Hi all,

I have four potential candidates I'd like to reach out to for LOR.

Two TAs (one from an elective course: leadership and resiliency i.e. not very hard, and the other was regular course)

and two Professors. Both very accomplished professors, one of the professors is the founder of the Public Policy school at UVA. I received A - for both classes the professors taught. All four taught different classes.

The professors don't know me particularly well, one class was a lecture with 120 students and the other class was a seminar with 15. On the other hand, I interacted with both TAs on a regular basis (many email exchanges, office visits, even study sessions over the phone during final exam period). The ratio for office visits was probably 3 to 1. Notably, I got a bad grade in my midterm for the class that non-elective TA taught but ended up doing really well at the end through many consultations with him and guidance he provided for my final paper and exam. I impressed both TAs and definitely have better, more in-depth relationship with them. I think they would write a stellar and very personal letter of recommendation and suspect that they will have much more substantive things to say about me than the professors.

So my question is,

Who do you think I should ask??

Do you think the admission officers would weigh a letter that has more depth and is written from a TA who knows/likes me but admittedly teach a not very challenging elective course? Or would they weigh a banal letter that sounds like other typical letters from well-known professors?

At the end of writing this I have decided to ask the other TA who taught a regular class but I still need to decide between my leadership class TA vs the two professors. I graduated a year ago and plan on submitting one or two LORs from my managers and supervisors.

Any thoughts/comments are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

It's not very clear on the website. LSAC says that they allow ear plugs starting Aug, 2020. I know that the plugs are allowed for the actual exam but for the writing sample the instruction page says Headphones, Earbuds are prohibited.

I called LSAC for clarification but the rep I spoke with wasn't sure either. Her explanation was basically what's on the website. (she said as long as you can show it to the proctor it's fine, to which, I responded, "I thought there was no proctor for the writing sample and it's just my self-recording of the process??"

I plan on using non-electronic foam ear plugs.

Could someone who has taken the exam weigh in on this! Much appreciated.

I picked C for both during the timed run and blind review.

I read from another post that C is wrong because it's mixing up the sufficiency and necessity condition but I'm still not seeing that this is the case.

In the last sentence of the stimulus it says, "Clearly then to maintain military deterrence, a nation would have to be believed to have retaliatory power so great..."

I translated this sentence to MD --> Belief and I thought it was bi-conditional.

Belief --> Military deterrence

Military deterrence --> Belief.

Is this the wrong way to translate that sentence? I can see how D is correct but I'm not able to eliminate C because of this confusion.

Could someone clarify this little bit more?? Thank you!

I scored 152 on April, 155 in Jan.

So many emotions, so much to process. I had my eyes set on T-14 but I'm feeling really stupid right now.

I'm signed up for June but debating whether I should push it back to Aug.

I wanted to apply in September, however, and I'm not sure how I'll do with the experimental section. I also don't feel very confident about how much I can improve over the next few months. The highest I've scored on timed-PT is 161 with highest BR score of 171.

Currently, I have a 9-5 job at Estate Planning firm that's really laid-back with manageable workload (good culture, people are nice, less hours and stress). This job is 5 minutes commute.

VS

I have job offers from 2 other firms with higher pay that's 20, 40 minute-commute with likely 9-6:30 schedule. Sometimes I'd even have to work weekends in these positions but the work will be more interesting (Personal Injury and other, patent).

I was going to accept one of these offers to build on my resume. I thought it'd be good to show that I've worked in various fields to express interest but it will take my time away from studying for sure.

I guess my questions are:

1. Would Aug LSAT be too late for me to send applications in Mid-September??

2. Do you think I should keep my current job and focus on studying even at the risk of not improving very much? I'd been studying from May 2020 to Present (about 11 months).

If you have any advice they will be greatly appreciated.

I'll spend the rest of the day licking my wounds. Hopefully I'll garner enough strength tomorrow to get back up and start studying again instead of feeling sorry for myself.

Thanks in advance.

Update: Does anyone think that I should take both June and Aug? I'll be taking it 4 times.. Some people say that schools only take the highest if you take it 3 times or less but not otherwise.

HI all,

My friend has been pushing me to take this test this year. She went to T14 so her words carry some weight but I feel conflicted. !f you could share some of your thoughts it will be greatly appreciated!

Quick history of my preparation:

I studied LR for 3 months and I am at -8 to -12.

I studied LG for 3 months and I am at -4 to -0

However, I have not taken a single RC section. I have read all RC passages from PT1 to PT35 and watched all JY's explanation videos for these but my reading time for passages is anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes with comprehension level of 3 out of 5. It's not where it needs to be for me to do well in this section imo.

