Hey Everyone,

I just graduated from University (April 2014) and am planning to write the LSAT September 2014. However, I will not be entering law school until September 2015 (assuming I get accepted). So my question is, I would like to maximize my experience throughout my year off, and would like to hear some suggestions of viable experience options. I will certainly be looking for a full-time/part-time job in order to make some money before entering school for another 3 years, but is there a particular type of job I should look for that would aid me in not only getting accepted to law school, but also potentially aiding my career down the line. Also, is there any places I could volunteer to get some extra experience? I understand it is hard to get experience without having a law degree and what not, but I am looking for some minor things I could do, to give me that extra boost.

Thanks in advance.

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-65-section-4-question-23/

This question has had me stumped for like 3 days! I have done everything I can to wrap my head around it, but it just doesn't seem to want to click for me. So, is there anyone out there that may be able to help me understand why the correct answer is correct, I basically ruled all the answers out and guessed (E), but can see why its wrong after the fact. It is a most strongly supported question.

The question begins with background: Dogs are descendants of domesticated wolves.

Premise: It has recently been found that some dogs are much more closely related genetically to wolves than to most other breeds of dogs.

Conclusion: This shows that some dogs are descended from wolves that were domesticated much more recently than others.

(B) starts off telling us that we are talking about the dogs more closely related to wolves than to other dogs (so thats good), it finishes with the former breed (the ones we need) has more recent undomesticated ancestors than the latter breed has.

For simplicity, lets call the dogs that are from wolves domesticated more recently, Group A. The other dogs = Group B

I ruled (B) out right off the bat because of the UNDOMESTICATED. I thought that was to an inference that was to far out of scope. Next, the stem tells us that the dogs in group A come from wolves domesticated more recently than the wolves Group B is related to. But, based on this how can we infer which group has more recent undomesticated ancestors?

I don't know what I am overlooking for this not to make sense. Hopefully someone can clear this up for me. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

So, I decided that I would write a little (turned out to be long) guide on my LSAT experience. I am doing this for two reasons. First, I am not some genius nor do I even think I did that well, so I think the average person will be able to take at least something away from my experience. Second, 7sage and it's community has been there for me throughout my studies and I believe that giving back and never forgetting where you came from is an important rule to live by. So, that being said, here is what I learned from my LSAT and things that may help you for when you take it.

1) There were two things I certainly didn't want, RC upfront and experimental RC. That is because RC is my worst section, I hate it. Well guess what, that is EXACTLY what I got. I always added LG/LR as a section 5 part PT's and I will always do my added section first. Thus, I don't think I EVER did RC as my first section.

Lesson #1: If you are thinking that there is something you DON'T want, it's best to prepare for it.

2) My experience for LG can be found in this post:

http://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/1427/i-just-had-my-worst-pt-which-is-the-actual-lsat-t_t

Lesson #2: Mastery for LG goes beyond getting a perfect score. Once you begin to improve in LG to a point where you can get perfect, it's time to move on and begin working on getting perfect WHILE moving faster. Easier games MUST be done faster in order to have adequate time for the harder/time sucking games.

3) This lesson goes mostly to LR but is applicable to RC as well. I was pretty decent at LR going in, I would average anywhere between -4/-6, with a few cases of -7/-8 on harder LR sections. I definitely wish I would have done more TIMED sections of LR. Being able to finish in 35 minutes was always a stretch for me, as well as I always had difficulty skipping questions. It wasn't until the end of studies where I started making a conscious effort to skip questions. So for LR I gained 3 lessons.

Lesson #3: If you really want to feel good about yourself and get a decent score. You need to get comfortable finishing LR in ~33 minutes (more on this later).

I found that while I was writing the test for LR, I didn't have a clue what was going on. My mind was racing so I was focusing on controlling that, I was keeping track of time, making a conscious effort not to get bogged down, focusing on just keep moving, convincing myself not to worry about that last question I just did. Point is, you have a lot on your mind. So, the lesson from this is to get to a point in LR where your like Nike and "just do it". I say this because if the process in LR is not to the point where it's automatic you are likely going to want to blow your brains out from anxiety. I am not saying this to scare you, nor am I saying this to sound like some guru. Words can't describe the feeling, I am just telling you from my takeaway I actually have NO IDEA how well it went (could've bombed it for all I know). It was a weird feeling and all I know is that if my process was similar to what it was while I was practicing then I should be okay.

