Are they? I am only doing 4-Section PTs

Hi guys, did you ever encounter this issue: After you read a RC passage, you think you understand this passage, and you know the support for argument, but when you get to questions, you can't refer some ACs back to passage and you are not confident enough to eliminate wrong ACs? It happens to me sometimes in RC. Thank you all. I am still recovering from burn-out after I found out I was not really recovered on this Thursday, :( :(.

LR sections= BR

Games= Fool-Proof Method

Reading Comp... how do you guys review?

I started 7sage's lessons on RC today and I still feel clueless/helpless. First, I'd like to ask if anyone has seen dramatic improvement using the memory method. I gave it a test run today and I'm a bit skeptical (not counting it out, just my $.02 at the moment!). Fwiw, prior to 7sage I did a lot of practice sections and I would miss over half of the questions... In addition, I'm thinking of incorporating ideas from the trainer into 7sage's ideas, would you recommend this? They're not that drastically different.

Hi! I don't know if an announcement was made or if someone already asked this but does anyone know when PT75 video explanations will be made available? Thanks!

Hey guys,

so i started doing prep tests today and i really need help with RC. I scored a 149 but my LG and LR are doing not bad, still definite room for improvement, but what killed me was my RC i got 7/26 (timed) like WTF!!!!! if i would have gotten 10 more answers correct i could have got a decent score. This is the lowest ive ever scored but i cant have this problem during my October test otherwise its bye bye law school hello becoming a janitor....ok maybe not that drastic but you get the point.

Anyways i really need help with this section obviously and i am looking to you beautiful people to help me out. My biggest issue is definitely timing. I am guessing on average 10 questions each timed section.

Also, i have been hearing about this LSAT trainer. For those who have this, is this better than the method JY teaches? Would anyone recommend this? Do you think i would have enough time to figure out this method before the october LSAT

If you guys have any tips or recommendations for me it would be greatly appreciated

Best Regards

The Chupacabra

So, I am finally finished with the 7sage course, this is when things start to get interesting. I would like to know what you guys recommend I should do. Should I do a PT or two first and drill based on the scores of the PT's? or, should I drill a bit first and then take the PT's? I also want to mention that I have little practice with time. As I was working through the course I just kept track of time on a stopwatch, but essentially gave myself unlimited time to work on accuracy, and understanding.

J.Y/Dillon,

I am experiencing difficulties with the videos within my course syllabus. The videos load, I can hear J.Y's voice coming in, but is it very robotic and it's pure static. I have tried logging out, restarting my computer and logging back in. No results. I know it is not my computer, because I am able to load and listened to videos under the logic explanations, once I click on resources. However, once I log into my course and click on syllabus, is when the problem occurs. Even though I can still access the LG section that is free to the public, to reiterate the ones within my course syllabus is not working.

Thanks.

Hello,

Is anyone else having trouble loading the videos. J.Y's voice is coming in as very robotic and it's pure static. I have tried logging out, restarting my computer and logging back in. No results. Thanks.

Hey guys, I am trying to compile a list of all the "basics" I need to memorize. For example, Succ/Necc/NegSuf/NegNec/... the different flaws, specific rules, all the way question types can be asked... to study when I am on the road or can't really sit and focus on doing individual question types. I want to learn all them by heart and need some help to create a master list! I will also share, of course. Thanks!

So, I have been wondering about this for sometime now. Is it really THAT important to graduate from a T25 Law School vs. graduating from an ABA accredited law school ranked in the top 50? Do you think it is that much harder to get a job, and that much harder to make a six figure salary? I had a Prof who graduated from temple law, and she was the corporate council of my town, and we were talking and she was explaining to me how she had Harvard, NYU, and Columbia graduates working for her, and she said all they knew how to do was read, and write, hardly ever able to speak in public, I mean she said they were smart, but that's as far as it went. What are your opinions on this?

BTW no I am not in it for the money, however I do not want to graduate with 250K of debt, and then work making 50K a year.

