Lindsey, I truly admire your persistence. I am also going through such a similar situation with you, so I wanted to share my story in hoping that we can cheer each other up! I started 7 Sage back in 2017 December, with the initial self testing score of 142. Since then, I've been on and off studying LSAT with my full time job. I also have a young daughter who still needs much of my care and time. However, with the on/off study of CC and some PTs, I encountered the same question you have raised. It was how would I know when to transit into the next step whether it'd be the untimed test or the full timed test. For me, what has been more effective is, instead of going back to CC to try to fully understand the foundation of the question type, I do untimed 1 PT/ week. It's been almost 2 months now, and I started to realizing my strengths and weaknesses by analyzing and reviewing my correct/incorrect questions (BR). From there, you may need to go back to CC section for your weakness question types. Although I have not seen the super increase on my scores, at least, I understand my current ability and be able to set my realistic goals to moving forward. My realistic goal is to take the LSAT in November and striving for 2021 admission. I think that as long as we persist and continue study to achieve our set goals, we should be able to find ways to make it there.

Best wishes to you, Lindsey!

#help

From this explanation, JY said that there is a subtle assumption hidden in the first sentence. Do I have to consciously make assumptions on each sentence when I approach weakening or any other argumentative question types? Like JY, I have no knowledge or experience about motor oil serving the lubricate engines in this case. Does anybody have any good strategy when it comes to making more efforts or assumptions on topics beyond my knowledge?

Correction- PT 50-4-4 LR, not PT40.

#help

PT-40-4-4 LR

I am confused with "after all" being in a conclusion sentence. Can anybody help parsing this stimulus?

I thought "after all" is a premise indicator. However, I've seen that "after all" being used in a conclusion sentence as in this question- PT40-4-4. For me, when I parsed this passage out, I got the OPA - the contextual part, then, I felt that "But this conclusion is absurd" sounded more like an author's conclusion. Then, I was pretty sure that "it follows that censorship is not, after all, wrong in itself" was a premise. Paraphrasing these two sentences, "the claim that OPA (other people's argument) made is absurd (conclusion) because that censorship is not wrong after all (premise)."

Please help me correct my errors in parsing this argument.

Much thanks in advance!

Wow, I give you a lot of credit for studying full time and having a 2 week old baby !!!! That must be chaotic for me if I have to do that. I try to manage my family and studying life at an equal value and it actually works out for me. I study full time from 8 am to 4pm and having my time with my family in the evening. I have a cousin who just had a baby boy not even a week ago, and I see her sleepless hours to watch the baby : ( So I know how hard it is to watch a baby and do your own studying simultaneously. You are very inspiring !! Best of luck to your June LSAT and congratulations for your baby !!!

I am going through the same hardship as you -! I have been studying almost 5 months but haven't seen much visual improvement. Well, often I'm telling myself lets just get a decent job and it would be fine still. However, what keeps me coming back to my desk is that I really want to go to the law school. If you think you are going through the burn out stage, just take a deep breath and think about why do you want to study for this. Going back to the fundamental reason why you have started this journey will give you the motivation to reboot your study mode. That's what I'm doing right now, and I think it's working for me. Hope you the best -!

I am so glad that I joined this community! 7 sage is not a mere course material for the LSAT, but it has a great community that shares amazing stories and encouragement constantly! There are many times that I feel like I want to give up on this test, but I don't think I can ever do that because I keep reading these inspirational messages that make me keep going -!

@amhawks84508 You are awesome !

Wow congratulations!!!! Thank you for sharing this!

@gregoryalexanderdevine723 said:

@rahelaalam514

Couldn't agree more with @amhawks84508 !

I think you're probably burning out, especially if you're doing 10 hours a day. I think 10 hours a day is actually fine for some people, but I don't think it's sustainable long term, or even for 5 days a week. I've personally found that studying between 4-6 hours is when I'm most productive. I also work best when I break my study sessions up into 1 or 2 hour chunks.

