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Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice. I'm a non-traditional student who has wide variety of life experience. I'm having a tough time narrowing down a personal statement category. Here's the run down:

I'm 39

Graduated with my undergrad when I was 35. I bounced around different schools one was an upward transfer; the others were to satisfy vocational courses. I was able to finish my degree from the University of Colorado online when I was 35 while living in LA.

I moved to LA because I was (to some degree) still a stand up comic. Now I feel compelled to go to law school. I don't really want to draw attention to stand up, cause I probably said something stupid online at some point and I don't want that to hinder me. I've cleaned up social media pretty much, but still.

I'm an expert witness. I've testified several times in CA Worker's Comp courts regarding the value liens. I help attorneys and sometimes appear as a hearing rep in helping litigate work comp medical liens.

My dad was a felon. I don't want to play that card, but I do understand that hardships can be "inspiring."

I really feel like I have to explain why my transcripts are so incredibly ADD. My GPA is pretty good minus the first year and a half after high school. If I calculate it right, it should be a 3.7 and a graduated with honors. Should I do this as an addendum?

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Last comment wednesday, sep 06 2017

Help with LR

Okay guys, I need your help figuring out my next step.

I have finished CC, Manhattan LR and Trainer and I do believe that I have a very strong sense of LR arguments and question stems. My strategy was to do LR from PTs 17-36 untimed and really take my time to analyze the questions. So far I did 17-19 and my average is -6.5 per section. I need to bring it down to at most -2 and I do not know how to achieve it.

The way I did the questions that I did was to

  • Identify the question type
  • Open my notebook and read about that question type, what to look for, how to approach, what the trick answer choices are etc (notes are taken from CC, Trainer and Manhattan). I know it already, yet I am determined to drill every single detail to look out for as much as possible hence rereading my notes for EVERY single question
  • Identify conclusion and premises
  • If there is a flaw and question type requires me to identify it then do it
  • Eliminate wrong answer choices while justifying to myself why they are wrong
  • Pick the answer
  • Now two things happen 1) either i am down to two answer choices (most of the time one of them is correct) and i pick the wrong one because somehow in my head i overthink it and all of the sudden it becomes somehow attractive or 2) i do not read careful enough and misread the right answer in a way that it becomes a wrong answer, so even though i take my time to understand the argument, i rush with understanding the answer choices.

    My question is, should I stick with my strategy and keep going with the rest of the PTs in hope that after enough bumps along the way I will be able to learn better what my weaknesses are and spot the wrong answer choices easier?

    Should I employ a different strategy?

    P.S there is not one specific kind of questions I miss the most. I am pretty decent at all of them according to 7sage trends, with SA and Flaw being my best and Strengthen, AP and MBT being the worst.

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    Last comment wednesday, sep 06 2017

    Flaw questions

    Currently drilling flaw questions (my biggest hurdle) , and I'm getting every single one wrong.

    I have drilled question 1-100 on the cambridge packets, easy-medium questions, and did well, and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the 19 common flaws + how to tackle them...but for some reason on the 4/5 start ones I keep choking. Any suggestions on how to do better? (are earlier flaw question types different?)

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    So I hear that we need to stick to our routine for game day, yet I worry drinking an 8 oz cup of joe will make me a bit jumpy during the test? Thoughts anyone?

    I drink a cup of coffee every day before work, at times try to limit my intake to 1-2 days without it. I know its silly, but I want to be on top of my game for the big day, and would hate if anything like that ruins it for me lol

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    Hello! I was hoping to get some clarification on this question.

    So clearly our right answer should link the reintroduction of rock salt to a disproportionate burden on low income people.

    I put B, and the correct answer is D.

    My understanding is that you're supposed to use the part of the prompt that says "Although the city claims that cars are now better protected from salt's corrosive properties than they were as recently as five years ago" to pair with the text D, which says that low income people are more likely to purchase older vehicles.

    My issue is that I think not a large leap, but a nonsensical leap to interpret the prompt portion as referring to new cars in comparison with old cars. The text merely says that "cars are now better protected from salt's corrosive properties." There's literally one subject in that sentence: cars. The sentence makes no distinction about different groups of cars within the general "cars" umbrella. The distinction, grammatically and logically speaking, is between how "cars" handle salt now, and how "cars" handled salt before.

    Maybe "cars" better handle salt because of some trends in humidity levels. Heck, you could just as easily and fairly interpret the opposite of what you were meant to. Maybe the older a car is, the more resistant it becomes to salt corrosion because they develop a layer of dirt and debris that keeps the salt from penetrating as deeply as it does in new cars which are exposed.

    Deriving the necessary assumption is ludicrous and arbitrary, in my view.

    On the contrary, D requires but a small, feasible leap. We're told that sales tax disproportionately burdens low income people. We're told that road maintenance is primarily funded by local sales tax. This appears to have all the ingredients we need to make a perfectly in-tact chain of logic. All we have to do is check to see if rock salt re-introduction counts as road maintenance.

