So, I'm faced with a dilemma. I scored a 169 on the June LSAT but I really badly wanted a 170+ on my exam. My 169 is nice because it still puts me in the 97th percentile on my score report, and, coupled with my GPA, it's really strong for 9 out of the T14 schools. My top choice is Duke, which is an easy target for me, but I am a sucker for prestige and I want to be in the 99th percentile if for no other reason than that I am massively insecure. I'm afraid to retake, though, because I think that a high score with a single take looks pretty strong on an application, and I had two amazing sections that schools will likely notice, which could compensate for my bad RC section in the minds of some admissions officers. (My score breakdown was -6 RC (ugh), -1 LR (25/26), -3 LR (22/25), and -0 LG, for what is typically a high raw score of 91/101.)

If I retake, I run the risk of weakening my application, since it will be difficult for me to improve from where I scored on the two 'easier' section types. I also don't know if I can muster up the ambition to study RC intensively for two months in an effort to guarantee a section score increase. Also, I've increased my score from a diagnostic of 146 over the course of 10-11 months, so I'm a bit tired of the LSAT, if I'm being honest. As much as I want a 170+, I don't know if the potential rewards of a retake outweigh the risks.

What do you guys think? Should I retake or am I being too much of a Type A?

(Please don't misunderstand me: I really am proud of my score and I know that many would kill to have it.)

I'm studying for the Sept test right now (will be my first test) but I want to apply this cycle. I know I should be working on my personal statement and my diversity statement but I'm really bad at multi-tasking and I worry that writing while studying at the same time might distract me from fully concentrating on the test.

Would it be too late to start on the personal statement and the diversity statement immediately after I take the Sept LSAT? Would the admissions course on 7sage help me with this?

Just finished rough drafts for my DS and PS and would love to exchange essays for edits with anyone who is interested! :)

Hey guys,

Due to an unforeseen conflict, I won’t be able to host the sessions and have cancelled the call for tomorrow night.

My apologies for last minute notice and wish you all the best as you continue in the curriculum!!

Hi guys! I was wondering if anyone had experience or knowledge regarding how/if the LSAC calculates AP credit in with GPA.

The website says that it will factor in if your university gives credit and counts the grade. My university gives credit, but I don't think it uses those credits in GPA calculation. Does anyone know of situations where AP scores have been taken into account? Could I potentially transfer universities/enroll in an additional one and apply under it to have my AP scores factored in?

Much Appreciated!

,

Hi all,

I'm retaking the LSAT in September, and am trying to get together a study plan. I'm thinking I'll take one PT a week, go over one section per day afterwards, and have two days to rest/work on the soft parts of applications. I'm shooting for a 5 point increase, which I believe is doable (I underscored on the LSAT in June). Does anybody else have thoughts/strategies for retaking? I know I should review the CC for the parts of the exam I'm weak on, but I'm not quite sure what to do beyond just the PT per week.

Thoughts?

Hi friends,

This is sort of a weird question, but I'm sure some of you have had similar experiences, and any advice would really help me out!

I guess I'm a nontraditional applicant in that I graduated in 2015. Since then I've been working, traveling, and making sure I actually wanted to apply to law school (I do, hooray). I was pretty successful in college, but I sort of distanced myself from my school after graduation because I was turned off by several political and social decisions being made by the administration. This is to say that I didn't do a great job of keeping in touch with my professors.

The problem is, I spent a year and a half working with one professor on my Honors History Thesis, for which I ended up winning the highest departmental awards. I viewed it as an accomplishment for both of us! He has since left my undergrad, and the school has no idea where he went. I ended up emailing one of his colleagues who asked him if it would be okay if I got in touch with him, and he said yes. I've emailed him four or five times over the last three months, to no avail. Aside from worrying about him, I'm selfishly frustrated because he was the person who knew me and my work best, and I'm afraid it will reflect poorly on me if 'honors thesis' is plastered all over my resume and then no recommendation from my advisor appears.

