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aidoe339
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Tuesday, Jan 31 2017

aidoe339

Dec. disadvantage?

I don't know why it takes a whole month to release LSAT scores, but is it generally not advisable to take the Dec. exam if you're planning on applying that cycle to very competitive schools?

Reason I ask is because I'd like to take Sept and Dec (as backup) but if I don't get scores until January I feel like I might as well wait until the next cycle to apply. A lot of this is based on what's ideal and I know many would point out that I should take the test when I feel ready, but timing and a backup plan are strategic considerations that have to at least be factored.

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aidoe339
Friday, Dec 30 2016

I distinctly remember both Stanford and Georgetown admissions specifically advising against the use of quotes in personal statements. I think the general consensus is that you shouldn't do it at all. Find another way to incorporate the idea you're trying to convey. Even paraphrasing and crediting Stephen King at some point would be better than outright quoting him in the beginning.

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aidoe339
Friday, Dec 30 2016

Saying we have anxiety and depression is more often than not a dramatic way of saying we're apprehensive and dejected about things. In fact it's worse because it's vague and obscure and gives us the idea that our situation is hopeless.

Answer yourself, what exactly are you apprehensive about? We're all apprehensive about taking a test that will, we presume, have a significant outcome on our professional lives. Ok, but how does being worried about that do anything to solve the problem? Realizing it's useless won't necessarily make you less apprehensive, but at least it will tell you that you're tripping over yourself.

Answer yourself, what exactly are you dejected about? We're all dejected about the score we currently have because it's not up to par with what we need. Ok, but how does being dejected do anything to solve the problem? Again, this tells you that you're worried about the wrong thing.

Be extremely honest with yourself. Ruthlessly confront your issues before you risk going through halfheartedly (and miserably) the remainder of your studies. That means noticing all the emotional baggage you attach to a set of 101 questions that are not only irrelevant and unnecessary, but completely detrimental to your success. I recommend writing out your thoughts and feelings so that way they don't have the luxury of being vague and obscure.

These issues will creep and slow you down when you're in the thick of the fight, but if they're identified for what they are at the outset, then your path will be made easier as you divert your attention to what needs to be done: good old-fashioned learning (and in a field of your preference, no less!). What's so depressing about that?

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aidoe339
Wednesday, Dec 28 2016

Wow 90%! Can I ask what your score was?

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Wednesday, Aug 23 2017

aidoe339

LG and RC Skipping Strategies

What are good skipping strategies for questions on Logic Games and Reading Comp? Unlike LR, LG and RC sections require a certain investment in either a game or a passage so there's a kind of loss when you skip and come back at the very end to address those questions which are entirely dependent on a game or passage.

Also, is there a cutoff time or something else that goes into your determination for skipping on LG and RC?

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aidoe339
Wednesday, Mar 22 2017

No offense to anyone, but being accepted to a tier 8 is almost equivalent to not having to take the LSAT anyway.

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Tuesday, Aug 22 2017

aidoe339

Updating School Applications

So I heard some schools prefer applicants to apply once as opposed to updating their application with a second LSAT score for reconsideration of admission. Does anybody know anything about this? I'm considering this for my September/ December prospects as I decide whether to apply to schools after receiving my September score, and potentially updating my application with a December score, or just taking September and December and waiting until my December score to apply.

Also, it seems to me that updating your application with a score is more appropriate for scholarship as opposed to admission prospects. Is this the case?

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Monday, Nov 21 2016

aidoe339

Back to the basics

Does "A is always the Best Student" mean "A --> Best Student" or "Best Student --> A" ?

Does "A is the only Best Student" mean "A --> Best Student" or "Best Student --> A" ?

I get a bit confused when "is" or other referents are used in conjunction with Group 1 - 4 logical indicators. I know the convention is to follow the rule of the indicators, but when I think about what the sentence is saying instead of just blindly following the rule, I'm not always so sure.

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Tuesday, Mar 21 2017

aidoe339

Testing Rules

Are we allowed to have a water bottle, or a drink within a bottle, outside of our plastic bags and within arms reach during the duration of the test? In other words, are we permitted to drink our beverage in the middle of a section or can we only drink during the brief intervals between sections and during the 15 minute break?

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Wednesday, Jan 20 2016

aidoe339

Transcript Addendum

This is relatively minor but for transcripts, if your semester hours are relatively low (98) should you write an addendum? I took a lot of AP classes in HS to graduate early and I don't know if that would be reflected on my application.

