I took the December LSAT and am waiting for my scores but I'm worried I didn't do quite as well as I hoped. Is there any precedent for applying with the December scores but taking the February test and sending updated scores? A lot of schools won't have made final decisions by the time those scores come out in late February.

Thanks!

if I purchase the starter pack at $179, and I upgrade the course, does it just extend the length of the course or do I also get the extra PT explanations of the Premium stuff?

Hey All,

I need some advice regarding a sort of inconvenient situation. I work 9:30-5:30 everyday in Manhattan, but I live on the outskirts of Manhattan, which means I am spending an hour and a half on the train each way every day.

That's about 3 hours a day on the train. Yes. I know.

I spend a majority of that time reviewing LSAT materials, in addition to whatever I can get in at work during my lunch break. But I never feel like I've gotten enough review in (if it's even possible to feel that way...). Mostly because the train during rush hour is not the most conducive environment for intensive LSAT review. I do what I can, but studying for hour increments, spread throughout the day does not exactly give me enough time to hit my optimal level of engagement with the material. So I clearly need to figure something out...

(Weekends are also mainly dedicated to review, as well as certain week nights. More on this below)

Now to the exercise part. I am sitting for 8 hours a day at work and another 3 hours on the train. I am an decently active person, so physical exercise is important to me. My hobby is rock climbing, so I do a lot of indoor rock climbing to keep my body engaged. Its mentally exciting as well as physically challenging, so I see it as a psychological release as well. I do some occasional yoga as well.

Okay so now back to the timing issue... considering I get home around 7:30pm, going to work out basically takes up the rest of my night. I'll end up getting home at 9:30pm and then...well...there's that early AM train I have to catch so I have to get to bed shortly after.

I'm willing to give up rock climbing during my LSAT prep if it's going to benefit me (I will cry every step of the way...but I will do it). My question is...will it? Physical exercise seems to be a common thread among top scorers and that's where I am aiming. I also don't climb everyday- I usually dedicate 2 weeknights to climbing and then a couple hours on Saturdays. It sort of comes down to what will benefit me more and I'm honestly not sure. I've considered other forms of "quicker" exercise like taking up running, but the idea of that makes me cringe (clearly not a runner...) and I don't see how that would give me significantly more time to study. Plus there's the whole "mental release" benefit to doing something I actually enjoy...

I should also follow up with the fact that the time I do put into study has been immensely productive. My understanding of the material has grown significantly. My contention is more because I know that I have the capacity to be learning more than I currently am (because of my limited time), so that is frustrating. All that to say, I could technically just keep doing what I'm doing and probably hit my goal score eventually...but I know I can hit it a lot quicker if I didn't have so many time constraints.

So I guess I'm just asking for cost benefit analyses. How important is physical exercise in your prep and do you foresee any catastrophic consequences if I decide to fully embrace the sedentary life? Do you think it's likely that the extra time will benefit me more than exercise?

Thanks in advance :)

hey guys,

Im planning on taking the June lsat. I want to do lsat practice tests 51-81 by the test, and will spend time studying, but I have a concern. If I need to take the september lsat because my June score was not what I want, how will I study for September? I will have taken lsats 51-81 by then lol. Like how would I study for the september lsat?

Hey guys, so one of the schools I'm applying to has an optional section called disadvantage addendum and the prompt says "Please describe the socio-economic disadvantages you have overcome." How long should these be? What sorts of things are included in this? I'd appreciate any feedback. thanks!

I read in the past in some 180er's blog that he used to do a LG section before each PT to warm up. So I started doing that. 1 section of LG, usually an old one, about an hour before starting my PT (to simulate waiting in the test center to start).

Now I read on a discussion here (not naming names, but @Sami says that she warms up with 3 sections before each PT (1 LR, 1 LG, 1 RC). I was really surprised, hence this post. I would honestly try warming up with 3 sections before each PT, but I find I get a headache during the 3/4th section and I am pretty beat by the end of the 5th. I don't know if I could handle more than that. You think it is just a stamina thing that I need to work on? How much do you all warm up? And what are you with/without warming up PT scores? Noticeable difference? Especially @Sami , I'd like to hear how you go about doing a PT run. Any comments appreciated!

Here's my problem: I'm moving at an insanely slow pace through the 7Sage material. How slow? I'm taking at least four times longer than the time estimates on most sections. And often much, much longer than that.

Some context: I got a mid 150s diagnostic with a clear weakness in LG. I'm scheduled for the June sitting.

The source of my problem is two fold:

(1) I'm taking crazy copious notes. I'll watch every substantive video at least twice, pausing frequently, to transcribe the content on paper in my own words. I'll print out any written material and read through with a pen and highlighter before watching a video.