I have a great employer rec coming in, as well as one from a dean with whom I worked closely, and I've asked another professor who I feel pretty good about but perhaps not great. I'm aiming for a T14, and I think my GPA and softs stack up (I'm sitting in September). I would hate to miss my shot because I can't find this one guy!

Has anyone else lost their best recommender? Is this something that would be worth trying to explain, or would that be seen as making excuses/make me sound insane?

Thanks team, and seriously, good luck to everyone out there, especially those of you who've taken weird convoluted paths!!

So I time all my problem sets at the standard per question time provided by the LSAT. Typically by the time I'm about halfway into the problem sets for any given question type, I'm getting most questions correct and finishing on time. I'm midway through the MBT/MBF problem sets and having a bit of trouble. My accuracy has increased substantially, I'm getting everything right, but I'm not hitting the timing on the harder problem sets (Problem Set 6 and above out of 9). How concerned should I be about this? Do I just continue to drill and BR until I'm hitting my goal times or should I re-do the lesson?

Hi everyone,

I just signed up for the 3 month package a couple days ago, and I worked through the curriculum up until the point where it recommended taking a diagnostic. Having already taken June 2007 a few months ago, I took Pretest 35 instead. I scored a 165 with the following breakdown:

LR 22/26

RC 24/26

LG 13/23

LR 23/26

Clearly, I have a lot of work to do on logic games, but I also feel there's room for improvement on my logical reasoning score. Up until this point, I've taken a few tests over the past several months, but haven't committed to studying at all, so 7sage is my first exposure to structured curriculum. Realistically, if I follow the curriculum as prescribed by the study schedule generator, do I have time to get into the mid/high 170s before the September LSAT, or am I setting myself up for failure? I can delay until December if necessary, but it's important to me to crack into the 175ish range on test day.

If you started at a similar score and successfully made the improvement into the mid 170s, I'd love to hear your feedback and tips!

Hi all,

I just finished the first reading section "introduction on reading comprehension" in CC. I also watched @"nicole.hopkins" video about her RC notation strategy. Both inspire me a lot about how to approach RC.

Right now I finish reading a passage in 3.5-4 min, but I spend way too much time on answering questions. I can spend between 8-12min on questions! Passages about art review are especially hard for me. And the timing is a big issue. With in 35min I can only finish 3 passages, with average -1 per passage.

I realize that I spend time trying to prove a wrong choice is wrong from the passage, while it is never mentioned. I also find myself spend a lot of time on comparing the rest of the answers after eliminating. I look at one choice, feeling that there is a tiny part I don't like, but I can give reasons for why I can stand it, and repeatedly do the same thing to another choice. I am trying to switch my method/mindset, and I would love to know how you approach the questions and choose the answer confidently.

A lot of high scorers suggest that we should read for reasoning structure. It sounds like making a lot of sense to me, but I am not very clear about how to apply it. And I don't feel that simply asking "what's the main idea of the paragraph" can't ensure me catch the structure. Actually, sometimes I feel interrupted by these questions. I mechanically ask myself about MP simply because I am trying to follow JY's method. Also, I find that not all "transaction/switch" of the meaning happen between the paragraphs. There can be more than one level of meaning within a single paragraph. How does the reading process look like when you are reading for structure? I am so curious.

I am also trying Nicole's notation strategy, and I think it can be very helpful in locating details asked in questions. But I also find that I am not very used to the strategy, and by taking notes I am slowing down my reading speed. I keep on asking "should I circle/box this?" And I don't find that making notation helps in reading for structure. I suppose it should, is it? I will keep on practicing, maybe modify some of the notation strategy, and I would love to know if anyone also take note while you read, and any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks a lot in advance! :)

First 179!!!!!!!! 180 is next lol

And it's a logic game....

If you want a fun puzzle that is something fresh from the LSAT try it out.

https://www.brainzilla.com/logic/zebra/einsteins-riddle/

Can someone clarify the following?

At least B as A: B≥A

At most B as A: B≤A

Or vice versa....?

