Yes! It has absolutely been working for me. I've approved my PT score 12 points so far, and hope to get another 5-6 (I'd like to lessen the gap between my BR score and my timed PT score; they're still fairly far apart).

For me, the key was reviewing EVERY question (even those I hadn't flagged). Make sure you understand EXACTLY why answer choices should be eliminated and EXACTLY why the answer you chose is correct. Really take your time. Especially at first. I think that's key. Confirmation bias is a thing! Don't simply skim the stimulus and answer choices again. Treat the question as though it's completely new. Assess each and every word. Then, if you are truly stumped on a question, don't waste time in a mind wasteland... just mark it and be sure to watch the video explanation. If it still doesn't quite make sense to you (be honest with yourself), do as JY suggests and write the stimulus and answer choices down on an index card and review it from time to time.

It's like the Tao, each time you read it your depth of understanding will grow. Eventually, you'll be like... "ohhh duhhhh." It takes awhile to get there. Be patient with yourself. It'll pay off!

Same! Oh LSAC, get your shit together

One more thing: LR questions began to seem much more formulaic and predictable to me after spending a few weeks simply articulating out loud to myself the characteristics of a given stimulus. Without timing myself I would look over the stimulus (forget the answer choices and question stem) and dissect it completely. If it was just a bunch of facts, I would state what kind of inferences I could make (what do I know is true?). If it was bad argument, I would come up with one or two reasons why, thus identifying what might help fix it. You get it. Take as much time as you need for each one and you should begin to see improvement. At the very least, wrong answer choices will become so much more obvious.

Don't give up! I felt the same when I started this journey just over a year ago. I'd consider the following before jumping ship...

If you are seeing improvements in your score outside of the testing conditions, then I imagine the test is beginning to make sense to you. This is what you need. Take as many PTs as necessary to normalize the process and I guarantee your ability to focus on the task at hand (rather than on the clock) will improve.

Pay close attention to your habits and YOUR skill set. This is a skills-based test and most of the highest performing students did not get there without putting in the work, but part of the battle here (especially for those of us with testing anxiety) is fighting our own inner antagonist. What an asshole. Once you've become more comfortable with the material, you'll need to develop efficiencies, personal tips and tricks, that will save you time and keep you feeling good.

Examples include:

a) Paying close attention to when you are waffling between answer choices - don't waste your time. We know you could get the answer correct if you had even 15 more seconds. You don't. Don't punish yourself. Select one and move on.

b) When an abstract conditional phrase is difficult to understand, it is not because you're stupid, but likely because it is a challenging question. Flag it and come back. Or don't. Just don't get sucked in.

c) The same goes for answer choices that seem abstract or confusing - they are confusing and seem abstract because they are likely the WRONG answer choice. Don't eliminate it yet, but don't waste your time trying to understand it. You're not stupid. It is. The correct answer choice, which will be much more obvious to you because you're awesome, will be just a few answer choices lower.

You're familiar with all of these tips. JY has mentioned them throughout the course. But you should take them very seriously. And work to develop your own. Doing well in law school and on the LSAT is as much about knowing the material as knowing yourself. I really think this is the key for those of us who struggle to succeed in timed conditions. For more inspo, listen to this: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush

Maybe you've taken on too much and should back it up and relax. I began studying last summer with the hopes of sitting for the August 2019 LSAT. When the time to test rolled around, I wasn't ready. I was overloaded with work and school. I decided to take a year off, finish my degree, and study again when I had more time available to me. Best decision I ever made.

Meditate. Do audible, breath-conscious yoga every day, multiple times a day. You need to calm your nervous system. This test requires tremendous mental discipline and meditation will help you get there, while reducing your blood pressure and making you less anxious over all.

I hope that this helps. I really do. I struggled in much the same way in the beginning, but have improved my score by 60% so far. I have now surpassed my goal and am aiming higher. You've got this.

Another 7Sager mentioned this in passing above, but I'd like to second their suggestion: I am finding meditation and yoga to be very helpful as I prepare for this test. If you've never done "Yoga With Adriene" on YouTube, you should start today. Her videos range from 10 min. to 45 min. - whatever suits your needs. She's awesome. Unlike most of the western yoga I've been exposed to, Adriene's asana practices encourage attention to the breath (I liken yoga sans breath awareness to scuba-diving in shallow water). I find her more recent videos (those posted in the last 2 years) to have a more calming effect. I recommend starting off your day with a short morning session, doing a session before heading to bed, and/or taking 10 min. to rest your mind and do some yoga as a break from studying at some point during the day. And before you dismiss this suggestion as just some New Age, spiritual, hippy-dippy nonsense, know that there is a great deal of research suggesting that regular meditation can lower blood pressure, improve immune function, and help regulate the body's stress response.

