Carl has been teaching, tutoring, and training people to teach the LSAT since the early 2000s. He has advanced degrees from UGA, Yale, and the University of Glasgow. He currently meets online with students over Zoom. To schedule a free one-hour evaluation session with him, visit https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/
Discussions
It sounds like you're on the ragged edge of burnout. You don't want to hear this with the exam right before you, but Peter888 is right. You need to take some time away from the test. When you come back to it after some time away, things will feel different.
I think you're looking for questions that involve overlapping (or non-overlapping) parts of the same whole. You see these in the positive and in the negative on the LSAT. In the positive: if you have two majorities in the same whole, those two majorities must at least overlap some. If you have two less-than-majorities of the same whole, they don't have to overlap.
So, If most hound dogs are happy and most hound dogs are sulky, there is at least one happy, sulky hound dog out there. But, if it's some hound dogs are happy and some hound dogs are sulky, the sulky hounds need not overlap with the happy ones.
You see this flaw again in PT124.S2.Q20.
That's definitely something I do for people. I usually meet for two hours at a time with students, and you can pay session by session. If you're interested, bring a few questions to one of my free one-hour evaluation sessions (which you can book at https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/ ) and see if my explanations make any more sense to you.
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Independent TutorExpert Professional Tutor - 178 Scorer - Open for New Students - $100/hr (w/additional package discounts)
Hi there,
My name is Carl, and I've been tutoring the LSAT since the early 2000s, online and in person. These days I mostly work online over Zoom.
I would never tell someone that it's impossible to self-study for the test or that a tutor is absolutely required, by any means. I would say, however, that having the right guidance at the right moment in your studies can both save you a lot of frustration and streamline the process of improving your score.
Here are some of the ways I've worked with students:
Plateau Busting - I specialize in helping people move the needle who've been stuck on a plateau for a long time. There are natural points where people get stuck (high 150s, mid 160s, etc.), and I've developed methods for helping people push past those sticking points.
Ground-Floor Up Rebuilds - Sometimes, the problem is you've never really established the baseline skill set. You've poked around, started and stopped, and your core skills never full gelled. I can help you rebuild the necessary foundation to set yourself up for success.
Troubleshooting - Sometimes all you need is someone to help when you hit a sticking point. You're doing great overall, but a specific question type is killing you. It can even be a specific few questions. I excel at having fruitful, thoughtful discussions of some of the finer points of the test.
Extreme Score Goals - There aren't a lot of tutors who can help you move a 173 to a 176. I have been able to do that for students. It's a very specialized skill set, working with those already in or near the 99th percentile, as once you're in that upper score range, you're just not making any easy mistakes any more.
Tutoring of Last Resort - I've had some clients come to me who've tried everything else. Some of them have literally done every single question available at least once. If nothing else has worked, I might be able to help.
I offer a free one-hour evaluation session to all potential clients. It's an hour for us to meet, discuss your troubles, have me demonstrate my tutoring style, and have you ask any questions you have. So, please, reach out if you'd like to schedule an evaluation with me to see if I can help you.
The easiest way to reach out is to use the scheduler at my website: https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/ . You can also shoot me a DM here or respond to this post.
Hi. I'm a tutor with a fair amount of experience helping people move from the 160s to the 170s. Clearly something's going wrong if you're PTing much higher than your actuals, and I can provide insight into what might be going on. I offer potential clients a free one-hour consultation which you can book at https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/ I don't 'paywall' any content during the evaluations--you're free to ask anything about the test, from the simplest to the most difficult concepts, beginner to advanced techniques, etc.
I think I'm in the neighborhood of your price range, and I have a lot of experience working with people trying to move from the low 160s to the 170s. If you're interested, I offer potential clients free 1-hour evaluation sessions, which in many ways are just a chance for you to pick the brain of an expert and see if I you think I can help. Those you can book at https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/ Also, hit me up with a DM and I can answer any questions you have.
