Hi, I seem to be having problems correctly identifying the conclusion in complicated LR questions. Does anyone have tips for this? Thanks!

John Oliver never disappoints, enjoy!

Like many here, I just thought I'd share my progress and experience with 7sage and studying for the LSAT. I'm 35 years old (married, 2 kids). Yes, kids, I'm an old B. I have a Master's in a different subject and had a career as a librarian for 8 years. For many, many reasons, I left that career and after years of not knowing which path to take, I stumbled upon 'The New Jim Crow' by Michelle Alexander and my life was changed. I knew without a doubt that I needed to pursue a career as a public defender. The thought of law school was always in the back of my mind even before reading Alexander's book, but a few years back, I bought an LSAT prep test book, looked at the games, and gave up. I honestly thought I was too stupid to take the LSAT, much less get into law school. I went to a shit state college and I never particularly applied myself or excelled at standardized tests. I literally did not even study for the SAT! While my GPA is decent and I can read and write well, I had no background in logic, and definitely suck ass at all tests.

I just took my first real prep test after the curriculum and got a 155 and 161 on BR. I am ECSTATIC! My dream school is UNM for reasons related to costs and its reputation for training public defenders (call me Saul), so I'm just aiming for a 160. I never thought in a million years I could do this test. Seriously, never. At my old age, I didn't even know if I could properly study.

I guess I'm just sharing to tell the 7Sagers, particularly J.Y., that OG, THANK YOU for changing my life and for making me see that I am capable of this. For all you grinding like me, if I can do this with a job, two kids (some nights I studied in my 2 year old's room when he was sick), and a brain jacked up from too many years of partying, You CAN TOO!!!! I am on cloud 9 and feel even more motivated to do this. Thanks everyone!!!!!!

Would love to hear everyone (especially top scorers) weigh in on this--

Do you ever, in the course of doing an LR/LG section [under timed conditions] find yourselves selecting an answer choice and moving on WITHOUT continuing reading the other remaining answer choices? I know the proper approach in selecting a correct answer is to both identify the correct answer, AND to decisively eliminate every single incorrect answer, but sometimes you come across the correct answer choice that you've already anticipated while assessing the stimulus, and you know it's 100% correct before reading all the other answer choices. The reason I ask about this is because after drilling so many PT's, I still struggle with finishing all the test sections on time, and that amounts to lost points. So, I wonder if it would be the right strategy to pick the right answer and move on without reading all the remaining choices, (in those few cases where I do anticipate and identify the right answer with 100% certainty) in the interest of time?

I took PT 50 last Sunday and got raw score of 62 but my actual score was 151. I did not feel it was particularly easier than other PTs. I used to get raw score of 55-56 and actual of 149-150, I am a bit confused. I am not sure if I improved or not? Is PT 50 really easy?

It seems to me that it is impossible to form a complete logical argument in which the key terms do not appear at least twice, and it also seems that every logical argument but one necessarily uses at least two terms. (The only logical argument that only uses one term is the "double negative," which states: "A," therefore "~(~A)," and I have never seen this in an LSAT stimulus.)

As far as I can tell, a complete LSAT question (by which I mean the stimulus plus the correct answer) must necessarily include at least two terms, and each of these terms must appear at least twice.

I may be failing to consider certain unusual question types that don't actually consist of logical arguments as such. If so, that might be the exception that proves the rule.

If anybody can provide an example of an argument (other than the "double negative" above) that has less than two terms, or refers to a key term only once, please let me know.

I just started my LSAT course and noticed that the PSETs suggest using paper versions of the exercise questions. I've been using the videos, but it definitely does not mimic the right testing conditions. Also, I have tried searching the PSET questions in the Answer Bank, but I can't seem to find them. Does someone know where I can find paper versions of the questions?

I am taking the June 2016 test and do not feel ready. Does it look bad to take it twice or should I postpone the test until September?

A throwaway account to stay anonymous. I want to thank @"J.Y. Ping" @"Jonathan Wang" @"Alan Cheuk" @"Dillon A. Wright" also all 7Sagers I was in touch with in the past year and a half. As an ESL person, my road was extra rough. I hated the LSAT, and I still hate it. So without all your help and encouragement, I wouldn't be where I am today.