(2) I'm not moving on until I'm absolutely confident with the material (LR so far). I do drills from the Cambridge books on relevant material (MP/MSS questions so far) and blind review most questions. I take forever! I have taken upwards of 30 minutes to review my thought process on one question. If you do the math, this means that some days I will have reviewed as little as 10 questions, including the time it takes to initially test myself and to watch the 7Sage videos / read discussions after my self review.

Is it normal for studying to move this slowly? If not, what should I change?

Hey Y'all

I just started 7sage for the Feb 5 test and the lessons i have learnt are absolutely fantastic.

i am very excited about learning blind review and i hope it will work for me.

I just feel like a bit of regret that didn't use 7sage before and this is holding me down and it has induced fear in me that i will not do as well as i want to due to the short period of time i have before the Feb exam.

JYs method for blind review is pretty much circle questions that you are not sure about while PTing and then answer them after you do the test.

What I do is instead of going through ONLY those circled questions, I gloss through the entire test because for instance there are many questions where I am confident in the right answer but not exactly sure why a wrong answer is wrong or something, and im not trying to deliberate mid timed test whether or not i have a valid enough reason to circle this question later. Is going through the entire test a good way of BR? I am assuming JY doesnt mention doing this simply because it takes way more time rather than simply going through the circled answers.

Hi all-

7sage newbie here and plan on sitting for the June LSAT. I will purchase my 7sage bundle within the next week or two and start studying January 9th. Have not yet taken a diagnostic test yet to see where I am in that respect. Nonetheless, still in school, will be working approximately 20-ish hours a week at the law firm I work at, in addition to 12 units at school (trying to take a lighter semester). Was originally planning on going for the Ultimate+, but once I utilized the study schedule, I was intimidated by the amount of hours per week it calls for. Looking for advice on whether I should just hold on for the most stressful next 6 months of my life and do Ultimate+ or any other thoughts on the matter at hand. Thanks in advance!

Alright, so a fun topic here but do any of you guys have tattoos? A self promise I made was that I would get my first the moment I made it to law school, and my last when I graduated. Anyway, I assume that the law profession could care less about tattoos so long as you have them in places where they are hidden (back, shoulder, chest, etc). Is that standard practice? Do any of you guys have any that are not in places where they are perfectly hidden?

Also, you guys can get the mocking out of the way, I want to get the "justice is blind" tattoo either on my shoulder or back.

The question above, and do law schools care if you have an absence? I had mine three years ago.

Also, how often do tests cycle out? My last test score was in February of 2013 and December of 2012 was my absence. Am I clear and have three retakes?

I just finished a rough draft of my personal statement. Curious if anyone would be willing to look it over and give me some critique. Thank you!

Hey 7sagers,

So I took the December LSAT and it went okay, but I know I probably didn't reach my goal. I'm registered for February, took a week or so off and have been studying again now. So my 7sage membership was almost up and I decided to upgrade to Ultimate. Ultimate is amazing, I'm happy with my decision the problem sets are awesome. I was done all the CC before but now that I have ultimate I'm only 65% done and have to finish the new PSs. I've been working on them but of course they're time consuming to do and properly BR, so I haven't been able to do any new prep tests. What do you guys think I should do...prep test while still completing the new PSs, or finish them all first then start my prep tests again. It's almost January! Where has the time gone I'm starting to panic a little right now. Any advice would be appreciated!

Oh and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

So I just finished the Nicole Hopkins webinar on RC and felt like a lot of it made sense. But as I try to work through an RC passage on my own using her method, I'm finding that so much seems unclear. I decided to use the first passage of my most recent PT (PT54). Below is a run down of what I annotated and where I ran into problems. I'm hoping I can figure this method out because it seems helpful, but ultimately the method so far seems to leave me with more questions than answers. If I constantly need to second guess and wonder if I'm correctly annotating everything then I will only be wasting time that I could otherwise be using to answer questions.

So the first thing I annotate is the very first word of the passage which is "The Internet". I box and tail the "The internet" with the tail being the explanation of what the internet is in order to show it's a what. Next, I square "Internet Users" on line 3 to show who. Here is where I find my first unknown. Do I need to [bracket] the "throughout the world" found on line 4 to show a where? Next I bracket line 5's "national and other political borders" because borders are technically places. Not totally sure if that should be bracketed. Finally the last thing I annotate in paragraph one is the "borders" found on the last line of the paragraph line 9. I bracket this once again because borders are technically places.

The first sentence of paragraph 2 seems like it should have some type of annotation but I can't decide so I move on to line 12 where I circle "presupposes" to indicate when. On line 13 I carrot "But" to show a pivot. "Borders" on line 15 gets a bracket again. Next on line 16 I square "government" to signify who. The next annotation comes on line 19 where I carrot the "But". That is the last annotation I give for paragraph two even though it feels like I've missed something between line 20 and 29.

