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alexhgantt28
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Admissions · What are my chances? Non-Traditional App
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alexhgantt28
Wednesday, Jan 31 2024

If you want NYU with your GPA, I would try to shoot for their median, which is 172. If you can get a 174+ it would be optimal since you'll be at/above their 75th. Once you get your score, spend lots of time on your supplemental essays and apply through ED since scholarship money is not a factor. Just getting a 170 in this case may not be enough to move the needle on your app.

It is also worth noting that people get in below both medians, but it is very unlikely and I would not bank on it. I would do everything you can to give yourself the best shot with your LSAT.

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General · Q: I've taken the exam 4x. I have one more left this year (2 more lifetime).
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Apr 25 2024

I would wait and take in August, and apply again early for the 2025. The reason for this is two fold:

The LSAT is stressful and hard, but it also determines what law school you will get in to which has a major effect on your career outcomes. I understand the desire to change career paths, but rushing the process might leave you in another undesirable situation at a law school that isn't really your first choice.

Scholarship money. Retaking the LSAT again, getting a better score, and applying early in the cycle sets yourself up for the best possible scholarship opportunities. You mentioned this was a concern of yours, and the later the cycle goes, the less money is available for students. Waiting another year could save you a lot of money (think 100-200k+ debt), even though it feels a bit counterintuitive to delay your career change.

In short, your dream will come. Law schools are here to stay, make sure you don't sell yourself short and regret it. I did the same thing as you did -- working two jobs and took a gap year, bumped my LSAT up and applied. It is worth it to wait and make sure you get in to the school you really want to attend -- at a discount too.

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Admissions · How does a light course load affect admissions?
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Jan 25 2024

I don't think admission committees would care at all about this, especially if you're doing volunteer work.

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General · 158 (Non Diagnostic) -> 175+ in ~4 months
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Jan 25 2024

The process should be the exact opposite from what you're proposing. Since you have determined your goal score is 175, you should study hard until you PT around that range, then sign up for the official test. I see many people try to give an arbitrary timeline when in reality no one knows how long it will take for you or anyone else. Many people never reach 175, and others do after only a few months.

With that being said, I have already gone through the admissions process and can say that if you manage to score 175, there are a lot of schools that will bite and offer you a lot of scholarship money to attend. Schools like WashU would give you a full ride with a redacted GPA, or if you're aiming for the T14, UMich is super low GPA friendly as long as you have a compelling reason for it and a high LSAT.

Take a look at LSD Law if you want more info on this.

Also, do what the others above me said and increase your GPA. Lock in and get a 4.0 this semester.

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General · How to get my mojo back? Help!
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alexhgantt28
Tuesday, Jan 23 2024

Do some untimed work! Get your groove back and then go into timed stuff again.

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Admissions · Accidentally applied early decision
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alexhgantt28
Friday, Dec 22 2023

@ said:

So because I did early decision its automatically taken that I accepted the admission. I applied to Harvard November 10

Your choices are:

1: Go to Columbia because you signed the contract.

2: Request out of the binding contract, which will most likely remove your offer of admission, and hope you get into Harvard.

Columbia is an amazing school and you will get the majority of the same career outcomes as Harvard by attending, I wouldn't risk it personally.

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General · How is the LSAT without LG affecting the admission cycle?
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alexhgantt28
Friday, Feb 16 2024

@ said:

How would 170 go down if it is a curved exam? I am trying to understand. With LR and RC more people are likely to get more questions wrong, but if it is curved there should not be any issue with getting 170+. I am trying to understand this.

The "curve" is based on section difficulty. It starts at -7 for a 170, and moves up or down depending on how hard or easy each section is. A hard RC section might move the curve to a -8, but an easy LR section can balance it out back to a -7.

Now take for example a super common variant of a 175 scorer who scores -2 on LR, -3 on RC, and -0 on LG on normal difficulty sections (ones that do not move the test curve). Subbing out the LG section for an LR section would most likely make them miss 1-2 more questions, making him go from -5 to -7 overall... but it wouldn't change the curve because the section itself is normal difficulty.

