Okay, so I am nearing completion on the core curriculum (woot woot!) and I would definitely say that I am starting to grasp these core concepts relatively well (still have much to learn, still a padawan). Lately, my issue has been in BR. I have had this nack of royally screwing myself over when I BR some of my drills. For example, did a 4star RC passage today. I got it done in 7 min. After this I BR'd the section, like always. My pre-BR score was a -1 out of 7. BR was -5!! WTH??! Is it possible my subconscious intelligence is becoming smarter than my conscious reasoning. I guess this might be a good problem to have, in some respects. The same thing kept happening to me when I drilled a bunch of NA questions yesterday. Pre-BR, on the clock I would generally go -0 for the drill. But, when I BR'd I would miss like half of the questions. This is kind of freaking me out...

Does anyone have any experience related to this issue?

Hello 7Sage world!

Need some advice. So, I have taken 10 PTs up to this point. Scores are all over the place, but I am definitely seeing progress. I am wondering, how does one become consistent with their scoring?

My scores are as follows:

Actual/BR

Pre-7Sage

142/No BR

148/158

Post-7Sage Curriculum

146/159

142/158

143/155

147/162

150/160

146/156

159/175

and then today's score of 148/170....

On days I score well I definitely feel like things click, but on other days when it's not going well, I feel like I am trying to transcribe Portuguese in Chinese.

I am a full time student, so I have only been studying when schedule permits, usually around 10-20 hours per week. I have been going at this for about six months. I just felt so shitty after today's result. I feel like I have a hard time staying in the LSAT "zone".

Has anyone else ever had issues similar to mine? I really need some motivation, today felt like a swift kick right where the sun doesn't shine. ='(

Hey all,

I seem to have found an issue in my thought process which needs addressing. I cannot distinguish between an analogy in an argument and counterexample.

For PT23 S2 Q11, an AP question type, I was pretty convinced that the part of the argument I was asked to describe was a counterexample when in fact, it was an analogy (question wrong :( ). After watching the explanation video I was still a little hazy on this but could definitely see it as an analogy.

Fast forward to PT33 S1 Q2, a MR question, I was faced with the same dilemma. Down to two answer choices, one describing the argument as using an analogy and the other saying it was a counterexample. My instinct wanted to choose the counterexample but I began to recall what caused me to err on the aforementioned AP question. I ended up choosing the analogy AC which ended up being correct.

I feel as if I am on the brink of having an 'ah ha' moment (or am way overthinking this) and was curious if anyone could shed some light and help clarify these two concepts for me.

From what I have taken away, an analogy is used in an argument to show that something is like something else and, because of the similarities, proof that the original reason for the initial something being argued for is in fact a valid. For example, If I say all Jedi use the Force and all Sith Lords use the Force as well, then Luke Skywalker is, therefore, both a Jedi Knight and a Sith Lord. The analogy of the Jedi and Sith assumes that Luke is both, when all avid Star Wars fans know this is not the case (although, this is not an entirely invalid argument. Anakin Skywalker--Luke's father--was, technically, both a Jedi and a Sith).

A counterexample almost directly opposes the initial claim made by the argument. If I say that all Jedi use the Force and I find a Jedi who has no ability to use the Force, then that would be a counterexample. It's like an exception to a rule.

Am I thinking straight? Thank you in advance.

Hi all,

Need some advice. I began my prep the middle of last month and am planning to take the June '16 LSAT and possibly taking again in September if need be (which, from what I am gathering about the nature of this exam, will probably be the case). I am curious as to what a realistic school schedule is for studying. I only enrolled in two classes for the spring semester at my university. One class is going to be super easy and the other shouldn't be extremely taxing either. I am still a bit concerned as to whether it is a good idea to take any classes at all during LSAT prep. Classes started this week. Thus far, I have been putting in about seven hours per week day and about four hours on either a Saturday or Sunday (depending on which day I want to lay around and be a bum).

I want to rationalize with myself and say two classes is fine, but my gut is telling me otherwise. I do not work, nor do I need to at the moment. Is this a realistic schedule or am I taking on too much?

Thanks for hearing me out. I am new to 7Sage and strongly considering buying the Ultimate.

This isn't really a technical 'problem', but it is related to 7Sage tech. Anyway, is there a way to enable push notifications for the 7Sage app for iOS?

Now that I'm done with undergrad, I have nothing but time on my hands and would like to get more involved on the message boards. At the same time, however, I don't want to be in front my computer the majority of each day.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

So I decided to drill some full length sections of LR this weekend, now that I am done with the core curriculum and starting to PT. I did both LR sections from PT 1 only to find that there are no video explanations. Am I looking in the wrong place?

OK, so my battle with RC and been brutal, long, and very emotionally draining. I originally was going like -16, now I'm going -5ish. In RC I have seen the biggest gains. I have done really well and learning to "see the forest" before I examine the trees. As @"J.Y. Ping" put in a RC webinar, you have to be able to understand the passage at the 10x level, the 5x level, and the 1x level, 10 being the forest, 5 being individual paragraphs, and 1 being the individual trees.

