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I am going through the prep tests chronologically and am wondering if the LSAT has changed at all over time.

Hi all,

New to 7Sage, and was wondering...am i missing something in the best way to review questions in practice? When we are learning a new question type there are videos with sample questions from PTs, are we to find and print these out? In some of the videos I can't see all the answer choices when the video is paused. Are we not supposed to go through these on our own before we play the video? I need time to read and analyze the questions before the strategy is revealed. Is there a technique and/or easy way to print that I'm missing?

let me know thanks!

Usually able to locate the correct answer, however on weaken, strengthen, and both kind of assumptions questions, I am not finding the answer by prephrasing. I usually go into the answer choices knowing what the right answer should do. Does that make any sense?

Hello 7Sage (:

I have been studying on and off since January, with school making studying a bit difficult. Regardless, it is now 72 days until the September test and I am stressing out. I need a 173.

Baseline scores: 141, BR-152

Average for the past 3 PT's (42,43,45)

154 (LR: -20, RC: -10, LG: -7)

159 was my most recent PT score.

BR-167.5 (LR: -9, RC: -4, LG: -1)

169 was my most recent BR score.

Since the test I took last week, I have made a goal to fool proof all LG from1-35. Is this a proper way to go about LG prepping?

School chilled out a bit now so I can devote 8 hours towards LSAT each day. I am also using analytics to work on my problem areas in LR- (Flaw, SA, MSS and REE) as well. I feel so stressed that I won't reach my goal and it is just eating me up inside!! Any advise would help.

Here's the link to JY's explanation in the Core Curriculum: https://classic.7sage.com/lesson/budget-for-counseling-programs-flaw-question/

^^Could someone confirm whether or not my line of thinking is correct?

P: 90% of people nationwide believe that an appropriate percentage (i.e. 10%) of the school’s budget is being spent on counseling programs.

C: Thus, any significant increase in the school’s budget should NOT be spent on counseling programs.

Analysis: The premise talks about how people feel good about the 10% counseling programs receive. But, the conclusion says that any actual increase of $$$ in the budget should not be spent on counseling programs. But this conclusion doesn’t follow: for if the overall pie/quantity increases, then counseling program funding will also have to increase in order to maintain that 10% slice of the pie (the conclusion seems to imply that the “appropriate amount” should not be exceeded). So, counseling programs actually MUST receive more funding if their appropriate percentage is maintained.

So in other words, the conclusion essentially mistakes the poll results to mean that 90% of people believed that an appropriate amount of their school’s budget was being spent on counseling programs.

(A last note: I was anticipating that the flaw in the argument was that the conclusion is drawn from a belief but is treated as fact. But upon reviewing this question, I see that the the bigger issue is that a conclusion about quantity is being drawn about premises that only described percentages.)

For the September exam: What would be a solid PT taking schedule for a full-time LSAT student? I want to take as many PTs as possible (without burnout) while having enough time to do a proper BR.

I'm thinking 3 (maybe 4..) PTs a week?

Any suggestions on a good PT plan until the September exam? I want to make sure I have a good mix of old and newer PTs as the PTs 60+ are more difficult.

(Note: I've already done around 20 PTs as I was prepping for the June exam but extended to September as I wasn't hitting my target score area).

Any advice appreciated on how to make use of the next 2 months in regards to PTs. Thanks!

Hello! I've read a lot of different discussions about this, but I can't find anything that specifically answers my questions.

I have taken 11 PTs and have averaged 163, but recently scored a 170, then 165. My scores are all over the place and I'm aiming to score 170 in September. Because I was originally planning to take the June exam, I already completed PT 62-71 so now I am back to using older ones. I've already purchased 42-61 and was planning to take those 20 (plus PT 71 which I saved) but now I'm reading that taking the 40s doesn't actually help because they're easier...? Should I use the 40s for drills and purchase the 70s individually? I don't want to spend more money than I have to, but I also don't want to mess myself up by using the 40s if they're not going to help.

Any advice would be appreciated!!

x

I just finished reading Smarter Better Faster by Charles Duhigg and found it to be very useful for finding ways to increase focus, motivation, and productivity with my LSAT studying. It is also very readable since the gist of the book is structured around storytelling.

