.

Stim says: European music is sophisticated because it's intelligible

The choice D says: unintelligibility and "most" sophisticated music is correlated

Since D only talks about "most sophisticated music" it can still be compatible with stim, which only refers to sophisticated music.

how can one explain this choice, mainly the difference in degree in D?

How many prep tests before the actual exam? And how many should you do a week BR included? Keep in mind I'm a full time employee. All suggestions and comments welcome. Thank you :)

Hey All,

I am scoring 10+ points more on PTs that I have already taken 2 months ago ...I don't think I remember the answers as its been some time since I looked at these but I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this...I am not sure how telling it is and how accurate retaking PTs can be. The only difference is that I already have a satisfactory LSAT score and I am taking these PTs with less anxiety but if I plan to take another LSAT in December I am not sure if this means i have skewed scores or it finally clicked.

Let me know if anyone else has experienced something similar. Thanks!

So I recently took RC 67 and I saw a relatively large drop in RC score. While I admit that I have paid less focus to RC and this was the first test I really implemented 7Sage/Trainer strategies in my approach, and this may have slowed me down, I also think this set was relatively more difficult. I found myself bogged down in the first few passages and didn't get to the fourth at all, something I haven't done since my diagnostic. Passage 3 was difficult for me and had only 5 questions while Passage 4 had 8 questions that would have been relatively easy points upon my BR.

So my question to you all is, have you found any benefit in skipping around passages and putting some early work into those with the most questions?

Just curious how all the really experienced PTers are logging your retakes of PTs? Are you scoring them in the system just like you do others. I started taking a PT this morning that I didn't realize I had taken before until I got about 5 questions completed & for some reason I never logged my original test, so I have no idea how I did not it before. It was most likely before I started on the 7Sage curriculum, after I got my LSAT Actual Preptest books. I'm concerned about logging it into the system, since it may actually skew my averages because I'm noticing some familiarity with the questions and answer choices.

Hello fellow 7sagers,

I'm trying to decide whether to sit out another cycle. I'm blind reviewing in the 170s, but I can't seem to get my actual score up from the low 160s. I've gone through JY's course twice, the LSAT Trainer, and Manhattan RC. My brain often turns to mush on the harder, convoluted questions under intense timing conditions. I started taking timed PTs around mid October but can't seem to get over this anxiety. I've taken about 10 PTs. Clean copy BR each time. I really need advice on how to get over my timing issues. LG is my strongest section. The timing issues only affect me with RC and LR.

I'm considering postponing until February, but I know applying that late in the cycle would severely hurt my chances at getting accepted to high ranked schools with a scholarship, as most of the seats and scholarship money will be gone by then.

I've been studying 5+ hours everyday (8+ on the weekends) and work full-time. I've been at this since late August, so I fear I'm risking burnout. It would be extremely painful to have to keep pushing through until February, but I know the golden rule is "Don't take the LSAT until you are 100% ready." :(

Things to consider:

- Very scared I won't have new stuff to work with if I sit out another cycle. Only about 30 fresh PTs left.

- Aiming for 165+

Do you guys find your elminating skills getting better by doin it constantly? I haven't devoted my time solely to it, but I'm willing to try anything to improve my score. It seems when I eliminate, I can only elminate two at most. So I'm wondering if i eliminate it more, does it become easier to do?

Hi everyone, I posted a couple days ago saying I would do a write up of my study experience, and here it is. For context, I scored a 180 on the October LSAT after nine months of studying. I didn’t think it would be quite so difficult to recall everything, but I suppose part of me is trying to block it out. I’ve separated this beast into a few sections in case people feel like jumping to a section, but in writing it I got the feeling responding to individual scenarios/questions might both be easier for me than trying a one size fits all and more helpful to you, so for the next week or so I’ll try to respond to any personal messages/questions. I’ll be around for a week or so after this, at which point I’ll be retiring from the LSAT for the foreseeable future.

