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38 posts in the last 30 days

I'm so incredibly pissed. I started studying in late June with the goal to take the LSAT in September. I know that's not a lot of time to study, but I am a full time teacher and I really have no other choice because I can't split focus between work and studies. So after going through the course, I began recording my LSATs with perfectly simulated conditions. I started from #39. As of now, I just completed #66, so I have 12 left.

Here is the deal, I have been doing so incredibly bad lately. My Average on my first 10 was 164.7, median was 165. On the next 10 my average was 166, median was 155.5. I actually got a 170 on LSAT #51. Now I have finished 8 more, and my average on those is 164.37, with a median of 164. My last test was a 162, and the one before that was a 163. wtf?

My LR has been consistently very good barring a few outliers; my LG went from atrocious, to bad, to slightly better but still bad. My RC has plummeted. I get 3x as much wrong now.

Honestly, it's the worst feeling in the word. I have to finish the next 12 over 19 days, (I'm at least spacing out the last 3 with lots of relaxation in the last week), and I'm starting to feel like I'm doomed to failure. I really want to go to USC or UCLA, but I'd need to get a 167 to have a shot, given the fact that my GPA is so low from my 3rd year of college - Computer Science was not my thing and I had to be my mom's caretaker. I know that I can explain that stuff in the application, but honestly it would be stupid for those universities to gamble on someone because of their situation when they have more than enough applicants that are getting better scores.

Anyways, venting over. I'm sure there are others out there experiencing the same crap.

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Last comment tuesday, sep 06 2016

PT score range & consistency

Hi all, first time poster here!

I've done quite a few practice tests and while there is (happily) a general upward trend between all of them, my last 5 are sort of all over the place with 10 points between the best and worst and no decipherable trend. While it seems like one should be scoring within a certain range (for example, 160-165), I am not sure what the acceptable limits of the range are- that is, a 10-point range seems way too large to accurately predict a potential test-day score. So my questions are:

1. What does constitute as an acceptable range within which one can reasonably get a good idea of what their score will be on test day? 5 points? 6? 7? What is your range from your last 5 tests, and do you feel it accurately reflects your potential?

2. How does one differentiate between a representative score on a PT and an outlier score? (An outlier score being one that is way above or way below the mainstream, and since it doesn't fit in with the general trend, may not actually represent anything of significance.) Example: Did I score 175, which is x points above my average, because I'm legitimately improving, or because I got lucky that day?

3. Any tips on making scores more consistent? All of my sections are usually +/- 5 EXCEPT for RC which is either real good or real bad and never in between...

Thank you all in advance for the help!

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Last comment monday, sep 05 2016

Dallas 7Sagers

Hey Dallas 7sagers,

I am about to register for December LSAT and two test centers that are available within 30 minutes from me are Collin College Mckinney and Bill J priest institute. I was wondering if anybody has had experience with either of them and can tell me more about them. Which one should I pick?

Thank you for your help. :)

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I recently did a preptest (PT 42) and scored within my average score (Which is good!) but usually my BR score is 10 points higher (which is always encouraging) but this time around my BR score was only 5 points higher. When I looked through to see what went wrong, I noticed that a large amount of the questions I had originally gotten correct under exam conditions, I then got wrong through blind review.

-I'm just curious if this is a common occurrence?

-Have I reached a point where I can intuitively tackle questions under timed conditions but when I stop to try to figure things out without time limitations then I over think things? -- If so, I'm not sure how to deal with that (a bit of a gamble to hope that my intuition is sound)

Also, I've noticed my RC sections have consistently been horrible ranging from -13 to -11.

-What are everyone's advice on drilling RC?

-I'm trying to use the memory method but I'm not sure how much annotation I'm allowed to do as I read.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Sometimes when I would study for the LSAT I often wondered what was the history behind the exam and how it came to be. I noticed the first LSAT with a pdf file was in 1991 and I always wondered how did individuals become lawyers prior to the first LSAT. I found a pdf article about the topic and wanted to share it.

http://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/publications-(lsac-resources)/history-lsac-lsat.pdf

*Copy and Paste Link*

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I have taken lot of PTs old and new and have all of the recent PTs except for C2 (the previously undisclosed test in Superprep 2). I do not want to leave any stone unturned but within reason. $20 for one PT (I already have the other two from Superprep 2) seems silly unless (group 3 negate sufficient) there is a definite benefit. Is it recent (does anyone even know)? Does it have unusual games? I am probably leaning toward getting it but wanted to see what experience people have with it and what advice that experience would generate.

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Last comment sunday, sep 04 2016

Reviewing your PT scores

Hello! So, I took the 2007 PT and I am checking each answer regardless of whether I got it riht or wrong. Is this a good idea? I feel like it's taking up too much time (I'm behind a week). Should I just check those that I got wrong/skipped?

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So I'm just wrapping up learning the four basic groups and have a question on groups three and four. I know it doesn't matter which one you pick as long you stick to the rule(G3=Sufficient and G4=Necessary), but for speed purposes I created my own rule and wanted to know if there was ever a chance that rule could be wrong. So I always do the first idea and make it the sufficient indicator and the second the necessary. For the obvious reason that that would put them on the same side of the "arrow" consistently. But could I be setting myself up for a mistake? Does anyone else do this rule?

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Last comment saturday, sep 03 2016

How many PTs is too many PTs?

Just wondering, how many PTs are you guys doing now that we have 3 weeks left to go ...