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aidoe339
Saturday, Aug 19 2017

Bruce is the Procter we need but don't deserve.

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aidoe339
Thursday, May 18 2017

@ Thanks for the suggestions. It's a small firm so there's no chance of being moved to a less stressful position. I still think the issue hinges not on debt but on not having a strong reference for future legal prospects. A law firm position that's occupied a year and six months of my life will warrant a reference in the eyes of all my future employers, and I just don't know if it would be worth listing on my resume at all if I get anything less than a good review. That's my real fear.

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aidoe339
Wednesday, Jul 18 2018

What GW Law incident?

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aidoe339
Thursday, May 18 2017

I think I'll take the plunge. Quit, rely solely on my savings, and study my life out for the next few months. Hopefully, I'll find a job as soon as I finish with the test. May not have much saved up for law school, but I'll rely solely on my score for financial aid. This is such a huge risk, but I'm willing to take it to get into a top school, even if that means I'll be in debt.

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aidoe339
Thursday, May 18 2017

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate it

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Wednesday, Jul 18 2018

aidoe339

GRE Instead?

What are the prospects of getting admitted to a law school that accepts the GRE? Is it really likely someone with only a GRE score can get admitted?

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aidoe339
Wednesday, May 17 2017

Thank you both for your responses. But the thing is I'm not concerned about getting a letter of recommendation for law school so much as I'm concerned about getting a reference for future jobs.

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Wednesday, May 17 2017

aidoe339

What to do

Got nowhere to go. Need advice. I'm preparing for the Sept/ Dec 2017 test while working a demanding full time position at a law firm. This has put a significant strain on me to the point that I'm doing poorly in both despite all the incredible time and effort I've expended. I'm doing so poorly that I'm at risk of losing my job. I was told I have a month to see if things improve otherwise I'd be let go. I'm certain that my studying is the reason my performance has significantly declined. I honestly don't want to continue working knowing how important the test is but the only thing keeping me is the fact that I know I won't be able to get a reference for when it comes time to find a summer internship during law school. Most probably I'd be better off not listing this position, which now amounts to about a year and six months worth of experience, on my resume at all. If I were to stay and work, I know I could salvage myself so that I can make up for the drop in performance since I began studying. I just don't know if that's worth getting a low test score. I've already put off applying to law school for a while now and given what I've been through, which I don't want to get into, I couldn't wait another cycle even if I wanted to. I can see definite improvement with my score in the coming 4 months but it will really demand my fullest attention. Is it worth sacrificing my position now and putting myself at a significant disadvantage in finding another job so that I can devote myself to the test?

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aidoe339
Tuesday, May 16 2017

I call it stockholm syndrome.

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aidoe339
Tuesday, May 16 2017

Sorry to resurface this post from 5 months ago, but I was wondering if you could comment on the clock situation of the room.

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Saturday, Jan 16 2016

aidoe339

Learning from mistakes

I've found that I'm very stubborn when I take a PT and BR questions. But the problem is when I review the question and listen to the explanation, even if I understand my mistake, I can never seem to really change my thought pattern when I revisit the question weeks later. The explanation just doesn't seem to be sufficient enough to override my own false intuition. Even if I end up getting the question correct, I can't help but notice that it's more because I remembered the right answer than understood exactly why. I could recall the reason used to justify it as the right answer but I can't say with all honesty that it's entirely convincing or that I would be able to spot it in future questions. I think this is a product of having studied for so long for this test where I've internalized certain ways of thinking that I just can't seem to change. I wouldn't say my fundamentals are lacking because I've been through this course, and others before, many many times. Instead, I think my problem is that I'm unable to extract patterns because I get so bogged down on the individual question that I resort to the same thought pattern that leads to pick the same exact answer choice.

Any advice on how I can actually learn from my mistake? How are people able to effectively understand a problem, abstract it, and apply it to others to improve? I think this is what's always held me down and is the key to any sort of improvement on LR.

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Friday, Apr 15 2016

aidoe339

Submitting applications before score

Is it possible to submit an application to a school before you even have an LSAT score on file? Since some schools review applications on a rolling basis, and since it's to your advantage to apply as early as possible, would an admissions committee review your application sooner than others if it was submitted earlier and then updated with an LSAT score several weeks later?

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Tuesday, Jun 12 2018

aidoe339

Two Cancellations?

