@matthewcsorrels859 Awesome response. I pretty much agreed with every single point you made. Just became a bit concerned because I was starting to see many more posts of people advising against 3-section tests on other sites. Will definitely be taking more 4-section tests before the real exam but I would agree with every point you made. Unless there are big fluctuation between scores in a 3-section PT vs a 4-section one I think 3 is just fine.

I would definitely address that. GPA addendums are for the most part ways to explain why you received bad grades. Maybe you were diagnosed with something, a family member passed away, you took time off from school, you were working a job or more, etc. I think the most important part is that you don’t make it sound like an excuse but rather own up to it while explaining why you don’t believe these grades represent your full potential for law school. “The class was hard” or “I had a bad professor” are examples of things to stay away from, in my opinion. Nonetheless I would still address this. Believe me I hate the LSAC’s way of calculating GPA. But law schools also don’t like seeing addendums that sound like excuses so I think as long as you own up to it and explain why it’s not fully representative of your potential in law school you’ll be fine!

Replying to second @shemarielgray798. It honestly depends on a lot. For example, you might be able to perfect LG and even -0 LR. But RC is a skill you build throughout your life and you might not be able to improve on by much. However, I won’t sit here and tell you to give up or not even try. If you’re willing to dedicate at least a year or more to the LSAT go for it. It won’t be easy but not impossible. Best of luck friend.

Thank you all for your input! It has all been very helpful and insightful. Thanks!

If you scored a 164 during BR then it’s definitely a time issue. You need to work on time management in order to close the gap between those two numbers. A 164 means you clearly know what you’re doing in terms of fundamentals and and how to solve the questions. But scoring a 137 timed means you must be leaving like half sections unfinished. You need to be confident in your answers! If you think you have the answer but aren’t 100% sure, pick a choice, flag it, and move on. If you have spare time at the end go back and review as many flagged questions as you can. You can’t afford to leave blank answers on this test especially if you’re looking to close such a big gap. That being said, you just started to PT so lack of time management and struggling to finish is a common issue. The more you PT and the more you drill the faster you’ll get. The knowledge is there! Now it’s just time to practice and work on timing.

Hey! A 25-point increase is quite the jump. That being said, it isn't impossible. Especially if you can perfect your LG. That's definitely the section I'd start studying first as it's the easiest to improve and will help you see the biggest score jump. You also have time on your side as roughly 9 months of studying is a great timeline to set yourself up for success. I definitely think you can achieve your goal. However, I will say that studying 4 hours daily after working a full-time job and then doing 8 hours on the weekends seems exhausting. Give yourself time to rest and relax! Consider taking weekends off or maybe at least Sundays off. If you come home from work too tired one day, consider taking the afternoon off. I'd argue that there are more benefits to letting your brain rest for some time than frying it further and ending up making no progress due to burnout. Good luck!

I would say the 5 most recent tests are a good indicator of your overall "average". There's a good chance there might be some variation over 10 PTs, for example, so really the latest five might be more accurate. However, I think it's worth considering outliers (positive or negative) as you could always have a terrible or perfect day. Your score could shift substantially compared to your "average" if this were to be the case. Nonetheless, I'd say the 5 most recent are the best estimate, in my opinion.

You'll definitely improve over time. I'm sure many of us ran out of time on our first-ever PT or had to guess on many questions in order to finish on time. I wouldn't worry. Continue doing drills and PTs and you'll be solid after enough practice.

Honestly, it doesn’t need to be explained. It can be if you want it to but I would use the PS to let the school know more about who you are and what makes you unique. Schools don’t generally care if you were pre-med or an engineering major and decided to attend law school. Most schools really only care about hard numbers. Again, you’re free to explain why you decided to attend law school when your original intent was STEM in your PS. However, it’s not really necessary and you might benefit more from discussing other unique life experiences, challenges, and adversity.

@salehk150

Thank you! I ended up going in by retaking a PT as sort of like a diagnostic test and scored a 159 (good score for me!). Higher than my real LSAT score, surprisingly. Granted it was PT69. Not sure if that’s known to be an easier PT or about average but it’s a good starting point after over 2 months of no studying at all. Again, thank you for your feedback :)

Waiting to get me score tomorrow. I either did similar to my PTs or abysmal. I’d be more comfortable if not for that RC sadly.

These questions seem easy but are actually not. These questions are usually the most difficult ones out of any given LG due to how subtle they are in appearing as easy but actually aren’t. They are, by design, time sink questions meant to waste your time and unless you consistently go -0 or close to that on LG I’d say guess and skip it. These questions often sneak in new constraints or subtly remove other constraints which is what makes them so hard. There’s some videos on this topic in the CC that do a great job at explaining it and I would highly recommend them.

https://classic.7sage.com/lesson/substitution-and-equivalence-theory/

Thank you all for your input! I think I’ll definitely do some studying tomorrow but maybe just not too much. I think wasting my time all day tomorrow would just feel unwise and add to my anxiety. Might also throw in an easy LG before the test on Friday for a last minute confidence boost. You guys all had some great points, thanks!!

Funny enough I also took PT89 as my last PT before the real exam yesterday and dropped by around 6 points from where I had been scoring. At this point, it feels like a mix of burnout plus the stress of knowing the real exam is right there. I went over what I got wrong and did my best to understand why I got it wrong and I’m just gonna try to not worry too much and prepare for the real one.

Taking the LSAT Friday as well. Planning on taking my final PT Tuesday too! Gonna do some LG maybe LR drills on Wednesday and review the PT I took on Tuesday. Not gonna do anything at all on Thursday. Maybe a single LG but absolutely nothing more until the real test.

@loganmaddoxmay299 said:

So would you recommend against pairing the 7sage curriculum with the Bibles?

I wouldn’t recommend against it, per say, I think the bibles can be a great assets. However, they should at most be supplemental in your studying and you should only stick to one or two resources to approach questions. If PowerScore is your choice for how to primarily approach questions then just be careful mixing in different approaches from other resources. Mixing too many resources can lead to a lot of confusion in my experience because it happened for me.

Hey! I found that what helped for me was to just find one resource and stick to it. If you’re using the LSAT Trainer, 7Sage, Powerscore, The Loophole in LR, etc etc you’re bound to feel lost. All of these LSAT study programs have different approaches to getting the same answers but if you start mixing things up you’ll end up more lost than you originally were. Take a step back and take it back to basics. I found that the loophole in LR complimented the 7sage curriculum very well. If you’re getting -12 and still -8 on BR you must be lacking some fundamentals. I would recommend picking a single LR section and doing it untimed. See what questions take you the longest and which questions you still get wrong without time being a factor. Identify those and then go back and watch videos or read on how to approach those questions. Every question type requires a different approach and a different strategy. Unfortunately, there is no one universal strategy that can be used to attack every single question. Also, take breaks! Burnout is real. If you recently started drilling purely LR and noticed a drop in performance either work on other sections or take time off LSAT completely. Let your brain breathe so everything you’re studying and practicing has time to process and stick. Hope that helps.

@jhaldy10325

This was a great response and I’m very appreciative of it. Some very good points!

I mean the clear answer imo would be the 7Sage CC. However, I know the $70 a month can be a good bit for a lot of people so I would also recommend Ellen Cassidy’s “The Loophole in LR” which is around $35 on Amazon and a solid asset to understand premises vs conclusions and just LR in general.

Literally same. -0 through like -3 on drills then -6 through -8 on PTs due to nerves and misreading rules etc. Following 🥲