Lesson #4: Get the point in LR where you "just do it", like the whole section is something your capable of doing in your sleep. You have a lot more on your mind to manage so it becomes fogged up, so you need to place yourself in autopilot.

One thing I noticed on practice test is I didn't want to take risks. I cared so much about my scores and how well I was doing, that I overlooked the amazing experience that can be gained from taking risks. Practice failure it's only a PT. What do I mean by this? I mean see which questions you should skip and develop a strategy on where the best area is to fail. By this I mean which question types are best for you to skip and around what question #. For me, I remember during a couple PT's I straight up skipped some questions and when I went back for BR I was like "damn, I wish I wouldn't have skipped that one, I could've easily gotten it". But there were some cases where I skipped and when I BR'd I was like THANK GOD I didn't waste my time on that one.

Lesson #5: Just keep moving, don't hesitate, don't contemplate. Do the questions, eliminate the wrong answers, choose the right. Be strategic and PRACTICE figuring out which questions are best to skip.

So that's it for me. The rest of my learning experience is no different from everything you've already heard. Do PT's, add a section, do a couple at the time of the test. USE THE PROCTOR app. Anyways, good luck to everyone, I hope that at least one person can take at least something away from this.

Hey everyone,

If you're anything like I was, when you're studying and you get frustrated, you might ask yourself... What's the point of this stupid test anyways?

Well.. being in my second week of 1L right now, I feel compelled to come back to these forums and tell you. Please keep in mind as you read this, these are just my opinions, I am sure there are others.

1. Reading Comprehension:

There are two key reasons why RC is so important. First, I am only in my second week and I have probably read about 500+ pages of mandatory readings, and much more supplementary readings to try and get a better understanding of some concepts. So, the point is if you want any chance of keeping up with the work load, you must be able to read AND retain at least somewhat quickly. Second, most of my readings have been cases that involve reading what some judge (or more) had to say about a case. This includes:

What they see the issue as (legal issue)

What they think should be the resolution

Why and how they came to this resolution

You are essentially reading a judges thoughts splattered on a page. It is up to you to sift through it to find the important stuff. Sometimes judges write clear and its not so difficult to follow. However, they are experts in a complex industry, which means their vocabulary can be intense at times (especially when you don't have a good grasp on this new language or what the lingo is)

2. Logical Reasoning

I want to move to LR now because it overlaps with what I was going to say with the rest of RC. Like I was saying you are reading these dense complex passages. Why do you need LR?... because the entire point of you reading these cases and judgments is to figure out what the main point is (ratio decidendi). But, it doesn't stop there... you also need the premises the judge made to get to that conclusion! And the rest is just filler or side notes or some random babbling that might interesting to read but doesn't really matter to what you need for class.

So now you've read (quickly)... got the main point.. got the judges reasoning... you're all set right? --- NO!

Now you are going to go to class and have a professor ask you a ton of questions. Sometimes they might ask you to just simply state something that has happened or was said. But, other times they might ask your opinion. Well how can you give that if you aren't ARMED with LSAT skills? By identifying what flaws may have been made or why an argument was strong or weak, you are now capable of telling the prof what your opinion is.

See.. it all kind of starts to make sense? Sort of?...

3. Logic Games.

Unfortunately I have nothing for these. I guess they are just some section they included to add an element of "fun" to the test. I don't know.

Key point is, YES there is absolutely some overarching goal of the LSAT! I don't know if I believe that a higher score necessarily means better student (obviously higher score might correlate to more work which might mean stronger student). But, I can definitely say that there is a reason the LSAT is important beyond being a measure of determining who should be accepted at a school. It prepares you for the workload (at least in some sense) that you will be faced with if you are accepted! You will need to put in the hours, just like the LSAT... from Day 1! You will need to read long boring passages and see what a judge is thinking, why they are thinking, and what the heck the point is of even reading what they think!

Look at the LSAT as preliminary training for what you about to embark on! Because as a "fresh" 1L student, I can say it definitely doesn't get easier! It's all part of the plan! So train hard, worry less, and good luck all!

So, I came across this comic today and thought it would be worth sharing! It's certainly an interesting approach to trying to understand "lawgic" and the different types of flaws. Let me know what you think!

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/9

I apologize in advance if a question similar to this has been posted before.