I tried to address everyone’s wishes in here, but I’m mentally fatigued from work (it doesn’t end with the lsat I guess) so let me know if I forgot something! I never took a cold test but after the powerscore books and before the 7sage course I took the 7sage diagnostic and scored a 167. Also, I know people asked about my approach to the sections and I tried to outline them below, but a lot of that just came from instinct and not from a method. What will be more helpful I hope is my experience with mental fatigue and dips. I also would heavily emphasize planning and organization to avoid needing to cram work in. Cramming is death.

Also, the fact that I got a 180 means I did really well on the LSAT. It doesn’t mean I’ll make an excellent lawyer, that I’m a genius, or anything outside of the world of admissions. Through personal experience I know a woman who got a 158 on the LSAT and is an incredible trial attorney. Just for some perspective for those stressing. Strive for the best score you can, but don’t think it determines your entire future. A 180 also does not make me an expert on everything. All of this is only my thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. They aren’t a rigid guide or what you must absolutely do (except restricting the number of PTs). You know what works for you. Just experiment first to find your optimal approach.

For my final last minute addition, when planning plan for a minimum of six months. You cannot guarantee reaching your max in less. At the same time, I wouldn't do more than 8 or 9 months. I'd say an optimal schedule would be to plan on 30, 2 per week. Count back the weeks, so about 15 weeks, plus one for a break. Give another 15 weeks for studying the material. Probably more than you'll need but you can always take a break or explore a bit. That'd be about 7 months, as an example.

Overview

I began studying for the LSAT in February 2015, intending to take the June LSAT. I began with the Powerscore Bibles, doing a couple chapters of each book a week. While I found their techniques to be overly complicated and not very useful for me, there were some ideas that were beneficial, and I found them especially good for hammering in the basics and formal/conditional logic. I’d recommend them if you have plenty of time before your LSAT, to lay the foundations for the 7sage course. Do the drills, not the practice questions. Save those for 7sage. Plus while I generally found 7sage’s techniques more useful, perhaps you’ll take away more from the Powerscore approach than I did.

Starting 7sage in March, I began to get more serious about my studying. I altered my schedule completely, going to sleep at 12 and waking up at 8 almost every day. I set aside 3 hours each day for 7sage, completing the course and all of the practice sets by mid April. I then planned for taking four practice tests a week until the test itself in June, totaling 28. I started well with improvement from 170 to a high of 174 over three tests, then fluctuated between 170-172 over the next ten or so. I became increasingly frustrated and stressed, not understanding exactly what was going on. I didn’t feel that I was doing too much or that I was mentally tired, but I made mistakes that I found easily when going back over tests. I also barely BR’d, just wanting to speed to see what my score was. With June approaching, I decided to postpone until October, feeling that I had so much more room to improve.

Now saddled with almost too much time, I re-evaluated my schedule. Since I would be graduating, I would soon be free from my student job, school, and extracurriculars. I decided to cut my PTs down to three per week for July and August, then 2 per for September., totaling 33 tests. Since I had taken 13 of the earlier tests, but one new one would be available, there would be a few tests of overlap but I figured retaking those would be a good way to ease back in. However, I took the last two weeks of April and the first two of June to relax, studying only one day a week on Mondays by going over my weak spots in LR in 7sage, basically just to keep it in my mind but also shoring up my fundamentals. The last two weeks of June I basically went through the 7sage course again minus the problem sets, taking handwritten notes on approaches and tactics. The act of writing it helped cement it in my mind.

My approach to studying now was rigid and disciplined. My daily approach I’ll go into more detail below so people can skip to it if they wish but I began to adopt a more serious method. I also began meditating to improve my ability to focus. My first test after my “reset” I scored a 176, a new high. I then got a 177, then 179, then 180. My review, my new approach and mindset, and my patience with BR all helped me improve. I maintained my scores in the high 170s for the next month, taking three a week. However, by the end of August, I began experiencing the same mental fatigue I’d felt when I was taking four a week in April.

