I'm there! Thank you @ for organizing and putting this together :)

Really enjoyed the article! I'm a huge HP fan myself-- constantly rereading the books over and over again and finding something new that I love about the series each time.

Congrats on the piece!

@ I've only gotten it a couple of times when the pain was really really bad. For the most part, I just try to take a lot of breaks, stretch, and lacrosse ball. And sorry, I haven't tried the chiro yet but I think it's probably worth giving different things a shot because pain can be super distracting when you're trying to study and focus for a long periods of time. Best of luck!!

@ @ yay!! I'm so glad they help! :) Studying for the LSAT can definitely be tough if our physical bodies aren't 100%. I recently slipped down the stairs and injured my tailbone and you won't believe how much of a struggle it's been trying to study-- definitely took something so small like being able to sit upright for granted...

@ said:

So I am going to jump in here. I know LSAC has a school report they have on each institution which includes GPA and LSAT averages. Is there a way to obtain these numbers?

I tried looking up mean GPA's but I got a ton different numbers; I wasn't sure which one was the most reliable.

I had the same issue but I found that you can actually see this via your LSAC account! Go: Apply -> Credentials -> Transcripts -> "Academic Summary Report" (on the right hand side). I may or may not be wrong but I think? this is the report that adcoms get to see

There's a row in that report that says "GPA College Mean" which shows you "the average GPA for law school candidates who graduated at any time period from the institution and who registered for the Credential Assembly Service during the most recent three years you attended the school. There must be a minimum of 50 candidates in the LSAC database to produce this calculation."

^this is taken directly from the key to that Academic Summary report: https://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/prelaw/keytotheonlineacademicsummaryreport.pdf

I also have a take from the LSAT so I'm not sure if they only produce this report after you have LSAT and transcript on record. But hopefully this helps!

Ah I see. Thanks for your response @ ! And I would love for you to make some kind of webinar/ discord discussion about this-- I would definitely be there :)

@ said:

Lastly, something I've noticed that that when they ask for author viewpoint or opinion on something it usually can be cited from one or two sentences, This is random, but I used to think I had to synthesize the main points or the paragraph and do much more than necessary to answer these certain questions. In sum, there's are a lot of little things that make getting better at RC very doable.

Really interesting that you point that out! I'm really trying to work on my RC and notice that I often miss the inference (author would most likely agree with) questions. Do you think you can provide a little bit more insight into how you approach these? And some of those 'little things' that helped you improve your RC?

I took a Kaplan course a few years ago when I first toyed with the idea of going to law school-- there weren't a lot of prep courses to choose from back then and near my campus. To be quite honest... I wouldn't recommend it at all.

The way they teach you is not intuitive at all. They also told us that the max most of their students increase by is around 10- 12 points. I don't think they provide you with the proper mindset and approach to studying (telling you only need 3 months to prep). They also only have you take 3-4 practice tests throughout your time with them, which I think is definitely not enough exposure to the actual thing. Granted that was my own experience... so definitely do your own research and take it all with a grain of salt. I've been super happy to be apart of the 7Sage community and I highly recommend it. Check out some of their free Logic Games explanation (that's how I first found them too and was immediately sold) and see how you feel about it! 7Sage also has a community of tutors you can reach out to as well. Good luck!

This Q ended up being a major time sink for me and during timed I was able to eliminate a couple right off the bat and then I ended up picking B by gut instinct and moving on. BR was when I was able to fully understand why B was the correct MBF answer choice (POE also helped). A major part of getting this Q right is navigating the overload of convoluted information/language, and parsing out the different groups to have a firm understanding of what information you have at hand and from there what could be true.

So glad you're feeling better about the exam-- burnout is a real problem and I've definitely experienced it before so it's wonderful to hear that you took the much needed time off for yourself. I'm sure you'll jump back into it with much more enthusiasm and focus!

@ said:

I can't think of the practical utility value for the LG (which is why it is my least favorite section (well, also I am generally bad at it) ), but nevermind, I guess even LG has its practical value; it makes me a disciplined thinker, training me to think step by step. I am a pretty intuitive thinker and not necessarily the most disciplined one. I think it helps me work on my weakness to be a better thinker overall.

As for LG being applicable in real life... sometimes I laugh to myself when my family tries to organize ourselves around the family dinner table and it just reminds me of a real life LG :lol: Trying to make everyone happy at the dinner table is always a challenge...this kid wants to sit next to that kid, but that kid is a child and needs help eating so she needs to be next to her mom etc.

