at what point during the CC should you start drills? Or is this something you save until you're done the CC?

.

My stop/start break accommodation got approved and I want to be able to take PTs like the real thing, but I dont see a pause or "stop/start" feature when I am taking a PT on 7 sage. Am i missing something or is that not a feature that is available to 7 sagers?

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all well. I know that many of you are either in the midst of LSAT prep or gearing up to go to law school. This is a wonderful community and I'm writing this post, "what I wish I knew before law school" to share some insight about what lies ahead. Wherever you are on your journey, I hope it gives you valuable perspective about what you are going into or working towards. My objective is to offer you the perspective I wish I had so that you can make more informed decisions in the coming months.

A little about me: I'm a rising 2L at Harvard Law School currently spending my Summer in BigLaw. I'm also an LSAT tutor and primarily teach LR and RC. I took the LSAT twice and scored a 164 (July, 2019) and 174 (October Asia, 2019). You can read more about my LSAT journey on this post here: https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/21717/140s-to174-thank-you-7sage. The focus of this post will be for rising 1Ls and anyone who is generally interested about what 1L is like.

Who is this post for?

What I wish I knew and a collection of thoughts:

1. The shock of the transition: Law school is very hard. This is what JY says at the start of the core curriculum and it's absolutely the case ('the LSAT is hard and Law school is harder'). I really feel the need to stress this because I wish I had a better idea before 1L. Even though I knew on some abstract level that it was going to be a challenge, I didn't really understand how challenging it was going to be until it began. I'm starting with this because I think many of the posts about this subject tend to be so optimistic that they fail to mention about these moments. The transition from 'yay i'm so excited about law school' to 'omg I'm actually doing it and I have no idea what is happening' felt so sudden and shocking to me that I can only compare it to being thrown into the deep end of the pool and frantically trying to stay above water. I seriously questioned whether or not I had made a mistake on day 2. Everyone around me seemed far cooler and more prepared and I couldn't even remember the names of cases and even high level details. You'll find yourself in this moment I've just described in the first few weeks of law school. It can be very isolating when you think you're the only one experiencing the dread, the shock and the initial fear but let me assure you: everyone is going to be experiencing the shock and varying levels of self-doubt. You are not the only one and know that you'll eventually find your way.

2. The pace of 1L is unrelenting. In fact, it feels like it was designed to be impossible. I wish I could say something like it’s a marathon not a sprint but to me, it really felt like a dead sprint to the end. And then you'll have journal write-on competitions right after your last final. (lol wtf?).

A. You have a shit ton of reading for your classes and it takes much longer than you think. @"Cant Get Right" once told me that law school reading is like "drinking out of a firehose" and I believe that's the best description I've heard. Please be sure to start early with the readings and budget more time than you expect because if you fall behind it can be damn near impossible to catch up. This is the case because in the beginning you just have no idea what you're supposed to prioritize or how to read and digest cases. You end up reading ultra closely because it's so difficult, but you have so much to go over so you end up spending a lot of time on some readings and not so much on others. In class, the professor cold calls a student and asks about details she (and everyone else) didn't realize were important so she flubs the cold call (or some combination of going blank at the very moment she is cold called). Then everyone else freaks out because they realize "shit I'm supposed to know that?" and spend even more time reading so that they will be more prepared for cold calls in the future. My advice is to invest in Quimbee and read the case summaries––facts, holding, reasoning––before you start so you at least have context about where the case is heading. Apart from this, knowing what matters when reading cases will take time but you'll eventually get it. Also, COLD CALLS ARE NOT GRADED. Nobody remembers a bad cold call because they are too busy worrying about being called next.

B. You are learning a new language (the law) and yet expected to also hone, interpret and analyze it at a high level of fluency. Frequently, I found myself reading and re-reading the same paragraph 5 times and not knowing what in the world I just read. It's english. It's right in front of me. But I had no idea what the combination of words meant. You'll also come across latin terms that you've never encountered before like sua sponte, de novo, lex loci delicti, infra, intra, etc.  My advice for this is to immediately google it and get the definition. It will save you time. Don't think you can just read on and infer the meaning based on context. You can't. These are usually procedural terms with very esoteric meanings and you simply have no context to understand before law school. Next, take a deep breath and believe me when I say: the best and most fruitful work comes AFTER class and during review.  My advice is to pick ONE study partner (some people do well in study groups but I personally felt it had diminishing returns) and hold each other accountable. Pick a time slot in the week that you dedicate to reviewing a single course's concepts from the week and stick to it. In between these sessions, stay after class, go to office hours, take the time to clarify points of confusion with professors and then quickly review and consolidate your notes. Over time, these notes will become your course outline. Repeat for the other courses for different time slots. Doing this steadily throughout the semester will help you stay on track and save you a ton of grief and time for finals.  Get over the embarrassment of asking questions because everyone is just as confused and will thank you for it. Personally, this is what I found most helpful. Once I started to see the benefits, I grew to accept the discomfort and confusion about the material before and during class because I realized that I would eventually understand it in review. You'll understand what I mean when you take Civil Procedure. Going from total confusion to eventually getting it felt like magic.

