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Hi all, hope your studies are going well.
Just looking for some tips. I only started studying 2 weeks ago :|
I completed a 1000pg book-LG and a 1000pg book-LR that's it. Also reading The Economist out loud for exercise. I recommend it, some dense articles - different subjects tech/med/politics/economics etc. I performed my first PT 72 and got 140 last week Of course I was only able to complete 1/3 of the questons in allotted time the rest all D's.
- My plan is -
LR
Focus on the question type and practice speed
LG
Practice realizing all available deductions and realizing shortcuts to answer questions, increase speed through repetition and teach my parents different game types over and over and over and over ....
RC
Practice actual PT RC sections, untimed, however speed up constantly until can complete them near 8-9 mins each.
I have another 10 PT to complete 62-71, my plan is to do 5-10 within next two weeks.
My goal is 160.
Any tips or suggestions would really help out.
Best of luck to you. :)
A long, strange LSAT journey Top-Law-Schools.com
Postby fredfred » Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:21 pm
This is my experience with the LSAT and it should be read by anyone who is looking for LSAT motivation.
In college, I started thinking about the LSAT and law school. I went to a free kaplan session where there is a proctor (tutor) and he gives a full exam. I had not prepared at all and left with a 143. My head was spinning and I went to talk to an advisor of mine. He said if someone wants to go to law school, they should have started studying in high school. That was his serious advice. It takes 3-4 years to master the LSAT at a minimum (he went to HYS law and Princeton PHD so the dude is extremely smart himself). That did not help my confidence.
Fast forward a year. Just graduated college, I was headed to graduate school. It is June 1st, 2014. It was the first time I seriously tried to study, aiming for the September exam. I was doing okay, never really breaking 160. Games was my worst section, going -15/-20 at a time. Having access to some family support, I reached out to a tutor to teach me games. Worth every penny and started going -10, then -5, then -1. Progress! Unfortunately reasoning wasn't progressing as I would have liked, but I was getting tutored on Skype as my graduate school was far away. I was doing what my tutor told me all the way up through the September exam and was pting mid 160s. Eventually September came and I received a high 150's score. I was devastated. 4 months of work, lots of money, and still not even breaking 160. I was distraught, a failure, a waste. This was all in the mist of graduate school and it was just awful.
I take a month off of studying and decided to try again in December. I dumped my tutor (but LG was a massive improvement getting to -0) and decided instead of trying to learn everything just focus on LR. I had games down and just needed LR help. I buckled down for a few months and studied hard. December came, did great on games and not as great on LR, but a significant improvement. I had been pting from 164-174 on any given test. Come December, I went -6 on RC. Received a mid 160s score. Was devastated again, how could I possibly get into a t14? My dreams were over.
I applied everywhere and had a good cycle. Got serious scholarship money from top 20 schools and wl at a few t14. I decided on one top 20 with a nice scholarship and my parents were proud, I was proud, it actually was all okay. But something was bugging me, it was the LSAT. I felt like twice it had won, twice it beat me yet I wanted to try again. My parents said no, why even go through this again?
So I signed up for June. I threw out everything I knew about the LSAT and started at PT 1. I took EVERY SINGLE LSAT from 1-76 (or whatever it is) and then redid 60-76 again. I wasn't trying to beat the test or learn the test, rather I was just going through it systematically. If I got a RC question wrong, I spent 15 minutes breaking down every answer choice and trying to figure out where I went wrong and which one is more right. I did this for 4 months, on top of grad school.
It now brings me to this moment. I received a mid 170s score in the 99th percentile in June. Within 12 hours of the score, I had received a call from a t14 I was rejected from offering me unsolicited admission along with 2 others just outside the t14. It looks like I will be sitting out a year and reapplying.
What this is all about ultimately is I had around a 30 point increase from first pt to June 2015. It was a full year of studying with small breaks in between. You don't need a tutor. What he taught me I found the same on youtube for free. What matters is you determination to really work at it. Actually take every single PT ever given over and over. By my actual count, I have taken over 150 full pts this past year (obviously repeating each one at some point). My professor was wrong, you don't need 4 years of study. You need 1 and the determination to do it.
tl;dr I started from the bottom (143) and now I am here (mid 170s). Good luck, you can do it.
If someone can explain to me why B is correct and C is wrong I would be most appreciative. My thought process is below:
Although dissemination of national security and commercial information should be restricted/prohibited (based on the condition), the spread of scientific information should always be allowed.
A) Yes, this country can distinguish potential competitors or enemies based on the stimulus.
B) If technology is restricted, then the general public does not need that information on public policy issues.
C) I said this one was not a necessary assumption because we have no idea about democratic vs. non democratic countries relative proportion of advancement.