I don't want to burn myself out and I want to actually absorb what I'm learning, however I haven't done too many PTs (maybe like 5 full ones, even though I've been studying part-time since March) so would a PT every day be too much (1 timed, the next day untimed and so on) .... or should I stick to 2-3 per week? Also, I'm planning to study 8-10 hours a day until test day.

I started with a 140, last PT was 151, aiming for 160 on the 24th. Too ambitious? My part-time studying hasn't allowed me to fully absorb the material which is why I haven't increased my score as much as I wanted to :(

Thank you for any responses!

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Last comment saturday, sep 03 2016

LSAT Map

Would it be possible to have a copy of the LSAT map? It's a great reference, however I would really like to have a PDF version printed so I can reference it while I listen to each lesson. I know it would help me piece together all the lessons better as I am going through the core curriculum.

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Last comment friday, sep 02 2016

Inconsistent PT's

So I am scheduled for September, but lately I have been having such inconsistent PT's. From 147-163 within the past three weeks. BR's only seem to make me more uncertain. Goal is 160. Averaging about 156. Any advice?

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Last comment friday, sep 02 2016

Having A hard time focusing

With a little over 20 days from the test I have hit a wall. Every time I sit down to do a PT, I simply cannot. I can't seem to focus. I'll do the first section, get the second and my concentration is gone. I found myself just drawing blanks. I may have lost a little motivation to sit down for 3 hours. I seem to do find drilling sections at a time. Has this happened to anyone? Any ideas how to combat this and quickly?

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I have recently completed the core curriculum and the first PT out, I have scored a raw/timed score of 165. Now, I also BR-ed at 170. I want to know how I should be thinking through my scores, if that question makes sense? So, from B.R. I definitely know that timing is an issue (I lost the bulk of my points due to my inability to complete sections) (how do I improve timing? More timed PT's? Because I am a re-taker, I only have ~13 fresh PT's left)...I want to score at 170+, particularly because I am a nervous test taker. I don't know if this is answerable, but what do you guys think about my progress? How should I be studying now, as I'm entering the next stage of PT-ing?

Thank you.

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Last comment friday, sep 02 2016

Filing all my tests

Hey guys,

I've had this thing with making copies of all pts. It's gotten really bad. I've ripped all of the pages from all my 10 Actual books and filed them along with 2 copies of every pt for actual and br. I feel like it's just better to not think about it and have it all there. It's been a long process but im finally finished making copies.

At first I got this for drilling

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1378288/Office-Depot-Brand-19-Pocket-Expanding/

Then this for future pt's

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1396738/Office-Depot-Brand-Expanding-File-Case/

But it's looking like im going to get this.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/287154/Bankers-Box-StorFile-Basic-Strength-65percent/

Trial and error baby. When im done, I'll recycle it all, or donate it. How are you guys filing?

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Last comment friday, sep 02 2016

When to stop scoring PT

I am taking the LSAT on September 24 and am currently hitting a little higher than my desired score. I have been taking 2 tests a week (Wednesday and Saturday). I plan on keeping to this routine until Saturday September 17, which will be the last PT I take. I am curious if, and when, it is a good time to stop scoring PTs before test day?

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I have heard that one should visit the law schools they are applying to.

There are a few law schools I am applying to, I can pay for a flight to visit 3 of them (when landed, I can travel to each one by bus).

Is there a point to visit my top law school choices before I'm admitted?

If yes, what should I be doing once I'm there? Introduce myself to the secretary, or meet with someone in particular? Should I be enquiring about more details regarding the clinics the prospective law school offers? I feel like I can do all that over the phone if I really need to.

Would there by specific law schools that are should be visited, like Harvard or Yale, rather than smaller names?

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7sage has helped me so much with content, but there seems to be one issue I can't find discussed anywhere: does anybody have timing problems and go TOO FAST? In order to get better with the LSAT, I took my practice tests untimed until I started scoring 90% or better. Since then, I have started timing myself. I have noticed that for logical reasoning and reading comprehension, I am finishing sections with anywhere from 10-15 minutes left! My accuracy is not bad, usually 3-4 wrong in each section, but when I go back and check my work, I realize many of my mistakes were stupid. No matter how hard I try to slow down, I still finish these 2 sections (games take me the full time) early. Any tips on how to really slow down and take the full time? Has this happened to anyone else before? Thanks again to the whole community for your help throughout this process.

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Hi Folks,

I have been studying for the LSAT for roughly a year now (on and off for first 8 months, but full-time in these last 4) mainly utilizing 7Sage's curriculum, although I have also done the Trainer and PowerScore Bibles. In this time, I went from a diagnostic score of 161 to about 179 at my peak (PT56) and today I got 167 (PT78). Lately, my scores average has fallen by about 6 points from 173 to 167 in the PT 70s. My average scores for each section are (LR: -3.3 / LG: -2.3 / RC: -3.7).

I am pretty disheartened by this decrease as I originally thought I was really prepared. Seeing as how the breakdown of my sections also seems to be similar across the board, I think I may be hitting my plateau. Is 170 impossible for me by September? What can I do now that I am nearly running out of materials and recent PTs to take?

One of my main issues I find is that I almost always have more questions wrong than I mark for BR. This feels even worse because I don't even know that I am missing something. Does anyone have any tips for the final stretch?

(I have attached a screenshot of my analytics. Please disregard the BR line, because I use a different account for that. My BR is always about 5 points above PT score). http://imgur.com/a/vfLz0

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