All I know is that once I began to practice yoga and meditation everyday, the testing experience completely changed for me. I was more able to focus on the task at hand and felt far less anxious about my score overall. I am less hard on myself and much more at peace. And with each PT, my score has begun to climb...

Sounds like you could use some of the same medicine =)

@ glad I could help in some small way. And it looks like @ is right! The change fees don't apply to Flex. Sweet. That being the case, I say hold off on deciding until you absolutely need to. Take a mini break and see how you do on the next one. And don't sweat it if you decide to hold off until January. You want that high score!

I say take November. If you switch your test date, you'll still have to pay $125 to reschedule or you'll get a $50 refund. That's $325-350 spent on one test vs. $400 spent on two. If you have the money, I would take November as scheduled. You can always cancel the score if it goes really horribly, but even that probably won't be necessary. Many students take the test multiple times and most schools care only about your highest score.

This will benefit you in several ways: first, it'll take a little pressure off knowing your future doesn't hinge on the results of the November test. You'll be more calm during the study process and a little more calm during the test as well. Counts for a lot. Besides, you might surprise yourself!

Second, because November is not the end of the line you can feel more comfortable taking a break now. 2 days. 2 weeks. Whatever you think you need. It sounds to me like you've been pushing pretty hard. That's awesome, but you don't want to burn out.

Regarding your choice to work primarily on your stronger areas: I think it's smart. Throw in an RC passage at least every other day though. Get more comfortable reading at that breathless speed. If your problem is timing, make sure that the answers you do attempt are correct. Maybe you don't get to the last passage... so, what? As long as you got -0 on those you read you'll be solid. You need good testing strategy here. I would recommend getting a sense of the subject matter you feel best about/tend to perform the best on. Read that passage first when you PT to get that low hanging fruit. And in your free time, read articles about subject matter that is less comfortable for you.

As for the BR/PT gap... that's gonna be a reality for probably as long as you study. As you get better at answering the questions both your BR and PT scores will go up. You may not even see that gap close until you're testing 165 and beyond. Don't fret. What's important is that you're able to recognize when you've made an error. This is where you'll make your greatest gains.

Hope all this helps =)

I've used ProctorU in the past and maybe it's changed since, but what they did then was ask you to show them the space you're in by moving the camera around, to ensure that it's enclosed on all sides. They'll also ask you to show them the desk you're working at to ensure that there are no books or papers within reach. Then you'll pick up each piece of scrap paper and show them the front and back, to confirm that they are blank. Once you start the test, the proctor will be looking only at your face and your screen, which you will have screen shared.

Can someone explain to me why the last sentence in this paragraph is not the conclusion? Following JY's instructions, I asked myself...

1) Is this an argument? A: YES

2) What is the author trying to convince me of? A: That changes/interventions would be "costly."

#help and thanks in advance!

We should be contacted by LSAC soon. They said we would be able to sign up for a proctor slot approximately 2 weeks prior to the testing date. I feel you though... trying to plan ahead and they're not making this easy!

What I've been doing, and it seems to really be helping, is continuing to do a PT w/ Blind Review every 1-3 days, while studying flashcards every day for about 20 minutes. The flashcards are a compilation of the most elemental parts of the curriculum (i.e. vocabulary, logical indicators, valid argument forms, invalid argument forms, erroneous arguments, & question stems and the mental steps they trigger). I also do a set of 2-3 logic games each day. That way you're keeping the curriculum in mind while you blind review, which appears to be the best way to improve your score. I think the trick here is to engrain the concepts introduced to you through the curriculum so deeply into your thought process that you begin to "intuit" the answer choice. That's whats beginning to happen to me anyway. I take the PT, feel uneasy and unsure for the duration of the test (as the time limit prohibits a methodical 'proving-out' approach), then Blind Review the PT and find I still (for the most part) agree with my answer choices (but for reasons that are much more clear to me). I think what's so interesting about the LSAT is that the time limit forces you into a state of feigned assuredness. You MUST move on, even when you don't have complete clarity and confidence in your answer choice (apart from maybe the logic games).

What I'm saying is, rest assured. You're not alone in being completely tripped up by this test. You might find Malcolm Gladwell's podcast on Revisionist History, in which he attempted the LSAT, informative and comforting. I certainly did.

Keep it up and you'll do great!

@ LSAC says approximately 2-3 weeks

I think they're just fishing for candidates, but who cares! Why couldn't that candidate be you? I've gotten a few myself. Whatever they're playing at, it's a free opportunity to apply... I say go for it!

I'd like to qualify my vote: You still have 2 months to study and achieve more consistent (and improved) results! Provided you have ample time to study between now and then (I would say at least 3-4 hours a day), I would sit for the November test, as the sooner you get your application in, the greater the likelihood is that you will get in to the program of your choice and gain access to scholarship money. That said, if you are not consistently scoring close to the score you want on PTs by November 1st, I would consider waiting until January, when you will be more prepared. Do not think of this money as wasted - getting a low score, even if you can get in to a school, will cost you far more over the course of your career (see AccessLex Loan Calculator: https://www.accesslex.org/student-loan-calculator/#/prospective-student/program-info).