D) This has to be true as the stimulus requires a distinction of scientific information vs commercial and national security.
E) This could be true if MNC uses technology but doesn't share it internationally.
PLEASE HELP!!! I really cannot see why C is wrong and B is correct. Thank you in advance.
I have been under a rock for the past 3 weeks. Now I am back just in time for the sessions that start tonight.
So I heard the rumor that applications are divided into batches submitted before thanksgiving and after.
Is it true?
I got my October score and was wondering if I should speed up the entire process to enhance my chances or wait a little more...
Hey Yall!
We have a new study group geared for those of you who are planning on taking the June 2017 LSAT. This post is to gauge interest and to give you all a heads up about the new LSAT study group. Below I have posted a schedule that is very flexible. This is a new feature of the study group. This means that those of you who attend will get to help decide what PTs we take, what day and time you want to BR them, when we want to take breaks (we'll adjust the schedule for holidays), and what question types and LSAT sections we workshop with Sages etc. I really want this to be more than a Blind Review group, so it is to your advantage to be vocal during the study group session about what particular PTs we should switch in (provided we start with the lower number PTs and work in ascending order). You (the June2017 LSAT taker) should also speak up about what issues, question types, LSAT sections etc we should look into work-shopping when we meet.
Comment below if you would like me to tag you for our first meeting on December 3rd at 5pm EST and complete the attached poll to provide feedback for the date that we will meet next, after the initial December 3rd meeting.
Current tentative PT schedule -- https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=aWw1aWEzYTRkbWdoaDZsa3U3YjBsaDBlZDBAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
Note this is subject to change to reflect the needs of the group.
I'm really looking forward to this and I can't wait to begin studying with you!
P.S. theme gif requests welcome :)
Hey, could someone help explain in detail why A is the correct answer choice? I am still lost. Thank you.
It's a BR GROUP PICK this week.
@hazelnut13 nominated PT 78 for next week. Feel free to nominate anything below and then we'll have a poll on it!
Edit: Vote by midnight Tuesday! :)
I just took PT63 and the score is around 140s, far below my target score(160). I know that it would be a hardship to move 30s in next 2 months.I registered for Feb, 2017(hopefully enroll in 2017) But I has a ambition to conquer. I still suffer at LGs(lots to improve). I want to stay in America while I finish my OPT(internship for international student) and start my law school.
Any suggestion is appreciated.
Hey, could someone help explain in detail why A is the correct answer choice? I am still lost. Thank you.
Hey Everyone,
I was thinking about starting to take PT's in 40's starting this week. Is anyone else also planning to start taking them soon? I wanted to see if maybe we could get through some of them together. We could go over even RC sections ( I kinda feel like we neglect to get each other's help on them) and it ends up costing us points.
Moreover, it would be nice to know who is in same phase <3
The mood I am in <3
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/66/e9/e3/66e9e3f14c5d0eb41c0b622ac44495ca.gif
Hi all
I've done only 2 PTs in 70s and just want to do those PTs with weird, rare logic games that threw people off before December.
I know 72 has circular..and what other PTs in 70s have weird games?
Thank you so much! :)
Hey guys,
I've been pting for the last month or so for the December LSAT. I have improved immensely in LG and LR because I feel like I've been blind reviewing this sections pretty effectively. I try to blind review RC as well, but I don't feel like my level of understanding in this section has improved much since I started doing PT's.
Does anyone have any advice on how to get the most out of reviewing RC after a PT?
A condition stated is "Within each segment, reports are ordered by length, from longest to shortest." For purposes of my question I'd like to emphasize that this condition, like all LG rules, is an absolute rule that must be followed.
We are given no information about the length relation of T to either of W or I. Despite this:
The correct answer to Q1, the typical "acceptable configuration" question, implies T — W (where "—" is the usual notation indicating relative order). If this is a way of providing more information, i.e., another rule, it is unique in my limited experience.
The correct answers to Q5 and Q6 imply T — I.
How can T — W or T — I be required assumptions to answer correctly without our having any information that would support them?
The explanation for this game does not address my question.
Hey everyone! I just wanted some suggestions or techniques for approaching weakening q's. I'm finding that while timing myself, I take a longer time or I rush when solving weakening questions because I take too long. I average around 1 minute and half, sometimes closer to 2 mins, even on the easier questions. I think it's because I'm trying to reason it out completely (find all alternative assumptions, etc.) However, on blind review my accuracy is pretty good, as I'll usually get all or almost all of them right. Are there any techniques or strategies you guys use in order to increase speed on weakening q's, or even all LR question types? Thanks!