    Rock salt is applied to roads in order to maintain a safe, drivable road. It is undoubtedly a road maintenance matter. We weren't using it for several years, we are now. Sure, maybe we have a vast reservoir of rock salt in an underground bunker that will spare us any additional expense, but that's terribly farfetched and extreme. At the very least you're going to have some costs associated with the switch, if not also the highly likely case that you're going to have to buy some quantity of rock salt, the money of which is coming from sales tax that disproportionately burdens low-income people.

    B seems to be all but iron clad, while D is all but impossible. We need but the smallest, likeliest set of circumstances for B to work. We need the biggest, most ridiculous, most ambiguous crapshoot of an assumption in order for D to make a drop of sense.

    Am I missing something here?

    https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-67-section-4-question-08/

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    Last comment tuesday, sep 05 2017

    Irritated and frustrated

    Hi guys,

    I have been with 7SAGE for a few months now. I am only on the MSS section of the course. I find myself irritated and frustrated every time I sit down to study. I walk away from studying more confused then the time before. I have paid and am preparing to take the LSAT in December. I think I am finding excuses now to stay away from studying when I used to study every day for 2 hours. I have a lot in this so I can't give up so I guess I am just looking for reassurance. I have quit my big girl job and we even pay to keep my child in daycare a few times a week just so I can study. The Main Point part really confused me so once I got through the last section of it I was super stoked to start something new. Well I get to MSS and its JUST like the Main Point section.. I know my biggest issue is not being able to identify the Premise and the Conclusion. I even went back and RESTARTED all the lessons again and am still at a loss.

    Sorry for all my complaining but if you would like to complain with me please comment below or leave some really amazing great advice instead :)

    Good luck everyone!

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    I first took the LSAT in December of 2016 but was in no way ready for it. I ONLY focused on the logic games and neglected the logic reasoning and reading comp thinking I would be fine. I looked at those sections at the last second and completely siked myself out. Needless to say I completely bombed the Dec 2016 LSAT but killed it on the logic games section. So to help this time around I registered for, then backed out of the June one and bought the 7sage course because i needed to focuse on my spring semester. I studying again after I graduated this past May. Since then I've been studying like a mad woman but I am terrified that I'm still not ready. I've gotten much much better at logic reasoning and reading comprehension but now for some reasoning my logic games are suffering. I study over five hours a day and I know that sounds crazy but I do better when I do more. I take the weekends off to let my brain rest and read, listen to music and stuff but my point differentiation hasn't changed. I normally score in the high 140s my best was 149 as a raw score and that same test after blind review was 161. My logic games after blind review is normally -1 sometimes its -0 so I know that I can get into the 150s maybe even low 160s if i could just get my logic games together. I'm afraid to take too long off though because I'm retaking the LSAT this month and don't want to lose any time.

    I think I might end up registering for the December LSAT but that would just make me uncomfortable because then I'd be afraid I'd be cutting it close with admissions. By then most students have applied and law schools are in the middle of their evaluations. It's just—I'm stressing and though I am trying not to I can't help but feel like I won't do well again. Should I planned on stopping a week before the test to fully reboot, but if i keep scoring in the 140s before i do that's all I'll think about in the week that I take off. I don't know if anyone has any tips on how to combat this type of mentality but if you have any I'd love to hear it.

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    I'm taking the Sept exam and was wondering how I can get better at deciding whether to split the game board, solve by brute force or just make a basic diagram and move on to the questions. I usually rush towards the end because I spend too much time trying to split the game board or too little time making inferences. How do you guys approach different problem sets? I kind of have to get -0 in order to get the score I need...

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    I have a fantastically hard time with these question types. I attribute it to a lack of complete understanding of the passage content. But even during BR i still get these wrong.

    Any pointers or tips on how you guys go about these?

    My BR score is generally 178-180. This is literally the only thing i consistently get wrong.

    (Bar those annoying LG substitution questions, ugh)

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    Hello 7sagers! This is my first time posting on the forum so bear with me. I am currently working on some PTs and my max is 160, but for the past few exams I exams I have gotten 154, 156, 157, 159, 156 with BRs between 165-169 on each. I was hoping to take the test in September, but I will probably cancel my score if I do and take it in December instead. I analytics are as follows: at best I get from -4 to -7 on RC (which I'm really proud of b/c RC was my worst section at the ve). On LG -8 on literally every single PT I have taken. On LR I'm usually -8 to -6 per section. Here's the annoying part and what I mainly want advice on: the questions I miss for LR are evenly distributed. So I'll miss two between 1-10 three or four between 11-20 (and often they're in a row) and only one or two between 20-26. I'm not sure what the cause is. I think I'm overconfident on the easy ones and not confident enough in the middle. Has anyone else experienced this? How do I overcome this

    Also: I have decided that over the next 2 weeks I am solely going to work on foolproofing games. If I can manage to get between -0--3 on games -4 on RC and, then hammer out my problems on LR I feel confident in my ability to get a 168+ by December.