C. You're usually tasked with a legal research and writing project in the midst of everything I mentioned above (we had a 10-page legal memo in the fall and a 20-page legal brief in the Spring). To simplify, these projects require you to make an argument for legal questions usually about a fictional case you are assigned. To answer, you find relevant cases on westlaw or lexisnexis and make analogies to your case's facts to support your argument. I personally hated these projects (but maybe future litigators here will find it more bearable). They take up so much time and you'll find yourself going down rabbit holes that lead to dead ends but don't worry, you'll get there eventually. In between all the reading and review sessions, these assignments made keeping up with everything unmanageable. But that's just how things are going to be. It's difficult to appreciate how much work I've described so far until you're in the midst of it. Looking back, I can't fathom how I got through all of it but I did and so did generations of law students before me. My advice is to quickly accept that legal writing is completely different from what you are used to in college essay writing but it's formulaic and you will learn how to do it. It will take longer than you think so dont beat yourself up when it seems like what should only take 3 hours turns into an all-day affair. Budget your time accordingly and remember that it takes time because you're learning a totally new skill! Take this very seriously because much of the work you are given as a summer associate involves legal research and writing. Let me tell you, when you're dealing with a real case, the stakes are much higher and your work will feel more meaningful.

D. I never felt like I was introduced to concepts throughout 1L. Rather, I always felt like I was suddenly in the thick of it and professors were using terms as if I was just expected to know them, learn them on my own, or just keep up. I'm not sure if it was just an HLS thing but my sense is it's the same everywhere because there's just too much to go through. I also think professors have taught the same things for so long that they have forgotten how it felt like to be 1Ls. In any case, I'm telling you this because you'll find yourself experiencing everything above and your first instinct will probably be to question and doubt yourself. Then the toxic self-talk will settle in and if you don't check that early, it could devolve into something worse. If this post scares you, I think it's a good thing. It's really important to know what you are getting into, if only so you know what to expect mentally and emotionally. Many of us here are super type A and used to keeping on top of things, but know that it can feel impossible to do so and it's often the case that something always has to give. Just make sure that you are making the trade-offs wisely. Speaking of trade-offs...

3. You're going to have to make some trade-offs. After reading everything above, I hope you get the sense that you will always be busy throughout 1L. There are always several competing priorities, not to mention things happening outside of school and life that are also competing for your time and energy. On this note, I advise you to take care of as many things you know are important before law school starts. This can include seeing your doctor, all your annual health check-ups, budgeting, etc. The goal is to minimize these competing priorities. During the school year, trade-offs can mean many things. You may prioritize preparing for the courses you believe you can excel at but you never want to do it at the cost of totally give up on another course. Don't put too many eggs in one basket. Or maybe you start cutting back on sleep, hobbies, and even exercise to keep up. I know this sounds extreme but it happened all the time during 1L. Sometimes you dont have a choice but in my experience, not getting enough sleep wasn't a sacrifice worth making. You'll find that you read more efficiently when you are well-rested than not. I also think that you have to pay attention to your body. If you simply aren't retaining or processing information after a certain point at night, there's nothing to gain if you keep going. Best to just call it a night. 

