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I am applying for the 2016 cycle. Registered for the February, which is my third take. I cancelled my second score due to bubbling error and used my first score to apply, which should get me into some fine law schools. Everyone around me think I should give it a last try. So I prepped for another month and took 77 and ended up with the exact same score which I got for my first take. I would wish anyone to give me some advise on whether to take the test on Saturday! Thanks!

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Back in the late 70s, my dad was trying to figure out what to do as far as careers go and his brother had casually suggested law school as an option. Not knowing much my dad reached out to his Uncle Stan, a successful trial lawyer in New Jersey, for advice. The following is the letter that Stan wrote by hand and which to this day is very insightful and I thought, relevant, to so many of us who are contemplating this intense future. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Saturday 9/7/77

Dear Robbie,

How are you? We are all fine. And so without further adieu, as the say, and in response to your recent letter.

An old law school professor of mine stressed that there is no such thing as “the law.” What he was trying to bring out is that the law is dynamic. It mirrors life. It is not static, it changes. True it’s always ten years behind what ought to be, but that’s another story.

The law has been likened to a seamless web, and by that is meant it has many facets, many areas of interest and at the same time is interesting and without end. There is no limit to the time that can be spent studying, applying, analyzing, interpreting. And for that it is also called a jealous mistress. You can keep your options open and gravitate towards that which interests you - contract law, corporate, criminal, trial work (which I find most interesting and rewarding), estates, tax, labor, to name only a few areas - and in each you can spend a lifetime and still continue to learn new things every day.

In the practice of law you live by your wits, and by that I mean it’s a thinking man’s profession. It takes time to learn the tools, which is true in any field of endeavor you choose, and these are blended with life’s experience. The student who graduates with all A’s may not be prepared for this if his time has been limited solely to books and libraries. The graduate with experience in assorted life’s jobs, with a feel for people, will do better as he’s better equipped.

Before considering the law as a profession ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price. Sacrifices have to be made. Three years of constant study are gruelling in the sense that the work is cumulative, continual, absorbing but sometimes tedious, all with a view towards making the student realize that each incident in life has many issues and how to evaluate them. No one day is terribly difficult, yet the total sum of all studies is burdensome. Along the way about one-third will drop out, if not more, and of those who graduate only about one-third will become full time practitioners, and of those who do last it will take each about three years of actual practice before he becomes worth something and can command a decent salary or be able to strike out into private practice.

Is it worth all that time, effort and money? Absolutely! It’s stimulating, fascinating, challenging, rewarding, gratifying, ego inflating and financially renumerative. As you get older and stay in the practice, the value of the attorney increases - as opposed to other non-professions, e.g. salesmen. But one has to be ready to make the sacrifices in the beginning, to desire, to want it.

Should you attempt to do it? I think it’s a great idea, but don’t count on instant rewards. Project ahead a steady growth for each year, improving your prospects, and of knowing that the cream will rise to the top, and if you can demonstrate that patience and motivation you will be guaranteed the eventual exhilarance of the practice of law, and I know you’ll do well.

Love,

Stan

P.S. you can see lawyers tend to talk a lot especially if they are asked a question and have a captive audience that they love.

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Hey guys—

We're hip. I promise. We do the Snap Chats, just like the teens and the youths.

So, add us: official7sage

I'll be monitoring the account between now and the exam on Saturday (and forever after, of course) and would love to share some encouragement, good vibes, pump up the jams, all of the above.

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So, ten years ago i applied to this law school and was rejected. I ended up not going to LS at all back then. Am applying again now, and reapplying to said school again. Should I "touch upon" it in my personal statement? I kind of don't want to but…Thanks all in advance.

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Update: Jonathan Wang will be joining us as well!

Feb '16 Pep Rally! Featuring JY Ping, Jonathan Wang, and Jimmy Dahroug!! (Quick Silver) | Wednesday 8pm ET

Attendance is limited to the first 95 participants so please join as early as 7:30 pm ET

Come for the encouragement. Come for the power. Come for the pro-tips.

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose.

To join, please do the following:

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

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/856546613

You can also dial in using your phone.