This time I realized the issue, and cut back to two tests a week immediately. However, I kept studying on between days, with breaks only on Fridays. I couldn’t accept that studying less might be the key to doing better. Stress mounting, my scores lowered to 173-175 range. I eventually accepted that additional practice sets and games could not possibly prepare me more, and cut back to two tests and nothing else. I realized stress would only hurt, and decided to just enjoy the rest of my time and cut out as much stress as possible. With two weeks to go and three PTs left, I got a 177 on my Wednesday test, then a 179 on my Monday. I decided to skip the Wednesday, figuring the rest would be better and I didn’t want a freak poor day on the most recent test to tank my confidence.

They don’t give the test in my town, so I booked a hotel 5 minutes from LMU for the Thursday and Friday before so I’d have some time to acclimate. The night before, I slept horribly. I didn’t feel nervous, but I kept thinking about how important it was for me to sleep, which made it impossible to sleep. Eventually I drifted off. I then woke up, ate my breakfast, and went to the test center. I was sent in to the first room, where I had a large desk. We started early, which was a huge advantage since during the break there was no line for the bathroom and I had less time for nerves to sink in.

During the test, I had to do some breathing techniques to calm down. When we started, I tore through that first LR section. I finished the section in 20 minutes flat. I checked every question, corrected one, then sat and waited for the next. RC. Great. My weakest section because I would always lose focus during one of the passages. This time, I focused no problem and finished with a minute to spare. Next I had what would be the experimental LG. Super easy, done in twenty minutes. Then the break. I felt excellent, and beyond excited to be so close to finished with the LSAT. I came back in, finished the more difficult LR without a hitch, then turned to the last section, another LG. I came dangerously close to blowing it here. The whole time I kept thinking the questions were a bit off so it was probably the experimental. I finished with time to check my work, but found I had truly made a mess of question three. I fixed all of the questions but one, which I managed to eliminate two of the answers then blindly circled in E, by some miracle getting my guess right. And that’s how I got a 180 instead of a 179.

Study Approach

While I was doing the 7sage course, I broke up my studying into smaller 30 minute chunks with plenty of breaks, giving my mind time to soak in the information. I made sure to do three hours a day though. For July through test day, I woke up at 6:45 and went to sleep at 10:30 every night without fail. I meditated for 15 minutes every day from 5-5:15. On test days, I woke up, showered, ate breakfast/coffee, did a warmup, then simulated waiting for the test to start, then began the test between 8:30 and 9:30 to simulate possible variation. On non test days, I took it a bit easy but did a couple games and an LR section, sometimes throwing in an RC. I set aside Friday as a rest day, since I intended to do nothing the Friday before the actual test. I took tests on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. During my PTs, I circled every question I was unsure about and followed the 7sage method. The keys to a good study approach to me are replicating whatever you will do on test day, and adopting a consistent sleep schedule. Sleep is crucial, and an easy way to improve the quality of it is consistent hours every day. When working through the course, designate one hour each week to plan your study hours for the entire week up to your designated hours. For example, I always set aside between 18-20 hours in 30-45 minute segments. Find aa time segment that works for you, but don’t try to study for three hours straight. The PTs are for training your mind’s strength, when you are learning the approaches and skills you need to be able to absorb it permanently, and there’s a limit to how much you can take at once. Lastly, re-evaluate your needs honestly. If with three weeks to go you feel you have room to improve, maybe you should take the extra months instead. If you feel you’re suffering from test fatigue, take a couple days immediately and scale back.

