There has never been something in my life that has been so challenging academically. I just don't understand how one test could mean so much and could be such a barrier for so many people. If you have enough determination and will to succeed, the law school process will be what you make of it. I have a few friends who did not do wonderfully on the LSAT (in the low 150s) and are doing wonderfully in law school and on the Dean''s List.

I know that once the LSAT is behind me I will be able to take the huge leap of faith and give it my all in law school. Although, right now I am feeling pretty defeated. I have been studying waiting for the December results just in case I need to take again in February as I am already signed up. Many people not in this position question my motives. They think I should just give up and not bother. They don't understand why I have to miss out on going to many events or study so much. Its because I have this fire inside of me to succeed and reach my goals. I am sure many of you have already stopped reading, bravo if you made it here lol, but I just know that we all have that same feeling. Friends of mine in the same boat see the gut wrenching fear that the LSAT process gives. The anxiety. The fear of both wanting to know and not wanting to see it pop up. The need to plan ten steps ahead before you can even get to step one. However, eventually, we will all get there. Thank you JY and 7Sage for helping us on this journey. And for some reason writing this word wall has been therapeutic. I'm done now. Good luck to all!

what is an lsat score band and should i care?

Hi guys,

Just got my LSAT score and I scored a 167, lesser than I expected and lesser than my last few tests average. I was planning on applying for fall 2018 anyway. Should I take the LSAT again? If I do, it will be my third attempt, in my first attempt I had scored a 157.

So this was my 1st official LSAT and I already knew I would take it one more time. In the mean time I wanted to ask what do I do now? I know some of what to do but interested in what others have to say or maybe did after getting their first score, whether it was good enough for them or not.

I am a little bummed out after receiving my December LSAT score. I got a 158 in September and a 154 in December (I was really looking foward to scoring a 160 or above; not sure what happened). So, I have two questions: how badly do you think this will effect my chances in getting into top tier law schools and scholarship opportunities? Do you think this drop requires an addendum?

I am an URM, if this helps.

Would love to hear some feedback.

No news is good news! Good Luck

I need some hard LR sections to insert as 5th sections on upcoming PTs. Has anyone considered or know what the top 10 or 5 hardest LR sections might be? Haven't been able to find anything like this online, apart from individually ranked questions.

Hi, i am currently a student studying for the June LSAT 2017 in Asia (which is on 25th).

I studied my Lsats on 2014 June and took my first Lsat around September 2014.

Turns out I did not gain the score I wanted and I graduated college on 2015 May.

I started studying for the Lsats again last November and I was wondering if 6 months

is still okay time for studying the Lsats?

Also for personal reasons, I am forced to study the Lsats on night time (for 1hr 30 min ~ 2hrs)

Am I on the right track?

Any wise words would be fine thx

I did not take the December 2016 LSAT and the February 2017 LSAT because I needed more time to study, take more PE & BR etc. June 2017 will be my test date.

My question is, for the people who decided to apply the following year too, what did you do regarding your application and LOR? Did you send an e-mail to your professors notifying them that you would be applying for the following year?

On the LSAC website it says to notify your recommenders just in case they want to update your LOR or God forbid not allow you to reuse the LOR. What did you do/ your experience with communicating with professors/recommender via e-mail?

Also please feel free to share any insight relating to what you did once you decided to apply for the next cycle.

Thank you! Cheers to the NEW YEAR and 7SAGE community for making this solo daily LSAT battle feel not so lonely.

Does anyone have one? Is there one on here that I haven't found yet in the forums?!

Oh and happy new years!

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope everyone is off to a great start in 2017.

What are some of your LSAT-related or non-LSAT related resolutions?

I'll go first:

1) My LSAT-related resolution is to be more consistent with my prep. Because of my job, it's been hard to always study as much as I'd like to daily. Some days after work I'll study 6 hours and other days only 1 or 2.

I also want to stop letting myself off of the hook when I don't understand why something is wrong on the RC section. RC has always been my best section and sometimes I am just like, "WTF, how is B wrong and E correct!?!" Well, when that happens from now on I am not going to stop re-reading the passage until I can find a line cite proving the answer.

You won't beat me LSAT ;)

2) Non-LSAT-related resolution/goal is to find more value in the things I have and own. It's hard to explain, but for a long time I've gone through life hoping the next gadget, big paycheck, car, designer shirt, etc., would being me happiness. Sadly, this has not been the case. Except for anything I buy from the Bose store, lol. I love their stuff and it always makes me genuinely happy :) So I'm just going to be more happy with what I already have. Happy with less.

Also, I'm finally going to unsubscribe from all the companies who send me spam emails. I'll do it ... First thing tomorrow ... lol

Hey Y'all!

I applied for admission into law school this past fall, and though I got in somewhere, I decided not to go and do TFA instead, as this was the most financially smart decision for me.

Well, anyways, I had two amazing LoR's from my college professors on my application and I was wondering if I my LSAC file will keep those letters for this year when I apply? or should i ask those writers to simply submit them again? My only issue with asking them again is I have tried to email both of my writers just to keep in touch, but I have not heard a response back...lol.. I am sure they are busy..