I am looking for advice in regards to how to properly use the prep tests I have available. The issue is that I am already registered to write on June 9th, however, as of right now it looks like I may be having to rewrite in September. Obviously I would prefer not to rewrite in September, but this is my first time taking the test so I just need to have a backup plan incase June doesn't go as planned. So, my question is how should I use my prep test if I do need to rewrite in September. I have every test available to me (purchased all the books), but a lot of the drills I did came from PT 1-38, and I have used the tests 52-61, as well as 62, 63, 64. This leaves me with 65-71 before the June test, but if I use them all for the June test I will not have any "new" test to use for the September test. So, should I set aside a few, maybe 2-4 PT's, just incase I do need to rewrite? Or should I go ahead and use them before the June test? If I do use them for the June test, then what should I use/do to prepare for the September test?

Thank you in advance for the assistance, and I look forward to hearing all your responses.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to gain some insight on how others are tracking their progress. I currently use a pretty old school method, simply pen and paper (agenda) to keep track of what my goals are to get done each day, what I actually end up completing, how many hours I put in, and additional comments for notes or reminders.

What do you guys use to keep track of your studying? I know there are LSAT analytics or other excel based methods for PT tracking, but what about for those who aren't at the PT stage and would like to keep track of how many hours they spent drilling per week with notes maybe explaining why 1 session was longer than another. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else does.

PS: if anyone has a great online/excel based method for this type of tracking, would you be willing to share it?

Thanks,

Christian

So I have a subscription to Scientific American MIND and this months edition had a 4 page write all about burnout. Although it was mostly pertaining to the workplace, I found much of the article pertained to burnout in general and would applicable to the LSAT, so I figured I'd share.

The articles begins by outlining what burnout is and how it comes about. Burnout typically comes as a result of overextending one self. The most familiar reason for burnout is exhaustion from working too hard with insufficient rest. This clearly isn't some secret, but as someone who has studied for the LSAT, I think its safe to say we often underestimate the need for rest and overlook how beneficial it can be to our studies.

The article goes on to say that the three main components of burnout are: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. Experts say that even exhibiting features of one area is a risk factor and that the three factors tend to be related. What typically contributes to burnout is unrealistic expectations and feeling a lack of control over your work. However, the article also notes that there is not just one recipe for burnout.

What I found particularly interesting was, "The quantity of work is important, but he real trouble arises from an employee's perception of his or her performance". This statement directly ties back to how setting unrealistic expectations can lead to burnout. I found this area to most relevant to the LSAT because I know there were times where I thought I did really well on a test, only to find out after scoring it I bombed it. Typically what followed were doubts about the entire process, maybe even a little anger and resentment towards the LSAC and there were even times where I felt like giving up.

So what does the article say helps to prevent or reduce burnout?

SOCIAL EXCHANGES, recovery periods, and a sense of community (i.e: 7sage!)

and the more obvious answer of course.... getting a sufficient amount of exercise, sleep, and eating healthy.

I think we often forget about how important it is, for whatever reason, that we actually take a step a way from our work and take care of ourselves. There are times in our lives, such as final exam season and studying for the LSAT, where our lives get hectic. But, that does not mean we must destroy our body and mind just to meet our goals. Sure, if you need to cram for an exam or be a hermit for a week or two thats fine. But the LSAT is a long-term test, that typically takes at least 3 or more months of studying before actually taking the test. It is important that when you study you take the time to take of yourself. Not only will you feel better, but it will likely improve your performance on the test as well. I know when I studied I considered not looking at the LSAT for an entire day as being lazy and uncommitted. I was SO WRONG. If I wasn't in LSAT mode 24/7 I felt guilty and useless. This was wrong and I probably could've benefited from actually going to see my friends or taking a day off here and there. While I did exercise and eat relatively healthy, I was pretty anti social. Some days I felt like not studying and actually going out and seeing society for once. However, I talked myself out of it and chalked up my behaviour to no pain no gain and pushed through. DO NOT DO THIS.

A highlight in the article for me was:

"People who face burnout DO NOT lack some essential quality, such as work ethic, resilience, or self-confidence"

"Burnout represents the erosions of these qualities"

This is exactly how I felt. That taking time to recover was a sign I lacked those qualities.

Moral of the story: Take the time to take care of yourself. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, and for heavens sake BE SOCIAL. This is not an excuse to procrastinate or go out and party because you deserve it. But you can take a day off to go and hang with friends during the day or at night, it won't kill you and it certainly shouldn't make or break your LSAT score.

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-19-section-4-question-10/

I am confused as to why A is the answer choice and not B.