Mental Approach

The LSAT is a mental beast. I don’t mean in terms of the difficulty, that mental aspect is obvious. The less obvious one is the one that kills you just as surely but far more subtly. I’m talking test day nerves, long term stress, fatigue, negative attitudes. People who score 180s on their PT can tank test day because they didn’t mentally prepare for the actual test, and others get a test day boost by channeling their adrenaline. This is my advantage. I was a pitcher for years until I tore various ligaments in my shoulder, and learned all sorts of mental fortitude tricks and methods. When I sat down for the real LSAT, I felt nervous. Then I changed those nerves to adrenaline, breathing in and out in a pattern and viewing the next four hours as a battle that I was going to utterly dominate. The LSAT was my enemy, and I was going to crush it. I’d found my way to combat those nerved from years of sports. I recommend anyone starting to study go find a book on mental toughness (there are dozens of good ones about sports) and study up. Can’t hurt.

As far as long term mental issues. This approach will vary hugely from person to person, on temperament and what else you have in your life. Most important is to avoid test fatigue. DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN THREE TESTS A WEEK. Maybe, maybe if you’re two months away and want to nail down your routine for each section take more, but scale back asap. If you feel fatigue, take a break. Do nothing mentally fatiguing for a couple days. Then reevaluate what you really need to do and how much you can handle. The LSAT feeds into my greatest strengths of logic, reasoning, and reading. I experienced test fatigue. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it doesn’t mean you aren’t as mentally strong as the people at TLS pretending to take a PT a day, it means you need to step away. I did, and I got a 180. So if that helps you take a break, tell yourself that. I studied for nine months, about a month too long for me. By the end I was so sick of the lsat, I never wanted to think about it again. Even with all my breaks and stress relief, it weighs on you over time.

Also, test fatigue isn’t limited to tests. Any sort of studying fatigues you, as does reading, writing, or any mentally demanding activity. This was hard for me to accept, since I read all the time, but you may just have to go for walks or watch tv instead to rest your mind. Again, evaluate this for yourself, but when I stopped reading my RC score jumped a question or two since I wasn’t glossing over words anymore. If you read too much you read too quickly or carelessly.

Lastly, I cannot recommend two activities enough: meditation and exercise. Download a meditation app and just spend 15 minutes sitting or lying down clearing your head. It’ll help. Spend an hour a day four days a week doing serious exercise, it’ll help your brain be active without fatiguing and it’ll give you more energy, plus everyone should exercise for the myriad of health benefits anyways. So now’s your chance to start!

Individual Sections

LR

For LR questions I did not generally note anything or write anything, with the exception of the most difficult parallel reasoning or disagree questions. I found I didn’t need to. I would read the stem, then the stim, then the stem, then go through the questions and eliminate those I could, then weigh those remaining. If I couldn’t come to a 100% solution, I’d circle what I was leaning towards, circle the question, and move on. I aimed to finish 10 by 10 minutes, 20 by 20 minutes, and the section by 30, leaving 5 minutes to review those few questions I’d circle. LR was the section I was most affected by test fatigue with, but otherwise I usually missed one or none, occasionally two.

LG

My approach to LG probably will not be great for most of you. I would write each rule, including the contrapositive when appropriate, and make a quick number of inferences. If there were many questions that seemed to be scenario or inference based, I would spend more time on that initial inference step. Otherwise I moved on through the question. If I was wrong, I often could work through the inferences required quickly enough to not lose much time when I skipped the initial setup of game boards or alternatives. Essentially I went with my gut feeling on a given game, which is frustratingly hard to describe but the truth.

The most important part of any approach to Logic Games is mental flexibility. Every game is unique in some way, but the good news is every game you practice on helps you see another possible scenario and gives you a framework for approaching future problems. Lastly, find your system. I didn’t use strictly the 7sage or Powerscore methods/notation, I created my own bastardized system that worked best for me because I made it. It didn’t work or make sense to anyone else, but it was for me, not them. Experiment and find your system, and don’t worry about being able to explain it. Just make sure it’s clear to you, useful, and flexible.

RC

RC was my least improved section, going from average of -3 to -2 by the end, although I got a perfect on test day. This is where the ability to channel nerves into focused energy on test day is so crucial. Normally I would glaze over for at least one passage, but on test day I was uber focused and sailed through.

