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Thank you for the advice! It's nice to know that I'm not imagining the lack of straightforward options. Assuming I opt for these other forms of LoRs, would you recommend I attach an addendum explaining why I opted for them over more traditional routes?
Context: I got a 176 on the September LSAT, and am ready to finalize my applications before sending them off, but I need to get Letters of Recommendation first.
I am in a bit of a confusing situation with regard to what to do for my LoRs due to the following:
1) I have been self-employed as an SAT/ACT tutor since pretty much right when I graduated in 2021. As a result, I do not have a supervisor or manager that can speak to my abilities, and as I understand it, asking clients (i.e. students' parents) is considered a bit of a no-no.
2) I essentially took my last class in Fall 2020, so I'm about six years out of college. I went to undergrad from 2017-2021. I was a transfer student from 1 year at a CC. I then went to UVA for about 2.5 years. During those 2.5 years, most of my courses were either large lecture hall courses or conducted entirely online due to the pandemic, leading to pretty impersonal/surface level interactions with my professors. I've reached out to the two professors who I had multiple, smaller-sized classes with, but I've yet to hear back two days later, though I'm not sure if this is atypical.
3) Many, if not most, of my universities that I'm applying to require 2 recommendations.
Any tips for how I should go about this?
I was in a somewhat similar boat as you (able to get an untimed 180 but timed 165).
In my experience, you want to break up the LR section into parts. Work on timing for specific question types in isolated drills (I personally focused on argument parts and main conclusion questions first as I felt getting good at those helped a lot with spotting flaws in all the other question types), and then once you've made significant timing progress on a few different question types while maintaining / improving accuracy, you put it together.
It makes a massive difference on not only section timing but on saved energy throughout the test, as spinning your wheels on questions depletes you greatly.
BONUS TIP: Use the 7Sage games to build speed with skills. I found Logic Blitz and Stimulus X-Ray especially helpful.
Thank you. Congrats on the 177! It's reassuring to know that they might respond at some point, although I'll obviously plan for the worst case scenario. I reached out to another professor whose class's grade was entirely essay-based and sent over some of my work, so maybe that'll pan out, but he's recently retired, so I'm not holding my breath.