I am getting confused so much! plz help!!! :D (3 Thank you 7sagers!(/p)

only is a group 2 indicator. So in lawgic it would be T->W ?

Hello! I didn't see any prior discussions on this question, and it's confusing me a bit so I wanted to get some outside opinions!

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-29-section-4-question-17/

We have an underlying principle/SA question which means that our answer needs to fill the logic gap pretty much completely.

Background info says that confidence of a testimony has little correlation with the accuracy of said testimony.

Support says that factors can alter the confidence of a testimony without changing its accuracy.

Conclusion says that police officers shouldn't allow situations where witnesses giving testimony can hear other witnesses giving testimonies.

The designated correct answer for gives us the principle that the confidence in one's testimony is affected by seeing other testimonies. To me, this leaped out as a wrong answer choice because the passage seems to suggest that confidence in one's testimony doesn't really matter, so there would be no incentive to prevent it.

D, on the other hand, seemed to fill the gap using unusual, but plausibly correct logic. If the police, for some reason, cared about confidence more than accuracy, factors that change confidence would want to be controlled. I don't know why Police would want to know about confidence rather than accuracy, but it's not our job as test takers to question the likelihood of a gap-closer to occur in the real world; we want to know if that gap closer, taken as it is, would bridge the support with the conclusion.

D does it in an ugly fashion, but I don't think A does it at all. Knowing that viewing other testimonies can alter confidence doesn't give us any logical reason for police officers wanting to prevent it. We can't bridge the gap between evidence and officers stopping testimony exposure without understanding the criterion based on which an officer would want to prevent testimony exposure. Even if you make the least extreme assumption and consider that police would want to stop something that alters the accuracy of a testimony, (since accuracy of evidence is important to court cases) answer A becomes more flawed in that it gives the support an attribute that the police wouldn't care about, or use in a decision for policy.

Any help is appreciated :) Thanks guys!

Disclaimer: This is fairly long. However, its length may be good practice for you as an RC passage. I can write practice questions if you would like.

Hi all, I first want to say thanks to 7sage for the awesome prep course. I hadn't really used the Discussion section of 7sage until just recently but I wish I had sooner as it seems to be a great community with a lot of knowledge. I sat June 2017 and am looking to apply this cycle. My goal is to attend a T14 school, particularly one of the higher-ranked T14 schools. I have a few questions regarding retaking the LSAT, softs, and work experience.

About me: 4.0 GPA, 170 LSAT, mechanical engineering major at a top 10 engineering school, looking to probably go into intellectual property law.

As for retaking the LSAT, I figure I have good enough numbers to get into a majority of the T14 school as is, but I think an extra couple points could go a long way for chances at HYS CCN, as well as grant money everywhere. I only started to score in the 170s during the last two weeks of prep leading up to the test and had a slow upward trend all the way which I felt I could have continued and scored higher had the test been a month later. All said and done, I hit my target score that I set when I started studying seven months ago and am thrilled with it, but I do think that I can do a little better with more work. I am thinking about sitting again in September. If I am not consistently scoring above 170 on PTs leading up to September I will withdraw, and if I do not feel like I scored above 170 on the test I will cancel my score (don't want to risk getting a lower score). My question is: do schools even see that you have taken a test and cancelled? Or that you have registered and withdrawn? If so, does this hurt your application in any way? How badly would taking and getting a lower (say 168, 169) or same score hurt my application?

My softs: internships with three different companies: one of the "Big Three" auto manufacturers (2 summers), a well-known engine and machinery manufacturer (2 semesters), and a smaller engineering company (1 summer); Formula SAE team member; study abroad semester; tutor; course grader; scholarship D-1 student-athlete (2 years, at previous school before transferring to my current school)

The majority of my softs are internships, and I have heard different things as to how internships are viewed as work experience by law schools. I know a lot of schools and law firms want to see a good amount of full-time work experience, especially in industry for IP law. Do you think this combination of internships (totaling 9 months of full-time and 10 months of part-time engineering work) would be seen as a significant amount of "work experience," however that is defined by law schools, rather than merely a set of internships? Also, I graduate in December and will then be working full-time for around 7-8 months at either the auto manufacturer I have interned at or an engineering consulting firm before starting law school. I would just really rather not put off law school a whole year just to build up more work experience if it is not necessary.