Full disclosure: My bachelors degree is in cognitive psychology and I love behavioral science, so I might have gotten carried away a bit with the length of this post, but I do believe that the using psychology to master the LSAT is necessary for doing well.

Here’s the stuff I found most useful for LSAT prep:

Ch.1 - Motivation:

Positive emotional reward linked to making decisions (gained through experience) AND belief in having control over our lives and surroundings AND linking mundane tasks (such as studying) to greater purpose or personal values, thus transforming them into a choice —> motivation to act

(Yes, those three conditions are sufficient for motivation, according to science.)

Motivation depends on emotionality.

Motivation is a skill that can be learned and honed, not a static personality trait.

Following a success, praise yourself for hard work, not your intelligence. (Focusing on static traits like intelligence shuts down motivation.)

Ch. 3 - Focus:

This chapter was most useful to me. The author talks about the concept of mental models (a story of what should happen in a future scenario) and how they can help combat cognitive tunneling (focusing one irrelevant or insufficient thing due to being overwhelmed by information) and reactive thinking (reacting to external stimuli randomly or as they arise instead of intentionally).

Mental modeling works in several ways. It helps us know what information to pay attention, because we already have a plan, so that we are better able to successfully complete a stressful/high-risk task. The author uses a story of a pilot successfully landing a totally wrecked plane and it was very relatable to trying to answer an LR question with a seemingly incomprehensible stimulus on a timed PT…

Mental modeling also provides us with a picture of what a situation should like, and when it doesn’t look that way, an alarm goes off in our head and we fix it, rather than proceeding with the bad strategy. To increase focus and avoid distraction or mistakes, the author hence recommends visualizing the anticipated task. For example, I have a hard time not getting distracted during LSAT studying by other tasks, and mental modeling allows me to set an intention and better catch myself when I deviate from what I intended to do, such as browsing the Discussion Forum instead of BR or forgetting to identify the premises and conclusions in an argument stimulus in LR.

Cognitive tunneling and mental shutdown (the flight or fight mentality that the CC talks about leading to inability to do higher order thinking) is exactly what happens to me when I get stuck while studying or a timed PTs, so it has been useful to try to transform material and strategies from the CC into mental models of what I should be doing instead of panicking. I think that the mental model idea works for individual small tasks, like answering specific question types on LR, as well as for whole sections, such as creating a mental model for active reading during RC (still a bit of a struggle for me). Another useful mental model might be for remaining calm, focused, and confident for the actual LSAT. You can practice mental modeling anytime - while commuting, cooking, showering… In relation to LSAT prep, it’s just another way of studying, but it can also be applied to any aspect of your life.

“Mental models help us by providing a scaffold for the torrent of information that constantly surrounds us. Models help us choose where to direct our attention, so we can make decisions, rather than just react.”

The concepts mentioned in the book definitely overlap with recommendations for studying and test taking form the CC, not that 7sage needs even more proof of being effective :).

Ch. 4 - Goal Setting:

Pairing two types of goals:

Ch. 6 - Decision Making:

Decision making is integral to the LSAT - choosing the right answer, choosing what to focus attention on, choosing when to skip questions…

ability to envision what will happen next (“forecasting”) probabilistically AND comfort with doubt (knowing what you don’t know) AND realistic assumptions —> good decision making

We have a success-bias, i.e. we tend to notice success more than failures, even though failures offer more insight on how to succeed, in other words, not fail. (focus on areas of struggle in LSAT prep instead of searching for ways to increase score)

Ch. 8 - Absorbing Data:

data must be understood and then applied to be useful (e.g. actually formulate study plans out LSAT Analytics page on 7sage; active reading)

large amounts of data can best be absorbed by asking series of questions (e.g. while digesting a complex LR stimuli ask: what are the Ps and C? what is the strength of support? are there any assumptions?…)

hand-written notes are the most effective because the disfluency of hand-writing forces us to take more time to reformulate the information. I believe that everyone should take comprehensive notes by hand while doing the CC.

If any of this spoke to, do yourself a favor and read the relevant parts of the book, I’ve tried hard to summarize it accurately here but you will get much more from the book :)

What do y’all think? Has anyone else read this?

What mental models would you make for studying for the LSAT?