This is a skills-based test. You will improve if you put in the time! The greater your improvement, the less money you will spend on your legal education. Take the time that is necessary to get the best score you can!

@ I imagine they will be curved independently... the curve wouldn't serve its purpose otherwise

Here's what I think is going on with A...

We were told that "winners of a Nobel Prize for science" are typically professionals. We feel able to deduce, then, that some may not be professionals (i.e. they are amateur scientists)... but the stimulus says nothing about the other subsets contained within the super set "Nobel Prize winners for science." Maybe they are not amateur scientists, but teachers... or Bob Dylan...

I selected C because I knew it must be true, but I couldn't eliminate A comfortably until now... hopefully this helps someone in the same boat!

@ said:

@ said:

@ said:

So it seems like many of us found LR and the last game of LG a little difficult.. this may be a dumb question but does this mean the whole test will most likely get curved more?

The curve doesnt really work like that. I won't bore you with details but essentially a -7 on the Flex would get you around a 170. Depending on the difficulty of your section, you may be able to get a -8 to still hit the 170. If your section is easier then it would be like a -6. Overall, the curve really doesn't help too much, only for one-two very difficult questions

Hi I was just wondering but how do you know this is the case. Surely this cant be correct. Because all of the other LSATs (granted not flex) are based on a curve. If the test is absolutely difficult and the test takers collectively do horrible it would absolutely change how many you could miss, would it not?

I think what @ is saying is that while the curve does account for variations in test difficulty, it is unlikely that anyone will see a major jump in their score as a result. But yes, you're right: if the test was difficult for everyone who took it and those reporting in this forum are not an unrepresentative sample of test takers, then it's possible to have missed several questions and still gotten a perfect score. I guess we'll see...

@ Shit. That absolutely sucks. I really hope you get what you asked for. So frustrating.

@, it's difficult to say. You shouldn't lose time, but obviously @ didn't have that experience. Luckily I got disconnected after I had already submitted the test...

@, I can't speak for @ but I certainly had a lot of technical difficulties yesterday. Our experience may not be the norm, but you should be prepared for anything.

Wait times to hook-up with a proctor can be very long, ranging from 20 min. - 1 hr. My test was scheduled for 9:10 AM and I didn't get started until 9:30. I got disconnected from my proctor at the very end and as a result did not “check out” until 4 PM! I had some technical glitch that no one at ProctorU could seem to figure out. Eventually I was able to get reconnected with someone, but obviously it was a very long and frustrating day.

I would just recommend that you try to stay calm if it happens to you. It's not the end of the world if you get disconnected. They will give you the time you need to complete the exam. I would also recommend scooping up an Ethernet adapter if you have the time and are planning to use a device that lacks an internet cable hookup. I would not recommend relying on a WIFI connection. I can only imagine how much more difficult that would have made things.

Definitely chain when you can! You're exactly right. It'll help you to make crucial inferences more quickly. I wouldn't give any weight to JY's choice not to...

Same, same, same. Technical difficulty nightmare. I wrote about my experience on a post yesterday.

Just breathe... it's behind you now and it'll be alright...

Still... so sorry it was so frustrating for you.

It does look like the June 2017 LSAT may have been a little easier than some. According to PowerScore, perfect scorers needed to get a 100/101 correct on that test (perfect scorers can get as few as 98/101 correct and still come out with a 180, depending on the test).

You can check it out here...

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But if you didn't guess at all, it can't be a complete flute! Good work!

Tough one. Apparently numbers of applications and even high scores/GPAs are up by a lot this year. Read this: https://www.lawschoolexpert.com/the-most-competitive-law-school-admission-cycle-ever/.

If you absolutely MUST go to law school in 2021, I would send now. While applying later with a higher score may get you in to those school, you'll miss out on scholarship money. Is it possible for you to wait to apply Day 1 of next cycle? That way you can take the pressure off, get in to those schools AND get scholarship money to attend.

I second what Lsat175 said. For the next 2 weeks, take every LG on PTs 1-35. Take them one at a time. If you get -0 within the target time and feel good about the game, move on. If you got any wrong, did not meet the target time, or felt uneasy about the game in any way, take it again. Do not move on from the game until you've met those requirements. Once you have, take the game the following day to make sure you're still comfortable. Along the way, compile a list of games you continually have the most trouble with. After you're done fool-proofing, take at least one game from the list a day to keep yourself solid. Add in a few new games periodically to make sure you don't panic when you're introduced to something new (but I swear, every game will begin to feel like you've taken it before).

For context, on my diagnostic I got -13. Now I consistently get -0 to -2.