I burnt myself to a crisp before the September exam, so I am relaxing this week. I took a PT yesterday and did well. I want my last memory of a PT to be a good one before Saturday lol. Ill mainly review some LR questions that I’ve answered incorrectly from the last couple weeks and try to hone in. Maybe do one or two sets of LG. Probably read a regular book to familiarize myself with society again which will hopefully simplify RC passages (AKA be able to internalize words like a normal human being and not a robot who thinks a passage about penguins or dandelions is out to get me). You can definitely catch me partaking in tonssssss of yoga classes this week lol. Good luck!

@ yep, I can relate to everything you said haha. Thank you for wishing me luck, I wish you all the luck as well! You’ve got the next one :)

@ I managed to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night and was in bed by 10pm for pretty much the entire month leading up to the LSAT. Sleeping well helped with feeling refreshed but it’s the damn test anxiety that gets me every time. I need to focus on that in addition to keeping a healthy sleep schedule. thanks for the positive thoughts. I should check that episode out!

I had this problem too. I had one prof that I really connected with and she wrote my letter in less than a week. I also had two prof's that ghosted me lol. After I rudely got ghosted, I e-mailed a couple professor's that I got an A in their classes. I reminded them of the semester I took their class and the grade I earned. I also wrote a couple sentences about how their class inspired me. You'd be surprised, but many professor's will write you a letter if you did well in their class. They get the process. Try to send a personable e-mail! They'll most likely ask you to send them your personal statement, resume, etc., to help them get to know you before they write, but most will help you out. Good luck!

Have the nervous breakdown I've been holding in for the past six months

Wow, our stories are identical. From the diagnostic score, the amount of hours spent studying a week, the September exam score/refusing to cancel my score (except I cried for three days and refreshed my e-mail 10x a day hoping they had e-mailed the wrong person, lol), to today. Scored my first 162 yesterday. Proud of you! Good luck on Saturday, you've got this!

@ Thank you for the kind words and the suggestion. I’ll def look into it and talk to my doctor. The heart racing is what gets me the most. I start freaking out literally for no reason. Definitely focusing on mind control until Feb and talking to my doctor about beta blockers. Thanks again!

@ ugh I’m sorry to hear your experience at your test center was so shitty :/ try to find comfort in knowing that the decrease is unrelated to your actual understanding of the material and capability. You got the next one!

@ Thank you so much for those tip, sharing your experience and being able to relate on some level, it means so much coming from you (3 you're going to think I'm insane, but I never took PT's under strict test conditions. I rarely used the answer sheet and I would often take more breaks than we are permitted on test day. For some reason, I just could not break out of that habit. I don't know if it was because I was afraid of the outcome and realizing that maybe my understanding isn't as solid as I thought, or because I just became complacent at some point. But I realize now that it's much more beneficial in the long run to fall now and correct my mistakes before February. I also really appreciate your tips in regard to test anxiety and mental prep/relaxation. I began taking yoga classes over the last three months and its helped me tremendously with balancing my emotions and anxiety post studying, but not so much coping with test anxiety. I will definitely use your suggestions during the test. I especially like your putting down the pencil tip. I can see how that could help slow down a racing mind thats in fight or flight mode. You really hit the nail on the head with that and identifying natural responses to stress/anxiety. All the signs were there during both of my experiences. Thank you again for your help and support!(/p)

p.s. congrats on your stellar score by the way! Such a huge accomplishment.

@ Thank you so much for those helpful tips. I'll definitely try your recommendations and try to hone in on my overall understanding of certain questions. I'll try out your suggestions and hopefully gain a more solid and confident understanding of certain questions, I believe that will lead me in the right direction! In regard to becoming familiar and comfortable with the test center, I registered for Feb at my undergrad university for that reason, so I'm so happy to hear that a familiar environment helped you out. Crossing my fingers that it will give me the vibes that I'm just taking a test at the same campus that I've taken hundreds of tests at. Thanks again for your time and help!

From my personal experience, I tend to score lower on older PTs, on average. I think this debate is super subjective though. For example, I have a harder time with understanding the LR language in older PTs than newer PTs. Some people don't have issues with the language and some do. Personally, it takes me an extra second to understand the type of question it is. I think the newer PTs are clearer in what they're asking you to do. I may have that opinion since I originally started my preparation with newer PTs. I ran out of those so now diving into older ones. Also, I've noticed the games are much harder. Older PTs tend to throw in the games that are rare today. I heard the test was restructured by new LSAC administrators in the early 2000's (who create our tests today), but I have not done any research to confirm.