How bad is it to have two canceled LSAT takes in a row? I've got one for Sept 2017 and as I prepare for my next take in July 2018, I can't help but think that may be a possibility (no matter how prepared I may think I am). For the sake of avoiding that mid-test fear and speculation, what should I do?

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aidoe339
Wednesday, Jan 11 2017

@ go through my PT recordings and point out my mistakes

Ah! I hate to be so sniveling amidst all the deserved praise you're getting but please do disclose what was pointed out if you think the insight might be beneficial to the rest of us. Thank you, your excellency!

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aidoe339
Tuesday, Jan 10 2017

Congratulations! You're an inspiration to so many here. If I may ask, how long did it take you to go through the 1-35 LG with the foolproof method?

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Wednesday, Feb 10 2016

aidoe339

How to be efficient with study time?

I'm caught in this trap where I try to spend as many possible hours as I can reviewing and studying PTs but I think not having a definite boundary has been detrimental. I'm more likely to be fatigued and the quality of my studying drops since I spread my time out so generally. I think I could focus a lot more by dedicating some amount of time to coordinate myself, but I don't know what would be enough. Maybe I think that 8 hours is necessary for example but it turns out I could do everything in 4 or 5. I know this is different from person to person, but I'd like to hear different kinds of approaches. Is there something you've found that works for you?

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aidoe339
Friday, Mar 10 2017

@ said:

@ said:

I don't go out anymore so I don't talk to people much and maybe this will help me communicate my difficulties better.

I definitely found having the interaction element key to improving on LSAT. Prior to that, I had started feeling lost on how to improve as well and didn't know where to go. So having someone work on stimulus with me and point out exactly where I was going wrong and based on that create a step by step learning process that was tailored to me was extremely useful.

I really hope this helps you too. I think self learning is essential to success on LSAT but if at a certain point one finds that they no longer know what to improve on or how to do it anymore, I think the key is to ask for help. : ) It's just that sometimes it takes an understanding of what someone does to find the right answer. It's hard to know what exactly someone's weakness is without spending that time with them and seeing how they do things.

Mind sharing some of those insights? I'm sure many could benefit from the advice!

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aidoe339
Thursday, Aug 10 2017

$400 just for resumes doesn't sound too great. I wouldn't think resume's are that big of a deal.

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Wednesday, Jan 06 2016

aidoe339

Multiple LSATs

I've asked so many people and have always gotten responses that were all over the place about this. Someone please put my heart at rest and tell me whether schools in general have bias towards applicants who have multiple LSAT scores. I understand that fairly consistent improvement is good but if you could get a solid score in 1 or 2 tries, would you be better off than someone who needed 3?

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aidoe339
Thursday, Oct 05 2017

Humble brag.

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aidoe339
Monday, Apr 03 2017

Hi, Adele.

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aidoe339
Friday, Nov 03 2017

Any ideas?

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aidoe339
Thursday, Feb 02 2017

No, you know what you're talking about and I certainly appreciate you getting into the deeper philosophical stuff even if it's not necessary for the LSAT.

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aidoe339
Thursday, Feb 02 2017

@.E.D Oh God, I asked for that beatdown but it was worth it. Interesting stuff.

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aidoe339
Thursday, Feb 02 2017

@.E.D Sounds like your first point is the same as the second. Just because in the first case the correlation is not discernible, doesn't mean there is no correlation. I always thought that by definition, causation necessarily implies correlation. A correlation is just a mutual relationship among independent variables, and causation gives order to that relationship.

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Thursday, Nov 02 2017

aidoe339

Copy of Test

I understand that those who took the September LSAT got a copy of the exam while those who canceled their scores, despite taking the exam, do not get a copy. Is this a policy with LSAC that’s worth questioning or should I just not even bother?

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aidoe339
Wednesday, May 02 2018

How clean is my room? Ask your mom.

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aidoe339
Thursday, Feb 02 2017

Man, the world really doesn't want me to do well on the LSAT :(

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aidoe339
Sunday, Oct 01 2017

Just think of how you could’ve blithely gone through life thinking you’re the shit only to be wrong. To me, that’s enough to make me appreciate the test because otherwise I’d be in a worse position, regardless of how much better I would’ve felt about myself. Besides, the LSAT is just one of many challenges you’ll have to overcome, and nobody said improving yourself is an easy task. Just realize plenty of people struggle and have to overcome just as much so don’t make things too personal and just focus on the work.

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