If you aren't prepared, don't take it. Are you really going to postpone law school for five years just to retake the LSAT? Spare yourself the turmoil, and plan for this test to be your last.
You could email LSAC and ask for another take if something unusual happened during the test you cancelled. They might allow you the sixth take, but why risk it? If you aren't scoring at least 2 points higher than your target score this time, wait until you are!
If the only thing you have done in 5 months is 24 hours of 7sage curriculum, the result makes sense. 24 hours over five months works out to roughly one hour per week!
Most people study 1-4 hours per day, or 7-28 hours per week. Additionally, covering curriculum and understanding concepts won’t translate to a score increase unless you are (1) actively changing how you approach questions and (2) you have practiced this change enough so that you do it during your practice test.
feel like I am missing stamina and key ideas such as "Flawed pattern questions" and "Substitute constraints".
Please look at your analytics. They will tell you what question types you are getting wrong. If you are missing flawed pattern questions, you should focus on developing a new system for doing flawed pattern questions. For example, I am consistently -1/ 0 on LR and when I do flawed pattern questions my system is this:
(1) read question to identify what they are asking me to do
(2) read paragraph, sometimes twice
(3) identify conclusion
(4) summarize to myself what mistake they made (e.g. “correlation isn’t causation”)
(5) go through answer choices and eliminate all obvious wrong choices
(6) if I am stuck between two, flag it and come back.
LR1 8 of 25
LR2 15 of 26 (How did I manage to double my score from first LR portion?)
You are naturally good at some question types and not as good at others. Focus only on what you are missing, and then do untimed practice problems until you master these question types.
If the technical issues are on your end, you can request a hotel room from LSAC, or one of their tablets.
What is the average of your last 5 PTs?
Yes - you can tell them not to review your application until you get your LSAT score. Many schools will do this automatically.
A 176 on the LSAT puts you above the medians at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. That's literally all you need as far as test scores go.
Does your mother know this?
Is it reasonable to ask for a refund on the test or the score be cancelled?
You can cancel your score up until the 24th (tomorrow). Just go to your LSAT page on the LSAC website and click "cancel".
However, if I were you, I would ask for a retake. You sound like you definitely deserve it. A "cancel" eats up one of your 5 test opportunities, and makes schools wonder if you did something wrong (like maybe you were nervous and thought you blew the test). Canceling would also mean no refund.
See that's the thing, I feel like I've seen so many different responses. I've seen people say to submit ASAP and others say that a later application with a higher LSAT is better than getting in it early. That's why I'm so conflicted!!!!
It takes them a while to process your application anyways, so you should submit before you take the LSAT.
If you really feel like it's a big deal, write an addendum about it.
Probably don't. This is so minor it would look bad for you to even bring it up. The median GPA at Yale is a 3.92, so it's not like they will reject you for a single "B".
No. Don't do this, or be sure to be very quiet about it. Every proctor is different, but why take a chance?
If you can narrow the answers down to two and one has “probably” (or similar wording like “most likely”), while the other doesn’t, the “probably” is correct.
If there is no “probably”, but every other answer choice is definitely wrong, then that answer could be right.
What do you mean by loosen your scale?
There are a certain number of questions you can miss and still get a 170, usually ranging from -7 to -10 for the digital version.
A looser scale means you can miss more questions and still get a high score. Powerscore thinks that the November test was more challenging, so they think you could miss as many as 9 points and still get a 170.
Prephrasing. After you read the question and identify the type and conclusion, prephrase the answers. It's counterintuitive, but it makes you faster because it saves you reading time.
Focus on your weakest question types. I thought I was just "making silly mistakes", but for some reason focusing on question types is the thing that raised my score 10+ points.
I also second what gabes900 said about sticking with a process. Before you start studying you might answer questions intuitively, but you basically want to turn yourself into a computer that executes a script. When you take a test you want to be CONSCIOUSLY reasoning, which does take practice.