I would appreciate if somebody could clarify this one for me..
https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-72-section-2-question-14/
Here, JY equates, “Those who ate the most chocolate were the most likely to feel depressed” with “Chocolate Consumption –positively correlated with– Depression”
https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-47-section-1-question-26/
Here, JY says “Ones who improved the most were the ones who learned to write the most automatically” is not establishing a correlation. (because we don't know what happened to the 2nd tier people)
What’s going on?
I have also posted a similar question on the PT 72 S2 Q14 down in the comment..
1. Those who ate the most chocolate were the most likely to feel depressed.
2. The more chocolate one consumed, the more likely he/she felt depressed.
Aren’t these two different in meaning? Because for the first statement we don’t know what happened to the middle/low range chocolate eaters..
But we still translate both of them as..
Chocolate Consumption –positively correlated with– Depression
Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Hey, could someone help explain why E is the correct answer choice? I understand why others are incorrect.
https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-41-section-3-question-19/
For LR questions asking you to express the main point or the conclusion, how do you know when the answer is going to state the exact conclusion sentence in the stimulus or if the question wants you the conclusion that comes from combining the premises and expressing what the argument is saying overall? I can elaborate if this makes no sense but I feel like with some conclusion questions the answer is basically a restatement of the particular conclusion sentence in the argument but for other questions it's looking for me to combine the premises and overall conclude what the argument is getting at.
I heard 72 and 76 are brutal...Which prep test in 70s is your personal best?
hey guys, just wanted to share with you how i've been drilling LR recently and let you know that so far it has been paying off.
i'm sure its nothing ground breaking and has certainly been done before, but it has helped me anticipate the answer choices :) -- it occurred to me after hearing Johnathan say that he never uses POE to get to the answer choices...
Earlier this week during a Sage/Instructor chat on Discord with Jonathan, argument structure came up. The following link is the only list of LR questions I've been able to find with argument structure. This list mainly groups LR questions by flaw type (circular reasoning, false binarism, appeal to authority etc). If you CTRL+F you can search by "correlation/causation" for that subset of phenomenon/hypothesis questions and for conditional logic search "formal logic" or "necessary/sufficient". This is the closest thing I've found to a list of LR questions per PT by argument type. http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=108425
Hello 7Sage!
I have problems for this question.
The question stem mentions the preference in Passage A:
Preference for coherence connecting variety, not too simple (pure tone) = not interesting; not too complex = bad
so i'm looking for some kind of in the middle of the spectrum
I choose Answer (A): Preference for white noice when sleeping : not totally silence (pure tone) ; not too loud (too complex)
Answer (B): not knowing why it's matching the preference analogy?
Thanks for your help!
https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-58-section-2-passage-4-passage/
https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-58-section-2-passage-4-questions/
I am scheduled to write the December 2016 LSAT. I am having some anxiety regarding the photo requirement. In my opinion, the photo fits the requirements. However, the photo was taken with an I-Phone 7 and although it is clear, I am still worried about the particular proctor I may encounter on test day that would say otherwise. I have read various forums and in general, people have have minimal trouble with the proctors accepting their photos.
However, I am worried that I might get that one proctor who gives me grief. Is there any way that an actual LSAC employee can confirm that my photo is acceptable? It is 326 pixels per inch, which is well above the minimum of 72 pixels per inch. If by chance that the photo is not accepted, can I bring a professionally taken passport photo as well as my passport and driver's licence as "back up."
I have read some horror stories regarding proctors who are uninformed about LSAC rules and turn students away or who also unnecessarily turn students away for minutiae that they deem unacceptable, in a pathetic attempt to exercise power. People who are taking the LSAT are usually under immense stress and have likely spent a good amount of money applying to law schools and paying LSAC registration fees. LSAC should make more concerted efforts so that the proctors (who are not LSAC employees) do not make arbitrary, subjective judgment calls. Honestly, the previous requirement of having a passport taken and then attached as a physical copy to the LSAT ticket was a much better option, in my opinion. The fact that they base so much on "the proctor's discretion" is just ridiculous to me. Can anyone share their experiences regarding the photo requirement? Is anyone else stressed about this or am I just being nuts?!
For some reason...I miss a lot on this question.
What some strategy worked for you?
I tried to find whether they agree, disagree, no opinion strategy but it did not really work for me...the part I thought they disagree turned out one of them does not have opinion and something like that.
How do you tackle this type of question?
The lesson Logic Games Habits for Speed and Accuracy says about re-writing rules in visual language: "Write out rules neatly, close to each other, numbered [emphasis added]."
I have been wondering why JY always numbers his re-written rules. I've not seen any use made of the numbers that helps to answer questions. I can see occasional convenience of reference when, in talking to us watchers of the video explanations, JY deletes or combines or uses a rule. But I'm not as yet seeing a reason for me to number my rules.

