Tbh reading these comments after the exam is lowkey reassuring haha. Had two LGs, def included that security guard/boutique one and remember fumbling around with it. Def had to guess on those last few q’s.

Overall felt pretty standard ie not like those awful 80s PTs (bless), but nevertheless tough because of nerves, the fact that it was online, etc

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

D is wrong because the text ALREADY says this information/accounts for it. Whatever is already accountable in the text, cannot be the right answer. (Noticed this being a thing across the field, not just Weaken q's)

@ishaw18693 said:

Applying Early Decision can only be done once and for one school. When you apply this way, you are mandated to attend the school if they accept you. Either way, you should definitely apply as early as possible as your odds of acceptance are greater the earlier you apply, but I would only advise applying early decision/binding early decision to your dream school that you know you will go to if accepted.

Thanks!!

@ishaw18693 said:

Early decision and applying early are two different things. Most apps open about September. If you apply early and are accepted you still have the option to be accepted to other schools. When you apply early decision you can only apply to one school at a time this way and they MUST either accept you, deny you or move you move to regular decision before you can chose to apply early decision to another school. Some schools have early decision options relatively late ( like February or March) so it would be possible to apply early decision to one school and if that school either denies you or move you to regular decision than you could always apply to another school early decision.

But it is important to research the individual schools early decision program as they are typically binding meaning that if they accept you, you have to go because you have signed a binding contract. There are some schools where early decision is non biding but the majority of schools use early decision as binding. Part of your research should also include looking into how the school handles scholarship with early decision. Some schools have a set scholarship for people accepted through early decision, some schools let you know what the scholarship will be before you sign the binding contract and yet other schools you have to sign the contract before you know any financial information.

Early decision can be a good option for students who are applying to their dream school and know that is where they would absolutely go or also a good option for splitters who really need that extra boost of applying early and of schools knowing that they will make the commitment if accepted. But early decision is very advantageous for schools because students are essentially signing on the dotted line before being accepted. Do your research and ask questions before committing is the advice I would give you.

Thank you, very helpful! Where do I find the option to apply early decision? Is there a checkbox for it on the same application to the school in question via LSAC platform?

Passage 3

Economics

P1: Warsh’s book writes about contradiction in Smith’s book; pin factory and invisible hand

P2: Example of pin factory and invisible hand

P3: What the contradiction is

P4: Why the pin factory had been de-emphasized

P5: How the pin factory was finally brought into mainstream

15 - main point

-author told us contradiction b the two saying that PF is not like IH, his goal is to tell us that only recently have things changed

-E - is right because it says Econs have until recently failed to act for the increasing returns to scale common in many industries

-A - factually wrong, saying opposite of what’s stated

16 - authors attitude, inference, towards IDEA THAT THE PF MODEL SHOULD BE PART OF THE MAINSTREAM ECON THOUGHT

-We know that it did eventually become part of mainstream, but how does he feel about this? He likes this “economists had FINALLY found ways to describe pin factory”

-E receptivity

17 - main purpose of P4 - purpose or function (Argument part)

-LOOK AT LOW RES - B because explain difficulty of modeling a particular Econ assumption (pin factory)

-not A “critique” or E “refute” - it’s too strong and doesn’t match our low res at all

18 - inferred from the passage that (MSS/infer) PF model would continue to be an “underground river” were it not for

-Do we know this? MSS

-Underground river was brought up when shift happened - “only since the late 1970s has the underground river surfaced into mainstream of economic thought. By then Econs had finally fund ways to describe the PF w the rigor needed to make it respectable”

-C is Econ’s success in representing PF model w mathematical RIGOR

19 - reference to railroads serves to - purpose/function - meaning in CONTEXT

-LOOK AT CONTEXTTTTT,

-look at low res of last paragraph - how PF was finally brought into mainstream

-railroads were brought up in sentence “many Econs TRIED REPEATEDLY to bring the PF into mainstream of Econ thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises like railroads”

-D correct because “point to an industry that illustrates the SHORTCOMINGS of econs’ emphasis on IHand”

20 - Which best illustrates the concept of increasing returns to scale described in the P2 - analogy q

-SCAN ANSWERS and see they are talking about Dif things - so ANALOGY

-look at what “increasing returns to scale” is

-”a large bee colony is able to use some bees solely to guard its nectar sources . This enables the colony to collect MORE nectar which can feed a LARGER colony that can BETTER DIVIDE up the work”

-“the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker”

21 - the passage states which one (explicitly stated)

-be cautious of “the only” or extreme words

-In “why deemphasized” section - it said “not because of ideology”