Paragraph 3 opens with a box and tail around "legal domain" and the words that follow to indicate a what. On line 33 I bracket "country" again to show where but I feel unsure if this is right. This is done again with "country" on line 34. Line 39 receives a carrot to indicate a pivot with the word "but". Now here is where I get really confused. Line 43 contains the word "Norway". Does this receive a bracket to indicate where or does this receive a box because we're talking about Norway as an actor or agent? I have the same issue with "Brazil" on line 44 and 45. Line 45 receives a Q in the margin to indicate the question asked. Line 48 receives a carrot to indicate the pivot word "otherwise". "Country" on line 49 receives yet another bracket to show where but again I am unsure of this being correct.

Paragraph 4's first annotation comes on line 53 and 54 where I box "electronic communication" and underline what follows to indicate what electronic communication is. "French" on line 57 gets squared in order to indicate a who and then Canada and Japan both receive brackets to on line 59 to indicate where. Lastly I put a Q in the margins of line 59 so that I can indicate a question was asked.

When I had finished all of this I was unsure if I did things correctly and felt that I definitely missed things. I decided to go to the first question and only then did I realize that I was so focused on annotating that I didn't really read the passage. Because I read looking for things to annotation, I ended up having no idea what I actually had just read. Is there a resource, link, or place where I can view properly annotated passages done by others? I don't want to give up on this method after one try but I just don't see how I could annotate everything correctly in under 4 minutes.

I've heard it's a must watch but for some reason I can't find it on the webinar page

So I had my first take of the LSAT in December, after studying pretty much every day while working full-time for the 4 months prior. I obviously haven't received my score yet, but I did poorly enough on the logic games that I know I didn't hit my target score (173+), so I decided to delay my applications a year and retake in June. I didn't quite reach the point of full burnout, but I definitely needed some time off. My question: how long do I wait before jumping back into a study schedule?

I can't take the February test because I'm probably going to be traveling for work that month, but I do worry that a full 6 months of dedicated studying on top of what I've already done will lead to severe burnout unless I strategize properly. Any advice?

I got the most unexpected and awesome call from a Palo Alto area code yesterday, and it's in large part because of the people who built this site and all those who have made this such a wonderful community. My diagnostic score was a 154. Believe in yourself, be disciplined, and trust in the process. Oh, and watch all of JY's LG videos ;)

So on the side menu of the app there are logic game videos that e plain the questions and gives the answers. But where do you get the questions from? I see they are from a prep test but what prep test?

Hey again everyone!

I was wondering what the biggest difference was between older and newer/more recent PT's? Which are more difficult? Are there certain sections that are considerably different? I have pretty much decided to postpone the February LSAT once again, but I really think I should be ready to go by June.

Any tips or suggestions would be gladly accepted, thank you all!

I just finished the Assumptions and Weakening lessons. I feel like I'm following the subject matter and doing well on the questions, but sometimes get confused when I read everyone's comments and they split hairs about the difference between what is the premise and what is support. Are the terms not interchangeable? I understand the basic concept of the premise supporting the conclusion, but feel like maybe I'm missing something. Can someone explain the difference to me?

If you've taken two LSAT exams back to back, did you see a increase or decrease in your score? By how many points? Is there an average number of points that repeat LSAT takers gain or lose?

I was just wondering if anyone has any general information on spring starts in law school. I've been advised by a couple lawyers that it's always a viable option if for some reason a normal Fall start couldn't work, but I'd like to know if the community has anything better. I obviously would rather start in the Fall, but I'm weighing all my options and am making sure I have more than just a plan B if needed, so any pros/cons, concrete information would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

Recently I have been having a lot of success during exercises for LR. This, to me, is a miracle since it was my weakness and what hampered me from breaking the stubborn plateau I was in. Anyway, I have found that actually drawing out LR passages when needed (SA, MBT, MBF, PSA, INF,etc) has really helped me break through some of the toughest questions. I still have issues with certain questions, obviously, but I can see a light at the end of the LR tunnel specifically because I am beginning to visualize what is occurring in the passage.

With that said, the margins we have for drawing on the exam are small, and I know I will be cutting it close if I try to visualize too much. My assumption is that, per each LR section, there are around 10-12 questions that are easily solved via visualization ( SA, MBT, MBF, etc, etc) and the drawing and analysis normally gives me an answer time of 1 minute to 2:15 depending on the difficulty of the question.

Do you guys waste time drawing and visualizing things on paper? Or have you gotten to a test taking point where visualization is mental? I would, obviously, prefer that method but am not sure I can get my brain to see things that way. I have always been a "write it down or draw it out" type of learner.

Let's keep our heads in the game by taking a moment to acknowledge our LSAT victories (small or large)!

I'll get the ball rolling:

1) I've gotten a bit faster at LG

2) I've identified areas to improve

3) I experience less anxiety during timed conditions