Hey 7Sagers! Im curious how you all as JY puts it "get the most" out of every PT. I understand that it is foolish to burn through PTs without gaining as much LSAT juice as possible from each. I'm wondering what you all do after every PT to review?

This is the system that I have been using recently:

For LR, I blind review and type out a doc that outlines my thinking for all missed questions, confidence errors, or overall difficult questions. Currently seeing most improvement on LR (going -5), although I know I can improve more... looking at you PM/ PF/ SA/ MBT.

For LG, I have been fool proofing all games where I missed a question or if I didn't get through the game as fast as I thought I should. I have only started doing this from PT 59 and up so tbh haven't full proofed games before that (PT 52-58). I had been doing well for my target score (-6) up to the last couple PTs I took where I have not done as well.

For RC, I have not found a review strategy that has helped me increase my points. RC was honestly natural to me when I first started taking PTs last December, would score -6 while my other sections were trash lol. But my score has gone down which is super frustrating to me (avg -8 rn). I know the reason is that I switched to focusing to 3 passages because time was an issue, but I have not been able to go perfect on three passages for this method to be beneficial. So I'm pretty lost on this end of it. I want to go back to completing four passages but its becoming hard for me to think that speeding through passages more quickly while risking misunderstanding is going to be the solution.

September was my goal, have been studying 30+ hrs since June, but I feel like I have so much to work on that it's feeling like pushing back my test date is the right choice... Going to keep grinding for the next couple weeks to see where I'm at then.

Any insight would be great, I'm all ears!

So I've been chugging along with my PTs and suddenly hit a wall in terms of LG in tests in the upper 60s. I've never been great at LG, but up until now I've gotten it down to -3/4 per section. In my last 3 PTs I've gotten -7 on 66, -8 on 67, -9 on 68, and -8 on 69. Kind of freaking out - I've worked so hard to improve the LG over the past 4 months and suddenly it seems with the newer tests I'm back to square one

I'm not sure if they're actually harder but it seems like they have many more "weird" unpredictable games that don't fit any convention. In the past there would usually be a standard sequencing game to start, and in/out game, and some grouping game. Now the recent games either have some twist or some thing that throws me off

Not trying to make any excuses! I know that if I really was proficient at LG I would be able to adapt to the weirdness of the rules and games but I had been doing pretty well up until this point! Disappointed

Hi,

So I understand basic argument structures, but when it comes to complex arguments and intense language, I ended up missing the questions. When I look at it with no time pressure, I am able to strip arguments down to their basic structures, but under time, I do not do that. Are there any drills out there for this? Has anyone else run into this problem? Thanks in advance! :)

Im in the middle of BRing and i like AC E bc how does the author know that having so much artwork that can satisfy every taste imaginable will affect someones aesthetic fulfilment.

But AC D... does the author have to assume there is such a scenario? That some people have access to the contemporarys work and not others? Is it the word "many" that disqualifies it? Thoughts?

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-72-section-2-question-16/

So, I fell off the band wagon.

I had a hell of a day Tuesday and virtually didn't even touch my lsat material. Wednesday was a lot of aftermath and while I got a little done, it was only half of what I truly NEEDED to do. Anyone have some motivational advice for when you fall of the bandwagon? I'm taking a timed PT on Sunday to see if i'm going to take the September exam or the December and I can't afford to not be on track.

Help my LSAT gurus

I had a lot of trouble with this in drilling and BR. I believe what I was missing is the following:

Likelihood of theft

Average for theft-prone cars (with anti theft): 50%

Average for theft-prone cars (without anti theft): 80%

Average for non-theft-prone cars (with anti theft): 10%

Average for non-theft-prone cars (without anti theft): 8%

So yes, anti-theft devices do generally reduce the chance of theft, but if most anti-theft devices are on the most theft-prone cars, then there will still be a correlative relationship between these two.

Hi guys. I am having trouble with an LR question.

PT 23 S3 Q14

Premises: If tax adopted -> Discontinue story hours -> parents inconvenienced

Conclusion: Tax reduction package not adopted

So in my mind to get to this we would have to know either that parents are not inconvenienced or story hours are not discontinued

so: ~(Parents incon) -> ~(discontinue story) -> ~(tax adopted)

Maybe I am not translating correctly, but I don't see how the correct answer D leads to this.

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-23-section-3-question-14/

After BR a LR section, how do you decide when it's helpful to watch JY's video explanation?

I think I might be over killing it right now. I'm probably watching videos for about 18 of the 25 LR questions. Perhaps it's a reflection of my confidence level. My reasoning is that I want to make sure that I'm thoroughly reviewing a question and possibly learning takeaways that I may not otherwise have gotten. But, I'm beginning to think there's a downside where I'm not using my time the most wisely and I'm somewhat boring myself.