According to Kaplan, they say if A is correct then it'll be a rare candidate who takes a chance on the authors strategy, as the media may only air the opposition and disregard the later support. They further that by stating that media is a huge part of national campaigning. But wouldn't that be an outside assumption we would make. And aren't we only suppose to take what is given within the stimulus to support our answers? Because that is why I disregarded A as an answer, thinking who cares what the media covers because it doesn't limit the SPEECH, the speech is still given and still heard from those attending and such. Where as if you choose B if many people do not find politicians in the first place then that would make practically any strategy they choose ineffective, no one trust them... Can someone help me where my thinking has gone wrong here?

This might be a dumb question, but if you are blind reviewing do you time yourself when you are redoing questions? Also, are you erasing/making a copy of questions so that your previous work is not there? Finally, do you blind review entire tests sometimes? or are you are only to BR the questions you marked, got wrong,etc?

Thank you in advance for the assistance :D

Hey everyone,

So today I wrote PT 65, and I was a writing the second LR section, I thought to myself that it seemed considerably harder than usual. I was just wondering if anyone else thought that? The first LR for PT 65 I went -6, but the second section nailed me and I went -11. I felt like a lot of the answers were very difficult to read and understand (more than usual) and that a lot of the answers were very difficult to distinguish between two answer choices. Clearly I need to work on my LR, but looking to see if it was just a fluke and that it was reasonably more difficult or if I really do need to improve THAT much more.

Hey everyone,

So like some others here on the forums, I am scheduled to write the LSAT September 27th. I had a plan for this week and next to write PT's 67-72. So far this week I have been successful, I have done 5 part PT's at the exact same time I will write the LSAT and using the proctor app. I was planning to get at least 2 PT's in next week (final week). However, I got accepted into the MBA program, so I will now have class next week from 9am-5pm. Thus, I lost the luxury of having a wide open schedule to match the LSAT conditions. Furthermore, I don't know that I will have enough time to hammer out the last 5 tests I have within the next 9 days, at least not while giving each test a thorough review afterwards.

So I am looking for some suggestions, should I peel back the number of tests I take? Should I do as many as I can, including deep review, but rather than go sequentially, maybe work backwards that way I can get the most recent tests in indefinitely? Since I won't have the whole day to study anymore, should I write full tests at night or just do individual sections? Would it be more beneficial to take say PT 70-72 under real conditions, and use PT 68&69 as timed individual sections (which will be more realistic to do given I only have the evenings).

I don't know I got caught off guard with the MBA offer and now my whole plan kind of got messed up and am looking for some advice, any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Christian

Found this interesting blog post about a logical fallacy in the witch scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It focuses on an inductive argument form and a deductive form (more appropriate for LSAT). The deductive form shows a good example of the difference between truth and validity which is one of the 7sage lessons. Figured I'd share its a pretty fun way to learn the way LAWGIC works.

The scene can be found here:

Note: skip to 0:40 to the beginning of the argument

The break down and explanation can be found here:

http://www.mooneytheology.com/2012/09/logical-fallacies-in-monty-python-and.html

Today I came across this article regarding school rankings in general. I have always been one (maybe because I live Canada) to say that people are WAY to obsessed over school rankings. I have friends that have move up to 4 hours away just to get a business undergrad at school that ranks higher than our local University. I would always say that it is ultimately their choice, but it is not something I would consider doing. Most of the time I would always get the argument back that "it is for the experience". Sorry, but I am not interested in an experience that carries thousands of dollars of extra debt and only makes my life more stressful.

Anyways on to the point, the article states that rankings do not matter as much for basically any type of education OTHER THAN LAW! Essentially, going to a top school is a critical to at least ensuring a successful career post-grad. Give it a read. I'd love to hear what others think.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bentaylor/2014/08/14/why-law-school-rankings-matter-more-than-any-other-education-rankings/

Hey everyone,

I am scheduled to write the LSAT on September 27th. So far I have saved PT's 62-72 till the testing date drew closer. However, my question is at what point should we dig into these tests? Right now I have to use the test during the 2nd/3rd week of September. Leaving the week of the actual LSAT to a few older (maybe previously taken or partially used) PT's. This way I can get a good understanding from the newer ones. Is this the right way of going about it? I did not want to use some of the newer ones during the actual week of the real LSAT, as my thoughts are I won't be able to gain as much from them since they are so close to the actual date?

I am curious to know what others are doing/what they intend to do with the most recent PT's.

Why do the February LSAT's not become available as PT's?