4. The only thing that matters is your final exam. Seriously. So, understand that this is what you are working towards, not to be the star of cold calls! Remember what I said about being cold called on details you didn't think were important? They usually aren't important for exams. In exams you typically only need to know the holding for the specific cases. I'll try to give my best explanation for what to expect but exams are typically composed of issue-spotters and sometimes policy questions. Issue-spotters are fact patterns you are expected to diagnose and analyze for possible causes of action that may be brought, defenses and the likelihood of success on each. Sometimes they can involve the application of procedural arguments that can affect which actions can be brought and in which jurisdiction (Civ Pro, Torts, and Crim usually).  Policy questions are usually short-essay questions involving how aspects of the law advantage/disadvantage certain groups of people and how you might change it. You would answer both of these question types essay-style and I recommend taking as many PTs as you can to practice honing your writing style and organizing your answers. I should also say that these exams tend to be comprehensive, or at least cover a large majority of the material over the semester. Doing well therefore requires a comprehensive understanding of the course and how to apply the concepts you are taught. This is also why I didn't think that having a social science or humanities undergraduate background necessarily helped that much. The reason is most students with these majors write long, well-polished essays that made up most of their grades in college. For such essays, you didn't necessarily need to have a complete grasp over everything in the course. Rather, it was possible to answer the essay question with depth and ignore entire areas of a course. You can't do that on a law school final. You really need to know how the pieces all come together BUT this is quite difficult to do until the end of the course. I've mentioned some reasons above but another reason is you are usually learning components of the course week by week and at that time, you're so engrossed in the details of specific topics that you cannot see the forest but only the trees. It's usually only at the end that you get to see how the whole course comes together and realize what it is you're supposed to do. This is why you'll be feeling a lot of discomfort and confusion throughout the whole semester. Looking back, I think Law school felt a lot like watching the Witcher. Nothing seemed to make any sense because we were taught so many seemingly incongruent concepts but they eventually fall into place. I wont spoil the series for anyone that plans to watch it but I think anyone who stuck with the series after several episodes will know what I mean. In any case, let me assure you that this means it's highly unlikely to feel like you are on top of things until the end. For me, things only started to come together during finals week after taking several PTs. So, my advice for preparing for exams is to gather as many past PTs as you can get for your professor's class. Pick out an older exam and look at it 4 weeks into law school (no need to take the whole exam--you wont be ready for it) and read the questions and skim the fact pattern so you get a sense of what your professor wants. This will help you develop a study direction. Then plan to take PTs after you are done outlining at the end of the course. It's probably not that important to simulate full exams because there isn't enough time to do so. I found that simply outlining answers was enough. Then check your exam answers against example answers your professor gives you or if there are past exams on a database and modify your outline accordingly.

5. What are outlines? There are two kinds of outlines: Study outlines and Attack outlines. Study outlines are what you use to learn and review the material throughout the semester. There are usually outline banks with great outlines created by previous students that are available on a database in your law school. I highly encourage you to download a few at the start of the semester and then decide which ones to stick with. Some people would take notes in those outlines. I personally preferred to take my notes separately.  Either way, you'll have to consolidate a combination of the outline notes and your own notes. The goal is to eventually make this other student's outline into "yours" as you rearrange it and use language more familiar to you. You will need to know where to look to find relevant sections etc. Attack outlines are outlines you develop for taking the exam. While study outlines can be over 100 pages, these are typically far shorter and contain all the relevant guidelines/templates you create for answering the exam question. These would include things like a prima facie case for assault, what differentiates a murder from voluntary or involuntary manslaughter etc... or flowcharts for determining personal jurisdiction etc. I personally found the outlining process to be very helpful for reviewing course material and getting ready for the exam. Just dont forget that you should budget enough time to take as many exams as you can. Your attack outline typically gets more useful with each past exam you take and review. 

6. Take moments to unplug. Everything I said above seems to suggest that you will be going hard all the time. That's not the case. You will definitely find some moments of reprieve and even if you don't, sometimes you have to make time for it. We all have needs and there is no reason to neglect them. Recognize that if you don't take the time to fill your cup, unwind and rest your mind, you'll suffer burnout. If that means rewarding yourself with netflix within reason, do it! You can definitely budget time to do fun things and see your friends. Always pay attention to your body. Practice good sleep discipline and organize your study and reading sessions around the times you are most productive. Exercise and eat healthy.

7. Please remember that you are in a community that is much smaller than you think. One of the unfortunate things about law school is that everyone is in competition with each other and you are graded on a curve. A professor told us: "many of you have always been in the top 10% of your class. For the first time, 90% of you won't be at the end of the semester." When you put the most type A people together in the same room, you can imagine that things can get pretty toxic. Everyone has heard of stories and anecdotes so there's no need to mention them here. I'm very lucky to share that I had a very positive experience in my section but nevertheless, I say all this because this is only 1 year of your life and how you treat your classmates can have career-long consequences you don't foresee. Even though you are competing with your classmates, you can choose to make it a more positive experience for everyone. People remember how you treat them. If you decide to do some shady shit or repeatedly let your classmates/study partners down, they will remember that. Know that one of the most valuable things you can get out of your law school experience is your professional network. Your current classmates are your future colleagues. So don't be an asshole. It's not worth it.