I also highly suggest taking a break. Even if it's just for a couple of days, you'd be surprised what a little time away from the test can do for you. It's funny, but most of my major improvements and breakthroughs have come after breaks I've taken... and I've taken lots of them over the course of my study.

What exactly are you having issues with regarding LR and RC? Is it the language itself that you're having a bit of a hard time understanding? Or would you say it's more of the questions themselves/the tasks you're being asked to do?

Hey ALEX,

Yes good questions.. only issue that i could think of was that i haven't really read books in my entire life... but I know that I really want to make it through and be prepare myself to be a lawyer.. that is my goal.. and I want to believe that it is doable... : (

@7sagestudentservices said:

It is much better to spread your prep out over a long period of time than try to do it swiftly at an unsustainable pace. Think about how classes are scheduled. People take several classes at once, but they are stretched out for at least a semester. We choose this instead of doing each class for a month because you need time inbetween to learn.

I have nothing against a ten hour LSAT day, if that ten hours lets you take a break for the next day. But, doing that to yourself every day of the week can't work, last, or help.

Thank you! I appreciate your advice ! I think I'm even getting used to this studying pattern since i have been doing it for these past months... I can tolerate the long hours of sitting down on a chair for 10 hours, but it is absolutely not okay about me not picking up those LR and RC sections... this process is really devastating...

@7sagestudentservices said:

Please don't make titles with all caps. I'm sensitive and don't like to be yelled at. :(

Sorry ! I wont do it again :wink:

@amhawks84508 said:

FYI you haven't mastered LG. If it's taking you over 35 minutes then you're not an expert with LG. With an hour, most can bruteforce to the right answer.

You were right, I haven't mastered LG yet!! Just took another prep set and got 6 wrong in 50 min. Feeling more discouraged.....

@rahelaalam514 said:

@rahelaalam514 said:

OKAY, I have been almost mastered my LG skills and have been getting the 100% with untimed pts (under 1 hour ). And most of the time, the wrong answers were from my small mistakes.

Great! The little mistakes that you do make under time will stop with the right form. Seems like you are on the right track.

HOWEVER, I am completely lost with LR & RC. Yes, maybe it is because my reading skills are sucks to comprehend or to make an inference from the passage? I can admit that I was never a reader, never really enjoyed reading, but what can I do ? I have no choice since I want to go to the law school and become a lawyer.

I think a good question to ask is do you want to be a lawyer? Lawyers do a lot of reading and although you don't have to have the best time reading things you don't want it to be feeling awful either. I think life is too short to have a profession that you are not going to be happy doing.

One thing that recently @rahelaalam514 told me was how he looked at each passage as an opportunity to learn. This actually made RC much more enjoyable to him. At the end of each passage you can always ask yourself - what did this passage teach me?

I have been studying for almost 2 months, 5 days a week, almost 10 hours a day at the library, but LR and RC are killing me.... It's really painful to see myself just staring at the passages and not even understanding or cant even comprehend with the questions or answer choices.... I really believed that I have been studying so hard but I don't see any improvement on those two sections..

Well it does take time. I think RC strategies are a bit easier than LR, just because LR can have so many argument forms. But keep at it.

For RC start with untimed passages. After reading each paragraph write down your low resolution summaries, at the end see if you can write down based on memory all the low resolution summaries. Then for each question write down what each question is asking from you and why each answer choice is wrong vs right. Compare it to JY's video and see how you can improve on the next passage.

For LR, do the same. Write down a summary of the argument, what the questions is asking you to do and why each answer choice is right vs wrong. Compare it again with JY's video explanations.

Doing it this way is tedious. But at least initially where people have a lot to learn it can have huge payoffs.

Your question hit me so hard.. so bad.. all day I have thought about it, but yes I do want to be a lawyer, it didn't change my mind.. but the cruel thing is that... like you said.. lawyers do a lot of reading............. : ( Thank you Sami, for your great advice ! I wont give up until I make it there !!