7Sage shows that LR from 60s is on average easier than from the 40s - 50s. The 40s to 50s seem to be have 5 star difficulty sections, but I know that the 60s have trickier questions despite their lower difficulty. I am trying to get as close to -0 as possible.

I am missing around -5/-4 per section, and I will only be doing sections I have already taken before. So there is no worry about wasting fresh PTs.

Which should I use for drills?

Mostly because of work getting really busy. I have not touched the LSAT much. I feel like the break made me panic a bit and like I've forgotten everything I learned!!

My score per section has not changed though.

-5 Lr

-5 Lr

-2 or -8 RC (yes. variable that scares me)

-1 Lg.

Breaks are scary, in the future I'm going to just shorten what I do every day on the LSAT instead of taking a full break. Instead of 5 hours in a day I'll do one section with review if I'm feeling burnt!

Was womdering what the general consensus is on taking 1 timed LR section, 1 timed RC , and 1 timed LG section everyday with a thorough blind review and intensive review of anything i may get wrong after ( apart from A full PT every 1.5 weeks ). I feel like i get paralyzed when i take full sections, even though i complete them i dont beleive i am reaching my max potential bc i am not so comfortable with them. I would probably start with the earlier test perhaps around PT20 or so and considering i have already done the LGs for them it would just be a test of speed for them. I will leave 62-81 as full PTs, and 1-20 to drill specific question types. I want to walk into the testing center and to feel that i have so much exposure and skill with everu question type that it becomes mechanical. I have been studying for more than 7 months for this tests and i feel that my fundamentals are solid but lack of exposure and not forcing myself out of my comfort zone has kept my score below target. Any thoughts on this method?

Hey Everyone,

So I'm currently drilling NA question types through the Cambridge packet things. I'm looking at question 20 in section 1 of PT 36, and it says its an NA question type.

I got the right answer quite quickly, but for the life of me I can't seem to figure out how this isn't also a sufficient answer choice - something which has never happened to me before. What I mean by that is, answer choice E being true seems to be sufficient to make the argument true.

Core:

P1: Ensuring Justice in the legal system ---> Citizens capable of criticizing anyone involved in determining punishments

P2: Legal system's purpose is to deter ---> System falls into hands of experts whose specialty is to assess how potential lawbreakers are affected by the system's punishments

P3: Most citizens lack knowledge about such matters

C: Justice is therefore not ensured in the legal system

E) Citizens without knowledge about how the legal system's punishments affect potential lawbreakers are incapable of criticizing experts in that area

I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS: Is the reason why E isn't sufficient for the argument is because P1 never states the number of citizens who must be capable of criticizing lawmakers? P3 says MOST citizens, meaning some citizens do possess the knowledge necessary to criticize lawmakers, and therefore justice CAN be ensured in the legal system? The argument requires it to be necessary, if you didn't need to understand the affect of the legal system's punishments, then the conclusion is completely wrong. But with E being true, the conclusion can still be true - we just don't know if it has to be true.

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-36-section-1-question-20/

Can someone please breakdown this question for me??

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-19-section-2-question-18/

I've often contemplated and discussed this with many on this forum and others like it.

We now are going to have over 85 PTs available to prep from and drill from. But at what point are we going to have to just say, "only PTs 52-81" are worth doing?" Will there ever come a time? It is unsustainable to keep just starting from tests from the 90s and going working towards the most recent tests.

I've studied a bit for the GMAT/GRE and it seems that the idea of going through 80 tests is insane. When you have more and more tests, it seems we get less and less out of each test because subconsciously we know that there are 79 more left.

There's also the idea of diminishing returns. So many of the games, logical reasoning questions, and RC passages follow such a similar format that doing so many tests may hurt us by not giving us the time to focus on and get every last drop of juice out of newer PTs.

Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better just focusing on PTs 52-61, 62-71, and 72-81 (when released)?

I get the argument that fool proofing and drilling older games is what will help with the newer stuff. However, I'm just playing devil's advocate by asking if this might not be the best approach going forward. Those who oppose this mentality will claim the logic hasn't changed, and that's true, but the newer tests have a different voice and style and perhaps our time may be better spent spending an increased amount of time on newer exams?