United States +1 (646) 749-3122

Access Code: 856-546-613

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Who's excited for these hot-off-the-presses video explanations for the December 2015 LSAT?

This guy:

To kick things off, we're putting them on sale for 80% off! Video explanations for PT 77 are now available for $5.97 (Regular price: $29.97) for a limited time.

You also get +1 month to your existing 7Sage account for the purchase.

https://classic.7sage.com/addons/?ss_select=lsat_77

Early bird discount expires February 14th.

(If the link doesn't work: Mouse over "Course" in the menu, click "Extensions and Addons". You should see PrepTest 77 after scrolling about one screen down.)

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Hi 7sagers,

I need some advice. I've taken the LSAT twice (October, December) and have scored the same score twice (149.. I know, I'm so embarrassed). The first time I was completely unprepared for logic games, so I missed most of my questions in that section, and then the second time, despite feeling more confident on logic games, I suffered from horrible test anxiety the day of the test and actually FROZE for about 6 minutes after reading the first reading comprehension passage and then scrambled to answer the questions hoping it was the experimental section (which it wasn't). I'd been scoring in the high 150s but was mortified to get the exact same horrible score as in October. Anyway.. now, I'm not so sure what to do. I'm 24 and was hoping to start law school next year, but now I don't know if I should try to study for the February LSAT (I've registered for it but am considering withdrawing) or to wait and retake it in June. I'm not trying to get into any great schools, I was just shooting for around a high 150, so I don't know if it's realistic for me to improve if I get my anxiety in check or if I should just wait until June. I'm really scared that I'll mess up again in February and then have to wait 2 more years to retake. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed, discouraged, and with low confidence, and I'm just having trouble deciding what to do. Any input or similar stories would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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Hey guys,

If your inbox looks anything like mine, it's probably drowning with emails from law schools encouraging you to apply and blah blah blah. Once in a while, I get an email from a school I'm actually interested in. This is where my question comes in:

If I'm applying NEXT cycle, how can I go about building a relationship with the admissions people now? Have you guys tried to? Any tips are appreciated.

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Some topics appear more frequently than others on the LSAT. It may be helpful to prioritize your reading in addition to the LSAT passages.

Here's a list of subjects ordered by its frequency (PT1-PT76) from 7sage.

Law 84

History 43

Science 40

Biology 34

Literature 30

Anthropology 29

Philosophy 24

Economics 20

Technology 20

African American 18

Art 16

Native American 14

Painting 14

Women 11

Latino 10

Linguistics 10

Government 9

Music 9

Sociology 9

Zoology 9

Asian American 8

Poetry 8

Psychology 8

African 7

Performing Arts 7

Environment 6

Medicine 6

Physics 6

Agricultural Science 5

Climatology 5

Geology 5

Archeology 3

Education 3

Miscellaneous 3

Energy 2

Good luck!

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Last comment wednesday, feb 03 2016

connollykev567

Breaks During 4 Section PT

When do people tend to schedule their breaks during 4 section PTs?

2 Sections, break, 2 Sections? Or 3 Sections, Break, then 1 Section?

I'm asking because I feel like it's important to be able to get through 3 sections before the break, but at the same time I feel like 1 section after the break is too little to lock in. Thoughts?

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I constantly see people asking, "I got X score on my first diagnostic, how many points can I really improve?" but the truth is that there is no answer to this question and I am sick of people replying with "10 points or so". There is NO reason that anyone who dedicates the time and focus to studying for this test can't improve to the maximum level of scoring. By telling yourself that you're only looking to improve "10 points or so" is one of the worst things that you can do in your prep, at least in my mind. I had a diagnostic of 150 the first time I took one, then took a Testmasters course before the June 2013 exam and ended up scoring a 160 on the real one (I had told myself I would be ok with a 160, which limited my mental goals after I was averaging 164-165). I have now been studying for the past two months using 7sage and the LSAT Trainer to take the December 2014 test, and I have scored as high as 169 and have 32 PT's to go.