This gets even worse when a hard LG section is subbed out for a hard RC section. A typical 175 scorer might miss -1 on that LG but miss -4 to -6 on RC, so without that LG section, they are no longer in 175 contention.

In sum, getting -0 on LG will always be infinitely easier than -0 on LR and RC, despite each section being the same difficulty curve wise. This change will help those 175+ scorers that miss a few on LG, but those are a lot more rare than the 175 scorers who are perfect on LG.

This issue is made even worse for 170 scorers who do the same on LG (-0 to -1) and worse on LR and RC. This is why I think high scorers will go down overall.

Again, this is just my thoughts, and I am curious how it will actually turn out. A big thing that we don't know about is if they will make the LR/RC sections easier overall while keeping the curve the same. If this happens, I could see 170+ scores not changing at all.

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LSAT · Help! What can I do to improve?
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alexhgantt28
Friday, Dec 15 2023

-0 LG! You're already averaging -0 to -4 so foolproofing over this next month will probably get you more consistent. I would say also to drill a lot of RC and do some untimed work to make sure you are consistent. Getting a 170 is likely if you go -0 LG/-4 LR/-3 RC.

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General · Seek advice on whether taking the LSAT in-person or remotely
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Dec 14 2023

I have had technical issues every single time I have taken the test remotely. With that being said, they should be more cleared up now since I took Sept/Oct. I still think I'd rather remote than in person because I prefer to keep everything the same from my PTs to test day, including my testing environment.

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Admissions · My undergrad didn't use a traditional grading scale
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Dec 14 2023

LSAC takes your transcripts from every undergraduate institution you attended and combines them into one GPA for you. Not quite sure how they would do it in your case but I would just send them the transcripts and see what happens through CAS.

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Admissions · Age
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alexhgantt28
Monday, Feb 12 2024

Do you have work experience and/or internships? If you're KJD with no resume building info it might be a little more difficult to get scholarships and admitted to some of the top schools. Overall, I think your GPA/LSAT matter a lot more, which you seem like you're good on.

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General · How is the LSAT without LG affecting the admission cycle?
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alexhgantt28
Monday, Feb 12 2024

In short, no one knows, LSAC says it won't change anything, but I think that scores 170+ will go down.

At the moment, LG is a freebie section for high scorers, basically a guaranteed -0 or at worst -2. The same can't be said about LR or RC, so naturally it makes sense to think that with the removal of the easiest test section, high scorers will decrease.

There is, however, a lot of stuff we don't know yet, like if they will change the questions for LR or RC to make them easier/harder. Another thing worth noting is that some of the people you are applying to law school with will have LSAT scores from the past two years and June, so you'll be sending in apps with a lot of LG test takers.

Guess we will have to find out in August. Until then, if LG is your best section, take the June LSAT, and if its not, then wait till August.

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General · Should I take April LSAT?
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alexhgantt28
Monday, Feb 12 2024

Are you still in the low 150s now? A 25 point score increase in 2 months is not impossible, but super hard and shouldn't be counted on. The general advice I see is to keep studying and taking PTs until your last few PTs are the average of what you want on the real test, and only after this to sign up for a real LSAT. June seems a lot more possible (still difficult), but shoot for April because you might be able to make it happen.

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General · Has anyone ever been denied after filing a LSAC Test Day Complaint?
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alexhgantt28
Monday, Feb 12 2024

You won't get denied. People get retakes for far less than this.

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Admissions · How accurate is this assessment regarding URM avg LSAT and GPA?
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alexhgantt28
Tuesday, Jan 09 2024

@ said:

Due to the Supreme Court's decision this summer, this is no longer accurate at all. Colleges no longer have access to race demographics before admitting a student, and we will not know how that will play out differently for URMs until this upcoming cycle is completed.

There are still many ways for admissions to see URM status for applicants without their race demographics. Supplemental materials such as a personal statement, addendums, or school specific essays (Harvard Statement of Perspective, amongst others) can reflect this. As for law school decisions, not sure how the Supreme Court decision will actually change the cycle, but my guess is not by much.