I'm thinking of changing my criteria for which videos to watch based on: confidence errors, any questions I got incorrect during BR, and questions that took me over 90 seconds or that should have just been quicker. One LR section ranges from -4 to -7.

Any thoughts or advice?

Hi all!

Getting ready to start PT after finishing up most of the CC (75% done)

Has anyone ripped out section 1 from PT 36 and used it as the section 5 in say.. PT 42? Section 2 from 36 in PT 43, so on...

Printing seems quite expensive around here (seriously staples, $4 per exam?) so I printed 2x 36, 37, 38 and ordered 2 copies of the 10 tests booklet 42-51... Has anyone done anything similar?

Now -- I am concerned with a - I'll "know" and b - skipping PT 36-41 a bad idea and c - how bad are the booklets? Are they similar to the real exam or is it really uncomfortable to take the PT in the booklet?

TIA!

I am looking for someone who would like to study together who lives in Los Angeles. Maybe once a week? I am prepping for the December 2nd test. It will be my first time. My diagnostic June 2007 score was 162, however, I feel like that was partly luck, as I guessed on quite a few questions. I would say my areas of strength are well rounded but speed is my greatest weakness. I think explaining what you know to someone is the best way to improve. I am going with the 3 month 7sage package after I finish the free trial. Let me know if anyone is interested. Thanks!

Foods? Exercise? What?

Edit: I meant maintaining stamina during a full timed PT. Sorry.

I just took it, havent graded it yet but i found it extraordinarily hard compared to 70 and 71 . I felt foggy for a large portion of the test. Anyone have any experiance with it?

Hey 7sage community! Quick question- I don't quite understand how we're supposed to correctly practice the memory method? When do you move from phase 1 to phase 2? Is it basically like full proofing LG? Should we be repeating passages until we've mastered them?

Thanks you guys are awesome!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to see if anyone had any advice for adjusting to the newer RC. I have been taken relatively older (Pre60's) PT's and scoring in the high 160's. I just took PT 65 yesterday and had my brain melted by the third passage about blackmail law. In all honesty, I didn't think the passage was nearly as hard as the questions were. This kind of threw me off because RC is usually my strength. Does anyone have any tips for adjusting to this newer style of RC? I would imagine that it would come with time and exposure but dang that was hard.

I actually ended up doing pretty well on the test. I scored a 171 with a 175 BR. The last LG game really through me for a loop so I ended up going: LR1: -3 LR2:-1 LG:-4 RC: -4.

Thank you all!

I'm looking for a timing/accuracy strategy for my timed LR sections. I've noticed that I'm a notoriously slow starter; that is, it takes me some questions to fully focus on what I'm reading and to fully analyze what I'm reading. Since the LR questions don't get particularly difficult for me until question 12 or so, I only then notice that I'm not fully engaged in what I'm reading. This leads me to get questions wrong that I don't think I should be getting wrong; I believe this because during BR I'm surprised that I wasn't able to get the correct answer. This has hurt me specifically with Weakening, Argument Flaw, and Necessary Assumption question types from about question 12 through question 20, more or less.

Also, I do realize that I'm not getting these questions correct because my conceptual understanding of them isn't strong enough. In an effort to address this, I'm going back to the curriculum and reviewing these specific question types. Additionally, I believe that I’ll just need to spend more time on these question types. That means I’ll likely need to exceed the average 1 minute and 24 seconds on the questions. So, what I'm considering trying is circling these questions and skipping them during my first round through LR thereby allowing myself to get fully engaged and making sure I have enough time to complete them.

If anyone has any thoughts on this approach, then I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

So I've compiled a very thorough list of all of the LR problems that I've missed or struggled mightily with on previous PTs, and have gone over them again by doing them as if they were real LR sections - doing 26-27 problems at a time in 35 minutes. I'm still missing anywhere from 2-5 of them each "section." These are the problems I now see that I truly struggle with. I was wondering what's the best way to tackle these problems going forward?

I currently approach problems first by identifying the structure and conclusion of the argument if there is one, looking for key words and phrases (e.g. "some people"; "minimal risk"), and tricky/subtle changes in subject (e.g. premise discusses mammals but conclusion mentions marine reptiles).

When I compiled the list, I made sure to look for trends in the types of questions I was missing (necessary assumption, weaken, etc.) But how can I hone this strategy to the few problems I missed again? I feel like there are specific and various tricks employed within each question type.

Tips & advice welcome, thanks in advance.

Hi all,

I'm doing really well with LG/LR and am consistently improving in these areas.

RC, however, is a completely different story.

Quick background: I have been studying on and off since Dec. 2015, while working full-time & part-time simultaneously. Right now, I'm doing about 2 PT's and 2 BR's/week. I wrote Dec. 2016 and Feb 2017. I improved about 5 points on the latest write, putting me just barely at the average score for students (huge disappointment). Because it wasn't enough for admissions in Ontario, I am giving it another shot and writing in December again.