In a year and a half, I have improved more than 20 points (yes it is doable), 138 to 162 (Feb write). So many things suffered in my life, but I did it guys :) I studied almost every day, and the road was very bumpy. I did the LSAT twice, December, where I was screwed up by the third game and February where I did better. I was the type of people who wanted -0 in games (obviously, an ESL person), so when I don't do well in games my other sections suffer. The rule was always not to let previous questions affect your upcoming ones, but I couldn't follow that :) So I didn't do well in December.

I would be lying if I say 7Sage was my only prep material, but it was the only course I took. It provided me with the foundation and the mindset. Most of my improvement was through it. I also used The Trainer, PowerScore LR, and another random book which is not one of the known ones. Trust me, I even read LSAT for Dummies. My LG was solely through 7Sage. My PowerScore LG is untouched. Frankly speaking, I even skipped LG in The Trainer.

Here is the good news. I received an admission to my top-choice school, Osgoode, in Canada, and I am beyond thrilled.

Cheers to all of you,

P.S. @"Dillon A. Wright" You have a great customer service. Thank you for freezing my account. I will message you shortly from my real account to unfreeze it and let it rest in peace :)

With 30 days left to test day, can anyone pls give me advice on how I can best prepare myself within the next month to enter test day in the best shape possible? Talking about in terms of eating habits, sleep schedule, avoiding stress, etc. I remember there being a post about this, but I couldn't find it.

Since my first diagnostic I've done respectably on RC and LR pretty consistently, generally -0 to -4 (-2 most common result on LR, -1 most common on RC). There's absolutely room for improvement, but I feel like I'm doing respectably well.

My LG scores, on the other hand, are an absolute train wreck. I don't think I've ever made it through the entire LG section under timed conditions. Under timed conditions I generally get -10 or even worse. It's an absolute disaster.

Outside of timed conditions I can generally work my way through every game without too much brain damage. Without a timer I rarely miss any LG questions.

I've completed the curriculum. I've done most of the problem sets, I've done all of the LG from about 2/3 of the tests using @Pacifico's fool proofing method. In recent weeks I've preceded the fool proofing with a timed drill of the section and then proceeded on to fool proofing each game individually.

I'm signed up for the June test. I am consistently scoring between 164 and 167 on my PTs (blind reviews now consistently above 175). My goal would be to break 170 on test day.

At this point my calculation is that the best use of my time is increasing my efficiency on LG. I appreciate the value of PTs. I also recognize that I have room for improvement in each section. It seems, though, that further improving LR and RC would demand a great deal of time. Even if I did so, I would still only give me an outside shot at 170 given my poor LG performance.

It seems to me that LG offers the lowest hanging fruit and the greatest potential for improvement.

My tentative plan, then, is to stop doing PTs (or at least cut from two per week to one) and instead just drill the heck out of LGs.

What do you think? Is it madness to consider abandoning PTs? Should I scale back on them and beef up my LG drills? Should I carry on as I have been?

How do you negate "not many"?

To me, you can't just dropped the "not". Here's my thought process:

"Not many" seems to be the same as "some not."

"Not many people like apple" = "Some people do not like apple."

The negation of "some people do not like apple" is "everyone likes apple," and this is very different from "many people like apple" (dropping the not in "not many").

So you can't just drop the "not" in front of "many" to negate "not many." Am I right?

Really struggling with this question: https://classic.7sage.com/lesson/literature-departments-responsibility-na-question/?ss_completed_lesson=1785

I did eliminate A, B, C and D for reasons given by JY, but I cannot bring myself to see that E is a necessary assumption.

Wigmore doesn't give us any opinion on advertisements being "true literary works." He does not concede the point. He merely says, whatever, I don't know about ads.

Please share your thoughts.

In E we get that the literature department’s responsibility is not limited to teaching students how to analyze true literary works.

The negation test gets us to "lit dept. IS limited to teaching analysis of true literary works."

Why does Wigmore's argument suffer from that negation? He left open the possibility that, hey, maybe these ads ARE true literary works.