-C literally says this

22 - which one of the following, if true, would most UNDERMINE the connection that the author draws between increased size and monopoly power (weaken)

-E says “if a business has very specialized workers any gains in productivity achieved by making workers even more specialized are offset by other factors such as higher training costs and increased turnover”

-more specialized workers now costs more and there is more of a turnover - so this is bad - weakens my argument for specialization of workers

Others wrong

-D - “varies widely from industry to industry” is too soft, doesn’t do anything

Phenomenon/hypothesis

Evolution

P1: phenomenon, plants have secondary substances that cause taste/smell

P2: hypothesis, how did this come about - insects, mutation creates and natural selection conserves

P3: evolutionary competition plants vs insects; fewer plants suitable food for insects

8 - main point - C is good - secondary substances/taste and smell happens because of “evolutionary process of INTERACTION” bingo!

A - is super narrow, just talk about secondary substance operating as natural defense

B - longterm competition sounds good but it’s not JUST competition, but evolution of good and bad; also it says “narrowing of range of secondary substances present in plants” GENERALLY, but if you have lots of plant families you can still have lots of secondary substances — what’s being narrowed is secondary substances among INDIVIDUAL plant families, not plants overall

D - secondary substances in plants become numerous and diverse - opposite of what text is saying “NARROWING”

E - “plant eating” insects?

9 - mentioned in passage, insects can adapt - look at last paragraph where it’s mentioned

A - “switch to other foods” mentioned in text - matches AC “start eating something else”

I picked E because text says “to avoid in some other manner” and E says “ to avoid contact w dangerous parts” — this is a MAYBE so we can’t know for sure - it’s not mentioned for sure

10 - author discusses primary substances mainly IN ORDER TO - Argument Part/purpose - this is all about CONTEXT, why is he bringing this up - how does it fit in with overall argument

B - help explain what secondary substances are - main point in about secondary substances

11 - provides most support for inferring which (inference) - pick and go/long ACs -

A - “some chemicals [that xxx] play vital roles in various kinds of plants” - the chem referring to secondary substances!

12 - most analogous to relationship b plants and primary and secondary substances -

13 - most strongly suggests - what was explicitely mentioned

A - some of them are results of recent natural mutations in plants - and in text they said “such substances [ secondary] first appeared as a result of genetic mutations in individual plants

Ask "do we know this” for the others

14 - based on the passage, the author would be most likely to agree with (get into author’s head) - if you have a clear understanding of evolution, D stands out.

I picked D on second try after process of elim

Others CBT/CBT - we don’t know

PT 68 S1

P1 - Corrido, folk song Mex/US Lower Rio, subject specific to Border region, local/familiar / cohesiveness

P2 - Corrido usually swift/no embellishments, rarely metaphor - example

P3 - familiar images + ready made lines, found in despedida

1 - main point: E - folk song, cohesiveness, familiar conventions

Others are too narrow (D) or wrong (B, C)

2 - according to the passage (explicitely stated), characteristic of corridor

C - formal closing verse, aka how despedidas are described

A and B wrong because they use opposites - “exaggeration to embellish” and “numerous” - when the text literally said “without embellishment” and “metaphors are rare”

3 - tone and content, most likely drawn from (implied) - E - first line in passage described corridor as narrative folk song and sounded very textbooky

A and C are almost the same “contemporary” and brochure vs editorial - so thought this was fishy. Used process of elimination here

4 - which is mentioned as metaphor - B - mist in reference to thunderstorms

A and E wrong because, for one, they are referring to the same thing and two, this wasn’t a metaphor but reality

5 - author discusses metaphor in SECOND paragraph because - got this wrong by picking D because of the last line in second para: “such imagery [aka metaphor] … reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition” so continuity - longevity — but it is too far at the bottom of paragraph, metaphor wasn’t mentioned way earlier

Right answer is A because the first mention of “metaphor” comes right after a sentence that said how they don’t embelish, it’s simple, swift - ie. DIRECT — metaphors come about rarely so its mention is to ELABORATE ON A CLAIM ABOUT HOW DIRECT the corridos are

6 - most support for inferring (implied) - C - all complete corridos have some lines in common - in P3 they mention that not only do corridos have familiar imagery BUT they also have “READY MADE LINES” that “TRAVEL EASILY FROM ONE BALLAD TO ANOTHER” aka they recycle them causing corridos to have some lines in common!