RC is still by far my weakest section. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to improve on timing. I find it so difficult to obtain enough info from the passages AND accurately answer all of the questions in under 7-9 min/passage. Along with the RC curriculum (which I plan to redo this week) I have turned to the Trainer. I consistently see the same advice: focus on the WHY, not the WHAT. Ok, easy, so I read and get a general idea of reasoning structure, relationships between paragraphs, fine. As soon as I do that, I run into EASILY 3-4 questions asking for specific meanings of words in sentences, or details from the passage. I have a general idea of where to find all of these details but I end up referring to the passage to re-read the necessary sentence anyway. Everything about RC is sucking up time for me. Long story short, I am finding RC impossible these days to the point that when I'm writing a test and I see RC, I immediately panic.

My shortcomings in RC have been mentally draining to the point that I have days where I wonder if law school is even for me. This kind of thought process is so far from my usual way of thinking that I am beyond frustrated with both myself and the exam. I do not give up. Anyone who knows me knows that I will make law school happen whether or not it's now or three years from now. I'm not changing my mind for anything or anyone. The LSAT, though, has made me come close.

It has a way of making you feel like such a failure, and I find myself putting in daily effort to change this mindset.

SOS people!!! Please helppp

Can someone please share with me the formal logic? I can't seem to arrive at the correct answer.

Today I sat down at work after my normal morning routine. I logged into Cookie Clicker, 7Sage and Reddit and got ready to start my day. I get to work really early to study for the test, so after everything was set up, I started trying to decided where to focus my studying for today.

I just can't do it! I feel like I am in such an odd place with the test and I feel directionless. I know which sections are my weakest sections. I know that one hard LG or RC passage can destroy my score. I know harder LR questions will trip me up and yet I feel like I have no real grasp on how to improve.

I'm pretty consistent with my sections;

-1/2 LG unless a hard game makes it -5

-6 LR typically with the first section -4 and the second -2

-4 RC unless there is a passage that I have no interest in....(looking at you art....)

Which gives me a score between 165 and 172ish on any given day.

I am super happy I've made it to where I am. I know plateaus can be broken, I've done it before, and you guys have shown me that it is possible with all your awesome stories. I am not done though. I want to get better, I just don't know how.

I know this is vague, I know there probably is no real answer to this problem I'm having other than sucking it up and figuring it out. I just feel very directionless right now. In the past I've always felt like I knew how to improve, and where to focus. Now I just feel like I am spinning my tires in the mud, and not gaining any significant traction on the test.

Thanks for reading, 7Sage is really the best! It's a group of people who understand me. If I had said any of this to most people in my life they'd say....

"Well it can't be that hard, just memorize the important stuff."

It aggravates me that they don't understand the struggles we have with this test!! Thanks for letting me vent.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/ for anyone that doesn't know what cookie clicker is

What are some games that you have used for the fool proof method? I'm making a fool proof "binder" of questions and was wondering what games are best for each type. What games did y'all fool proof with?

Please link any below

Hey guys so I posted a comment a couple weeks ago on how I was testing at 154 and blind reviewing at 167, well now I am currently testing between 159-163, I obviously am aiming higher but it is satisfying watching yourself improve, so for those who may be frustrated right now keep pushing yourself and you will see results and this is coming from someone who had a diagnostic of a 145.

Hi friends,

Wondering if anyone else is having a similar problem: I was scoring -0 or -1 in RC on the older tests, but in the 60s and 70s, I'm trending towards -4 or -5. I'm sort of depending on ace-ing RC to keep my score within my target range. Does anyone have any tips for what to look for in the newer RC sections, or else how to practice not falling for the subtle differences? I'm currently planning on writing in September.

Thanks a million!

Under question #2 in this section, JY uses the conditional indicator "If" to translate the sentence to the sufficient part instead of "Any" at the beginning of the sentence. Can someone explain why this is? If there are two conditional indicators from the same group listed in the sentence, which one are we supposed to use as sufficient and which one should we use for necessary?

I realized that the biggest problem holding me back is rushing to answer choices without fully and precisely understanding the stimulus in LR.

But since I've used all prep tests (used multiple times) I remember almost all questions and thus am really not sure how to effectively address this weakness. I tried to practice not moving on to answers until I fully understand the relationship between the conclusion and support and find out what is wrong with the argument. But since I've seen every question before, I remember the flaw and I am not sure if I can truly improve via such method.

My weaknesses I'd like to work on are:

For the past week, I drilled untimed focusing on honing in to the core but I have no problem identifying the structural role of each part of the stimulus during untimed practice. As you know, time pressure changes everything...once the timer is set on, I suddenly begin to rush and fail to efficiently prioritize the information in the stimulus. So I am not sure if untimed drilling would help at this point.

Does anyone have suggestions? Thank you so much! :)