@amhawks84508 said:

@rahelaalam514 said:

OKAY, I have been almost mastered my LG skills and have been getting the 100% with untimed pts (under 1 hour ). And most of the time, the wrong answers were from my small mistakes. HOWEVER, I am completely lost with LR & RC. Yes, maybe it is because my reading skills are sucks to comprehend or to make an inference from the passage? I can admit that I was never a reader, never really enjoyed reading, but what can I do ? I have no choice since I want to go to the law school and become a lawyer. I have been studying for almost 2 months, 5 days a week, almost 10 hours a day at the library, but LR and RC are killing me.... It's really painful to see myself just staring at the passages and not even understanding or cant even comprehend with the questions or answer choices.... I really believed that I have been studying so hard but I don't see any improvement on those two sections..

Any advice to save my poor life : (

Your life is over...just kidding. Ok, so to get better at LR means you need to do a ton of LR problems. After you finish a problem or problem set since you're an Ultimate + member, and make sure you're doing the problems un-timed, sit down and find out what the premises are and what is the conclusion. Understand what the argument core is trying to say, and if it is flawed (hint- they usually are). If you don't understand, write out what the argument was trying to do, and write out what the answer choices do to the argument.

You're also spending 10 hours a day. It sounds like your brain is overloading and on the verge of shutting down. A complete shut down of the brain is bad as you will need to reboot your brain with a new operating system. I suggest Windows 10 or OS High Sierra. But in all seriousness, you are killing yourself studying this much. You need to now take a 3 week vacation away from the LSAT and find a good book to read that is salacious and requires minimal amounts of thinking or reasoning.

I know @gregoryalexanderdevine723 says that studying for the LSAT requires a ton of hours, but you cannot go from playing HORSE to the NBA. By putting thousands of hours into HORSE, you only get good at playing HORSE. Now, you just need to learn your jump shot.

Take a vacation from the LSAT for a while. The test is not going anywhere. Law school is not going anywhere. Your dreams are not going anywhere. So don't fret, give yourself a break, then come back with a plan to tackle LR and RC, and studying at most, 4 hours a day.

Thank you Adam for your advice !

I did study again for another 10 hours today 8AM-5PM struggling with those LR and RC and another hour in this evening with LG. But I clearly see that doing so is not so efficient since I haven't really figured out to understand those difficult readings. Do you know any hmmm maybe easier books you would recommend while that could help me develop my reading skills??

I chose accounting degree because I thought it was going to help me get a stable job plus financial independence right after the college. Regardless, while I was in my last semester to graduate, I realized that the accounting degree would bring me neither of my satisfactions. If I wanted to get both money and a stable job, I had to go for at least a medium size firm. Fortunately I did get a job offer at one of the medium size cpa firms, but they expected me to work for 50+ hours a week which was not going to happen since I am a single mother. I felt so lost. what ive learned from this experience was that one must approach their future or career life in a meticulous manner. Planning, analyzing, and forecasting of the future will definitely help one to be succeed way quicker without going around or falling into a trap. But in reality, not many people can do this including myself...!! Anyways, I made a hard choice to go for the law school and here I am now with 7sage! fingers crossed !

"I will say this the schools don't teach about money and how to manage it. I mean the high schools and colleges don't teach about money and how to manage it. They create employees with an employee mentality and create a bunch of debtors. The schools don't want you to learn how to manage money. If they did, they go bust." Thank you for mentioning this!! It is a critical factor that every working class family must recognize, but unfortunately only a few do. For those who do will be the ones who can be able to take the opportunity to stop their poverty tfor their next generations..how should we solve this problem?

Can anybody explain the difference between A and D? I don't get it how A could be wrong if D is the correct answer choice when they are basically saying the same thing that people who have pets are happier. Only thing i see the difference is that they have different modifiers some and most before people.

So what was the main point statement in the stimulus?