8. You are at a professional school. Act like it. In law school, you'll have classmates older and younger than you. Personally, I didn't notice much of a gap between the older and younger students but there was an exception: KJDs. They often said things and behaved in ways that showed a complete lack of self-awareness and maturity. This was probably because they lacked professional work experience and believed that law school was simply an extension of the undergraduate culture they were used to. This is not to say that KJDs always behaved in these ways or that only KJDs made these mistakes. But my observation was that it happened to them more often because a lack of experience sometimes made them unaware of certain things. Whether or not this applies to you, my best advice is to remember you are among your future colleagues. Think before you act. Think twice before you make that post in groupme and what it signals to everyone around you. Exercise some situational awareness and be sensitive to your audience, especially when it comes to politics, religion, etc. Ask any HLS student and they can tell you about the classmate who commented a little too much about last Summer's protests in groupme (however well-intentioned) and got sidelined hard by many of the students. I don't mean to say that you should self-censor but know that presentation matters and how you carry yourself sends positive or negative signals. In law school, you'll be talking about all kinds of difficult subjects that people have strong opinions about so consider your presentation before speaking up.

9. On another note: if you are a KJD contemplating whether you should get some work experience before law school, I highly recommend it. Know that law school isn't going away any time soon. There is simply no hurry to rush into this. Working for a few years before law school is beneficial in many ways. It gives you a better perspective the decisions you make for your career, clarifies your legal interests, and generally helps you build professional and emotional maturity. I also think it gives you a boost in admissions and perhaps more time to study for the LSAT.

Finally, if there's only one thing to take away here, I want to assure you that you are capable of getting through law school successfully. So many of you take the LSAT very seriously. That's why you come to the discussion forum and read about posts to get advice and encouragement for your journey. You are all already very conscientious and if you apply the same energy and seriousness to law school, you'll do just fine. Yes it will be challenging and the learning curve will be steep, but the discipline you develop from LSAT prep will serve you well in the year ahead. Again, my goal is to give you the perspectives I wish I had. I hope it helps you navigate the exciting journey ahead!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Happy to help anyone just as so many have helped me.

Hello all,

I felt pretty good about my LSAT writing. However when I got it back, I noticed two typos in the second to last paragraph (a missing "the" and a missing "an"). Is this enough of an issue that I should retake it? I definitely don't mind re-taking it, if this is something to be concerned about. I'm re-taking the LSAT anyways so I expect if I let them know, then I could apply to re-submit a writing exam.

was anyoen granted the sept retake? Prometrics website is down and they said that times have not been posted ffor ET? Has anyone scheduled their exam yet?

I am planning on taking my LSAT between October 12 and 16. Which means my score will be released as early as Nov. 1 (assuming I completed my writing section in advance). You can take the Writing portion up to 8 days prior to your scheduled LSAT date, or you can take it AFTER the LSAT. However, it takes 1-3 weeks for LSAC to attach your writing to your application. Therefore, completing the writing section after your LSAT can delay your test results by as much as 2 weeks (assuming you took 2 weeks to study for the writing section after the LSAT).

I think it makes more sense to complete the writing section after the LSAT so that it does not cut down on my time used to prepare for the LSAT. I feel super rushed and did not prepare far enough in advance, so I think this is a better option for me.

Any other thoughts?

Would it not make sense to include this as its own section?

~ I apologize for any typos or errors & hope this makes sense ~

Hello, I just noticed that there's 2 version of the 7sage curriculum. The new one is V2, so obviously it's an upgrade (personally, I like it better). I just got through about 70 hours of material for v1 and when you switch to v2 all the progress goes away, but you still can access v1.

I'm trying to let people know that v2 exists before they get into the bulk of v1 and make the switch like I just did. It's beneficial to request the feature, because you will have the option of going through the same material, but taught in 2 different ways. If there's a topic or subject you're confused about on one curriculum, maybe the other version will clarify things for you.

The way I got v2 was by commenting in a comment section on one of the curriculum posts. I'm pretty sure all posts are monitored by the person who could grant you access to v2. I would just comment on this discussion and request v2. If it works, someone down below would have a reply from a 7sage rep confirming their access.

Whoever is the first person to see this, if the comment thing doesn't work please drop the email to contact 7sage

If it does work, then anybody could just comment asking for it in the reply or as a new comment! I hope this helps someone not feel like they just wasted time on one curriculum or feel discouraged when they make the switch!

Update: (9/18/23)

In the comment section, Cherry a Rep from 7sage commented the instructions. I'm not sure how to flag or pin the message, but look down below! look for

"Cherry - Student Service Administrator Student Services"

Hi, everybody.

Please might you be able to give an approximate indication about when the October 2023 Crystal Ball will be held?

