None of the options listed, unless you think you’re going to have some issue with the digital administration (I believe it’s mandatory starting in the fall, though). As I see it, June is not enough time to really nail the test. It sounds like you’ve been taking and retaking rather successively. You should spend a bit more time for your next administration really mastering the test before you go back in. One reason is to get a score that eclipses 164 by a significant amount (3 or more points). Another reason is that retakes, I imagine (and have heard), start looking curious at 5 and above. So you’ll really want to make your next test or two (if you decide to take still another) count for your next cycle. If something’s going to look odd, let the increased oddness be outweighed by a score improvement that’s worth your trouble.

Obviously, I’ve presupposed that the other options are not the ones to take given what you’ve said. It sounds like you want to go to a school with guaranteed employment outcomes (and some slice of prestige), and this means that good regionals may not be the best options for you. There’s a lot to say about this, but if you don’t feel comfortable in such a position then it’s too soon to settle for comfort. After all, you really haven’t been at this (LSATing, appying) for that long—though, I’m sure your parents/family think otherwise. There are trade-offs but it sounds like your long term plans point in the direction of playing the long game.

Congrats man! This is what’s up! Big things!!!

I'm also sorry to hear about the grades. While I know that it is a blessing to be in the position you're in and not having to worry so much about grades because of (a) prestige and (b) monetary assistance, it is still hard when your grades don't satisfy your expectations.

I know it is hard taking a bird's eye view of things at this stage--especially, with regard to what might have hindered you because of blindspots--but what do you think would've helped you in semester besides starting issue-spotting practice exams early and often? For instance, do you have friends that had a little bit of a better grasp of the Civ Pro material (from your vantage point or just the hindsight of the grades given in that course) that gave you some evidence where you might have gone a bit off course?

I think that this is a lesson to everyone, at the very least, to study the LSAT for the LSAT and to take it as important just for admissions and try to forget it as soon as possible. I can imagine that many people, in awe of your perfect score, would think that it is some sort of red-carpet towards top grades if you work hard (which you did). Of course, that isn't necessarily the case for many reasons. However, people are still liable to fall into that way of thinking--at least when talking about their personal expectations (i.e., even if they wouldn't admit as much).

In any case, it seems that you have a good handle on the first semester and that you've settled in. That it seems, is the difficult transition to make and I'd expect that you'll be right in the thick of things (as far as clerkships and the like) when it comes to options in your 3L year. May we all transition as well and as maturely on this front!

P.S. I worried about the typing thing as well. Before the summer, my typing speed (and writing speed) was so horrendous compared to others (I guess my natural fine motor skills are lacking). That's why I tried to get a head start on things by practicing a bit of touch typing everyday for the last six months and it does really help if you put the time into it. I'm glad that you recommended that people try to get their touch-typing skills to at least an acceptable/decent level before they go into their 1L year. It seems like it is really important, although it is not really a substantive skill.

The latter (discreet jumps with periods of plateau). Also, you should think about these in scoring bands or ranges. You might start out PTing with scores clustering around 152, then jump to those clustering around 158. Then you might jump to those clustering around 161, then 165, then 169, and so on. Reliable jumps get harder to make as you continue to increase your score. I’d be surprised if someone didn’t see some “jumping” in their scoring, rather than smooth incremental change, provided that they study long enough. And one of the things that might explain this is, as you say, the learning of a new concept or technique which is applicable to multiple questions on a given test.

This is doable, as ppl said, because of the scoring band in which you fall right now. However, five weeks of study means five weeks of study. Plan on really packing it in, especially since you’ll want enough spacing between practice tests. In general, I would urge against such a short study schedule: there’s just too much chance that one will ultimately end up half-assing study, and end up with a half-ass score. I’d also say that just because somethings doable, don’t invest too much in the expectations; that’s because, it would really suck if you didn’t hit the score you wanted but read more into that than you should. Temper expectations, and work hard!

P.S. Curious as to how you’re first -gen but your dad has a doctorate.

P.P.S. I am a bit sceptical about the 159 average cited (for AA males). I know someone with a 161 who got into Yale, but by all accounts that was an unusual case—not the rule for AAs. Are you getting that from reddit, LSL, LSN, or somewhere else?

The UGPA is really the thing that’s pulling this down. I would say that a 161 is not completely unheard of, especially at some of the the schools in the bottom fourth of the T-14 for an AA, but 3.2 is hard to pitch when it is combined with it. I’ve seen AAs with lower GPAs get into places like UVA or Mich with named schollies, but that was coupled with a 171 and some good softs (for example). As someone said, these things are unfortunately unpredictable to a considerable extent. I also think that the URM “bump” can fluctuate in the context of a given cycle (this cycle’s looking pretty good, though).

Anyways, you shouldn’t let all of this stop you from applying. I guess “shoot your shot” has (oddly) made its way from positive advice for approaching girls at the bar to submitting law school apps. In any case, as someone said earlier, if you could crack into the upper 160’s it would be very helpful as far as T-14 aspirations go. Good luck!

I don’t care what program you use, trying to make that significant of an improvement in such a short time is a tall task for anyone even if you had chunks of free study time. In a perfect world, you would sit out a cycle, buy some better test prep materials, join a study group and get a routine down for your test in the summer (and, if need be, the fall). It sounds like the world isn’t perfect for you in this respect, however. I don’t like to be a downer, and I really hope you improve your trouble areas (it might even behoove u to hit LR instead of LG for the double points), but it is against the odds. Here’s hoping you overcome them!!!

Congrats on all the investment and hard work!---Love outcomes like these

Awesome!