I get that in the case of ads NOT being true literary works, this is a necessary assumption because the dept. would need to teach things other than true literary works to include ads. But this does not have to be the case as we have no definite decision on whether ads are true literary works or not.

It seems that because Wigmore leaves open the possibility of ads being true lit works or not being true lit works that in the case of ads being true lit works then E has no impact and in the case of ads not being true lit works E is necessary.

---

EDIT: Ok, starting to click perhaps. If Wigmore argues from a position of expressing no opinion about ads' position as literary works, he had better leave open the possibility that his conclusion can be drawn from either situation. In that case, when Ads are not true literary works, he had better think that the department can still teach them. Such an assumption operating on the case when ads are true lit works doesn't do squat for the argument, but that is exactly how necessary assumptions work; the don't really help, but they can damage. Here we had to check for two possibilities because the choice specifically mentioned a variable element in the stimulus.

So, I guess my question to the 7sage community is this: is there any merit in doing questions 1-10, then skipping to questions 20-25 before attacking the middle questions, 11-19? I have taken multiple practice tests and seem to notice that towards the end of LR sections there are many "toss up" questions. Unfortunately, I find myself with barely enough time to answer these easy questions because questions 11-19 have eaten up a lot of my time. Is this an advisable LR strategy?? Would love some feedback. Hope everyone's studying is going well.

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why is this showing as locked for me when i have Ultimate+? PT0A S2 P1 there are a few others showing locked as well

So on my last PT I scored a 180, on both the simulated PT and the BR! It’s been kind of surreal since, but I hope to come back down any minute now! I know I still have a lot of work to do, and my PT average is, of course, much lower than 180; but I wanted to share for several reasons.

First, high fives!! And I already had a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

Secondly, and arguably more importantly; if I can do it, I firmly believe this test is conquerable by just about anyone. I graduated 63rd out of about 350 in my class from high school and finished my undergrad with a 3.64 GPA from The University of Southern Mississippi. I spent the last 8 years managing and consulting with small independent cafes, restaurants, and catering companies. Not to put down my experience, I owe a lot to the quality of my education and the lessons learned through work; but my point is that I’ve never been an exceptional student or done big, great things. I’m just kind of a regular guy. And if some random, regular dude can do it; then any random, regular dude/dudette can do it. You can do it. Whoever you are, whatever your background or situation; I genuinely believe you have every capacity to 180 this test. And I’m sharing because I hope my story can help you to believe it too.

I think this probably goes without saying, but this seems like a good time to thank the entire 7Sage team and community. The LSAT has been a long, painful process for me. I started studying about a year ago with a target score of 173. I scored a 163 in Oct. 2015 and then a 162 in Dec. 2015. After the Dec scores came back I was really bitter for a long time. I decided I could either quit altogether, temper my goals, or delay a year and redouble my efforts for my final take. I chose to quit altogether. Well, obviously that didn’t stick, and after a few months of pouting, I picked myself up. Having discovered 7Sage through the LG videos on youtube (isn’t that how we all find our way here?), I signed up having decided that if I was going to prepare for the LSAT right, this is where I needed to be. I abandoned everything I had learned to date and started over with the 7Sage curriculum. The 7Sage teaching methods are, of course, incredibly effective; and I began building my LSAT knowledge on a much more solid foundation. I also got involved and stayed involved on the forums. Before 7Sage, I felt very much alone in this. I’d go to my friends; but as we all know, people on the outside just can’t understand or empathize with what we’re going through, much less advise us. I’ve learned so much practical knowledge from you guys, but it’s the collective support of this group that really makes it a special place; and I know I wouldn’t have made it so far without this community.

Thanks, and I love you guys!

Meditate on this oddly satisfying GIF to put yourself in the right mindset for PT72.

And then get ready to group BR with Jimmy, myself, and the BR Crew this Saturday!

Saturday, May 7th at 8PM ET: PT72

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What does everyone think about study time at this point? Obviously I know there's a big difference between quantity vs quality, I just really want to make the best use of these next two weeks knowing that I'll need to taper down during the last two weeks or so.

