@ Arbor Hills??

Yes ma'am I love that place.

Love this idea. I'll be working full time until a month before the semester starts, but would love to take part when I can. Count me in.

To expand on my post above, there is science to back up what I was saying about exercising before PT's/your real LSAT as a way to increase your focus, and decrease your mid-, and/or pre-exam "test taking anxiety" (also known as the fight or flight response).

Anyone who's taken enough PT's knows the feeling. It would happen to me whenever I felt like I had a poor LR section, was taking too long to solve an LG, or didn't thoroughly comprehend a RC passage on the first go.

I'm not going to ramble on much longer but here's a quote to better explain the science behind how exercising before exams can help you:

"Exercise releases neurotransmitters that improve mood, burns away stress hormones and adrenaline, tires muscles to reduce anxiety symptoms and more. Exercise has been compared to some of the leading anti-anxiety medications and come out tied or ahead, all without a single chemical."

Source: http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/fight-or-flight-response

(I know its not pub med lol, but in my experience this REALLY helped me stay calm when I took my actual administered LSAT). Again I would highly recommend giving it a try.

@ LOL. Would be thoroughly terrified to lease anywhere in DFW that charged $350 per month rent.

^^^ Agree with the running suggestion. I didn't run before PT's, but I did on test day before my actual LSAT. Highly recommend it. Really helped calm me down, and got rid of a lot of that gnawing nervous energy.

I believe there is science to back this up, but admit-tingly I can't cite it off the top of my head.

My routine was: Good breakfast (get your protein in), caffeine, warm-up logic game, read through a passage (made it a point to read descriptively), work a few LR problems, then a 5-10 minute guided meditation or 5-10 minutes of yoga stretches with deep breathing (achieve the same effect in my opinion).

Paying $700 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment in Dallas. Safe neighborhood, no bugs (albeit older building), but still. Will split rent with my gf 50-50 while in school to boot. Can't beat the cost of living down south.

@ I would start with the 7sage curriculum. Start taking practice tests after you're done and BR to understand your points of weakness. If you need to polish on certain concepts and think you can benefit from a second source I think that where the bibles can come in. I would recommend using the LSAT Trainer over the bibles though. Hope that helps!

Yes.

I did not write about why I wanted to go to law school in my personal statement. I got more scholarship money than I thought I would from multiple schools (based on my GPA & LSAT). It's not necessary.

^^^ Awesome advice.

I found myself doing the same thing when I was prepping. It's easy to get into the bad habit (after taking a decent amount of PT's) of letting your latest PT score dictate your happiness. Nothing good will come from that. I should have only focused on getting better at the LSAT every time I studied, score be damned.

How much money you are willing to borrow is extremely subjective. Some people might feel nervous about borrowing $250,000. Others start getting anxious about borrowing $50,000.

Me personally, I told myself I would not borrow more than $100,000 for my entire education (under grad + law school). This is all my opinion, not some rule I'm advocating that everyone should follow, but I would NEVER take more than that for ANY school based on my career goals (not very interested in big law).

I would think about all the people I could potentially help. Whether it be small stuff like legal advice to relatives and friends, or future clients who were harmed due to someone else's negligence. One day you could very well be helping someone put their life back together after going through something terrible.

Now idk if this the best thing to do, but in complete honesty other times I would think about people who have underestimated me, or who wrote me off at one point or another. Who am I talking about? Ex's, former boss's or coworkers, former coaches, etc. I used to think about how awesome it would feel when they found out I was going to a respectable law school.

@ anyone who has put in 6+ months of prep for the LSAT will agree with me when I say there's no way that you have hit your score ceiling in only 2 months of PT'ing.

Everyone wants to have a fun LSAT-free summer, believe me, but it's in your best interest to keep pushing through the summer and maximize your LSAT score. It could literally save you an excess of $50,000 - $100,000 in tuition. No fun summer is worth that amount of cash imo.

@ doesn't have to be long at all. I would say one mile would be the floor and anything over three would prob be excessive.

But a lot of that depends on if you're a regular runner. I run 3x a week and did a quick 1.5 miles on my test day.

Jog the morning of your exam before you go to the test center. There is science to back up that exercise can decrease test day anxiety. I didn't do it before my first LSAT (Oct. 2015). I did do it before my second (Dec. 2015). Made a big difference for me.

Lol where do they go?! You act like they all disappear off the face of the earth, and don't just find work at smaller boutique firms or corporate in house council positions (the horror!)... Like there's a pit of despair full of lost soul ex-biglaw associates that don't make partner track.

Not everyone wants to be a big law associate, and for good reason.

@.ames You're welcome man, I'm rooting for you.

^^^ Love that expression about fear.

This place seems to have gotten a little more cynical since I stopped checking it everyday lol what happened y'all?

Anyways I have to agree with @ on this one; if you don't want to be a lawyer (and the idea of that doesn't excite you), then you probably have no business going to law school. Not all lawyers are depressed, unable to find a significant other, and regretful of their decision to attend law school. I'd be willing to bet that many lawyers in that situation have plenty of other reasons as to why they are unhappy and un-dateable, aside from their demanding careers. Anyone who has completed the core curriculum on here should know that correlation does not imply causation.

I think most people who study for the LSAT long enough will experience similar feelings to what you are describing. I know I did. It's easier said than done, but you can't let yourself get bent out of shape about a rough PT. Progress/improvement is never linear. I recall a month or so before I took the Dec. LSAT I scored one of my better exams (165), and also had a melt down on one and scored a 158. Like I said this was within the same month (after 6 months of prep).

So to answer your question on how I dealt with this, all I did was keep on plowing ahead (on my normal PT schedule with scheduled days off for rest). I know this probably sounds cliche, but when faced with adversity like a disappointing PT all you can really do is keep working. I think Einstein said somewhere that adversity introduces a man to himself. I always keep that quote in mind when I hit rough patches in my life. Hope that helps a little.

Received 24k per year from SMU and made my decision in a heart beat. Spending $549 for the LSAT ultimate is one of the best decisions I've ever made. It literally saved me $72,000. Talk about a solid return on investment!!! This place is special. Congrats to everyone else! Glad to see some 7sagers crack the t14.

Ordered the Torts and Contracts books off amazon. Luckily I already had the Civ Pro book.

Looking forward to next Tuesday.

Got my score as of 2:45 central time. + 17 from my diagnostic and right in my score band based on my last 3 PT's. The 7sage curriculum and the community here have meant so much to me these past 8 months. Thanks for everything guys and best wishes to you all.

I have a close buddy at a T-5 law school. He had almost no extra curricular activities, and 1 year work experience as a student instructor. He had an almost perfect GPA and a strong LSAT score. Those two factors are always more important.

If you're passionate about becoming an attorney by all means do not give up. There are people on this very forum who have sub 3.0 undergrad GPA's and who are non-URM applicants who have still gotten accepted (with scholarship money) to T14 law schools.

It will be tough, and it will take time, but my advice to you is to immerse yourself in the LSAT full time post graduation. Take as many PT's as it takes to start scoring in your goal range. Don't rush into retaking the LSAT, you only get three chances so wait until you're consistently hitting your goal score before you take an administered one again.

You're in an adverse situation, but all you can do in adverse situations in life is to wake up every morning and keep chopping wood. Work your butt off to finish undergrad with the best GPA possible. Work your butt off on the LSAT when you graduate. You can do it if you're willing to put in the time and effort.