RC is also where you really, really, really need to develop your own approach. Everyone reads differently and will find different things helpful. For me, it was scribbling while reading. Not summarizing, but writing in-between the text and the questions as I read. Rewriting words, paraphrasing sentences, all of it just kept me engaged and slowed me down a tad so I didn’t race through. I didn’t read my writing during the questions, but it helped cement in place where things were in the passage. Basically I took the 7sage method and tweaked it to fit me. Find your tweak, it’s what the practice sets are for.

Test Day

If you’ve been simulating test day each PT for 2 months, you’ve nothing to worry about. It’s just another test. You’ll be nervous, but you’ll be fine. Everyone is nervous. Use it. There’s an excellent Dr Who scene talking about fear as a superpower because of how much it pumps you up and increases your physical abilities. Nervousness can do the same for you. Just wake up, eat your breakfast, and take the test. Follow the same methods you’ve used before. Know that if you make a mistake, you can retake it.

And that’s it. I wish I could be more specific about my month by month process but to be honest when I was working through the course was 7-9 months ago. I can tell you to do alllllll the practice sets, every LG, and plan everything. Plan when you’ll take your first test through when you’ll take your last. Plan your weekly hours, your breaks, your meditation, your workouts, and do everything else AROUND THAT. This is the most important thing for the next few months. Organization is very important, since when you get into the studying you’ll be stressed. Do everything you can to remove possible stressors. Give yourself leeway in your schedule for breaks when you experience fatigue. It won’t hurt. You won’t forget everything with a few days or a week away. My scores always improved after a break.

Best of luck to everyone! Bring two watches and lots of pencils on test day, because I had a watch die in the middle of a PT, but had it been the test I would have been lost. I'm sorry if there are any errors, this grew longer than I expected. Oops.

I was hoping to find a search function so I didn't have to start a new discussion, but I couldn't find one. Anyway, I was looking at the different course subscriptions, and there was a line where the description went from "easiest problem sets" to "easy" to "easy and medium" then "easy, medium, and hard." What exactly are "problem sets?"

As I am spending most of my time working on recent PTs for the December test, I have been solving some of old LR questions as well (I would consider PT 1-30 old).

After working on both, I think a conspicuous difference between old and newer ones is that old LR questions are not as tightly worded as new ones. I feel like old ones are cruder while newer ones are more refined in terms of their writing styles.

Assuming there are differences, I don't think they are about different flaws or different assumptions but more about different writing styles. I don't know if this is just me but I definitely spend more time reading/understanding old LR questions' stimuli than those of newer ones.

Do you guys think that there are any differences between old LR questions and newer ones? I would love to hear your opinions about this :D Thank you!

Hi all. I am looking for some input on a realistic timeline to prepare for the LSAT. I am currently active duty Army with about 8.5 months until I start ETS leave and transition into a full time student. Currently I attend a university part time near my post so that is added in along with my full time job. I will have approximately two years of college left once I exit the military. I see this upcoming period to be my best chance to focus on the LSAT and would like to aim to take the LSAT June 2016 or September 2016 if that is more realistic.

My work schedule is the normal military schedule with my day ending around 1700. I have my own office to spend breakfast and lunch break studying which could add about 1.5 to 2 hours of study time throughout the day. Along with this I will have a few classes but nothing too hard or time consuming and after February I will not have any classes at all to worry about. However classes are accelerated.

I am contemplating purchasing the Premium, giving myself right at 6 months of study time to nail concepts and take as many PTs as possible. Then if I am not averaging 170+ over the last 10 PTs look at extending and aiming for September. I already have paper copies of 17-38 and 52-71.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I'm notice that doing the questions timed I tend to get them right but when I go back for the blind review I tend to get them wrong. Its like I look for reasons for my 1st answer choice to be wrong and then start to psych myself out and proceed to choose a different answer.