Thanks in advance!

I saw a few posts about icons turning grey.. Not sure what that means can someone explain

I think I'm about done editing it, and am pressed for time! I'd like to get my apps in before mid jan. If anyone is willing to give me feedback, or even willing to trade personal statements for review, please PM me your email address. Thanks!!

Hi all,

I've been studying the LSAT for a long time (over a year). So I am basically familiar with concepts and what each Q type asks us to do. But I also know that improving is all about working on my weaknesses. LR is the section I am struggling the most (3-4 wrong per section). Is drilling by Q type still effective at this stage?

Thanks! :)

So, there has been some predictions that the scores will be released tomorrow (2), while this is good news, I'm between wanting to know and not wanting to know at all. My anxiety is off the roof, and even even starting Gotham on Netflix isn't helping. How are you guys coping with your anxiety while you wait?

Oh yea, happy new year!

Will PT 79 Explanations be posted sometime before this upcoming February exam?

I'm wanting to make sure I get rid of the wrong answers with the right rationale, and I'm starting to write little notes on all the wrong answers and then watch the video afterwards, to see if my rationale is the same. Also on the less obvious ones I'll write a tiny note on why it's right. Anyone else do this?

What do admissions committees prefer? For your PS and resume to be submitted in word format or as a PDF?

I know I am obsessing over small details at this point, but with my LSAT score I need everything else to be flawless!

Hey guys, just running by a study idea I am having. I did a course previous to this one, and when doing some of the earlier PTs, I'm noticing a lot of questions that are familiar. I was thinking of using a system such as every time that I recognise a question, taking off a minute of time, or something like that, to obtain a more accurate PT score. Does anyone else do anything like this? I'm recognising about 3-5 questions in a LR question, so I'm thinking of cutting my time down to 30 minutes a section. Anyone else do this? Cheers.

This time last year, I was nervously awaiting the posting of December test scores. It could be any day now (Actually, it will almost certainly be 1-3 days before the official release date, so chill y'all!) and since I was committed to applying to that cycle, it would be time to send my applications--like my score or not. I wasn't sure how I'd done, but I felt that if just a couple of things went my way I had a very real chance. I'm writing this post because I feel like while there is a lot of anxiety around every score release, the end of year release carries the additional weight of feeling like a last chance. It certainly felt that way for me. When I got the notification on my phone that my scores were in, I went to a nearby park and I did a few laps around the track before I worked up to opening it. When I did, I was crushed. Not only did I fall short of my target score, I actually fell a point from my October score. I was prepared for less improvement than hoped for, but dropping a point was devastating.

Amidst this emotional shock, I also had an important decision to make. Now that I had fallen so short, I'd have to decide whether to stick to the plan or change course and delay. Obviously, I ended up delaying and, as many of you know, that delay really payed off. But at the time I was making this decision, I did not have that information. I didn't know I'd score a 170, so the choice was not between a 170 a year from now or decent Tier 2 numbers now. It's tempting to conclude that, based on my results, I made the correct decision. That's just not right though. Because I didn't have that information, the correctness of my decision was independent of the outcome. That's a difficult concept, but that's the situation.

So what did I know? What was the information that informed my decision?

While I had fallen far short of my goal score, I had a score that would leave me with some excellent options. I wouldn't be going to any T14 schools, but I could have gone Tier 2 on scholarship. By no means was it a terrible situation. There are lots of schools outside the T14 that lack in prestige but that offer great programs and opportunities. Ultimately, I was in pretty good shape.

On the other hand, I felt like the LSAT had beaten me. And that really was the biggest hold up. If I applied then, it'd mean that I'd accepted that result while I still had one more chance to change it. Of course, I knew what a better score could mean, but I was content with my options. It was just really difficult for me to concede defeat.

And essentially, that was my debate. I think that before committing to a delay, it was important for me to identify how I was going to improve. For anyone contemplating a delay, I think this point is crucial. You need to be able to answer, in concrete terms, how you're planning to do better. For me, that meant signing up at the website with the guy from the LG videos, and it meant living off of my savings for as long as I could so that I could study full time. That was how I'd be able to prepare to a higher level. That was how I was able to answer that question.

Again, it all payed off for me, but there were no guarantees of that happenening. It was possible I could have delayed a year only to find myself in the same situation. I had to be aware of and at peace with that contingency. And so do you if you decide to delay. If you find yourself struggling with the decision to delay or apply, I hope my experience can serve as an example. It is anecdotal, and I'm sure for every success story that gets shared, there are numerous counter examples of things going the other way that people are less eager to talk about. I may have lost a year, but I gained the opportunity to achieve my potential. And that's how you have look at it. By delaying a year you only create an opportunity--one more shot, with zero guarantees, to make it happen.

As an additional bonus, I also benefitted from being able to apply with a much greater knowledge of the application process rather than as an end of cycle noob.

The main takeaway is that if you consider delaying, realize that the correctness of that decision is independent of the results. Even if things hadn't turned out the way they did for me, delaying would still have been the right call. And whatever you decide for yourself will be right or wrong too no matter how it turns out. It's a hard decision, so take some time, think it through, make the call, and don't look back.