@aholtzer34-4 That’s not necessarily true. Some schools mention that you should offer an explanation of large disparities (including score jumps). I believe that UChicago is an example of this. I myself got asked about this in an interview with Columbia last cycle, so it might be better to quickly comment on such disparities in your app. That said, I wouldn’t mention accommodations. There was some commotion about the increase in the number of extra time accommodations the last two cycles, and even though law schools cannot ask about this, they might subconsciously take it into consideration if offered the info. Best not to call attention to it, especially given that others probably aren’t. Anyhow, congrats on the improvement!

I suspect that it will make little actual difference in terms of URM boost, but it might make for a more interesting diversity statement. Anyways, I think you should always go with how you actually identify. It’s tricky here since I assume that you just go along with the “black” label that others perceive you as, but if your native background is important to how you perceive yourself, then you should absolutely identify as “two or more races”. You seemed the think that that brought in complications, but I wasn’t able to discern why you thought that was so.

Congrats on a great score!

Yeah @leahbeuk911. It is really an unfair feature of the system (my school didn’t have A+’s either). It really allows one to negate the effect that any B+’s might have on your overall GPA. Oh, well...

This would probably be explained in terms of scalar implicature, within linguistics—but things are tricky with this case, as with finding the right principles to decide on cases like whether in saying “Scott has three children” the semantic content is identical to that of “Scott has least three children” and implicates something that would be expressed by saying “Scott has exactly three children” or whether things are the other way around. This handout from Chris Potts is quite good for a quick reference on these issues in case you’re interested: https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist236/implicature/materials/ling236-handout-04-23-scalars.pdf

Same as the above. RD is by and large the way to go for anyone, URM or no. Of course, one could make an argument that the point applies even more forcefully to the former case since—all other things being equal— you have more chance of being admitted as a URM With RD than otherwise (though, perhaps, not for long!). So, you probably do not want to lose any leverage you might otherwise have.

Hmm... I have a tip which doesn’t apply here, but can be useful to someone in the future.—Sign up for two tests during a cycle that you can use, without issue, for applications in the relevant cycle. Then, make sure that you have enough time before the first schedule test to master the test—at least six months of dedicated studying. On the lead up to the first test, you’ll naturally be a bit less stressed because—like it or not—in the back of your mind, you know you’ll have another crack at it if things don’t go well the first time around. This has a major calming effect on the two week lead up to the test, and also on test day itself (although, that’s not to say that your jitters will be totally allayed). The lead up is important since if it’s stressful, you can develop bad habits in replacement of the good habits you’ve been cultivating. This is one thing that can help ppl, anyways. Unfortunately, it’s not as helpful for you now. Still, you’ve got this—you’ve been studying hard (trust yourself). Also, remember that it would be a bit of narcissism to place too much emotional investment into this test. In the grand scheme of things, it has temporary importance. Thinking as much (after studying hard, of course) is helpful for your anxiety. At least, knowing that there are things that I care about far more than the test helped me put the task into proper perspective going in. In any case, I wish you much more than luck!

Are they shelling you? Are they causing you headaches with causal reasoning? Are they sneaking in a modifier that is seemingly unimportant in the passage which distinguishes between two answer choices?

@blljhnsn35813 smfh.

In that case I would try to shave off a decent chunk on average (say, a min and a half) and get really technical about your skipping strategy (if you aren’t alread). I’d do a lot of times drill-work (if different lengths) to at least try to get faster while keeping up your accuracy. If your BR is really high at this point, you have a good idea as to what questions bother you and can use that extra time to redue them with some care. The hope is that this reduces the amount you get wrong by at least three over the whole of the test. And obviously three questions is huge within the top score band. Good luck!

What’s your timing looking like?

I have no first-hand experience, but from what I could tell on various forums last year there’s a significant percentage of test takers who have no prior history of test accommodations for their recently documented need. Take it with a grain of salt, but I’m pretty sure this is the case. Good luck (and hopefully someone can respond that has more experience on this front)!

Try doing timed individual section drilling and set your timer to 32 or 30. Bare in mind that this is only after you have your strategy (including skipping) fairly subconscious. Doing this really helps with speed and, in turn, helps with full PTs at the normal time. The reason (one of them anyways) is that you have feedback which will tell you that 35 min is not bad at all—you’ve been competing sections with significantly less time (while maintaining accuracy). Eventually, this eliminates time specific worries (although, you still might have actual test anxiety which you will need to moderate). This sort of strategy should be something that you take on later in your prep. The most important thing is accuracy.

Just an anecdote—I started doing this kind of cutting and my test went by stupid fast. My slowest section was one that I completed on first pass with like 8 mins left. I’m not sure how that happened since the absolute least amount of time I would drill at was 28min. I think that my time work towards the end helped a lot, along with a good dose of adrenaline from taking the test. Maybe a little more, because I worried that I was going too fast. Luckily, I only missed a handfull amount of questions overall. But the point is that this strategy can have major benefits (indirectly) for time related anxiety. Best of luck!

Oh, one other thing.--You'll probably need more than 2-3hrs every weekday.

Anything's possible, but my thought is "no." I would have said "definitely not" if you were looking at a different score, but I assume that there are some quick gains to be had from 136 as opposed to the high 140's/low 150's. Still, you have to bear in mind that there are a lot of areas (skills) to work on within each section at your current score. Quick gains won't help if your improvement isn't consistently reproducible. My worry with pushing for quick gains is that they aren't sturdy enough to guard against test-day jitters and other issues. In any case, I hope that you do improve to the score you want--but you definitely shouldn't treat your progress like a crazy workout plan. It often doesn't work with getting in shape, and it often doesn't work for getting the score you want. Anyways, good luck and remember to really dedicate yourself either way!

That is some grind!--But it does indicate how much time people should allot to studying for this thing (which feels thankless at so many points). But getting this outcome feels all the more meaningful after what you've endured. Congrats!