    Thanks for listening y'all let me know what you think. Good luck to all of you taking it in September

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    Hi

    I have a question about boosting my Blind Review up to my target score. My current timed test is in the 155-157 range while my Blind Review is a 166-168 range. This is mostly due to logic games, so I've been focusing on getting better at them. My target score is a 170. Since I am blind reviewing where I am, do you think that getting in the 170s on Blind Review is just a matter of exposure?

    I am planning on doing the games until I get them to where I want and then focus on the rest of LR and RC to bring my timed test up? Does this make sense. I guess I just feel like it's such a large gap I'm not going to be able to do it.

    I guess I am just wondering how much I should focus on the fundamentals and how much I can power through. Should I be asking myself specific questions in my BR?

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    Last comment tuesday, sep 05 2017

    Math Type Questions

    Does anyone have a simple Framework/Diagramming approach to Math-type questions that you can rely on? This is for questions like those found in PT 31, Sect 2, Ques 15 (31, 2, 15) or those found at these locations as well: 27, 4, 14; 21, 2, 10; 34, 3, 21? Thanks for any tips/pointers!

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    So I've been at the LSAT for over a year now. I've struggled and plateaued. I've wanted to give up, I've felt motivated and defeated. The September test is right around the corner so I wanted to prove something to myself. I sat down and took my original diagnostic test again. I took this test in May of 2016. It's been over a year since I touched this material.

    PT 63

    May 2016 score: 151

    September 2017 score: 174

    While I know there are some factors here, like memory, the feeling of seeing pure progress is amazing.

    If you want a confidence boost before the September test, and you are okay with retaking a test, I say give this a shot. It really helped me see that some of my work is at least paying off haha. Just a thought for my fellow September testers out there!

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    Hello!

    Just a quick question: Following my undergrad graduation in 2015, I took 3 online economics classes from a local community college in order to fulfill prerequisites for a master's program I was planning on applying to. I ended up changing my mind and didn't apply, but I was wondering if I am required to have the community college send those transcripts into the LSAC? From what I understand only the undergraduate level work that you completed before receiving your degree is calculated in your GPA..

    Thanks!

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    So how should I space out these last three PTs? I'm thinking it might be wise to take 2-3 days in between so I can drill and focus on weaknesses, but I'm also curious about when I should take my last PT before the test date.

    Do you all have any suggestions for a solid schedule for the remaining two weeks?

    How concerned should I be about BRing around this time as well? Should I just take a hard look at the questions I missed and didn't quite understand so I can save time for drilling? A complete BR usually takes a couple days for me and I feel like I won't have much time for drills.

    Thanks. You all have been a big help.

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    Hi all,

    I was going to take the September LSAT but know I can perform a lot better on December's so I just registered for that. Now that it's too late to get any sort of refund on September's LSAT, should I still sit for it and take it as practice? I realize I can still withdraw without it being reflected on my Law School report, but I'm also super worried because December's my last shot if I want to go to law school fall 2018, so I'm thinking maybe just experiencing the actual LSAT, even though I'm probably going to cancel, might prepare me a little bit more for December (test taking anxieties, etc).

    In short, does one cancellation affect the competitiveness of my application? If so, how?

    Thank you so much in advance!

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    Hello!

    Just wondering if anyone is planning on applying for school specific scholarships or programs. For example, Georgetown has the Global Law Scholars program that requires a separate application to be submitted around the same deadline as the regular app. I don't think it necessarily comes with a scholarship, but it is a program you have to apply for from the beginning (can't get in as a 2L).

    Has anyone come across similar programs? I realize most merit scholarships you don't actually apply for beyond the standard application.

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    Hey all,

    I was wondering what you all were planning on doing the week before the exam. As of now I think I'm going to PT on Monday and Wednesday, then just light drilling/taking the day off Thursday and Friday.

    Also, was wondering if anyone had some helpful tips on relieving mental exhaustion or eye fatigue post-PT?

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    I am BRing way higher than my normal score, how do I make my normal score my BR score for example, I PTd and got 150 and then BR and got 158. Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!! thank you so much in advance!!!!!!

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    Last comment tuesday, sep 05 2017

    Someone help

    So, I signed up for the September LSAT and although I have been studying for a couple months, I know I won't be ready. I have a 3.8 GPA and right now am around a 157 LSAT score. I may increase it a little before the test, but I think it's time I make the decision to postpone until December. Do you guys think I'm making the right call on this? Just wanted some insight before making the final decision.

    Thanks!

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    Last comment tuesday, sep 05 2017

    Weaken, strengthen,

    So if I see that an answer choice weakens or strengthens just one premise, but doesnt necessarily make the argument air tight, is this still okay?

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