@ said:

I’m considering the Ultimate+ package, which takes significantly longer to complete, based on the sample schedules. I can’t do 20 hr study weeks, as I work and commute between cities. 10-12 hr. per week is more reasonable for me. And I don’t want to rush through or cram.

Do you recommend the Ultimate as a first step? Or should I start with Premium first and upgrade, if needed. I would like the more difficult test questions included. However, I’m not sure if that’s necessarily worth the money, if there are explanations for all the PT questions.

So sorry for the delay in response! I'd really recommend the Ultimate package! The 7Sage curriculum and materials have been invaluable to my studies so far. This is coming from someone who has tried Kaplan (don't do it) and various other self study books (powerscore, trainer). I find myself returning to 7Sage over and over again, whether it's to review the core foundational topics or using the analytics and taking advantage of the full explanations for all the problems. I understand money is a really personal thing for each person but if you can, I'd really suggest getting the maximum for what you can afford-- the way I see it is that the money for LSAT prep will be a drop in the bucket in comparison to how much money you might save with going to a top school/scholarships etc. Best of luck and I hope to see you around on the 7Sage forums :)

Aww congrats!! Your child's going have a great lawyer dad to look up to :)

This is a MSS question.

Classic cookie cutter structure of "some people believe X and this is their evidence. But instead, their evidence actually show something else. Therefore, the evidence isn't that great for X" which is exactly what AC (E) says.

During timed, I was unable to fully comprehend what was happening in this question, I was too bogged down by the content to see the cookie cutter structure. I ended up skipping this Q which was a good call. During BR, I struggled with seeing the significance of the 'similar nests' portion (where the author is conceding that yes, similar evidence exists) and how it's actually a great way to weaken the paleontologists' argument. This is because the argument ("but similar nests..) doesn't really directly attack the P and say oh there's no such nest, but rather saying that yes there's a similar nest but that doesn't mean it's doing what you originally thought it does... basically saying that the evidence is crapshoot.

Great Q for me to come back to really understand that weakening structure

Interested as well! Just recently decided to jump off the June LSAT train.

Agree with what most other people have said about the 4th take.

Just wanted to chime in on the neck tension issue. Since you've gotten spinal taps and mutiple CT scans I'd check to see if it was a muscular issue. It might not be a neck related injury, but more of a shoulder or upper back strain or severely tense muscles (they're ll connected and you'd be surprise how they can cause pain in various other areas-- I've even gotten tension headaches from my neck injury before). I'm not sure where your neck pain might come from but I strained my neck/shoulder area from bench pressing and since then it's been a constant annoyance especially when I'm trying to study. At one point it was so bad I couldn't make it through a full PT and had to take pain killers in order to sit through a full PT. But I've realized that this isn't sustainable or healthy in the long term (how are we suppose to make it through law school and law school exams with neck pain?!?) so I've started to really figure out ways to alleviate this.

I started getting physical therapy, with a combination of acupuncture and cupping which has helped tremendously! I've also started becoming more aware of my posture and try to stretch and foam roll/lacrosse ball several times a day. I now carry a lacrosse ball with me in my bookbag whenever I head off to the library because I find my shoulders and neck tensing up really badly when I study for long periods of time.

Check out some of these videos-- they've been super helpful for me:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVUwvdjAt0J/?taken-by=lustrengththerapy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVAI4PCAwkf/?taken-by=lustrengththerapy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpkF3pB00e/?taken-by=dr.jacob.harden

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSccw-wBZzc/?taken-by=dr.jacob.harden

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTIPy7wA7An/?taken-by=quaddoc

Best of luck, hopefully this helps a little and you won't have to suffer from neck pain anymore!

I also wipe my first take clean and input my retake analytics-- I'll make note of it in the little 'info' section and write down that it's a retake and the date of the original take. I usually take a screenshot of my analytics before I wipe it clean though. I also keep the physical copy of the first take so I can look at the differences between the first and second take. And just like @ I also cut out the ones that seem to give me trouble time and time again (tape them on index cards and on the other side write out detailed explanations and key take aways so hopefully I'll never get something like that wrong again).

I also recently started a spreadsheet as a PT inventory (gotta make sure I have enough clean ones!), keeping track of the dates of the takes, and I'm thinking about putting my analytics in as well just for retake tracking purposes.

@ said:

@ said:

In the end I will burn it all.