Also, my stamina is not that great. After doing LR translations for 3 sections I am fried.

I can't imagine taking additional LG and RC section on top of this during the real LSAT.

My goal score is 164+ Here's the dilemma:

If I take the 3-section Flex (November) I can take advantage of the shorter test but I wont be ready.

If I take the 5-section 'Real' (sometime next year) I plan on studying for 6 more months but I know I wont be able to perform as well because my stamina is terrible (which may or may not improve)

The best scenario is if LSAC decides to do Flex for some tests in 2021 but this is of course not guaranteed. I personally think there's a high probability that LSAC will do flex for earlier tests next year so I'm very tempted to wait.

P.S.

Those who are tired and feel like giving up, I am right there with you! My translation for a single LR section sometimes take 1-2 hours. I have stagnated and felt depressed about lack of progress too but I'm learning to appreciate even the smallest of improvements (small is not so small!). Celebrate these incremental improvements and keep fighting! I believe we will all be where we want to be at the end :).

Cheers,

Hi everyone,

I'm currently 3weeks in with only about 20% of CC complete.

I do have a part time job but I'm off Fri/Sat/Sun so I feel like I should have made more progress.. I focus on doing the problem sets (in CC) and going over them over and over again. And sometimes just few questions take a loong time until I really understand what's going on. I just got through all the MP,MSS,WK,STR problem sets and started MBT section. I still don't feel like I've mastered MP,MSS,WK,STR. I feel 90%,80%,70%,80% confident with these, respectively. My study schedule is usually couple of hours in the morning before work and couple hours in the evening after work. 3-4 hours during weekdays and 3-5 hours during weekends

I understand that everyone is running his/her own race but reading that some people finish the entire core curriculum in a month I'm a bit nervous.

At this rate I imagine I might not have enough time to do all PTs and do additional drilling and review, enough to do well on my first actual LSAT. I plan on taking LSAT in July and two between Oct and Jan of 2021.

Any thoughts/suggestions/feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

For those who are taking LSAT soon, best of luck!

Alex

sch.

c=.. fail to consider the human costs that consumers pay in nationalized insurance

p- high tech medicine is restricted

p2- transplants are rationed

p3- people are denied treatments they want and need

laf.

p- private insurance denies access to health care to poor people

p2- nationalized insurance have equal access for rich and poor

p3- people's right to treatment is not violated

the conclusion I infer from Dr.Laf is that obviously he's a proponent for nationalized insurance

I thought he was providing counter-example against the private insurance so I picked (C)

Maybe I don't really have a clear understanding of what counterexamples are, aren't the premises that Dr.Laf list for his case counterexamples since it counterargues that nationalized healthcare is better than private healthcare??

My suspicion of why C is wrong is that Dr.Laf didn't directly engage with Dr.Sch's premises.

In my mind, he didn't provide any example that would contradict the examples that Dr.Sch provided. (e.g. treatments are not rationed and here's a statistical data that shows that they are not rationed). Is this why they are not counterexamples?

I'm also not understanding how he's construing the word access in limited way. Is it because Dr.Sch's sees limited access in nationalized insurance but doesn't see or acknowledge the same issue in private healthcare??

#help

Hi everyone!

My ex-TA says he's willing to write a very strong letter of recommendation for me but he asked me to find out whether it will carry any weight since he's not teaching anymore. I was in his discussion section 2 years ago.

He has a Ph.D from Yale and spent a lot of time with me in college. He knows me well and likes me a lot.

I personally think his letter will work great but just wondering what others might think.

Related: I want to submit 4 LORs, all from my undergrad (2 from professors 2 from teaching assistants).

Do I HAVE to include a letter from my work supervisor if I had been out of college for 2 years?

Please share your thoughts! Much appreciated!

Hello all!

I have taken 5 (FLEX format) PTs (PT 1-5), I have not taken any recent PTs or seen LR questions from recent PTs. My average was 160 but I have seen some of the questions on these exams except for RC section.

My goal score is 165+

I am very comfortable with LG (0 ~ -2 timed but am taking a big hit in RC -12+ timed and -7~ -8 blind review.

LR is okay. (-4 ~ -8 timed). I know I have most to be gained from studying RC since my score is so low and that is precisely what I am doing. After some studying my timed have gone down from -14ish to -9 ~ -11, my BR score has improved as well, -2 ~ -5

The reason I feel rushed to take the Nov is because I don't feel comfortable taking 5-section exam in general even though I am signed up for Jan LSAT.

To be honest I just want to take November because I don't think there will be anymore 3-section exams. I figured, if I don't hit the goal score in Nov, I can study for another 6 months and prepare for the 5-section exam.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! And, good luck to those taking the exam soon!