Hi All,

I recently reached out to an undergrad professor, with whom I had the closest relationship due to completing a scholarly research project my senior year. Here's the response:

"I could only write a very short letter stating that you were an outstanding undergraduate student who took courses from me more than seven years ago at a former university. I will not be able to speak to anything having to do with xxx law. "

I was bracing myself for the response. It's actually a little better than I initially expected, but...doesn't sound like it will help much?

I'm starting to think that it would be better to reach out to a grad prof, even though Admissions doesn't seem to think that grad school amounts to much? Otherwise, I might have to jump ship altogether and ask a previous supervisor in my industry. Two of the schools to which I'm applying do accept employer letters for non-traditional students. Do you think that this may be the "safer" route?

Any thoughts on the situation? I'm honestly not even sure how to respond to the person I quoted above. Thanks for taking the time to respond, but no thanks?

I was wondering how you would translate an embedded conditional if the conditional in the necessary condition is negated. For example, A--->[Not (B--->C)].

My best guess would be to say that it is A--->(B Some Not C), but I don't think that is a very helpful notation. Is there a way to make this is into an "easier" to visualize conditional chain?

EDIT: Added some brackets to make the embedded condition easier to see.

Hey guys! So two of us were discussing this question on the BR call last night. I chose D, which is the correct answer, but I want confirmation for why E is wrong.

The question asks for a characteristic of "games that are intentionally commodified." The pertinent lines in the passage read: "By contrast, tax doctrine and policy counsel taxation of the sale of virtual items for real currency, and, in games that are intentionally commodified, even of in-world sales for virtual currency, regardless of whether the participant cashes out."

So we know we are looking for instances of in-world sales, or virtual to virtual, with perhaps the possibility of conversion into real money. With this we can eliminate A, which concerns real to virtual; B, which describes pure barter with no virtual currency component; and C, which does not directly address in-world trade.

I chose D because the first sentence of Passage B explains that a way in which some games encourage real-world trade in virtual items is by granting participants intellectual property rights in their creations. This aligns with the "intentional commodification" aspect.

But why is E wrong? It's talking about virtual to virtual, and I don't think it would be a stretch to assume that you could convert one of these currencies into real money. Currency conversion is, in a strict sense, a "sale," so converting one virtual currency into another would be an in-world sale. Is it because the passages never talk about different types or trade between virtual currency and as such this is new information? Or because the word "exchange" in answer choice E alludes to a barter rather than a sale?

I would appreciate anyone's help on this!

I don't know if I'm overthinking it, or the diagrams truly represent different ideas. Logically, they both seem equivalent to be, just diagrammed differently.

What's the difference between these two ideas?

1. Either F or L, but not both, will go before M

2. L will go before F or G, but not both

Are these the same ideas? or represent different concepts?

I diagrammed these ideas in different forms. Can you let me know if my diagramming is merely aesthetic or it symbolizes some other idea

DIAGRAM 1:

1. F---M

L---M

F---M---L or L---M--F

DIAGRAM 2:

F----M

L---M

F----------M

F----------L

or

M--------F

L-----------F

I've been reading the LSAT trainer and am a little confused about the diagramming of the bi-conditional.

One question was: L will go before J if and only if L is after G. I diagrammed this as follows: L--J (----) G---L--J. However, the answer sheet has two different answers This:: L--J (----) G---L--J. and this: J---L---G. I don't understand the later. Is this supposed to be the contropsoitive or something?

Hello folks,

Here it is me whining again. When I BR, I score in the 160s but when I do timed PT, I can't pass the 146-147. I did most of 7Sage's video twice, and I am redoing The Trainer again now. I really don't know what to do any more. I feel (which probably wrong) that I know the material. Currently I am doing two PTs a week, and I BR after every PT.

I improved by 10 points since I started last December. My diagnostic was a horrible 130's yet my current score is still horrible!

Please, I need your advice :)

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I got PT 76 this morning - I ordered in Sept when I ordered my 10 actual LSAT series books from LSAC, so if you ordered & haven't gotten it yet, it should be coming soon. Now to decide if I go ahead & take it or save it for a week or two before the Dec exam.