Many thanks in advance,

Not too sure if I'm the only one that thinks there should be an option to add titles to drills. I often make drills specific to a question type or game type and it would be so easy and helpful having the ability to title my drills so when I go back and redo them.

#feedback

Hello,

I'm coming on here to ask how often should we be taking prep tests? Should they be taken after learnign the material from each section as a whole, or every subsection? How about drilling? What's a good schedule like?

So I decided to wait till after graduation from college to officially start my law school journey. I pushed my LSAT back and then withdrew. I do still want to go to law school and definitely see it in my plans but timing does not feel right for me. It's my senior year and I've grown so much as a person, I want to graduate with no regrets. I have several leadership roles on campus, participating in different organizations, and taking the most advanced courses of my college career. I felt really determined to go to law school right after graduation but I underestimated how time consuming studying and applying can be with everything else I am doing. Is anyone else planning to do the same?

To everyone who responded to my last survey—thank you! Your responses are going to help us build a better 7Sage. Now I’ve got another one with another set of prizes.

Are you interested in joining a study group? Take a short survey for a chance to win a free edit by one of our professional writers. (We’ll pick two respondents at random for the prize.)

Take the survey now and grab your chance!

+) EDIT: problem solved

Leaving this here for anyone with the same issue - just allow all the site settings for 7sage.com. This worked for me.

Hi, I have a problem accessing the explanation video for P1 / LG / G1 (But I assume it'll be the same with all other content.) I use Chrome and there are no internet issues.

What happens is I hear the audio, and I see the blue mouse pointer going around the screen, but no visuals.

Referring to one of the discussions here I have tried changing the Video Player settings via my profile - tried both Basic and Classic - the video keeps loading, and nothing happens.

Any help here? Would be much appreciated.

Hi! Is there a way on the schedule generator that you can prioritize one section over the others?

Taking the LSAT for the first time this coming Friday. Started my journey with 7sage around mid-May with a 141 diagnostic score on the June 2007 PT. Today I took PT93 on LawHub and got a 171, my highest score yet. Regardless of how Friday goes, just wanted to give a big thank you to the whole 7sage team for helping me with this 30-point increase!

I am currently studying in China for a year and planning to take the LSAT in April. I cannot find much information about this on the website but I was wondering if the test is being administered at test centers in Beijing. If not, how is the platform accessible remotely given the restrictions on google and similar websites? Has any of you taken it in China?

Any advice would be helpful!

I'd love your input on a new design for 7Sage Analytics!

Pretend you just finished a PrepTest. Which screen do you want to see?

Note that the graphs showing section scores and the question tables are the same in the first three options. Only the visualization in the upper left is different.

Option A: Donut

Picture showing mouse hovering over the yellow arc

Option B: Bar

Option C: Double Dial

Option D: Two Dials (as on current site)

I recently completed the CC and decided to take a post-CC practice test and scored a 151. I've only taken a total of 3 timed practice tests and I scored a 145 diagnostic mid-June (PTJ07), a 151 at the end of July (PT85), and then a 151 today on PT 50. I didn't BR because I had other commitments and just wanted to know where I stood. I have been studying full time since June and my LSAT is scheduled for November. I essentially have 2 months left and was wondering how to proceed from here? Do I start taking pretests 1-35? or do I take 36-60 because they're more accurate? LG and LR are roughly -8 (I don't usually have time to finish either section) but untimed I can score -3 on LGs. My RC is (expectedly) my worst section at -16. My goal is at least a 160.

Feeling extremely overwhelmed and stuck because of my score. I haven't seen any improvement besides feeling like I understand the questions more, and wanted any advice on how to proceed and reach my goal. I'm willing to commit 6 hours a day, 7 days a week to studying (which is what I've been doing).

As I master and complete a section, how do I ensure that I do not forget the information that I have learned as I move from section to section?

Does anyone know what order to watch the recordings of the live class videos?

I’m overwhelmed by the number of videos in the video library and have no idea where to begin.

I've been reading some suggestions to simulate a modern test for the practice tests, and then "take an extra section" from an older test to simulate how the testing would feel day of. But how do you do this?

Do you make a drill with it limited to "Tags and Preptests" then only check off 1 prep test and then check off all the item tags? What do you do then with the drill difficulty slider? Wouldn't the drill difficulty slider not be in effect if you do this because you're just taking all the questions from a section so you can't control the difficulty?

Hi all,

I tried applying for a waiver from LSAC and the website determined that I am a dependent. Neither of my parents claimed me as a dependent on their 2019 tax returns. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a way to get around it on the LSAC website or will I have to contact LSAC?

I'm so happy hard work pays off!