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Admissions · How accurate is this assessment regarding URM avg LSAT and GPA?
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alexhgantt28
Tuesday, Jan 09 2024

@ said:

Dear all,

I came across this article on avg URM LSAT and GPA by school but it is from 2017 and was wondering how accurate it is. I have not been able to find anything more recent:

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/do-underrepresented-minority-urm-applicants-have-a-law-school-admissions-advantage/

It basically goes through a dataset of admitted/rejected applicants and shows which schools have lower LSAT/GPA medians for URMs versus their overall medians.

Thanks,

Not sure how accurate it is now, but without a doubt URM applicants still receive a boost in admissions, especially at the T14 level.

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General · How did you break into the 170's from high 160's?
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Feb 08 2024

I was PTing around 174 and scored a 171 official a few months ago. I broke 170 by doing a few things:

LG -0 with extra time left to check answers. Being completely honest, this section is a guaranteed -0 for most 170+ scorers, and you should treat it as such too. Getting there is not hard, especially if you're already mid 160s, and with the amount of variance in RC and LR difficulty, your LG needs to be as consistent as possible. Foolproof until you're finishing LG sections with 5 minutes to spare, because on the real test it is a lot easier to use up more time due to nerves. I finished my LG on my actual LSAT with 10 seconds left, and I normally finish with 5-6 minutes left on PTs.

LR -0 on first 15ish questions. I did speed drills until I went 15/15 in 15 minutes. Curve breakers are hard, and you're allowed to miss a few, but the easy questions should be guaranteed points. Work on this by setting up problem sets with the first 10-15 questions and do a q per min.

RC Passage read through in 3 min. I got my RC readthrough down to 3 min, and this allowed me a lot more time to answer questions (and get more of the hard ones right). This honestly was the biggest grind, so I'd recommend just spamming a bunch of RC passages and getting used to the timing.

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General · 160+ Scorers
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Feb 08 2024

I'd focus mainly on getting that RC down to as low as you can and your LR to be more consistent around a -5. Your LG is already solid but getting it to a consistent -0 wouldn't hurt either. Your suggestion is spot on I think. I'd split your days between RC and LR and do a PT every week to see how much you're improving.

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Admissions · How does the GPA conversion work on LSAC?
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alexhgantt28
Wednesday, Dec 06 2023

If you had no A+ courses in undergrad then your gpa will be the same as listed at your undergrad institution unless you took some other courses at a community college or another institution. They will combine all undergrad institutions into one GPA basically.

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General · Current situation as a re-applicant
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alexhgantt28
Tuesday, Dec 05 2023

If this new recommender could add a different perspective, then yes absolutely its worth it. If you already have 3 solid recs with at least 2 being from your undergrad institution, you're probably fine on not getting another one, especially since you're set on applying soon.

You need to have a reason for reapplying. Even something like "I kept working to gain professional experience in the field I want to practice law in and improved my LSAT score" will do. Some schools don't favor reapplicants and some schools do... not too sure on the schools you listed though.

I don't think they care. You improved your LSAT score, that's really all that they care about anyways.

You are definitely overthinking. Change your PS a bit and give a reason for reapplying and you will give yourself a good shot at the schools you listed.

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General · Help! Post Application Gap Year
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Jan 04 2024

This is commonly referred to as "R&R" (retake and reapply) and it is not frowned upon at all. You can frame it in a way that basically says "I wanted to take an extra year to gain more experience in the field of law I want to pursue." I would change your application materials some, but worry about that after you score better on your LSAT. Wait until you get your decisions, decide if you want that extra year, and then let the schools know you won't be accepting their offers now and go grind that LSAT.

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General · How is the 7sage Preptest Scaled?
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alexhgantt28
Thursday, Jan 04 2024

They use the same scaling that the test did when it was administered as an actual LSAT. The curve is based on how hard the sections are and it is curved by the test makers and not 7sage, 7sage just uses the curve already made. The standard curve is -7 for a 170, but PT 71 is more difficult than usual so requires less questions correct to get the same score. This might be what you're experiencing. Give some credit to yourself, you're seeing improvement!