Patiently awaiting this day

I also cannot wait for this day. Major family camping trip planned for this ;)

Missed this one during timed because I was too quick to eliminate B, thinking it was irrelevant and not paying enough attention to the first line of this stimulus. It makes sense why B is a MBT because the first line provides that everyone is allowed at the pool sometime during each day, and so there must be a time available for that child under the age of 6 which would be before noon (since we know about the rest of the hours and who's allowed and not allowed to be there based on the 2nd and 3rd sentence fo the stim)). I also struggled with eliminating E and got trapped by the test writers. It can't be E because we don't know much about the child that swims before 5PM-- is he or she under 6? We don't know so it can't be a MBT

@ said:

@ said:

Wow! This thread is incredible-- perfect timing since so many of us are taking the test this weekend.

I've worked a little bit in employment law before and I was definitely surprised at how interesting it was! I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would haha

As for me, I knew in college that I was interested in law but it wasn't until I volunteered and taught in a maximum security prison (it's definitely not something you can unsee/undo) that I really got interested in prison and drug policy reform. Not sure where I'll end up after law school, but I know eventually one day I want to get back into that kind of work.

I've worked in employment law as a paralegal for about 4.5 years total (first with farmworkers, now general employment, with a focus on immigrant workers who are victims of wage theft and expungements. Criminal records are a barrier to employment, so we try to eliminate those barriers and advocate with employers who won't hire people due to the criminal records. Sounds like this maybe right up your alley!) I'm sick of being a paralegal and want to be able to handle cases on my own. I like what I'm doing, but it can be frustrating not be able to do things because I am not an attorney.

Wow! I actually never even thought about that intersection! I think it'd would definitely be fascinating and fulfilling work! I've stayed involved with prison education and other related things since and have found that barriers to employment/re-entry is a huge issue that these guys face when they come out. Now I'm definitely going to keep that in mind when I go to law school

Wow! This thread is incredible-- perfect timing since so many of us are taking the test this weekend.

I've worked a little bit in employment law before and I was definitely surprised at how interesting it was! I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would haha

As for me, I knew in college that I was interested in law but it wasn't until I volunteered and taught in a maximum security prison (it's definitely not something you can unsee/undo) that I really got interested in prison and drug policy reform. Not sure where I'll end up after law school, but I know eventually one day I want to get back into that kind of work.

Sounds like you've already done some research in terms of job prospects and what the law school application process would look like, and made a smart decision for yourself to take some time off--so props for that :)

As you mentioned, you'd need killer recs, a great personal statement and addendums etc. But what I'd recommend is putting in A LOT of effort into your LSAT. I'm sure you know this already but your LSAT and GPA are the biggest determinants for law school acceptances. Since at this point, your GPA is already set and can't be changed, why not put in the appropriate time and effort into something so important? And remember, it is possible to improve greatly on the LSAT with the appropriate foundation and prep!! With a solid LSAT you can even potentially look past T3/T4 schools (which would increase your options, job networks etc) and even if that's not what you want, a great LSAT can help with scholarships from schools as well. There have definitely been splitters from 7Sage who are in T14 schools now. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck on your law school admissions journey-- we're all in this together!

Aww thanks @. This is why I'm so grateful to have the 7sage community! (3(/p)

I really gotta channel my inner JY when I'm going through these reading passages. Listening to him go through the passage so was interesting and entertaining!

Happy Monday ya'll! Hope everyone's having a solid start to their week :)

Just wanted to check in. I had a 'you should just take the test already/don't keep pushing your test date' moment from a family member this morning. Even though I know though I want to only take the test when I'm ready, I still had that small nagging voice in the back of my head that I should listen to them. So I did what I thought was the best thing I needed to do in that moment...I held my own, told her off, and then came to this thread to reassure/ground myself hahaha

Now off to some more studying and a PT later today!

@ oh my gosh... that sounds terrible!! I hope you have a super speedy recovery---definitely take a break when you need it! And no pictures for me..I'm good =X

As for LG, I usually try to watch the game right after I do it the first time/BR. Then I do another copy. I usually try to do another attempt the next day, checking for time and accuracy, and then another a few days/ week later. Rinse and repeat until I'm good to go on all aspects. If I'm behind on time or accuracy at any point, I'll rewatch his video (sometimes only the board setup, sometimes the whole thing).

I read this a few days ago and it was absolutely terrifying! Really shows how complex and multifaceted the problem is.