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Many of us dive into PSA mode as soon as our eyes scan the words "Most Helps to Justify". That is, hunting for the answer choice stating: If premise then conclusion. This is efficient and works a large majority of the time, however, I have noticed that recent tests have thrown a wrinkle into this strategy. The trick lies in the wording of the stem.

For example, the full stem looks like: "Which of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in the argument?"

Let's break this down. We are going to be given an argument: Premise + Conclusion. The answer choices will provide us 5 principles. We are to assume each one is valid or true. It is our job to identify the answer choice or principle which would most help to justify the reasoning. By reasoning it is meant how the premise supports the conclusion. In other words, we need a principle that most helps the premise be considered good evidence to reach the conclusion.

I bolded the word "most" twice because it means that we need the best answer choice in relative terms. An answer choice which creates or comes close to creating a valid argument is great, but, it is not necessary! An answer choice which lightly strengthens and requires less assumptions than all other answer choices also fits the task required of us by the stem.

Interestingly enough, when LSAC uses the "Most Helps to Justify" stem, the credited answer choice usually makes the argument close to validity. That is why the stem is commonly classified by 7sage analytics as a PSA question.

But remember, the wording of the stem does not necessitate reaching near validity. All we need is an answer choice that most helps the argument get closer to validity.

On the past few tests I have noticed that there will be a "Most Helps to Justify" stem whose credited answer choice is not the traditional "if premise then conclusion". Instead, it lightly strengthens the argument, while the other answer choices are irrelevant. Because the answer choices did not match my pre phrase, I panicked. Consequently, I eliminated all answer choices and had to skip the question. But, if I kept in mind that "Most Helps to Justify" does not require near validity, I would have been fine and saved lots of time and stress!

Takeaway/TLDR; "Most Helps to Justify" is a PSA question 95% of the time, but, the wording of the stem does not rule out that these types of questions are just light strengthening questions, which is the case the other 5% of the time. Be flexible and do not panic if your "If premise then conclusion" pre phrase is not found.

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I’m confused and worried. I just received an e-mail from LSAC apologizing for my “test center issues” (I had none) and offering me an option to retake Dec 8th or January. Anyone in the know want to fill me in on what this means? I feel like I performed very well on the Nov exam and will be extremely upset if this message means what I think it does...

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I felt like I over performed on last week's test and I'm typically a horribly slow starter. I wanted to share what I did that worked well for me.

The morning of the test I went on a jog, had a hearty breakfast, went over 10 LR questions at home and didn't grade them, ate lunch then got to the testing center about 45 minutes early.

After I got my parking tag I did my warmup in the car which included 1 of each of the following: MSS, Main conclusion, SA, NA, PmoR, weaken, strengthen, descriptive flaw. I'd already done all the questions before and I knew the right processes I wanted to get my mind into. I did 1 double layer sequencing game and didn't have time to do my RC passage but by that time I felt warmed up.

My motivation to stay focused and not get nervous for the test is a bit silly but it really worked for me. I made a deal with myself that when I reach my target score I want to buy myself a nice watch so I went in with the mindset of "today I'm going to earn my watch!" This mindset helped me stay aggressive in LR and not freeze or start slow like I usually do because I was focused on my goal and not letting myself get nervous.

The carrot on the stick approach really worked well for me, hope this post is useful!

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I have taken the November 2019 LSAT. I will say that it was everything I expected and more. I didn't see the need to complain and took the attitude, "Do your best and don't worry and don't complain". But "Press forward".

I didn't eat the Raisin Oat Bran like I had planned because I tried it the day before the test and took a couple of small spoonfuls. It was awful and tasted like cardboard. I want to try it as recommendation from other people online had that taken the LSAT. I wondered how could anyone eat this stuff. I threw it away. I opted for the McDonald breakfast menu with country buttermilk chicken biscuit sandwich with a hash brown and a large orange juice on test day. It hit the spot. I had studied my test strategy plan and stuck to it.

I am a person of faith and prayed that I would do my best to pass for 20 minutes on the test before I left for the test center and the ask G-d to be with me while i was testing and help me pass. I felt calm the whole way and wasn't bothered.I felt at peace even after the test.

I hugged and kissed my 6 year old nephew and 9 year old niece to tell them I was on my way to take the big test. I said I will see you later on this evening because I expected to get out the testing center around 5:30 pm. I said my goodbyes and headed to the testing center.

I took the Uber to the testing center and was calm the whole way to the testing center. I was not nervous nor was I anxious Once I arrived, I asked the front desk receptionist where the LSAT is and they told me where it was. I silenced my phone completely.I had my cell phone left at the front desk and got it back later on after I had finished with the test. I arrived the hotel where the testing was to take place at 10:50 am. I was lucky to take the exam by myself I was in a room by myself with no others. I started exactly at 11:30 am. I showed my accommodation letter because I am high functioning Autistic and with my admissions ticket was able to sign in at 11:00 am. I had my eyeglasses in the zip lock bag.

