I just wanted to share with every one that you guys rock, I have been very stressed about the LSAT and law school in general. SO I have decided to make some serious life changes. First I am not going to take the LSAT until after December... I want to be prepared and I want to be in the 165 plus range and to be quite frank I just don't foresee that happening in September.

Second, I have quit my job to teach English as a second language in Costa Rica. One of the reasons I have decided to pursue law is for human rights specifically with the child bride issues in other countries. (I know we don't really talk about our passions but that is my passion and reason for pursuing law) and I need to learn Spanish. This opportunity will help me learn Spanish, plus give me plenty of time to study for the LSAT so I can hit my goal score... who knows maybe even a higher score?

I know it is odd saying a bunch of strangers helped me realize all of that, but the encouragement and the constant "law school isn't going anywhere" made me realize that I can in fact pursue my passion & take time to work on other passions while studying for the LSAT.

So anyway long story short... I am going to be around for quite some time and thanks for making me realize I do in fact have time & it is not the end of the world if I do not take the Sept LSAT. I mean what is the difference between starting law school at 34 or 35??? Not much in the grand scheme of things.

Hey guys, I'm currently living in Bellevue and looking for a study buddy. If anyone from the area is interested let me know!

Hello everyone!

First off, thank you for making the discussion forums extremely beneficial and realistic, the investment in 7Sage has been for it for that alone! I am writing this forum with the intentions of it becoming an extremely useful resource for veterans applying to law school, as well as motivation for those who are pushing through the LSAT. Good luck to everyone!

I am a United States Marine currently serving overseas on my last deployment. I am expected to return home in the October time frame and am expecting to take the December LSAT. I have intentions to apply to Harvard, Penn, Duke, Vanderbilt, and University of Alabama (safety school, but still a Tier 2 Law School). Harvard is my top pick and recently discovered they essentially offer a free law education when using the Post 9/11 GI Bill complimented with the Yellow Ribbon Program. During my 1L, I am also intending to take the GMAT and apply to business school to become a JD/MBA student. I graduate with my undergraduate degree in Entrepreneurship this coming April, all while using tuition assistance, PELL grant, and credit cards. I will have finished my undergrad in three years with two deployments under my belt. So if any of you have any friends or family thinking about joining the military, it is possible to graduate with your bachelor’s degree before you EAS and acquire the magical DD214.

I recently took a diagnostic PT and scored in the mid 140’s. I am not sure if this is an accurate depiction as to where I am in my LSAT journey due to the distractions that come with being deployed. I will state that after the test, I was mentally drained and the Blind Review was painful. My goal score is a 170+.

Questions / Comments:

I am currently studying 3-5 hours daily, but am going slow to ensure I have proper and thorough understanding of the core curriculum prior to PT drilling. Is this enough time to hit my target score of 170+?

I recently watched an interview with a Harvard Law School student where he discussed the importance of having diversity statements. Should we create a diversity statement being a veteran? Also, I come from an extremely poor background where I was the first to graduate high school and attend college. Should I create two separate diversity statements, one diversity statement with both mentioned, or none and just include it in my personal statement?

How much weight does being a veteran actually hold during the admissions process? I just want to ensure I have a realistic expectation.

Say the absolute worst happens and I bomb the December LSAT, is the February LSAT too late to be considered competitive at T14 schools?

Do you have any suggested books for admission and law school as a whole?

What are some of the job opportunities for JD/MBA students post grad school?

Lastly, there is an amazing program for veterans called Service 2 School (www.Service2School.org). After you submit a package and are accepted, they pair you with a mentor who has been admitted to a school similarly to your goals. They also have PDF guides for JD and MBAs that is extremely beneficial.

As I'm working through some of the sections, for example the strengthening questions - I'm first printing off the particular question, working on it, and then watching the video. This is before the practice/drilling section. If I have the question right, I move on to the next item. If I get it wrong, I do sit down and go through the whole video.

Am I shooting myself in the foot here, or do you all do this as well?

Hi everyone. I am law graduate LLB. I want to ask few questions from you guys. Please share your view.

1. Do you think LSAT is requirement for admission in LLM?

2. What is the procedure for conversion of LLB into JD?

3. For international students what is the best choice, LLM human rights, LLM international Law or Corporate Law?

4. What is the criteria for phd?

Hey,

I wanted to buy a diamond for my mother. I literally don't have any experience about the diamonds. I searched in the websites where I could get the best diamonds in toronto. I found many diamond stores. Its my first gift to my mother as I got my first salary and her birthday is coming next week so I need to know the best in toronto. I found one wholsesale shop (link removed by admins) which looks good. But I’m looking for more options. Could anyone suggest me?

Hey 7sage community, thank you in advance for your insight.