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LSAT · Frustrated with Plateau
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alexhgantt28
Monday, Dec 04 2023

@ said:

In August, I hit 159 in one of my preptests. I took the LSAT and unfortunately bombed it, scoring a 153 or so. My goal has been a 170+. After a break from studying, I resumed studying around mid to late October to prepare for the January LSAT. Since then, I've been averaging a 157-159. My BR also remains between 163-164. The highest BR I've ever gotten was a 168. I'm starting to feel that day was just luck. I panicked last week and shifted my exam date to February. As you can imagine, this feels pretty heartbreaking. I took a PT today, scored a 158. BR 163. I've been consistent and thorough. I spend 4-6 hours of my day studying. Sometimes more. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm starting to fear that maybe this is my limit. While I don't want to accept that, it may just be a hard pill to swallow. It's pathetic but I can't help but cry right now.

To break down my progress, I average a -5 to -2 in LG, -9 in LR, and a -10 in RC.

My goal this December is to bring LG down to a -0 which I think I am on track doing and LR to a -5. I fluctuate a bit too much with RC to get comfortable but I will try to work on my time when reading passages more as I noticed time is a my limiting factor there.

Most of my frustration lies with LR. I would appreciate any tips. I've read various forums and have incorporated these tips into my regime but after today I don't know anymore.

First, take a few days off. If you're taking PTs frustrated you won't see much if any improvement.

Getting LG to -0 is definitely a start, but in order to break 170 you can't really be missing -10 on RC, so I would focus a lot of effort in getting this down. It seems like you know you fluctuate too much, but you need to ask yourself how you fluctuate so you can fix it. Is your inconsistency a time issue or an understanding issue? You need to develop a strategy that works for you, if other people's RC advice doesn't help, don't use it! There is a ton of (in my opinion) subpar RC advice on the internet (highlighting/reading questions before passage.. etc) that I see many people try to implement and see no improvement and then subsequently get frustrated with themselves instead of the strategies they are using.

I would:

Develop a target time per passage (ex. 3:30)

Work on your low res summaries if this helps you understand the passage better.

Practice getting questions correctly without having to reference the passage each time... just general speed.

All of this should put you at around 8:30 per passage +- some for the easier or harder passages, but try to remain as consistent with this as you can.

Lastly, split your LR and RC into separate days and do LG every day until -0. Focusing on LG and one of LR/RC at a time when you study will help decrease frustration and burnout.

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LSAT · missed the january deadline to register, should I cancel my november score or apply with it
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alexhgantt28
Friday, Dec 01 2023

@ said:

I got a 152 on the November LSAT so I wanted to cancel it and retake in January, but I just realized that I missed the January deadline so now I dont know If i should still cancel my score and just retake in february, which seems too late in the cycle? Or if i should just take my chances and apply with a 152?

Depends where you want to go to law school and if you care about scholarship money. I wouldn't cancel unless you can see yourself improving by a lot.

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Admissions · Does LSAT score have to submitted with your app?
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alexhgantt28
Friday, Dec 01 2023

I believe you can and just tell them to hold your application until the new LSAT comes in. Not sure on this though.

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Wednesday, Nov 01 2023

alexhgantt28

152 -> 171 Thanks 7Sage!

I began my LSAT journey last year and ended up deciding on a gap year after a few months of studying because I wasn't hitting close to my goal. Took a break till around May 2023 and enrolled back in 7sage with the goal of getting a 171+ by November! Thankful for this program as it was the majority of what I used over my time studying. I am enrolled in November (did it as a backup) so I will probably be retaking again just to see what happens now that the pressure is off.

Huge thanks to @RaphaelP for the help cleaning up my RC... his methodology brought me down to -3 on test day which was fortunately enough for my score. Highly recommend him as a tutor!

For those of you that have questions about the LSAT feel free to PM me or leave them here... I am a pretty active member of this discussion board and would love to answer any questions.

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