Knowing my own privileges, I don't want to try to pad my application with essays that falsely interpret minor difficulties and set backs as "adversity." If I feel that my personal statement touches on what makes me stand out (international background, language fluency, etc.) should I bother writing a diversity statement or any other optional essay?
how do y'all remember so much about test content... I can barely recall taking the damn thing...
My wifi has been cutting out randomly for the past few days (f *ck Sp *ctrum) and I'm starting to get really worried about my flex test on Monday. I had no issues when I took it in July, but the frequency with which my wifi has been cutting out recently has been deeply concerning.
Could I take the LSAT flex on my iphone personal hotspot? I know it can be finicky, but it honestly could be more reliable than my wifi. Also does anyone know what might happen if I lose internet during the test?
one of the differences that caught me off guard was that you can't move forward or backward in the questions using the arrow keys. I usually use that function on 7sage, so it became an ingrained habit to hit the forward key when I want to move on to the next question. I would hit the key like three times before remembering to move my cursor and click forward to the next q.
I think it's important to take a cold diagnostic just to see where you're at without knowing any material. If anything it'll be good to look back on as you begin taking practice tests just to see how far you've come. It's likely that your score will plateau at some point, as it does for many students, and being able to look back on your diagnostic can be a good motivator.
You'll also be able to see your initial strengths and weaknesses, which can be helpful to know since your best and worst sections will likely change as you progress in your studies.
I've watched screen recordings of myself taking timed sections and let me tell ya, it's like watching a horror movie where all the characters are doing exactly what you don't want them to do. Doing this a couple of times actually helped me get out of my head a little bit when I'm taking sections.
@cnguyen2195719 said:
My best improvements came from practicing translation drills over and over. Besides that, learning to tactically skip questions was massively beneficial. For example, when you come across a parallel reasoning question or find yourself having a hard time understanding a difficult stimulus -select a random answer choice, flag the question, and move on. When I started skipping like this, I found I would always get done with a section with 7 - 10 minutes to spare. This left me plenty of time to go back and answer all of my flagged questions. By doing this, you won't waste time on hard questions that you could have spent on easier ones. And, it gives you a better chance at getting the hard ones right too.
This!! My tutor taught me that you don't want to struggle on your first pass through the questions. Even feeling like you spent too much time on one question can leave you flustered and stressed for the rest of the section, or worse, for the rest of your test.
Especially when you're stuck on a question oscillating between two answer choices, you're wasting your time and making yourself less and less confident. If you find yourself in a situation like that it's better to pick one and move on. Lower hanging fruit likely awaits!
7Sage has an Lsat Flex Score Converter (https://classic.7sage.com/lsat-flex-score-converter/) where you can input the number of questions missed on each section and they'll recalculate on the basis of how that test would likely be scored as a flex.
I think we don't exactly know the method by which LSAC calculates flex scores, so what you get from the converter is more of an educated guess of what your score would be, and not a certainty.
In JY's videos on comparative passages he usually reads passage A and then answers all of the questions for the first passage before going back to passage B and then answering the questions again. I can see the benefit of keeping the two passages separate to prevent mixing up the content, as they tend to be similar/related, but under time pressure, I tend to do worse when using this method of attack.
How do y'all take comparative passages? One at a time or all at once?
I'm prepping for the July flex (it's so soon it's terrifying) and I've been focused on taking flex-style PTs this past week. I'll go ahead and look for which sections are LR, and I'll pick one at random to do as a warmup section before taking the other three sections. I found that with four section tests, I always did worse on the first LR section, so using one as a warmup and scoring the other has definitely helped the score I get with the flex converter.
sorry if this is a bad question but does anyone know how many sheets of scratch paper we're allowed to use?
@ishikawasarah192 @lucykelly459 Thank you so much for your helpful comments! You're 100% right about people with bad experiences being more vocal. It's so reassuring to know that June test takers had a relatively good experience and that LSAC is continuing to make proper adjustments in accordance with user feedback!
I've read so many horror stories about bad proctors on ProctorU from people who've already sat for the May and June flex tests. How do I go into the July flex with a positive attitude without feeling like the system is dooming us from the get-go?
Is anyone else nervous about this? If so, what have you been doing to help your nerves? If anyone has had a positive experience with ProctorU, I'd really appreciate it if you could share it here!