Hi,

For the second time in a row now I've BR'd 180 (missed one, still 180...) and have timed scores of 165 and 163. In other words, I can figure out the right answers... I just can't do it in nearly enough time. Leaving 4 or 5 bubbles blank per section is pretty disastrous to one's score but I've been going for accuracy over speed. Will the speed eventually come? I've only done 5 prep tests so far. I'm starting to worry though because it "feels" like I'm maxing out my possible pace.

Thanks much.

In the lessons that cover conditional reasoning (existential/universal quantifiers), I get almost every single practice problem correct...however, when going through actual LSAT problems, I can't seem to translate what the stimulus is saying into Lawgic. I feel that if I can only nail down this one specific problem-area down, I can answer more questions correctly... help?

Is there any mechanism by which we can switch the preptests that show up in our syllabus to ones we have access to? In my specific case, I have the LSAT starter course but bought preptests 29-38 and 52-61 but my course only allows me to input my progress for tests 36 through 42, I wonder if there is anyway to change that without upgrading my course.

I cannot find them on amazon. Is my only option to buy them 1 at a time from LSAC?

Last week I had increased my PT score by 7 points, but the one I took after that was 5 points lower. Has anyone had a fluctuation like this before, or do most people just consistently improve? Any advice/comment would help on how people generally improve from PT to PT

So I was all ready to leave for my European vacation when I receive an email from the system telling me I have a private message on 7Sage. Hmm, what is this? Oh, it’s @nicole.hopkins suggesting an article topic? Grumble grumble. Whoa, it’s really been like a month since I’ve written one? Grumble grumble. FINE, I guess I’ll put something together. Don’t say I never did anything for you, Hopkins. Better watch your back.

OK, so. BURNOUT is the word of the day.

Cutting right to the chase - I recommend Burnout: Paradise. It’s a really sweet open-world driving game that’s held up surprisingly well over the years and…oh, not that kind of burnout? Darn.

How to tell you’re burning out:

The ideal learning attitude is for you to come into the whole thing expecting to make all kinds of awful, terrible mistakes that you have to spend hours upon hours cleaning up. When you just get started with a new task, that’s the high that accompanies it. “I’m going to get this”, you tell yourself. And for a time, you’re willing to roll with the punches and (assuming that you’ve put your ego aside, as we’ve discussed a few times previously) learn what needs to be learned without it affecting your mood too much. Frustrating as it may be, you work through your mistakes because you can feel yourself learning.

But like all ideal things, this cannot last forever, no matter how much you consciously try to maintain it. Usually, it starts when something doesn’t click right away or when you otherwise plateau, however temporarily. Don’t worry – nothing’s wrong with you. That just means you’re human (or a highly-realistic cyborg clone). It’s normal to get irritated sometimes when you feel like you’re not progressing (or even if you’re not progressing as fast as you feel like you should be, though that again has to do with the ego thing we talked about before). But that’s where it usually starts. Because here’s the thing – have you ever heard of someone burning out when they’re on a constant upward trajectory? Yeah, right. You show me a student who goes +1 scaled point every test, and I’ll show you a student who will never burn out.

Assuming you hit snags on your path like a normal person, you will eventually reach a low point where you dread studying because you’re sick of making mistakes and always having to struggle to find the right way to fix them, only to make what seems like negligible progress. Instead of properly analyzing the latest error you made, you just throw your hands up in frustration and complain about how ‘nobody writes like that’ (and since that’s one of my biggest pet peeves, I’ll state for the record – yes, they do. All the time, in fact, so you'd better get used to it). Mistakes make you increasingly more irritable, as you lament the fact that you made a sufficiency/necessity mistake, AGAIN. I mean, can they really just stop that? This test is so dumb sometimes.

Many times, this increased irritability and loathing results in avoiding studying, sort of like one avoids doing the laundry in favor of lounging on the couch catching up on back episodes of Pokemon (no? just me?). Go downstairs to put my laundry in the dryer? Maybe later, Ash is about to finally gain the trust of his Charmander! That scene always hits me right in the feels. Who cares about the laundry, anyway? Maybe I’m just not cut out for laundering.