I will try to be brief in describing my situation. I started with sub-150 diagnostic a long time ago and studied a little bit on my own with PowerScore and came into 7sage with a diagnostic score of 156. I am looking to obtain a 165+ (with a goal of 169) to get into the T-14 schools I'm most interested in applying to. It's been a bumpy journey thus far in taking practice tests. I opened with a 5 point increase, then I went down by 4 points, then up 8 points from diagnostic to my most recent PT where I scored one point below my diagnostic score (tears). I will add that I've also mightily struggled with logic games and that has been a significant reason for my low scores. I've been using Pacifico's method in tackling the bundle and am about 1/3 of the way through it. I felt like I was making progress but when I went through the games yesterday everything felt disjointed and I was lost; obviously scoring 1 point below my diagnostic confirmed my suspicions.

Then an odd thing happened today. I was very frustrated with my performance last night so I didn't do any prep yesterday after the test - I took the day off from work today and decided to spend the entire day going over the test and get to the bottom of what had gone wrong. I went through the questions and noticed that I had made FREQUENT mental errors and selecting answer choices that I otherwise would not select in a normal state of mind -- it felt like someone else had taken the test. Moreover, when I went through the Logic Games again (without looking at the explanation or the correct answer choice) I went through the section easily and only missed 1 question in the entire section. Even more miraculous, I'm 85% sure I would have finished within the 35 minute time allotment despite the fact that I wasn't worried about time and was being more methodical. After going through the test and blind reviewing I ended up with a 169 in my BR (my goal score). This is a significant 6 point increase over my best previous blind review attempts and it's coming off of my worst test. I'm really not sure what to make of this and I'm really not sure where I should be directing my prep before my next PT. Is the BR indicative of my potential? How can Icome to terms with a personal best in a blind review and my worst PT score? Any insight you guys could provide would be extremely beneficial --including your own personal study plan post-PT and especially your study plans after your worst PT.

I am thankful for 7sage and for the community,

Sincerely Yours,

Hi everyone!

I recently had a rough year with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, most of the issues related to grieving in my family and an unhealthy relationship. I'm starting to recover from these issues though, but I have noticed that my concentration and focus has gone down because of the mental exhaustion from this past year. I'm currently scoring in the140s and planning to take the LSAT in Feb 2017.

Have other folks gone through similar issues through the LSAT process? Any tips and advice for someone who is just getting out of a very bad mental rut?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could kindly provide me with an answer to the following: Are we afforded 35 minutes on the writing sample during the LSAT? Thanks to all of those who will answer.

So I took my LSAT in September and scored a 158. I registered for the September LSAT and I'm feeling very scared if I should honestly take it. I have been blind reviewing all my precious exams and my BR score varies from 162-165. I honestly just want above a 160 on my actual LSAT. My diagnostic was a 142 and a 16 point increase isn't bad at all. I just want to be able to know if I reschedule my exam till December will I still have a chance of applying to law schools for the Fall 2017 semester.

I need help with MBT. For some reason I'm really struggling with these. On each PT I get over 80% of all the LR question types correct and between 50-60% on MBT every time. What am I missing with these?

I know a while back we had a "Hamilton Thread" so with the release of the 8th Harry Potter story, I figured I would see if there were other Potterhead/folks 7Sagers out there. So just like the Hamilton thread, this is just for fun!

Whos excited? I usually read a new HP book (cover to cover) the night it comes out, but not sure if I will do that tonight. I'm actually getting the book delivered to my house between midnight and 2am (Thanks Amazon Prime Now). Im am currently waiting for 9:45 so I can place the order.

I plan to see play(s) (hopefully) in April in London as a part of my celebratory I am finally done with the LSAT Europe trip.

So a place for us the Potter fans.

PS fun fact, I was a volunteer moderator (Host Wtch Fawkes) on Harry Potter.com from 2001-2003 helping to moderate the boards. I was over Gryffindor and the Sorting Hat threads. Hey... can I put that on my resume @david.busis haha It was post college :)

Hello, everyone! My name is Sarah, and I am new to the community. I want to see if anyone would help me with a schedule (I apologize if this is against the rules, and if so please delete, but I truly am clueless.)

I have been taking practice quizzes for months now, but I am looking to commit to a schedule. I take the LSAT in December. The only thing is I have an extremely busy schedule, and unfortunately there is nothing I can really cut down on. I am 23, and I am a senior at a university, graduating in December. I have to take five classes to graduate. I work full-time as a legal assistant, and I can't cut down from 40 hours because I have to support my family. Lastly, and most importantly, I have a 1-year-old daughter. I see people studying 6+ hours a day, and that certainly is not feasible for me. Two hours a day seem more feasible.

I of course would love to score in the 170s, but I have my goals currently set on 160. I spend a lot of time in the car commuting, so I've been listening to audiobooks trying to utilize that time. I have also purchased numerous books. Overall, I am overwhelmed but completely dedicated to do well while balancing my life. I have a dream to attend law school, and I refuse to let anything get in the way of that all while making my baby girl proud. If you may, please send any and all tips my way. I truly appreciate it.