I got to consistent -0/1 in LR by always (1) reading the question and identifying type (2) reading the stimulus (3) putting my mouse on the conclusion (4) pre-phrasing answers (5) eliminating wrong choices (6) choosing the right choice or skipping and coming back.
You have to do this for every question. The prephrase is the most counterintuitive part, but it's the secret to being analytical and fast.
Precede means come before. "Proceed" is like "you may continue", "you may go forward".
The root of precede is"pre", which means before.
pregame (like in college, drinking before a party)
preschool
prepare
pre-electric
Take 1 to 2 PTs per week. Don't take any tests you've taken recently - only use older exams. Keep the lower PTs (1-30) just for drills.
Focus on your weaknesses. Identify them with the analytics section and keep a record of the tricks you use to get certain question types right (e.g. "parallel - always look at the conclusion and find the one that matches"). I recommend doing this in a Google Doc.
Build timed problem sets out of your weakest game and LR question types. Keep records of when you take your PT, how you felt, what time you started, and your BR scores. Keep a record of how many practice problems you are doing per day (I recommend excel), how many you got right (e.g. "23/25") and what types you drilled.
I went from the 160's to the 170's when I started using an excel document to keep track of my practice drilling.
Yes. Reading Comp = Critical Reading.
This is what I did and I basically think it’s the entire reason behind my 10+ point improvement:
I took my five worst question types from each section and created problem sets based on them.
Let’s say analytics told me my worst LR were MBT, MBF, PSA, Weaken, and Strengthen. I would make a problem set with 5 of each question type (25 questions total) and do it timed.
The same also applies to logic games - I would make problem sets of my 4 weakest game types.
I would do two timed “targeted sets” a day.
Monday: weakest LR set and weakest LG set
Tuesday: CR set and weakest LR set
Wednesday: weakest LG set and weakest LR set
Thursday: CR set and weakest LG set
Then pt 1-2 times per week to feed analytics.
On the LSAT if “or” is exclusive they will say “A or B but not both”. If they don’t say that it’s exclusive, you should assume you can have both.
You can have T or F or both without W. As a conditional, W is sufficient to trigger “T or F”, but it’s not necessary.
“If I (take a Kaplan course) then (I will improve my score 3 points) or (I will get zero wrong on logic games).”
The Kaplan course is sufficient for the improvement, but it’s not necessary. After all, you could increase your score with a different tutoring company (like 7sage!)
Main point is the gist of the passage.
For example, consider this made-up passage on the history of corn:
First paragraph: corn was used by native americans
Second paragraph: native americans prayed to gods for corn
Third paragraph: corn was used by native americans to barter
Fourth passage: native americans explored new territories to plant corn
Main point: native americans cared a lot about corn.
Why? It’s pretty evenly distributed throughout the passage. The wrong answers will be too specific (“native americans used corn to barter and it was important for their economy”) or too general (“corn was essential to many cultures around the world”).
Main purpose: to educate you. If they had mentioned a figure who thought that native americans didn’t like corn, then it could be to challenge a point of view.
Main purpose = why did the author bother to write this passage?
Maybe they want to convince you to adopt a new policy. Maybe they want to challenge an old idea. Maybe they want to share new information.
Basically, what motivated them to sit down and take the time to write what you just read.
You should start with the older (40-50) and work towards the newer (80's) because the test has changed.
You don't need to take every prep test ever written, so I wouldn't bother with the earlier ones. Save the problems from those tests for problem sets.
Took the LSAT yesterday. After my 10 minute break it took an additional 20 minutes for me to connect with a proctor and re-enter the test. I was terrified that something had gone wrong (I sent them a message every few minutes with zero response), but everything was smooth afterwards.
Just wanted to let test takers know that this is a possibility to be prepared for!
How long did it take you to get back in between breaks? I waited for 20 minutes with no response, was afraid something went wrong.
I wrote down what I wanted to do as a lawyer, and my personal goals for the future. It helped me see the LSAT as one of many tests (law school exams, the bar, being in trial), rather than a singular "make or break" moment.