That’s a state of burnout in a nutshell – the apathy, the excuse-making, the frustration finally boiling over. Which, if you’re a particularly nervous type, can even result in you panicking about not studying while simultaneously making excuses not to study. A pretty odd spot to be in, frankly, but it happens more than you might think.

Addressing the issue:

There are degrees of burnout. Small instances of burnout happen all the time, and usually just necessitate a bubble tea run to clear your head, or perhaps a quick trip to these discussion forums to bask in the schadenfreude of your similarly-suffering peers, or maybe just yelling a swear word at the top of your lungs and scaring the dog. Larger instances of burnout happen over a period of months, as your dedication continues to wane on a macro level. But the micro instances of burnout are instructive, because they suggest the solution for larger instances. Which is rather simple, in my opinion.

When you’re burned out, you need to take a break. Yes, you. Listen up:

Take.

A.

Break.

There’s no way around it. You are no longer in the mindset required to learn, and you need to get it back. Studying more isn’t going to help, because remember – you’re already no longer in the mindset required to learn. Which begs the question – if you’re not going to get anything out of it, why would studying more ever be the right call? It’s not. You have to take a break and recharge your batteries.

Q: But what if I don’t have time to take a break?

A: Yes, because you’re accomplishing so much more by forcing yourself to study when you clearly aren’t learning anything from the time spent.

Q: But the test is just two months away!

A: And?

Q: So I need to be studying all the time, right?

A: That’s not how it works.

Look, here’s the deal. If you aren’t getting anything out of studying, you might as well be banging your head against a brick wall. In the process your mood will continue to worsen, leading to further frustration, panic, or both. (Frus-panic? Pan-stration?) Whatever you call it, it’s bad. And, not only are you literally wasting your time studying with that kind of mental state, it can be actively detrimental to you because this is precisely the time where you are most vulnerable both to lapsing back into old (bad) habits and also creating brand new (bad) habits in your attempt to make things make sense again.

Never confuse the steps you take to get to a goal with the goal itself. Having a consistent schedule is important, but it is not the end goal – learning is. Studying consistently is merely a means to that end. When the circumstances change, you need to adapt. You would not go to the gym and try to do leg presses if you broke your ankle. Why are you trying to ‘go to the gym’ (study for the LSAT) with a ‘broken’ brain (a mindset that will not allow you to do what you need to be doing)?

The hardest part is actually giving yourself permission to take a break without feeling guilty. My suggestion – write yourself a contract. You are going to take 48, or 96, or 144 hours away from the test. During that time, you are expressly prohibited from opening an LSAT book, looking at an LSAT question, visiting 7Sage, or anything else. Use this time to remember what life was like before you put the weight of the world on your own shoulders all those months ago. Read a book, sit by the pool, go out with your friends. Give yourself permission to punch anyone who asks you about the test in the face, too. In exchange, when you come back, you promise to do 30 minutes of (X), where (X) is some combination of fundamental tasks like question stem drills or conditional translation exercises. Just 30 minutes, to get back on your feet. And then take it from there, one step at a time.

If your mental game is in shambles, no amount of LSAT mechanics will save you.The test will be there when you get back; you just need to be ready to tackle it. Do what you need to in order to preserve your state of mind.

Just like I'm going to do, right freakin' now. No LSAT for 10 days for me! Catch you suckers later!

I mean can you actually deteriorate in your ability to take LSAT as you study more? I've recently started taking PTs in the 50s after finishing the ones in 30s/40s - only to realize that both my actual and BR scores are dropping each PT (from mid 160s to currently high 150s actual). I've taken about 17 PTs and this is really discouraging. I can't believe my BR score is dropping too below 170s now. Are PTs in the 50s harder than the previous ones? Or am I just losing my fundamentals as time progresses... Or this is just a burnout? It's really frustrating to see that I'm doing worse each time - I feel like maybe this test is not for me (I know some of you will hate me for saying this). :(

I currently suck at this question type. I mean I do not have a clue on what I am doing even when applying the negation test. what is a good strategy to get over these woes?