For those who once were scoring well below the 169+ mark, what were some of the larger breakthroughs in your prep that allowed you to finally start scoring in the 169+ range?

How was your approach to questions different for when you were scoring

well below 169+ to then scoring above 169+?

Thanks in advance for those that share their thoughts.

I decided to take this course for the summer. I began with a diagnostic of 147, and I studied for 6 hours a day 6 days a week. Today, I scored a 168! I want to thank the whole community here for making studying such a fun experience, and ESPECIALLY JY for being an incredible teacher. I am not exceptionally smart, nor am I exceptionally gifted, but I work hard. I really believe that if I can do it, anybody with ambition can too! Thank you, thank you, thank you 7sage for being so incredible!

I missed that webinar, unfortunately, but I really want to see the recording.

Long story short, I started studying May 16th for the September LSAT. I went through the core curriculum (probably a little to fast) and have taken 10 PT's. I've now realized I am not where I want to be and September is just not going to happen for me. I know I need to go back through the CC (especially the lawgic stuff). I've posted here before and you all told me not to waste a take and especially not to waste a 4.0 GPA. My diagnostic was a 151 with -18 on LG. My average on these 10 tests was a 163 with BR in the 170's so I'm hopeful going back through the curriculum and refocusing myself without the stress of taking the test in September can help me increase my score 7-10 points. Now my question is this: I took tests 37-48 so how much damage did I do to myself? I still have 30 clean PT's that won't be touched until I feel I am ready again. I feel so relieved that I made this decision, thank you all for being a positive support group and giving great advice.

Hey guys, little background information, I studied for LSAT for six months during which I finished the syllabus, did couple of PT and did the Bundle that increased my score from below 148 (not timed) to 151(timed). But had to go back to uni for three months to get my GPA up. Now I am free and have until December to take the LSAT and need a 155-157 to get in. I will be studying for LSAT full time from now until December, I do not know where should I start? Should I finish the trainer, do a quick review of syllabus or start doing PTs and BR? I appreciate it if you could tell me what do you think.

Update: Thanks for your amazing responses, everyone. I’ve been pouring through them, trying to figure out how I would choose from such worthy and gripping accounts, when I finally realized I don’t have to choose. I’m going to change the format instead.

Here’s how it works now: I’ll go through these statements in order, spending five minutes or less with each person. Even in such a small window, I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to dispense some sound advice.

When it’s your turn, I’ll ask you to unmute your mic. Everyone else should stay muted.

I’ll end the webinar after an hour. If someone doesn’t show up, I’ll skip her, so it’s hard to say how far down the list I’ll get.

Talk to you tomorrow.

7Sagers,

This Tuesday, at 9 pm EST, I’ll do a live lightning consultation for one 7Sager.

What’s a lightning consultation? Basically, I’ll try to be as helpful as I can in fifteen to thirty minutes. We might brainstorm personal statement topics, strategize about addenda, or discuss LORs.

If you want a free fifteen- to thirty-minute consultation about your law school application, I’ll need you to post a few things in the comments section:

I’ll choose whoever I think will lead to the most interesting consultation, and announce my choice here on Tuesday. When I’m done, I’ll take questions from everyone.

To join, just follow this link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/710740293

We’ll use Citrix GoToMeeting. The meeting ID is 710-740-293.

So I'm in a bit of a situation, I have taken the LSAT in June and I was approved for accommodations for that exam. I registered to take the LSAT again in September and I was approved again for accommodations the same accommodations that were given in June. But I had a recent check up with my neurologist and my condition has gotten progressively worse than before and he wrote me a letter for my University about my disability telling them I need many more accommodations to guarantee my safety as well as fairness when I go back to school. He also wrote me a letter for the LSAC to add more accommodations including supervised bathroom break. I have a history of seizures and when I have a seizure I fall down and usually hit my head ( I had a seizure during my June LSAT when I used the bathroom but I sucked it up and went on taking the exam). I was wondering how can I make the changes necessary to guarantee a fair testing environment for myself given my unfortunate condition? Thank you!

I have the LSAT starter, which has assigned for me PTs to take that are difficult to find (or find at reasonable prices. I have followed links provided, but it seems prices have become extraordinarily inflated, especially for those PTs in the 40s---I have managed to get a Manhattan book that has organized the 40s exams by q-type). I am also a re-taker, but the first time(s) I did not exhaust my PT's...I have the 70s, some 60s, some 50s, and some 30s available (about 28 exams total) fresh PTs left. Could/should I substitute those, instead of the suggested? I realize I miss out on video explanations though.

...

Maybe I should just spill my case/experience thus far, and perhaps this community can cringe and provide advice/best procedures.

