Maybe it is a symptom of our generation's tendency for instant gratification but does anyone else feel like the next three weeks are going to drag on forever??? I can't believe it's only been a little over a day since we took the January exam. What are you people doing to pass the time? It feels weird not having to do drills and PTs anymore...
Congrats from another 169'er! Best possible score you can get. Way more fun than a 170.
I have a question relating to an experience I'm sure many of you have experienced. I started PT'ing in the late 30's and 40's and my score increasingly went up, starting from mid-160's to a high of 170. Then I decided to take PT 78 and my score dropped to a 163. I made the jump because I'm taking the exam in July and wanted to do fresher PTs.
For those of you whose scores dropped from PTs in the 40's to those in the 70's, what did you notice were the patterns that made the questions more difficult, and what strategies did you use to get your scores back up?
I'll be turning 29 in my 1L starting this fall! Like @ , I decided to switch careers for something that fits my skill set and interests. I hope my past experience will be an asset when it comes to OCIs and looking for work. If anything, it helped me become a more focused and mature individual. I don't think I would have gone to law school with the same mindset at 22 and straight out of undergrad. I definitely wouldn't have been able to be as persistent with the LSAT lol.
@ said:
I'm assuming you're in the US, I'm on the same boat, however, if it is less than154 I would cancel. I don't know how it is in the US, but here in Canada they get the average of your LSAT scores and anything less than a 154 won't get you into any law schools. I would personally, worst case scenario cancel if you score really low and do it again in September to have some time to apply to schools in the fall. That gives you about 2 months to practice practice practice. The higher your LSAT score the more likely you will qualify for scholarships, and you have a good GPA. Also, congrats on being first generation to pursue post-secondary education, same here. You should feel proud!
The only school in Canada that averages LSAT is the University of Alberta and McGill, every other Canadian law school that considers the LSAT takes your highest score.
Is timing an issue at all? I found ,in addition to my blind review, that working on skipping strategies and timing really paid off. It took awhile to hone my instincts on when to cut losses and move on. I also drilled hard LR questions I was weak on (flaw, parallel flaw, NA, etc.)
From what I've seen, Canadian law schools aren't that receptive to splitters (ie. high LSAT, low GPA). The most a law school would consider your LSAT is for 50% of admissions, the other 50% being GPA. Some law schools are reverse-splitter friendly where they weigh GPA much more than LSAT.
I think the most splitter friendly schools are UBC and UVic as they weigh GPA and LSAT equally. A high LSAT could compensate for a weaker GPA. You may also have a chance at other law schools if you had special circumstances that affected your GPA. Then you could try applying through the discretionary category.
@, keep your chin up and have faith. I know the waiting sucks but just like the LSAT, you gotta believe that things will fall into place. Sending out positive vibes to you!
Congrats!!! Wishing you all the best!
Lol we should make a 7Sage study group for 1L!
I would totally retake. I also got a 169 but that was on the upper end of my PTs and my second take. I found the second time around I was much less nervous and things just clicked better. I know it sucks, but it's another three months of studying.
Headed to the University of British Columbia in Canada - my target school! I'll be in the same class as @! Any other UBC/Canadian folks here?
If you can afford it, go with Ultimate +. The access to all the PTs is invaluable.
Congratulations!!!
It took me a little over a year but I took breaks of a few months here and there so I think total study time was around 10 months. 25 PTs, fool-proofed LG 1-35. I didn't take a diagnostic but I assume it would have been in the low 150's. Final score was 169.
I worked full time while studying for the LSAT so I have never experienced full-time studying for this test, but I don't think I'd be able to do it. I actually made the most gains when I scaled back and just focused on strategy and timing. I think in the last three months before my second test, I only studied an hour each day and about 6 hours total over the weekend. Mind you, my actual score was a point shy of 170 lol.
What are your blind review scores? If they are in the mid 170's, your understanding is probably fine but you just need more practice. Also, what is your score breakdown? I focused on areas I was weaker on during my drills.
In your situation, I would pick option B.
Congratulations on your success and best of luck in law school!
Big ink and the paper industry. I was doing Sping cleaning and probably recycled a small forest. Will take the bus for the next five years to make up for it (and to save $$$).
Congratulations! Love reading success stories.
I got my LSAT score today, and writing another thank you post! 7Sage really works if you combine it with hard work and dedication.
I haven't participated in the discussion forums much but I have read a lot of your posts. During my studies what kept me going was hearing people's struggles and success stories. Today I'm sharing mine. The LSAT didn't come naturally to me. My first diagnostic four years ago was somewhere in the low 150's. I studied for 4 months and gave up, deciding that I would pursue a career in Accounting instead. While my chosen profession gave me lots of room to grow and provided a comfortable salary, I always had this feeling that I wasn't satisfied and something was missing. I felt like I had given up on my dream.
When I turned 27, I asked myself if I would be happy being an accountant until I retired; the answer was a resounding "NO". So I made a promise to myself that that year I would take the LSAT. I gave myself a year to study thinking I'll have lots of time. In reality, it took more than a year to do this while holding a full-time job that can at times be demanding. The journey was also not as linear as I thought. There were many times where I thought I had good grasp of the test only to have another weak area come out of the woodwork.