For the other wrong ACs, ask “do we know this?” — MSS wrong Acs are not supported

7 - most strongly suggests, author would agree with (get into his head, what’s his argument) - these types of InfAP q’s are always toughest for me and I got this wrong. Picked B because AC says “corrido is unique” “because it uses language that is familiar mainly to local audiences” and in the very last sentence it says “perhaps the clearest marker of corrido’s uniqueness” … “ the corridors maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic border tale has been accomplished” — wrong because it was unique BECAUSE OF DESPESIDA not because of the language as AC says (also Uniquness barely mentioned)

But it’s E because it’s MORE than just the despedida - the imagery, familiar linguistics are all tell tale signs of corridos — despedida is not the oNLY way to identify it

A - “hindering of corridos” never mentioned - wrong, made up

B - unsupported, CBT/CBF - “do we know this?”

C - unsupported, CBT/CBF - “do we know this?”

@ishaw18693 said:

The August administration is not a Flex. The June 2021 was the last official 'Flex' format. Now, moving forward, the August LSAT will include three sections (1 LR, 1 RC, and 1 LG) as well as an additional experimental section as they have done in the past. This section does not count towards your score, but you also will not know which section is experimental. Also, as far as I'm aware, the experimental section can be any of the three subjects, it is not bounded to being an LR section, so there is a chance that an August test taker may see 2 sections of LG or LR or RC.

Ah gotcha thanks for clarifying that. I get confused because all the PTs I've taken so far always have two LR sections. Do you know if the PTs taken on 7Sage give you a score of the average of the two LR sections then? (And in that sense is giving an inaccurate view of how you're doing?)

@levittlaurenn951 said:

They email you about two weeks before the test to schedule a time. You can do the writing anytime during the week before. You don't have to choose a weekend slot but they have plenty of slots available. When I signed up they had basically a slot every five minutes with a proctor.

You can use up to 5 pieces of scrap paper I believe. Whatever kind of paper is fine, lined or graph or solid white but they do make you show it to the proctor and they make you rip it up on camera after the test is over.

Hope that helps!

VERY helpful. Thank you!

@peterhong245 said:

you can print out the pdfs via 7sage – just go onto "take preptest," then you'll see the button "printable."

when i was foolproofing games, i printed out only 1 copy of each game and put them inside a screen-protector and a binder. i never wrote on the master copy; just did work on a scrap paper. on the actual lsat, you no longer will be able to write on the physical copy of the exam anyway; you'll be working on a scrap paper, reading off the rules/games from your computer screen.

alternatively, you can create problem sets on 7sage each time and work directly from your computer.

Omg I feel so silly... THANK YOU. You just saved me a lot of time. I never saw that printable button this is awesome!

@andrewyang9999298 said:

https://nautil.us/

Ooo thank you

@giuliapines511 said:

Honestly, I am a journalist with 10+ years of experience who was an English major in college and I read a ton of material all the time and ... RC is a lot harder for me than I expected.

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but I really think the only real way to train yourself for RC is to read more RC. That's because these passages are so intentionally dense/complex/vague/weird that even with an outstanding vocabulary, excellent reading skills, etc. you might not do well on them.

Thanks! I'm also a journalist - and I guess the number one goal of any journalist is to make a story understandable, which isn't always the case with the RC. Appreciate it!

@dimakyure869 said:

@giuliapines511 said:

Honestly, I am a journalist with 10+ years of experience who was an English major in college and I read a ton of material all the time and ... RC is a lot harder for me than I expected.

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but I really think the only real way to train yourself for RC is to read more RC. That's because these passages are so intentionally dense/complex/vague/weird that even with an outstanding vocabulary, excellent reading skills, etc. you might not do well on them.

Concur. magazines like the Economist, Atlantic, New Yorker, etc. while they may be dense, are still written to be... readable. RC passages are created by taking source material and changing it specifically to be, oversimplified, hard to read. Nothing is going to be more representative than other RC passages. There are hundreds of them... if you haven't seen them all, why would you use anything else?

Thanks so much! This is helpful as I wasn't sure if there was a source out there representative of the RC.

Also interested if I can join! :)

I signed up for the August LSAT - but will likely take the October one as a “just in case”— do you suggest for me to just sign up for October one now too or wait?

Hi everyone thanks for the interest, excited to get a study group going where we can all motivate/help one another achieve that 170 range score. Here is the link to request to join the August 2021 LSAT study group :) https://groupme.com/join_group/67450293/cZyurL6W @chuyuanfeng1998244 @sierramiral722 @saiahmadnia267 @bryahrichson819 @melodiversity360 @paul-bosin848.bosin84 @bryahrichson819-1 @humadibasma950 @saiahmadnia267 @rbhoj99657

Please continue commenting/requesting to join the group after this post

@kashibrandi609 thank youuuu

I’m interested! :)