Ok, I took the LSAT twice. First time: canceled after taking the exam. Second time: entered the exam having slept 0 hours. Yes, I had insomnia and incredible anxiety because, in the depths of my being, I knew I was unprepared. But! I didn't cancel because I didn't want to "cancel twice." I exited with a 159 (oof, it hurts). This is after months of "studying." I have read through the LSAT Trainer 3x, Manhattan LG, LR books 3x, Powerscore LG, LR books 2x. I took PT's here and there, without real BR (so I can't reliably provide where I was scoring--I sadly didn't have much of a system except, try to do one at least twice a week or more, until the exam). I've technically been "studying" since the beginning of 2015. After the June exam, this past month, I finally made (what I believe, the good) decision to join 7SAGE. But not before making another mistake: I'm registered for the September exam.

So, quite a clusterF, as some would say. My greatest weakness is LR. With LG, I'm spotty, but I feel it's graspable with more practice, repetition, etc. I'm usually confident in RC, but it's not down to a hard science. I have my days. Is any of this useful? Gives me so much anxiety writing my failures down (and reading how hard I have failed).

Eek. Help!

.

My fellow 7Sagers!

I just took my first PT after curriculum and experienced a +15pt increase! My diagnostic was 143. My goal is 165.

Any advice on how I can move from PT to PT and see even greater improvement? I'm trying to maximize the next two months (September 24 is game day). Obviously don't mind surpassing my goal score! :) #WhateverItTakes

Today I completed over 8 LR problem sets and 8 logic games. Each problem set takes me ~30-60 minutes with blind review and all :P Quantity wise, I feel like I'm not getting a lot done, but quality wise, I believe that I'm refining my critical thinking skills through this thorough process. So, how much LSAT material do you get through on an average day? :)

Unfortunately, I have ALREADY registered for my Sept exam but I won't be able to get the score I want by Sept. Things didn't work out according to plan and I really don't know what to do.

My originally plan was to take about 20-30 PTs before my first actual exam, but as of now, I'm only able to drill by section to increase my speed. I miss about 5-6 questions in LR and have 6 minutes left before the last logic game. I'm not able to read all 4 RC passages and even the ones I do get to read, I get 1-3 wrongs per passage. RC is my worst nightmare and I don't know whether keep drilling it will increase my speed. But when I redo all of the above sections untimed during my BR, I get 85%-100% right. They are not really hard to solve and understand when I don't do them under timed conditions (except for the hardest RC passages) but I get stressed out, nervous, and rush through questions during timed conditions that I don't get to understand some sentences and overlook some key words. For instance, there is always at least one weirdly worded rule in logic games that makes me freeze and hurt my confidence to solve questions accurately. That disappointment and fear have psychological impact on my performance and makes me keep doubt whether I indeed translated the rest of the rules accurately. Overall, it frustrates me that there are many questions that are solvable but I just can't do them properly and accurately because I THINK I don't have enough time and I ACTUALLY don't have enough time. So I came to the conclusion that it's more practical of me to raise my LR and LG speed & score to compensate for my weak RC skills given the amount of time I got.

With these timing issues to overcome, I need to begin my PTing phase next week. I don't think doing about 15 PTs will be enough of practice before the actual test. Ideally, I want to take about 35-40 PTs, but realistically, it's unfeasible by Sept. I'm pretty sure I won't reach in the low 160s by Sept (especially due to this huge timing issue with RC) but I need at least high160s to apply to my dream schools. So I'm thinking of taking the Sept test to just get the experience of taking the exam with many people under stressful conditions and cancelling the score right after the test to not leave any record of unwanted score. I will keep on studying after the first exam, and hopefully by Dec, I will get enough practice with all of my 3 sections (especially RC) to reach my target score and take the Dec exam with no plan of cancelling the score. And by Jan/early Feb, I will be ready to send my applications to my dream schools. Even if I really screw up my Dec exam, I will be able to take one last exam in Feb. I also don't intend to apply for 2018 admission and take any more exams after Feb. I must apply for the fall 2017 admission.

So I'm not sure whether postponing the test date (by paying $90) is a good idea because that would mean losing money and the chance to experience what it's really like taking the exam at the test center. Similarly, if I get a refund, I only get $50 back and I lose the chance to practice under actual test conditions. In my country, I'm not able to even enter the classrooms where the test will be taken because I'm not one of the school's students, doors are closed, classes are being held, and etc. I won't have the opportunity to practice at the test center like some people can abroad. I actually went to the test center in June to check out and get some info on the test center and one of the people who are in charge of administering the exam explicitly told me that I can't enter any of the rooms to practice. She asked me why I'm being so sensitive about the exam. Um...ok. I may be a sensitive person but I mean isn't this supposed to be a serious exam? Haha.

Anyway, the only concern I have about cancelling the score is what if it in anyway hurts my application? If you were in my shoes, what would you do?