At this point, drilling timed sections/good BR between my PTs seems to be the most effective use of time..but I could be wrong here because 4 timed sections might as well be a PT. I know burnout is deadly (October '15 me could tell you all about it), but I want to squeeze out my last bit of progress in these next 2 weeks and leave it all out on the field.

What are the best strategies in these next 2 weeks to potentially get those last few points of improvement- Timed sections? Just PTs and super thorough BR? or Isolating any identifiable weak spots?

Thanks in advance for any advice or perspectives!

My target score for June is simply a 160-162, which I am fairly confident I can attain. I've taken nearly 10 PTs now and my scores are hovering between the 157-159 range, with one reaching 161. My schedule is as follows: PT usually on a Wednesday or Thursday and then BR until the next one, which is either on Sunday or the next following Wednesday or Thursday.

I just want to know if this is a solid schedule. I feel fairly confident in my abilities, and have seen my scores increase gradually, even after a couple lower scores (155, etc.). However, I do sometimes wonder if I could be doing something different. Actually not even IF I could be doing something different, but WHAT I could be doing.

Most Strongly Supported with Sage Corey Janson

Friday 5/20 9pm ET

Back by popular demand (y'all are practically beating the door down on this one). Corey gives us round 2 of his most excellent MSS intensive this Friday!

Does this look familiar?

This is how a lot of people feel about Most Strongly Supported questions.

Sage Corey will guide you across this scary bridge in his MSS Intensive webinar.

To join the webinar, please do the following:

MSS with Corey

Fri, May 20, 2016 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM CDT

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

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Note on all webinars: Only the live webinars are free and open to the public. No recordings will be made publicly available, but we do make webinar recordings available to 7sage's students as part of the paid course. So if you want to get some great webinar content for free, be sure to attend the live version. Furthermore, any recording or broadcasting of webinars is strictly prohibited (Periscope, screencapture, etc.) and constitutes a violation of LSAC's copyright. Copyright infringement is not a good way to start a legal career.

Trying to find a good law school.

Hi everyone.

I'm trying to figure out what the best way to drill is. I'm working my way through the course and I am thinking that I should be drilling as i go through it rather than waiting until the course is finished. I only got the starter class. Is it worth upgrading so that I have more practice material?. I have almost all of the pts, but I was under the impression that I should save as many as possible. My main question is that now that Cambridge isn't selling their drilling packets (at least that is what I've heard) is there something comparable?

Thanks for the help

I confirmed today what I had feared for the past couple of months - the test center I am registered for in June typically administers the exam in an auditorium with flip up desks. I visited the room today and the desks that flip up are TINY; to add insult to injury I was show the room that's occasionally used for overflow, and or accommodations, and it was perfect, with built-in desks and everything else you could ever want. The deadline for test center changes is within the next week, so I'm trying to decide what is the best thing to do, and I would appreciate any feedback others have on this issue.

The benefits for staying at my current test center are:

1. It's at the law school where I go to undergrad and is within walking distance from my house;

2. I usually study and do PTs in said law school's library, so I'm comfortable with the building in general;

3. Despite the TINY desks I can PT for the next month in that classroom and try to get used to keeping the answer sheet in my lap or something.

There are a few other test centers within an hour's drive, but they are all at similarly large state schools and based on what I've seen, they all have hit or miss desk situations. However, there is a small liberal-arts college a couple hours away with openings for this June's test date; I've only seen one review for the school, but it was positive. I'm also thinking that at a school of <2700 students that they probably don't even have a lecture hall that's designed for maximum occupancy. If I were to change the test location to that test center I would drive over on Sunday and stay the night in-town before Monday's test. I might also try to visit in late-May and take a PT in the actual room if it can be worked out logistically.

I'm going to take PT72 in the next few days, before the Group BR, and if the room is open I'm going to take it in the auditorium of my current test center. I've typically just printed my PTs on one-sided sheets, but given the desk-size constraint I would like to try to replicate the booklet layout. Obviously I want to print the PT double-sided, but what's the best way to bind it like the booklet?

Hello, I was going through JY's list of common flaws, and under the flaw "experiments to reach a general conclusion" he talks about how with experiments to reach a general conclusion you must include a control group, and a baseline. Could someone give me an example of a "baseline" ?

Thank you so much !!