If you are still reading this, you the real MVP. Thank you for any help, insight, suggestions, funny comments, whatever.

I sat for the June LSAT and scored very low. I'm not sure where to even begin, I do not know what the best strategy is anymore to approaching this exam. I don't want to give up but in need of serious help because all of what I'm doing is obviously not working.

Help?

Suggestions please?

Hey everyone,

So question 24 in section 2 of Prep Test 61.

This question I've been trying to grapple with for 3 days (seriously). I understand how conditionals work, but this question just doesn't work for me no matter how many times I do it, or listen to J.Y's explanation. I'm getting caught up on two things:

Here is the question:

Stimulus: It is unlikely that someone would see history as the working out of moral themes unless he or she held clear and unambiguous moral beliefs. However, one's inclination to morally judge human behavior decreases as one's knowledge of history increases. Consequently, the more history a person knows, the less likely that person is to view history as the working out of moral themes.

Stem: The conclusion of the argument is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?

So the right answer is:

B) The less inclined one is to morally judge human behavior, the less likely it is that one holds clear and unambiguous moral beliefs.

I actually got the right answer, but only through process of eliminating the wrong answers. I couldn't get full connection in this argument to get the answer as the missing sufficient assumption and it is driving me full out mad :)

The first thing that bothers me about this argument is the "unlikely" at the beginning, which I'm not sure exactly what to do with. The second thing is that the second premise [one's inclination to morally judge human behavior decreases as one's knowledge of history increases] does not ring to me as a conditional if/then type of sentence. I see that they are connected, but decreasing/increasing relationships aren't something I see fitting well into a conditional sentence sequence.

Secondly, even if I grant that this is a conditional statement, this is the logic drawing I end up with:

[P1] See history as working out of moral themes (SHWMT) ---> holds clear and unambiguous beliefs (HCUMB)

[P2] Morally judge human behavior decreases (MJHBd) ---> Knowledge of history increases (KHi)

[Conclusion] The more history a person knows (KHi) --> the less likely they are to view history as the working out of moral themes (/SHWMT)

So if I was to write this out in pure logic:

SHWMT --> HCUMB

MJHBd --> KHi

KHi --> /SHWMT

So even if I grant the weird statements around increasing/decreasing I still can't get from this to the missing premise:

The less inclined one is to morally judge human behavior (MJHBd) --> the less likely it is that one holds clear and unambiguous moral beliefs (/HCUMB)

MJHBd --> /HCUMB

I just can't wrap my head around this one as logically connecting in a sequence chain. Am I just having a brain stall?

Any thoughts @Sami ? :)

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-61-section-2-question-24/

Hi when will the logic game explanations be available for June 2017 lsat PT81?

Thanks

was just curious if anyone knows whether the last June LSAT (prep test 81 I believe?) will be available before the September LSAT for review?

Hey guys! We've got a fellow 7Sager who's PTing in the 170's and looking to 1) improve herself and 2) pay it forward to this awesome community. We suggested that she offer to tutor for free. Thing is she's pretty shy in the threads / comments so I'm making the announcement for her.

She wants to work with you to BR your LR or RC sections from your PTs. (There are a few PTs she hasn't taken yet so she will decline doing those—you can figure this out with her—but most PTs she's already completed.)

If you're interested, let me know by commenting here and I'll put her in touch with you.

It's a great opportunity!

Hey all,

i am having trouble. I have been PT-ing for 4 weeks not, consistently scoring in upper 160's, but sometimes i dip down to low 160's. never lower then that, but I also have not broken 170 yet, i am just stuck in the 160's. i am upset because today I scored a 160, after scoring a 165 two nights before. My BR scores are ridiculously high, somewhere like 172-177 generally. I'm not sure what to do and getting ridiculously discouraged because of today's PT score. I do take breaks, I am healthy when it comes to studying so I know it's not my method. But, I posted before and someone said that I am missing those curve breaker questions so i started to slow down in my sections, but I find that i am scoring lower now? thoughts or suggestions on how to actually reach my BR score? or just stop yo-yoing with my score? I want to have a consistent PT average to accurately predict where I am going to score at on test day.

thanks!