Edit: Again, just paying devil's advocate and I don't actually 100% believe this to be a valid solution to the over abundance of tests. Just starting a discussion.

Hey! A lot of people mention the gains they had from recording themelves taking a PT. I'm just curious what device people use to do that? I have an Iphone 6s so what would be good to use with that to record myself? Thanks!

So I took the December LSAT last year and scored a fabulous 143. I knew I wasn't ready, but couldn't bring myself to lose $190, so I tested anyway hoping to get lucky. Well, no luck came my way for obvious reasons. But after going through the curriculum I find myself scoring between 141-145 still. I dont know where I am going wrong. I take each PT under exam conditions, I circle the ones I am not sure of (which is about 15 or less questions a section) and when I am done testing, I go back to the test and reread the questions. I dont think I am rushing, I try to stay focused and engaged in the questions. But I am obviously doing something wrong. I thought I would be able to take the September test, but I know I am not ready. I am not concerned so much about that, as I am the fact I am not improving. Has anyone faced this problem? I am really getting frustrated because I seriously feel like I am doing everything the way we are supposed to but I am not getting any increases in scores. (BTW my highest BR score was a 151 and that happened exactly one time)

Any advice, tough love or people who have had similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone,

I have just started to add RC into my prep. So far I have drilled about 4 RC sections without keeping a strict time clock (i.e., I give myself about 8-11 mins on each passage) and I typically get -1 to 0 on each full section.

My question is, should I keep drilling RC sections as my only way to learn RC? Or is it safer to use additional prep material (e.g., the LSAT trainer) before drilling sections further?

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi all!

I want to start by saying thank you for welcoming me into this great 7Sage community. I just took the June LSAT, and after consistently PTing in the mid-160s in the weeks before the test, I scored a 161. I have decided to retake in September, because I am aspiring to get into law schools ranked #7-#25 ish, ideally with funding. I have a 4.0 GPA.

How would you recommend I approach the next 10 weeks? I took 18 PTs in prep for June and did extensive BR of them. I struggle with Reading Comp, typically missing 5-9 questions. And LR ranges too, missing 3-7 per section. LG are better, but one hard game has the potential to throw me.

Any advice?

I have just finished the core curriculum for Logical Reasoning, would it be better to continue with the core curriculum or start reading the LR Bible?

Option 1: 7sage LR --> LR Bible --> 7sage RC --> RC Bible --> 7sage LG --> LG Bible

Option 2: All of 7sage Core Curriculum --> All the Powerscore Bibles

To put it bluntly, my UG scores are below average - the LSAC will probably have a seizure looking at my transcripts. My transcripts will most likely have a ''Below Average'' evaluation.

I am from India - which has grading similar to UK. A 2:1(60%) is considered standard good marks while a 2:2 - ( 50 -59%) is considered death knell.

I have a 2:2.

I am certainly not expecting a T14.

So hypothetically if I manage a good LSAT score - 175+ I know that sounds a stretch.... will any T20 or T30 consider me? To what extent does LSAT scores mitigate a very low GPA?

If it helps - its been 4 years out of undergrad. I have had a great grad GPA ( wont help much), cracked a national level exam with great marks, and presently working as a lecturer.

Please help out guys.

i've often heard of this being the final plateau for lsat students.

for those of you that are averaging in the 175 range: how did you get there?

Some of you might be like me out there and are unmarried, will be receiving no help from parents, and are fully self-funding. I'm expecting to take out loans to live on, but is anyone planning on working to help subsidize expenses? Even if it's only like ten hours per week? I know the ABA has rules about not working more than 20 hours per week, and some schools ban you from working your 1L year. I've tried to do some online research on the schools I'm interested in but can't seem to find their rules on working while in school (I plan on reaching out to their admissions' departments). Does anyone know if this ban is pretty common across schools?

During college I waited tables at a nice restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights and would usually make $300-$400 per weekend. Even this small amount could really help with expenses.

Just curious as to what everyone else's plans were?

Right now I'm having to go through the entire printing process for each problem set individually. Is there a print all button?

Admin edit: You can now print questions in PDF from the Question Bank:

https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/18378/new-feature-print-pdfs-of-custom-drills-from-the-question-bank