Hi all!

This is my second post today on an unrelated topic.

I didn't get into my top-choice (wait-listed at Columbia) last cycle and am reapplying. I am trying to figure out if I should matriculate this cycle regardless of the outcome (Big Law or not). In general, I think it's wise to reapply with new score and improved app but I'm turning 31 soon and starting to feel some pressure due to my low-income background and familial responsibilities. My parents will retire with no retirement savings and a whole lot of debt. These were the main reasons I was set on going to ~T30 schools (for regional BL opportunities and national portability).

Until recently, I was under the impression that employment outcomes for most graduates are largely bifurcated (either very well paying or not e.g., $190k vs $80k, I consider anything above $120k well-paid). But I met some people who went to T50~60 schools, work in mid-size firms, earn decent living (low end of six-figures e.g., $130k) and also have good work/life balance. Conversely, I personally know a few people who worked in BL for 3-5 years, suffered severe depression (even suicidal in one case), only to quit at the end. Obviously these are limited, small set of data but I'm starting to question whether BL is really the wise or the only path.

I want to know more about the middle-of-the-road outcomes like Mid Law. Does anyone else struggle about this? Everyone is unique but any of your thoughts or perspectives will be helpful both for myself and the community.

Thank you.

hi all! Happy Friday!!

Ellen Cassidy (EC) from Loophole is a strong proponent of the former but some disagree.

I have been studying for about 11 months and during the first few months, I liked reading question types first but decided to try stim-first approach after reading Loophole which I found to be helpful. At 10th month I got a much better handle on LR, scoring -3 to -5 untimed and I'm kind of tempted to switch back to see if it improves my timing.

EC argues that if you read questions first it will distract you when reading the stimulus.

Has anyone experienced anything similar??

Thanks for sharing!

Hi all!

1

For LSAT addendum,

I want to say at the end (in 3-4 sentences) that I will grow and discuss how I'd prepare in the 6-10 months leading up to the first day of law school. Is this unnecessary, bad idea? Do you think it'll hurt? The addendum is about 2/3 of a page without this language.

2

I have many schools on my list for which I'll be below median for both GPA and Addendum.

GPA by .1 to .3 points. LSAT by 8 to 12 points.

Would it seem too desperate to apply very very early? I have a friend who went to HLS who recommends that I apply asap.

He believes that I have a decent shot due to my unique story.

I can take LSAT once or twice more time but I dont think the score will improve by much. I'm about in the middle of my PT averages. If anything I'm going to try to take the LSAT really late in the cycle if I'm on the waitlist. Otherwise I'll reapply next cycle with, hopefully, a better LSAT.

I appreciate all your thoughts and input.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond.

At this point I might as well just guess all the answers ha ha!

To be fair, I've only taken 2 RC sections so far (have been studying LR and LG for the last 6months).

It's taking me roughly 4-6 minutes on the passage and I still don't retain much. I think I'm having trouble understanding the structure, figuring out the main points for each paragraph and their relationships.

I tried to read the passages in 2-3 minutes but I pretty much retain nothing. I think I'd rather spend more time up-front and get through the questions quickly, I even thought about not reading the passage at all or skim it in 1-minute and then come back to the passages for all the answers..

My strongest are Science and Law passages.

My weakest are Hum and Art, but Art especially.

I do read The Economist but I saw someone's post saying that you shouldn't really have to do any supplemental reading

until you have been exposed to Every Single RC passages in the PTs (1-74 of course, leaving fresh at least 15 PTs to simulate real exam) and I agree with that.

On the other hand I am:

0-2 in LG

3-6 in LR

I wanted to take LSAT Flex (Nov or Jan if Jan turns out to be Flex) but now I'm leaning more towards 5-section exam since my RC is so weak, I think, at best, I'll be able to get to 8-10 which is where I am after BR. RC, being weighed more in FLEX, will work against achieving my goal score :(

What do you think I should do!?

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

Hello everyone!

I applied for Fall 2022 but did not get into my top choices so I'm reapplying.

Here's my numbers,

Untimed:

LG: usually -2 or under

LR: usually -4 or under

RC: RC varies pretty wildly, usually ranges from -4 to -10

Timed:

LG: around -4

LR: around -8

RC: usually around -10

This tells me that I could score anywhere from 160 to 170ish (My real score is around 160 but goal is to hit 170+)

*One caveat is that these estimates are based on individual sections of different PTs. So it does not take into account how some sections might be easier than others for a specific test (I.e., they are not representative of actual tests). The numbers can be skewed if I happened to use hard RC LR LG when I study and vice versa.

I don't think I can improve a meaningful amount on RC, and I'm signed up for August LSAT.