I graduated from ASU Barrett, the honors college with a 3.91 and completed an extensive honors thesis. After taking a semester long Princeton review prep class that didn't seem to help my practice test scores at all, I got a 154 on the June 2016 test. I decided to take a year off and will be working at a nice law firm for this next year. I believe I'll have great letters of rec from my my thesis director and employer. I want to retake the lsat this September but I think my score will not improve much as I will only have about two months to study again. I'm worried that my school options with these scores won't be ideal even with my higher GPA and everything else. Any thoughts or recommendations?

I just wanted to take a few moments to thank you all for being the most welcoming and helpful community of aspiring lawyers I could ever imagine (which is so outside the norm it's not even funny - I'm sure we all know many nasty, spiteful, shithead current/aspiring lawyers).

My LSAT journey began last July, when I was thinking about fleeing my current job via postgraduate education (I actually love my organization and coworkers, but it was and continued to be a brutal few months at work). I took a diagnostic test (153), registered for September, and jumped into the old powerscore books I bought in 2013 when I thought I'd go straight to law school from undergrad. They were pretty helpful, but I wasn't anywhere near my target score (173+), so I decided to withdraw the night before the September test.

Since December was going to be my last chance to apply that cycle, I was really aiming to hit that test out of the park, and have my applications ready for when I received my score. I went back to studying amidst 60+ hour work weeks. I discovered 7sage around Halloween and found the LG explanations tremendously helpful, but I was so close to my test date that I felt like it wasn't worth getting even the starter pack.

Unfortunately, I bombed the December test, and knew it walking out of the test center. My maladroitness with logic games had been brutally exposed, as I ran out of time on the last two games, and it was reflected in my score: -8 on that section alone, and a 166 overall (which obviously isn't terrible, but was several points below my average and way below my target score). I made the tough decision to delay my applications and retake in June.

After about a month off of anything LSAT-related, I jumped back into studying with renewed vigor - I knew that I had to and could shore up my LG, so I worked on them disproportionately. I used a modified version of the foolproof method (which I'm happy to share with anyone who's curious - I think 3-4 tries on the same LG is super unnecessary tbh) and worked through pretty much every single logic game the LSAC has ever released at least once. I threw in a full PT about every weekend (I tried to do at least 3 a month) and jumped on a few blind review calls.

Come June, I was feeling way more confident, and the amount of work I put into LG finally paid off. Last night at 9:40PM, after spending an agonizing 4 days constantly refreshing, I finally received some good news - I'd gotten -0 on LG, and hit my target score with a 174 overall. I'll be applying as early as possible when applications open, and then I'm quitting my job in February to globetrot for 5-6 months before starting law school in the fall of 2018.

I do genuinely feel bad about never having invested my own money into 7sage; it just never made sense for me given the stage of studying I was at (the core curriculum wouldn't have helped me very much, and I already had access to every PT thanks to some friends), but it almost feels as if I took advantage of the rest of you who do pay, and all the sages who put in so much time and effort to make this product and community great. For that reason, I'll still poke around the forums sometimes and answer questions if I can, and am happy to jump on the occasional BR call if requested and available. I'm also happy to do personal statement swaps and whatnot once apps open up in the fall!

Special shouts to @twssmith for being one of the kindest and most encouraging people I've ever had the pleasure to (virtually) meet, JY for helping thousands of schmucks like myself on their paths to law school, and all you weirdos who are obsessed with definitively finding the perfect test-taking pencil.

And for anyone who may be feeling frustrated after their June results; I'm so sorry, I've been there and it sucks. But you can and will hit your target score the next time!

TL;DR: Y'all are fucking awesome, stay fresh.

PS: this was me hungover at work today -