You could go back to old practice tests and do some Logic Games that are built on conditionals. (Selection)
Yeah, I just noticed this. They seem to have changed this -today-. When I was working with my students this morning, the view in full screen button was there. When I came back to work with an evening student, it was gone. I was still logged in on my other computer, and the button was there. When I relogged, it disappeared. This kind of last minute change is baffling.
I kind of wonder when they're going to stop using the "argument above" language, since the arguments have been to the left for some time.
I've helped people make that jump before. 169 is definitely a common plateau point and often requires some extra oomph to get past. Definitely doable, but it can help to have someone to assist. Check out my profile for my website; I offer free, no obligation 1-hour evaluations to all potential clients and you can schedule them through my website.
LawHub has a lot of drills that don't show up in the 7Sage materials. Have you tried those? They're listed under 'Drill Sets' to the right of 'Full Tests' when you're in the LSAT Prep section.
If they start scoring it, it's still unlikely that it'll matter much to your admissions chances. They've scored the writing sections of the GMAT and GRE for years now, and no school really cares. The only way it'd matter is if the ABA inexplicably decided to weight the writing score heavily in their ranking calculations, and there is little to no reason they would.
A little good news. Looks like they've changed the interface so that you can at least see all the questions and whether you've answered them at the bottom of the screen. They've also added a timer to the demo. Still not ideal, but it is getting better.
Absolutely. If a flaw answer is phrased in assumption language, you can negate it to ask if it is an assumption in the argument. If it's not an assumption in the argument, it's not a flaw in the argument.
Be careful, though, sometimes an answer -is- an assumption in the argument, but that assumption isn't a flaw. In other words, it's fine to assume that, so even though it's an assumption, it's not the right answer to the question "what is wrong with this argument?"
I tell my students to try, as much as possible, to speak in "because" statements. Train yourself to say "This is the answer because..." especially during the review process. This will reveal to you the hidden areas left to improve. There are almost certainly questions that you get right, but you still have some doubts about the right answers, and if faced with a question in the future that evokes similar doubts, you wouldn't have a way to address them. Finding those lingering doubts is often the way to break past that 170 barrier. It's not about things you don't know. It's the small issues left in the things you do know.
Since April scores are out today, I should note that I do still have a few slots open for people studying for June, but not many. If you have morning or afternoon availability for tutoring, it'd be much easier to fit you in with my current clients. If you're interested, the usual path is the way to go: schedule an evaluation at my website: https://www.ivorytowertutoring.com/schedule/ . If you'd like to chat here first, send me a DM.
I have a lot more availability for the August test.
2) There are no rules about the essay, because the essays are not graded. Draw a picture using ASCII if you want.
3) Remember, the people doing admissions are people. How would you, a person, feel if you saw two scores? Probably that's how they'd feel.
I don't have answers about the others. But keep in mind, this isn't rocket science. Admissions, for however terrible it feels, is still a human process.
I've never met an admissions consultant who offered information worth the price tag.
@Pspspsps I don't think there's much difference between the US and Canada in this regard.
The writing sample is a marketing strategy by LSAC. They're probably going to start scoring it, to try to compete with the GRE. When they do, just like the GRE's writing sample, schools will probably ignore it. They certainly ignore it now. As you've said, schools understand the context under which it was written. It's 35 minutes to respond to a topic that they certainly didn't pick. It's a highly artificial environment unlikely to reveal anything important about the applicant.
If a school wants to assess your writing ability, they have many other ways to do so. Maybe if AI gets so good that people can't distinguish it from actual writing, the assessment will take on a new importance. But right now it's just a hurdle. Take it. Do your best. Don't sweat it.
Wow. That is legitimately much worse than the current version.
You can't see all the questions you've flagged just by looking at the bottom of your screen, you have to click on "review mode". You also have to manually switch in and out of "answer elimination mode" instead of just clicking on a different part of the page. You can't see at a glance how many questions there are in a section or how many questions there are per passage.
A month is probably on the long end for a potential break, but it can work. Definitely, I'd take some time off. You should take tests when you feel ready. If you don't feel ready, don't take the test.