For those of you who have hired a consultant, or know of someone who has and are familiar with their experience. How was your/their experience working with the consultant & would you do it again? Was it worth it? How did you/they find the consultant? What did the consultant do (advise you to make changes to your personal statement, give tips on how to edit your essays or diversity statement , or help you get scholarship money etc.)? How expensive is it to hire them? Thank you in advance.

I had a diagnostic of 156 in June. By end of September I was averaging 167/168 range. I didn't do as well as I hoped on October exam so decided to retake in december. I have been testing again and scored a 169,170,and 174 respectively on my last 3 tests. This is obviously great news, however, I haven't changed anything up such really such as drilling,new methods, etc aside from a small focus on RC which has been my weak spot but I haven't really improved there much. My biggest improvement has been on LR actually although I've done nothing other than PTs and BR to work on it. Has anyone else seen these types of improvements just "happen"?lol Whatever is happening I hope it keeps up until December 5th.

Can someone please explain this question... I'm not really sure what's even going on in the stimulus.

Admin edit: Here's the passage for reference

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-51-section-3-question-12/

I took the LSAT this past October and scored a 159. In retrospect, I made just about every rookie mistake in the book: gave myself about 2 1/2 months to study total and two months of that was with 7Sage, set an unrealistic study schedule given my work hours, was usually low on sleep, boozed a couple times, took four practice tests total before the test, didn't finish the curriculum, rushed through BR...

When I got my score (159) I was livid, and I immediately registered for the December LSAT. I had known even on test day that I underperformed, so when my score validated that I became hell-bent on scoring higher. However, for reasons I'll explain below, I'm considering just keeping the 159 and applying.

The 159 is good enough to get me into a law school near home/work. (The school's 75th percentile LSAT score is 154.) I know it's not a strong school (according to LSAT scores), but my boss got his JD there and he's encouraged me to apply for next fall. He's been fairly successful in his law career, and he has expressed a willingness to bring me into his practice if I graduate/pass the bar, and to help out where he can in the process of applying to/attending school. It's an attractive offer.

But at the same time, I still want to retake. I'm worried about attending a lower-ranked school for the purpose of fast-tracking myself into law school, only to see my boss change his circumstances (for example, abandon his solo firm for another gig) and leave me with a degree from a school with a so-so reputation, fending for myself.

What makes this a little more complicated is that I'm almost positive I can score a good deal higher on the LSAT with some hard work. The four tests I took before October I scored:

161 (skipped BR)

159 (176 BR)

156 (159 BR--my first tour of burnout city)

164 (169 BR)

After October, I walked away from the LSAT completely. Following a month break, here are my newest PT scores:

167 (BR 176)

170 (BR 180)

I know these last two could be flukes, but I've also felt like the test made more sense to me as I was taking it each time and in BR. I intend to take a few more PT's in the coming weeks to see if I fall back to down to where I was pre-October. If the most recent scores are flukes, I'll probably retake in December (for scholarship money) and apply for next fall at the school near me regardless of my scores. If I actually feel that I can continue to improve at any rate (I realize 170 on up is slow going for most people), then I'll postpone the retake until June or next October.

The difficulty with the latter is I have to tell my boss that I'm delaying school a year (he's generally impatient, so the thought alone would bother him a bit). He's talked to me a number of times about my attending his alma mater next fall and my eventual move into the firm as a lawyer, and if I give myself time to study and score higher it will be obvious that I'm doing so in order to attend a better school (which will obviously affect the plans for my track toward firm employment).

So, I guess I'm looking for a few people in the 7Sage community to weigh in on this. Given the above, do I take the 159 and apply, or do I cancel December and retake later so that I have the opportunity to score higher, attend a better school, and leave myself a few more options after law school?

My apologies for the post length and thanks in advance.

Does anyone actually waive it?