Questions related to the 10x and 5x level are starting to become very easy to me, even for some of those level 5 passages. What still to this day trips me up are those 1x level questions where you have to understand certain parts of the passage at the 1x level. Out of the 5ish questions I usually miss, almost all of them are 1x, fine detail level questions. When I BR and grade my PTs I always see the right answer and I'm like, "Ahh! Damnit. It says it right there in that one tiny sentence! How did I miss/forget that part?"

My question to all of the RC gurus out there is how did you learn to remember things in the passage at the 1x level under timed constraints? For me, I almost always have to return to the passage, and I usually just don't have enough time to make it happen, so I circle the question and skip. The questions I miss are generally due to not remembering a specific detail from the passage, and not having quite enough time to return to the passage. When I come back to these questions, I usually just POE because I am at my last 2-3 minutes of the section. It's so frustrating because I am so close to going -0 on some sections, and the questions I miss are really not that hard, it's just remembering the fine detail.

As always, thank you for the feedback!

Well, this year's election was full of surprises. The biggest surprise for me was that my home state, Nevada, decided to legalize recreational marijuana. I found this to be very beneficial for me in my situation. No, not because I will be toking up on a daily basis (never really could get into that stuff), but because I have possession of paraphernalia charge on my record.

Prior to the election, I knew once it was time to apply I would have to explain this charge, in detail, for admission to any law school. It's really embarrassing to have on your record. Especially because the glass pipe I was caught with wasn't even mine (it was my friends, I was just letting him keep it in my car. I know, stupid decision. But hey, I was 18 at the time). With that, my question to the community is this: now that marijuana will be legal in my state, as of January 1st, what does that mean in terms of admissions? I can't help but feel vindicated by the outcome of this referenda, but I'm not sure how it will look in the eyes of admissions officers. Should I still disclose? If so, how do I explain this now (it seems kind of silly now that pot is legal, especially for such a minor offense)? I'm hoping that admissions will look at it and just laugh. It kind of reminds me of being charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol by consumption. Once your 21, the charge just looks silly (to me at least).

Anywho, what do y'all think? This is kind of one of those moral gray areas between law and ethics, and I'm having trouble seeing the right solution.

I prefer to work games that I have already practiced or done in a PT. I find it is just the best way to warm up my brain and get into LSAT mode. How do the rest of you psyche yourselves up?

For the modules like the strengthen and weaken question types, should I power my way through all of the problem sets I have available or should I take a more gradual approach (one to two sets per q-type per day)?

I have found the one star and two star questions to be very easy but the three star are very challenging and the four star seem out of my league entirely. Just curious if there is an ideal method to go through them. Thank you in advance.

I have a question regarding strengthen and weaken questions: If I am stuck between two AC's, could I simply try to put both of them into the argument, one at a time, and see which strengthen/weakens more?

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take a moment to formally introduce myself to the 7Sage LSAT community. I am located in Nevada and hope to someday go to the UNLV Boyd School of Law. I am very excited to be a part of this community and hope the learning experience will be fun.

I have been using the free LG explanations and have seen drastic improvement--from getting around 8 right to only missing 1 or 2. I did this in about 12 weeks time (now if only my LR and RC would follow suit XD ). I was initially enrolled in a Testmasters course for the June LSAT, but the class ended up getting cancelled because of low enrollment. Between the time I started my prep 12 weeks ago and the date my TM course was supposedly going to start, I became infatuated with the 7Sage processes and learning methods. I really feel like it is a great bunch of people in this community. The only thing holding me back from formally enrolling was finances. I had already dropped $1500 on the TM course and did not have any spare cash to pay for 7Sage on top of TM. Fortunately for me, TM ended up being a flop, and I was able to get my money back. I have decided to make 7Sage my go to for LSAT prep. I can't help but think that this was meant to be.

Since I have only been prepping about 12 weeks, I am still very new to all of this. Feel free to drop any advice for this LSAT noob! Thus far I have only been through the PS bibles and the first half of the The Trainer. My initial diagnostic was 142 and my highest has been a 148. No too bad for self prep I think, but I am definitely in need of more help. Goal score is 165. I have only taken 5 PT's and they have all been in the 140s. That said, I think I am ready to kick it into gear with the LSAT and work my ass off.

Anywho, that's my story in a nutshell. Thank you in advance for all of the insightful lessons to come.

-DJ

Okay, I am in need of some advice that might sound strange to some. So, I'm not exactly a small person, in fact I'm six feet eight inches tall so I don't exactly fit into a lot of things very well. Mainly, the desks in a classroom. I find when I do some timed PTs I am slumped way over in my seat, and after about three sections my back starts screaming at me. It got to the point last Friday that I had to stop my test and stand up for a minute to loosen up and stretch. Are there are other 7sagers who have this problem? I am worried because on test day I know I will not be able to pause my exam like a video game. My back really hurts after about two sections and it takes away from my concentration. This is making me feel like an old man at the ripe age of 23. Thoughts?

Is there a cap? Hope I can bring in at least 6, so I can have a sharp point for each logic game and a sharp point for the other sections. I really want to bring 10, just in case my experimental is LG.