After being a long time lurker on TLS forums and more of an active member on 7sage, I wanted to try and bring one of the only positive things I could find on TLS to the 7sage forums. Although TLS is typically filled with a bunch egocentric individuals who likely inflate their test scores for "e-peen" status, there is one thing that I really enjoy, their LSAT Xmonth Xyear threads. I feel as if these threads are a major part of the community on their forums and wish we had something similar here. Some of their posts go on for over 300 pages of discussion. This not only allows the students to discuss their progress, but also provides an opportunity (assuming they are honest and willing to release their scores/breakdown) to get some honest feedback on how to improve. So this is my attempt to bring together the 7sage community.

Test date: Saturday December 6, 2014 at 8:30am

Materials:

1) 7sage (Obviously)

2) The LSAT Trainer (http://www.amazon.com/The-LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412601262&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+trainer)

3) Cambridge drilling sets (http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/)

7sage is by far the best method for self-study. However, there are benefits to be gained from outsider material to supplement & further improve the lessons taught by 7sage.

How to drill:

Logic Games (Credit: taken from Dirigo's TLS post)

Make multiple copies of each game.

Do a game.

Watch the 7 Sage Explanation for that game.

Get a fresh copy of that game and do it again, incorporating what you learned.

Watch the video again if needed.

Move onto the next game and repeat the process.

Do the games you did again the next day and see if you remember how to set them up and solve them. If not, watch the video again.

It's a tedious process, but you're guaranteed to improve by drilling like this. Similar inferences can be made across all games and you are able to make them correctly and quickly the more experience you get.

Logical reasoning

Carve out a problem set (i.e: by type, # of questions, or individual sections)

Set timing according to # of questions/types

Answer all questions under timed conditions

BEFORE checking the answers, BR each question- must be able to provide full explanation for each wrong AC and why correct AC is correct

Check answers

Review any questions that you got wrong or circled as difficult/time consuming

Note: This post is a work in progress, if there is anything I overlooked or you would like me to add feel free to post it in the thread or inbox me.

I apologize in advance for the long discussion post. I am sure there are others in my shoes, so I'd like to ask the community for some assistance on my progress thus far and some guidance going forward. My story is that I began studying last summer before my last year of university, but have yet to write an LSAT (Did not sign up for Oct 2013 as planned). I studied hard last summer, but once school began in September I fell off the wagon and dramatically reduced my studying. I have began to study hard again for the June 2014 test and have noticed my progress over the last 2 weeks has slightly improved. I don't know how to properly diagnose myself to determine the best way to improve.

My biggest weakness is LR, I can typically complete a section in 35 minutes (though some sections I cannot) and achieve anywhere between a -6/7 - /12/13. Two things I have noticed looking back at my test and blind reviewing them. First, there does not seem to be ONE particular question type that chokes me up, rather all the question types seem to be in the mix of my wrong answer. So, how do I actually determine which areas I need improvement on most, since it seems to really only be the most difficult questions for all types that choke me up. Second, when I go to check my answers against the correct answer, I have a hard time firmly reviewing because once I see the answer it seems so obvious (i.e: I either make a really dumb mistake a lot, or I fell for the trap).

My second weakest area is RC, I cannot complete a section in the 35 minutes and any hard passages take me over 10 minutes and include me getting completely demolished on the questions. I have noticed a slight increase in my ability to read for reasoning structure, but I cannot figure out a way to increase my ability to answer questions while at the same time learning to reduce my time. I understand that drill drill drill is what needs to happen for this kind of improvement, so my question is how did you drill RC and what exactly did you do that made you see the improvements you desired?

Lastly, my LG is actually pretty good. I can score anywhere between -3/4- -0. BUT the biggest thing for me in this section is my timing. Games that should take me 5 mins end up taking me 8/9 mins. So, any of the more challenging games just completely throw my timing off, allowing me to only finish 3 games in 35 minutes. My question here is how can I improve my time without hurting my accuracy. Any time that I have tried to improve my time I notice I make sloppy mistakes and rush rather than actually trying to think things through (which inevitably takes more time).

Again sorry for the long post, but I am really desperate to properly diagnose my progress. As of right now I don't know what to do. Obviously drilling and practicing is necessary to improve, but I am curious to know what others think and suggest. Also, given my progress so far what should I expect for test date realistically. My last actual fully timed PT was 153, and I have scored around 163/164 but went over the time limit.

Thanks to all who assist me and provide input! I look forward to hearing all of the responses.