In regard to the conversion chart/curve, I really don't know. Sometimes the curve on older PTs are in your favor as opposed to the newer ones, and sometimes they aren't. I wouldn't say the test itself is "harder" per se (with exception to the games). It's just built a little differently than they are today, so it's really what you're more used to and how quickly you interpret the language, IMO! If language is no issue for you and you're prepared for any logic game, then the difference is miniscule. I'm more used to the newer ones, as I mentioned previously, since I started out with the newer ones. However, I do believe if you score well on the older PTs your score will be just fine on the newer ones.

I purchased The Next 10, 20 & 30 Actual, Official LSAT Preptests by LSAC and they include the conversion chart at the end of every PT from that year, so that is the only data I have. I'm not entirely sure how reliable it is, but being that it is published by LSAC, I would say it's the most reliable chart that we can get our hands on! Hope this helps & happy studying! :)

Yay congrats!!! I needed to read this today. Spent most of yesterday crying and thinking about giving up too. I took a live Blueprint class and hated it. I knew by the first class meeting that I would not like it because it did not seem to match my learning style, but I told myself to stick it out because I'm probably being too critical. I should have listened to my gut. Just purchased 7sage this morning, so I am hoping to improve by December. Thanks again for sharing your story!

So stoked! I'm looking forward to learning from you all :)

@ hi thank you for your advice!

I am going to apply this cycle and see what happens. If I’m not happy with my options, then I will go for the next cycle. Ideally, I’d like to start this fall so I’m really trying to make my Feb exam worth turning apps in late in the game.

In regard to BR, I didn’t mention that I actually have BR one LR section before, just not an entire test. When I BR’d the one LR section, I found that most of my initial answers were correct. After reading into the questions to decide which answer between the two was correct, I’d often choose the other answer which ended up being incorrect. That’s another reason why I haven’t done much BR. I second guess myself too much and end up rationalizing incorrect answers before revealing that my initial answer was correct. What do you suggest to help improve my BR? Also, if I am able to BR correctly, I plan to do it for the next two weeks and spend the last two weeks before the exam taking PTs under test conditions without BR. Do you think I will benefit from this for the Feb exam? Thanks!

I like both ideas. If I had to choose, I’d choose the Grand Canyon one to show your personality outside of law. Try to throw in a few sentences about your moot court experience if you can pull it off.

@ hi! I’m averaging around a 157-159 on my PTs. I’ll occasionally hit 160-161, but it’s only happened a few times. I scored much lower than my PTs, but I am hoping to at least get a 155-157. I misbubbled an entire section in December, so that explains the exceptionally lower decrease, but I’m really just hoping to hit mid to high 150s next month. I’m also determined to start this fall, I’d really really hate to wait until next cycle. I will BR for the next two weeks and hopefully gain a point or two from that.

@ thank youuuuuu for all of your encouraging words. I REALLY needed to hear that today. I’ve been crying literally for the past hour because I’m just so emotionally and mentally exhausted from this and I just want to hit the score that I know I can hit. I’m determined to start school this fall too. I’ve been in such a weird place in my life and I know what I want and I just wana get it already :( thanks again for your kind words. You’re going to kill the Feb exam!

100% threw me off too. For that game, I just made the O inference and it helped a bit. That was a hard game.

Honestly, how unlucky were we that we got a rare game as our third game? That really sucked. I felt like this test was pretty hard. For me, a good score is dependent upon whether or not my first LR was the experiemental. Unfortunately, I don’t think it was.

My brain is still fried and I cannot remember any questions from the LR that I’m hoping was experimental... I just remember at one point a lot of my answers were “E”. Was that experimental????? Sorry if this isn’t enough info :(

@ awesome advice, thank you!!!! It’s in San Francisco so I can definitely pull the living expense card on them hahah

@ thanks! I’m definitely convinced that I wrote my way in haha my numbers aren’t that strong. My writing is stronger than my standardized testing capabilities for sure. I actually can’t tell you how excited I was to trash all of my lsat material last night lol.

@ thank you!! that makes sense. I live in California and I have every intention to practice in California, so the out of state schools probably sense that I’m sure. I just got an email today offering me a full ride scholarship, so unless I get some sort of scholarship at a much higher ranked school, then I will most likely go to the one that gave me the full ride. I’m not about being in $150,000 debt haha. What are your thoughts on that?

Hi @ ! Thanks for your response. I did write additional essays. I used and abused every application and opportunity I was given in regard to submitting optional essays or providing addendums where I saw fit. I was told by someone to only submit optional essays to the schools I’m most interested in, but it’s a dog eat dog world out here, so I wrote optional essays for every application. Do you think that will help me for other schools that have higher stats than mine? I’ve only heard back from three schools so far and have gotten accepted to two.

What’s good I’m up and drunk cause I got into the law school of my dreams. Anyone who’s discouraged or anxious, don’t be. You’ll all be gucci in the end too.