Bottom line, there are a few requirements that if achieved, I believe enable anyone to score in the 170's and even higher in some cases. (not necessarily in this order)

First, you must MASTER Logic Games, to the point where you are excited when it comes time to do them in a full Practice Test. LG is the only section, at least I believe, where you get the opportunity to see answers as "black and white". Yes, I know for every question there are always 4 wrong answers and 1 right one, but for other sections it is much harder to check which are what. For LG, whichever answer you select, you must 100% be certain that the other 4 are wrong, because only ONE can be right. Eliminating 4 answers on LG is the best way to assure yourself that you have gotten them all right.

Second, you must see the macro concepts of each individual LR question stem. The WORST thing that Testmasters taught me was that it was in my best interest to avoid reading the question stem first...Now that I use it as a trigger and truly focus on fully understanding the stimulus, I find it much easier to see incorrect answers (which is the key to scoring high). LR isn't testing your ability to analyze a stimulus, it is testing your ability to analyze for a SPECIFIC GOAL. Obviously many question types overlap and allow you get a feel of the key to this section (recognizing the parts of an argument and further, how they actually relate to one another). However, reading a stimulus with purpose will save you MASSIVE amounts of time when it comes time to do the difficult questions. Overall, you must get comfortable with LR to the point where you are happy that it is 50% of the test, you cannot score high without decent mastery in this section.

Third, you MUST MUST MUST, develop an internal questioning system in which you are constantly questioning your reasoning for choosing an answer. I used to easily eliminate 3 answers for a specific question and would then try to focus on which of the remaining two is more "right", however this is as misguided as can be. The difference between getting a 160 and a 170, in my opinion, is seeing why four answer choices are WRONG rather than why one is RIGHT. The latter is important, but if you can find the 4 that are wrong, you won't need to truly understand why the 5th is right (it helps obviously, but sometimes for the curve breaking questions this method is easier for me).

I know I haven't talked about Reading Comp, but to me that is a section that comes with extreme repetition and will improve the more you improve on LR. I see them related in the sense that LR stimulus is just as difficult to read as a paragraph from a passage, therefore the more comfortable you get with reading and understanding LR stim, the easier time you will have sorting through the information in RC.

This is not a "for sure" guide to getting a 170 but these principles seem, to me at least, essential elements for dominating this test. Do not be intimidated to try intense study practices, because the more intense, the more prepared you will be for test day. People talk about burnout, but burning out only means you have lost focus on the goal at hand, which is to dominate this test. People don't run marathons thinking they're only going to run 20 miles, they set their goal to the highest point they can and they strive for it, the most important way to view your potential score on the LSAT. Just wanted to give those who are retaking a little extra motivation for gearing up to study for the next 6 weeks, and obviously these are my "opinions" and I am not an authority on the LSAT, but I feel that this post may help some people who are struggling with seeing themselves scoring very high.

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Who has been on a holiday binge with this show? I'd love to hear some thoughts from some future lawyer. How do you think things will play out from here? If you haven't seen it yet, stop what you're doing and hop on Netflix and you'll be hooked!

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Hi, all. I was on a wonderful webinar the other night led by the friendly and knowledgeable sage, @c.janson35. He mentioned that he often formulates a "pre-phrase" when thinking about potential answer choices. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to have him elaborate on that topic. I DM'd him, but I was hoping one of you might help, too.

(1) Is a "pre-phrase" just another term for prediction? I was unfamiliar with the term prior to the webinar. And if that is the case, then I'm assuming that creating a pre-phrase in one's mind is done to narrow the focus/save time when evaluating potential answer choices, right?

(2) Does anyone have advice on the best way to pre-phrase? It seems rather obvious but perhaps you have a particular technique that you find useful (e.g. asking yourself a key guiding question, based on the test section or question type).

(3) If #1 above is correct, I would also like to know if you find pre-phrasing/predicting helpful, too. It seems as though it obviously would be. However, having just read the fantastic, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, I'm also trying to be more cognizant of how my fast-thinking intuition has the potential to lead me astray in situations that merit slow-thinking scrutiny. And we know that those nefarious LSAC folks love to trick testers with seductive trap choices that "feel" right, too.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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