For those of you wondering what my process was after the CC, I fool-proofed logic games using Pacifico's method on PTs 1-35 then started doing timed PTs once a week and blind-reviewing. This only got me so far because my issue was timing - I had difficulty getting to all of the questions in 35 minutes, especially for LG and LR. So I focused on honing my skills on these two sections by developing habits that I know would help me get through the questions faster. For LG, I split the gameboard whenever possible. Even if I didn't have all the worlds figured out, being able to focus on just one or two sub gameboards helped immensely. I also did "if" questions first and left MBT/MBF/CBT questions to the end. There are also situations where you just need to crunch out a world fast and it's better to just do it rather than stare at the question for a minute trying to find an "easy way out". For LR, I learned to recognize when to skip questions. This sounds way simpler than it actually is. I had to do over 10 PTs before I had a good sense when a question was just taking too long and it was better to skip. I also drilled specific types of questions that constantly tripped me up and wrote detailed responses to the logic behind the right answer and the logic behind why the wrong answers were wrong.
By November 2018 I felt like I was ready. I was PT'ing in the 165-168 range. When I took the November exam it felt great, everything went smoothly and I thought it was a pretty easy test. So when I got a 164 I was devastated. I felt like I had been deceived because the test felt so easy. I reviewed my responses and realized I got a lot of easy questions wrong. I'm not sure if it was nerves or if I was just careless. For the next two months I kept on doing timed sections and fine-tuning those test-taking habits.
When I sat for the January 2019 test, it felt worse than November. Despite all my efforts I felt really rushed and one experimental RC (which I thought was real) really crushed me. I ended up not finishing the LG section and one LR section, blindly guessing on three questions. I was ready to cancel my score because I was sure I did worse but I kept reminding myself that the admissions committee only looks at your highest score. So even if I did do worse, I still had a 164. I got the email this morning on my way to work and I had to resist immediately opening it until I got to my office. I was shocked to see my score of 169! Out of the 27 PT's I took in the past year I only scored above 168 on four of them. And considering I missed three questions, I was not expecting this.
I credit my improvement on a few factors. The long study period definitely helped. As others have mentioned, this test is like a marathon. You cannot cram for it. I found doing one PT a week and reviewing for 1-2 hours every day helped solidify the logic to a point where I don't need to think about it much. Practice is key, especially with logic games. Do as many as you can as often and consistently as possible. I found even taking a one or two week break significantly affected my performance. Reading comprehension was always my strongest section so I didn't focus too much on this as I started off getting on average 3-4 questions wrong.
Lastly, my advice is to have faith. The path to progress is not always linear and that's okay. Find what works for you and makes you improve. I know how devastating it can be to study so much and work so hard only to get the same score or do worse than before, but each wrong answer is a chance for you to do better. If you change your outlook and frame of mind it can pay dividends.
I wish the best of luck to all future LSAT students and prospective lawyers. I'll be (hopefully) heading to my top-choice law school in Canada this September and want to thank 7Sage and this community for being supportive throughout this whole process. Even though I studied alone, it never really felt that way because of all of you. Thank you.
I assume a 173 LSAT would still be competitive for Chicago even without having had cancer...
Congrats! That's amazing!
I would have loved to know that 7Sage is a tool, and that the core-curriculum makes up maybe 15% of your studying. The rest is from practice tests, blind review, learning from your mistakes, fine-tuning your strategy and repeat. I would also have loved to know that at some point, understanding the theory and fundamentals isn't going to give any more returns and you should focus instead on timing strategies and practice.
Hey guys, so this November test highlighted that I need to drill LR more. I focused so much on LG and RC that I may have brushed over my weaknesses in LR (which is usually my stronger section). I analyzed my errors and the most common question types I got wrong are flaw, MSS, resolve, and to a lesser extent parallel flaw.
Now that I've identified the question types I need to focus on, how do you guys drill to get the improvements? Do you time yourself? Blind review after? And what do you do with the questions you got wrong to not make the same mistake/recognize the pattern next time? Also, do you find drilling LR by question type useful as opposed to doing whole LR sections?
@ said:
UBC Vs Osgoode (or even UT for that matter) came down to a few key factors.
Location
I wanted to work in the westcoast vs GTA. It's where I grew up and it's where I intend to live for the foreseeable future.
Cost
UBC's tuition vs Osgoode and UT is a significant factor in this decision.
#westcoastbestcoast! UBC FTW!
I found doing dishes right after you finish eating helps so that it doesn't just lie in the sink for days. I also scheduled chores into my calendar along with exercise, social and relaxation time. It's important that you have a life outside of work and the LSAT; I was most productive when I had a balance of my own life and studying. I think this is important for not burning out.
Games are not my strongest section. Even after fool proofing and practicing for months I still get -2 to -4 but I've found what works for me is:
Doing the first question as I write out the rules
Split if possible/write out any inferences that become obvious
Do local questions to fish out any additional inferences and make modifications to my master game board accordingly
Global questions
You'll need to really do some soul-searching and find out if you want to be a lawyer or not. I had the same dilemma in 2015. I started studying for the LSAT for a few months then stopped as I was getting nowhere and then got promoted in my Accounting job. So I decided to stick with Accounting and do my CPA instead. Fast forward three years later and the thought of law school kept coming back to me. When I turned 28, I decided it was now or never, and if I wanted to be a lawyer I wasn't going to let some stupid test get in my way. Once you have that resolve, I think you can start to buckle down and study. I say this because you'll hit walls where your score remains stagnant for weeks or months and you'll need it most during those times.
If you're looking into public interest work, I would go with the option that minimizes the amount of debt you take on. From my understanding, prestige isn't as big of a factor for public interest compared to something like big law.