I realize that the best way to get the most accurate score is to get an average of fresh PTs in the late 80s and early 90s which I have not done so far. I plan to do this about a month before the real test.

I'm tempted to take a fresh PT untimed to see my full potential, I would estimate my score to be anywhere from high 160s to mid 170s.

Should I push back the exam? Is 3 months enough time to improve from averaging 160 to averaging 170?

I study about 2-3 hours a day almost every day.

Any advice will be much appreciated! :)

Hi all!

I'd been thinking about this for some time and I couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer myself so I decided to write here.

After graduating from college I interned at a government contracting firm for 6 months.

First 3 months was with Financial Management,

Second 3 months was with Leadership and Organizational Development.

Both supervisors from both departments liked me. I believe I was going to be offered an extension for another 3 months at the end, however,

I was basically transferred over to L&OD from FM because nobody could train me and they wanted someone who could do finance and accounting who didn't need training (my background is not in this area). They thought they could train me to do the job at the time of hiring.

I think my supervisor from FM (the first internship) would write me a better LOR because that was before Covid and he's recognized my work ethics and attitude but I'm concerned about the fact that I was transferred because I couldn't perform the tasks for the job.

The supervisor from the second 3-months also liked me but I don't think he will have much to write about in the letter because we all worked from home and he barely saw me during the last 3 months.

I quit after 6 months due to possible exposure to Covid and also to start studying full time for LSAT.

My first question is should I even ask for an LOR from such short internships?

If yes, which supervisor do you think I should ask for the LOR??

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated and good luck for those of you are writing NOV LSAT!

Could someone please explain this for me.

I understand that

A's wrong because it doesn't paraphrase the MP completely

B and D's are wrong for obvious reasons.

I picked C but half-guessed it.

#help

Admin note: minor title edit; please use the format of "PT#.S#.Q# - [brief description]"

I'm scoring -0 ~ -3 on LG

but havent done any RC passages and am scoring -8 ~ -12 on LR so I don't think I'm ready for Nov even though I want to take the FLex.

What do you think are the chances that Jan will be a Flex??

Congenial guests and plentiful supply (food and drinks) will ensure a successful dinner party. Sylvia has prepared more than enough to eat and drink and her guests are congenial therefore her party is certain to be a success.

I translated this to G & S -> SDP

Sylvia' S & G --> SDP

How is this a flawed reasoning (question stem)?

The only thing I can think of is I either mistranslated the first, when it should be SDP -> G & S

or I am equating more than enough food and drink with GOOD things to eat and drink.

How do you guys translate double negatives??

e.g. dogs cannot fly if they do not have wings.

I translated this as /F ---> /W

or am I supposed to apply the negation to the second part of the sentence and make it: F --> W??

I am having tough time translating sentences with that have negation on both ends.

#help

Admin Note: https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-19-section-2-question-22/

I'm starting my drilling for each problem types and trying to reorganize the question bank.

I currently have close to 300 problem sets and they are all over the place. I understand that there is SORT function but I want to keep it minimalistic and the sort function isn't exactly precise. I just want to sort everything by number of questions. since sorting by title or date completed isn't very useful to me.

Hi all,

I ran a test on my Air with M1 chip and it passed all the tests for video, audio and RAM but it failed the CPU.

It needs to be at 95% but it's at 97%.

Would this be a problem? I dont want any hiccups on the exam day.

If anyone has used Mac AIR for the FLEX please let me know !

Thanks in advance!

I have several abbreviations on my personal statement that otherwise would be an entire sentence.

E.g NVCC for Northern Virginia Community College.

I feel like spelling all these out take up too much of precious real estate. Is this acceptable??

Thank you!

I wont be taking the LSAT anytime soon, I'm just curious.

What's the atmosphere like in the testing center? Is it like a classroom? cubicles? Do different test centers have different max capacity for number of people to take the test? How long is it before we actually start circling the bubbles in (from the time we walk in and sit down)? Do we have enough space between the takers? (I find it harder to focus if I sit close to someone who breathes loudly or shakes their legs) The more specific you could be in sharing your experience the better, I'm interested in the smallest details, Thanks!

Secondly, how similar is the 7SAGE digital format to the actual test? (I love the sound effect e.g. coffee shop noises, it's unfortunate we are not allowed headphones :p) Are we able to change font size and the background colors, etc? I use mini ipad to do problem sets on 7SAGE, how does this compare to the tablet in terms of size, ability to write on, and flagging questions to skip, etc?

P.S

I live in Fairfax, VA. About 20 minutes from DC. For people who's taken LSAT in the DMV area, which ones are your favorite and which ones should I avoid?

Thank you all!