@blah170blah Forced me to create a Myers-Brigg thread (at knife point no less...). What's yours? Share please!

What was/is the question type(s) that you struggle with? How did you get over your struggle? What word of advice can you give to someone struggling with the question type?

Not sure if such a post was already attempted before, but I think this would be a good thread to start to get different question types perspectives, and ways to get over the difficulty of a question type.

So, let me begin. The most difficult question type for me are assumption questions. I did not really get over my struggle yet with NA but with SA I got over my struggle by first mapping out the conditionals, and with that practice I just began to see what needed to be linked up for a valid argument. My advice would be practice with a purpose, and understand what you are doing wrong, and why you are not getting to the right answer. Look for what terms need to be connected to make the valid argument, and understand which is the premise and the conclusion.

Hello everyone!

First time poster, long time lurker.

I'm looking to get some advice on what would be my best study option leading up to the October LSAT. My PT scores seem to have hit a plateau around 158-160 right now. My latest BR score was 173, so I realize that there is room for PLENTY of improvement in both PT and BR. Anyway, I've started to obsess over this stupid test and have no problem with retaking in December if I can't reach my goal of 170 by October. With that said, what study method do you all recommend for maximizing my score for October and leading into December? I know more PT/BR will help but should I be focusing more time on fundamentals/specific question types?

Thanks!

Hope you're all having a lovely HUMP DAAAY.

PT61 BR Tonight at 8pm ET

Ok, ok, ok. we've had 2 people so far say they can't make 7pm ET like we'd planned. SO. We're doing 8pm ET for tonight. Let's just all calm down and play it by ear. Oh BTW, we're 52 days from October 3rd. Freaked out yet ???!?

Nah, bro. Join us for soothing rhythms and transcendent insights on tonight's BR call.

Note on all groups

You know that whole piece of advice to skip those turdy substitution questions?

Well. Look. I just did that in a section. Saw it, said NO THANKS, boxed it, moved on, didn't care. Had a tish of extra time, came back to it, still didn't care, eliminated some AC's, pulled the trigger. Nothing to lose, possible 1 point to gain.

-0. That would NOT have happened if I had wasted time on this Q, friends. Was tighter on time in this section than I'd like to be; if I'd wasted the likely 2min+ had I gotten sucked into that vortex, I wouldn't have gotten to one or two questions at the end due to the confidence sink these substitution questions often entail, time sink aside.

Just an example of how following one little bitty piece of 7sage wisdom can result in a real difference of a couple of points.

So, in summary ...

PS: It was thanks to @Pacifico who recently was advocating for this on the BR calls. This is why we listen to Pacifico.

Hi Everyone!

Just a heads up. Got the below email from Cambridge LSAT regarding their LSAT content.

"You may have seen the announcement on our website, but just in case, please see the points below.

Our license to sell LSAT materials to the "general public" has been revoked, and as of August 15th, we will no longer be selling official PrepTest content in either digital form or paperback form. Should you have any questions about LSAC's digital content policy, please inquire with them directly.

We will continue to offer downloadable explanations for a broad range of PrepTests.

Our bookstore will remain open for purchase of mostly non-Cambridge paperbacks and Kindle eBooks.

We have a very limited number of the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package (paperback) bundle at a special discount. These won't last long!

Complete explanations for the Official LSAT PrepTest 75 (June 2015) are available for instant download.

It has been our pleasure providing high-quality downloadable materials over the past six years, and unfortunately, there wasn't a way to both satisfy LSAC's requirements and keep our downloads free from onerous restrictions. If you feel, like we do, that LSAC's digital policy is unnecessarily restrictive and harms students preparing for the test, please voice your disapproval. If enough students express discontent with the status quo, LSAC might reconsider its position.

Sincerely,

Cambridge LSAT"

TL;DR their license expires on August 15th so if you plan on using Cambridge for drilling and/or tests, plan to buy before then!