Hi I'm signed up for the July test and still don't quite get how ProctorU is supposed to work? Is there any explanation for proctor switch overs during the exam? And is there any way we could request to have one proctor through the entire exam? It honestly seems like the service LSAC has decided to use isn't well suited for the LSAT.
I'm anxious enough about the exam already. Having a nightmare proctor is the last thing I want to worry about :/
I started studying with a tutor a little over a month ago and I don't regret it one bit! However, I will say that tutoring can be expensive because it is such a valuable service. Your score should see a good amount if improvement just by doing your due diligence with the CC and absorbing the fundamentals of logic.
I wouldn't recommend getting a tutor until you feel that your PT scores are starting to plateau. You shouldn't be paying money for help on things the CC will teach you. If you feel like you need help on fundamentals, the discussion board is a great place to ask for free. You could also find an accountability parter for the CC, so you can ask each other questions about things you might not be getting.
A tutor can enhance your score by helping you see some of the strategic mistakes you're making. The most valuable thing that I've gotten out of tutoring is a testing strategy that doesn't fail me when I'm stressed out on a specific question or game. It's definitely worth the money to have a tutor help you to become a more mindful and confident test taker, but I would hold off until you're done with the CC.
I understand that we're advised not to add anything from high school on our resumes, but I was wondering if there was a similar rule for personal statements? Is there a point where a story for your personal statement is considered too old to be considered relevant by an admissions board?
I'm still finishing up my undergrad, and hope to go straight through to law school, so a lot good number of stories that I find to be interesting about myself are from high school, including my "what made me want to study law" story.
If anyone has insight on this I'd love to hear from you!
Do any of y'all have any recommendations for reading sources that might help with RC passages?
I've been struggling mostly with comprehending science and humanities passages, so any digital publications with similar articles would be really useful. I've heard that Scientific American is a good source, but any and all other sources (and specific articles) would be super helpful.
If there are video or podcast resources that can give some background on RC material (law, arts, science, humanities) that you'd recommend, I'd love to check those out as well!
@juliet7sage Hi, thank you so much Juliet!
I've actually gotten in touch with LSAC and figured it out.
I'm going to leave my solution here in case anybody has a similar issue.
If you are using google chrome and somehow cannot log in to your prep plus account via the links provided on 7sage or the LSAC email, try logging into another chrome browser using a different email account. I can't tell you why this worked, but it certainly did. Which is strange considering it would not work on the chrome browser logged into the email that I use for my LSAC account, but it did work for my university email.
Hope no one else runs into this problem!
We aren't meant to purchase the account on our own if we've been grandfathered into our accounts, right? I can't access any of the course material any more because I'm having issues with connecting to the Prep Plus account.
I don't know if this is a problem with LSAC and not 7sage, but I could use some help from anyone who has had a similar experience. Regardless of whether I try to access and connect my 7sage and prep plus through the notification on 7sage or through the email sent to me via LSAC, I cannot seem to get past logging in. After I log into my account, the blank page just keeps infinitely refreshing. Has anyone else had similar issues? I've tried contacting LSAC via email but it's been at least a week and they haven't gotten back to me.
@ochbayarenkhbat891 said:
Once you purchase the CAS, you can update your transcript for free by sending your new transcript from your university to their mail address. So you might want to send your current transcript to LSAC before your application. You can update it in the future when you complete your degree if needed.
For processing time reference, I've sent LSAC my international undergraduate degree via DHL on the 1st which they received on the 9th of April and completed processing it by 15th of April. I highly recommend sending your transcripts at least 3-4 weeks earlier before you have to apply. If you're applying early in October then I'd recommend having everything sent to LSAC by September.
Thank you so much! This is super helpful!
Hi, I'm wrapping up my junior year of undergrad at my university in Japan and I wanted to know when the best time to submit my transcript would be, considering the fact that I still have a year left to go.
I'm planning on applying in the next cycle, in hopes of attending law school straight out of college in the fall of '21. I would love to connect with other international applicants who are in a similar situation as me!
I'd love to join in on this! I've moved my test from June to August :)
x1.7 speed! you know it's bad when you've gotten so used to JY sped up that he sounds drunk at normal speed.
What is it exactly that they're taking so much time on anyway? You'd think that an unscored portion of the test wouldn't take so long to review. Don't they just need to play back to the footage to check for cheating or something?