I had put all of my energy and everything into the test. I used a time management strategy that was built into my LSAT strategy and served me well during the test. I stayed calm because I remember that a leader has to have a head in a time of crisis. This is especially true of the LSAT.

If tablet broke, I didn't worry because the testing place had huge supply of them and didn't count against the time. I did have one tablet that got stuck after coming back from break. I didn't start the 4 section right away and was given a new tablet after the test administrator graciously gave me a new one after scanning code on the back of the tablet. I was able to continue on.

I didn't want to guess what was the experimental section because I went in with the attitude do well no matter what. I went to do a job that was the most important thing. I decided that remaining calm was most important. The way sections were laid out was not important to me. Just the goal was working the exam effectively and only working my plan by sticking to it. I didn't care about what my score might be. I went with a plan and stuck to it all the way. I was able to make couple passes after each section and had 10 minutes to spare for each one of the sections. I went over them with a blind review and corrected the mistakes along the way. After I was sure, I felt confident that I did well

The first section took me bit longer and was able to gain traction after question 8. I had skipped 2 questions and came back to them later on my second pass. I was able to think clearly and sharply about the answer and was able to. The first section was hard but I was able to get through it without worrying. I blind reviewed it and was able to untangle the section effectively. Skipping hard questions was a part of my overall plan and worked out well.

I had my break after the 3rd section and ate my granola bar and drank my orange juice. I went to the bathroom not worry nor

feeling horrible about my performance on the test.

After completing the final section and took a blind review to check my work on it and was satisfied after correcting a couple answers that need to be corrected and re-reading it my notes one last time. i finalized it and gave back the tablet. I proceed to get my phone at the front desk of the hotel for testing and took the Uber home around 4:15 pm. I felt a sense of relieve and felt illuminated. I was very tired and exhausted. I didn't go out anywhere and decided to crash at my brother's house where my niece and nephew are. I went to sleep for a while. I decided whatever the score is not worry good or bad. If it is bad, i will take it again. I won't worry nor fret over the questions while waiting for the score release. What is done is done. I felt that I stuck to my strategy to and stayed calm the whole time that it worked. That is what matters most.

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So I’m honestly starting to believe that this test is impossible for me to even get into the high 160’s. I’ve been struggling with this exam since last May and haven’t gotten as far as I would have liked. I’ve taken a live prep course and invested a few hundred dollars in private tutoring but I still think the November exam was a dud. I don’t know what to do. If I delay, I feel like I’m gonna grow old before ever going to law school and if I don’t delay, that only leaves a little over a month before the next exam. I was planning on going to law school last year and have already delayed until now. I do not believe delaying another year is going to help, but I honestly don’t know what to do. Could someone provide some specific advice?

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Wednesday, Nov 27, 2019

tiena229

LG Freeze

I have this problem with logic games and I hope someone can diagnose this and tell me what to do....I’ve done so many logic games without timing issues but for some reason, all the logic games on the real exams always seem completely different to me and I find that I cannot make inferences or diagram them effectively. But I can do difficult games outside of the test center; what is going on? This is really damaging my scores, so can someone tell me what is going on? I’m not even panicking when doing the real test

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Hey 7Sagers! Did anyone else see this from Dave Killoran over at PowerScore?!

“Probably the strangest thing from this LSAT is multiple reports that a released LR section from PT67 (October 2012) was used as an experimental section for some students. If those reports are true, that should never happen.“

Did this happen to anyone? That’s crazy if it did! If true, for anyone that made a mistake on the LSAT: you’re not alone! Apparently even LSAC makes mistakes!

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Apparently the LSAT Administration had equipment issues across North America so they had to cancel, but they never shared what they were. But then a later email sounded as if there weren't enough test proctors, so not sure what really happened but this threw my application process plan off a bit. Anyone else impacted by this? Has this happened before? Sometimes staying traditional with paper and pencil exams works best. I'm still waiting for my confirmation that I can take the January 2020 exam and I've been on hold for an hour with the LSAC line.

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Hey 7Sagers,

Here's the official November 2019 LSAT Discussion Thread.

**Please keep all discussions of the November 2019 LSAT here!**(/red)

Rules:

✅ You can identify experimental sections. 🙆‍♀️

You can say things such as the following:

  • “I had two LGs! Was the LG with "flowers" real or experimental?”

  • “I had two RCs! Was the section that starts with the honeybee passage real?”

  • “I had three LRs! Does anyone know if the first LR section with the goose question is real?”

    • ❌ You can't discuss specific questions. 🙅‍♂️

    You CANNOT say things such as the following:

  • “Hey, the 3rd LG was sequencing and the last one was In/Out, right?” (Don't mention the game type)

  • “The last question in the first LR section was a lawgic heavy MBT! Was the answer (B)?” (Don't mention the question type or ask what the answer was)

  • “What was the answer for the last question of RC? I think it was an inference question? Was the answer (C)?” (Don't mention the question type or ask what the answer was)

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    I'm 30, work full time, and have a Bachelor of Education and this was my very first time writing a real LSAT. I had LR, LG, LR, LR, RC and I felt like I completely forgot how to do anything in LG and am pretty sure I guessed for the majority. After that, I didn't feel very confident in anything I was doing. I applied to law school for September 2020 and it's too late now to take the January test.

    I'm debating between A) cancelling my score and abandoning any chance of law school Sept 2020 and taking the LSAT again and applying for Sept 2021 or B ) risking it out and seeing what my score is and applying anyway. The school I really want averages LSAT scores and their average acceptance score is 160. I'm really worried I scored less than 140. I'm leaning toward cancelling my score - any advice?

    0

    Hello everyone, I got two LG sections on my test and I really want to figure out which one was the real one vs. the experimental. I feel like I did well on one and not so well on the other one. One of the sections had a game talking about the departments to be approved by a University and birthdays and the other one had games talking about ingredients on a recipe and people visiting different countries. If anyone got just one LG section and tell me how it looked like that would be awesome! I feel like the RC passages were pretty straightforward. There was one science passage that was a little convoluted but the rest were okay. I hate RC but I feel like on this test that was probably my best section. LR... well more of the same. Not so much to talk about those two sections. I have no idea of what to expect in terms of the results. Anyone else feeling anxious?

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    It's been a few months, and I've been reflecting on how great 7Sage was as a prep for my second LSAT. I took my first one after working full time for a summer, and was definitely underprepared. I dedicated two months to working on 7Sage and doing many(!) practice tests last summer, and it paid off. I jumped 22 percentile points with the basic version of 7Sage. I thought JY's approach was fantastic and helped significantly more than the other course I did. Explaining the reasoning and linguistic reasons for why answers are what they are, rather than simply identifying patterns, makes all the difference. Thank you JY and 7Sage!

    7

    I have received my LSAT score but due to technical difficulties I'm unable to complete LSAT writing section for 5 days. Do you think I should submit applications in the meantime?

    0

    November will hopefully be my last take. I first took in June when I was mid - high 160s (with one 170) and cancelled because I was nervous on test day. Wrote again in September with Prep Test scores hovering in high 160s - low 170s and scored 164. Gutted, I'm going for one more try and am finally consistently hitting the mid 170s. Last month of PTs has been 177, 174, 175, 163 (was sick) 166 (next day - still recovering), Tuesday's 172, and today's 173. My diagnostic last December was 157. When I started out I had no idea I'd ever be where I am today: looking to go knock a 170+ out of the park on Monday.

    I've learned some incredibly valuable lessons along the way. For one thing: never stop respecting this test or it will punish you. Next, don't forget that the light at the end of this tunnel is law school, then the Bar exam, followed by a meaningful career practicing law. Finally, this test is intended to quantify your ability to understand and reason with complex/dense words and situations - consider that getting better at these skills is early preparation for your future career.

    No matter what happens I know without a doubt I, personally, wouldn't be hitting these scores without the excellent content of this site and the brilliant, dynamic support found here on the forums. If I'm having a bad prep day, I know I can find the right motivation here - it's happened multiple times. So, with that, thanks to all for sharing the adventure. To those taking the November exam: may the logic come easily and may the curve be generous.

    6

    Hi all,

    I wanted to thank 7sage for providing amazing and affordable resources for my LSAT journey. It was a long and exhausting, but definitely worth it. I studied for over a year, and it was always encouraging to see stories where people had improved significantly. I hope that my story helps others to see that improving by 18 points or more is totally possible with hard work! Good luck to everyone on the rest of their LSAT studies!

    3

    I know we can bring regular pencils to the exam (it's printed on the admission ticket) but can we also bring pens? Or is LSAC providing pens?

    For the stylus/pen they are providing - is it a decent pen? As in, will we want to use it over the pencils so we don't have to go back and forth?

    Also, just to confirm - we still can't bring mechanical pencils right??

    0

    What do I do?

    What do I study?

    I was contemplating doing a couple of PTs.

    Or should I do one full one, BR it, and then do drills? Make my own PT with the hardest questions i can find?

    I am almost out of fresh PTs (have like 5 or 6 left)

    I am scoring early 160s, I am seriously hoping for 160+ this week

    I have been studying full time since I joined, and really want this to be the last time I write

    What do you think?

    Good luck to everyone writing!

    Any tips would be nice :)

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