I currently live in South Carolina and have been admitted to the University of South Carolina School of Law. I have also been admitted to the University of Mississippi School of law. I'm from Mississippi and plan to move back (either now, for law school, or when I graduate). However, I think USC's school is a better fit for me, mostly because it's in a urban area,which brings lots of opportunity that a tiny college town can't provide.

I'm worried about going to school in a state where I don't plan to practice long term, and how this will affect my job opportunities etc when I do move back to Mississippi. Is this a legitimate concern? Part of me says that people moveall the time and I shouldn't worry. The other part thinks that it's vital that I study where I plan to practice, for networking purposes etc.

Any thoughts shared would be greatly appreciated!

Shoutouts to @"Nicole Hopkins" for some incredible content here for RC. I know that I've never used an annotation system like this before and look forward to trying it out as I work through the curriculum and dive into RC passages. Highly recommend this webinar as well the one with @"Quick Silver and @DumbHollywoodActor for people who are struggling on RC or want to break through some plateaus. Both do an incredible job explaining RC in a way that really helps you learn the material and we're blessed to have them as resources! Again sorry about the length but I hope this can help some of you out there struggling with RC.

Nicole Hopkins RC Webinar

Contents:

1. Reading Comprehension Overview

2. Strategy: Helping your very-near future-self

3. How (and why to turn the passage into a toolbox

4. Notation Strategy

5. Doing your ONE JOB in Reading Comprehension

6. Implementation

Reading Comprehension Overview: Crash course of the basics of Reading Comprehension along with some timing strategies

What RC Consists of:

• 35 minute section

• 4 separate passages (Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Law, Humanities

• 5-8 Questions per passage

• Total of around 28 questions per section

Should I skip to Passage 3 or Passage 4 since these are more likely to have more questions?

• No you should start with passage 1 and attack accordingly, you want to pick the low hanging fruit, gain confidence/momentum so you can handle the “harder passages”

• You don’t get points for answering harder questions

o Answering only 21 questions and getting them all right scores higher then answering every question and getting 18 right

Should I spend longer on the “harder passages?

• RC is always the same process (process of elimination based on inferences you make while reading/analyzing the passage)

• Do not spend more time on the “harder passages” spend around the same time on all of them

o We don’t want to spend more time on a harder passage because we’d rather re-allocate that time to an easier passage and get more questions right

• In this way it is NOT like LG because the amount of time that you spend on each passage should be close to the same

Timing Breakdown:

• 3-4 minutes to read the passage (3:30 is our sweet spot)

o Remember you’re not trying to read for detail or to analyze, we want to focus on structure and a good annotation system where we know where things are if/when we need to come back to the passage

• 4:45-5:45 to answer 5-8 questions

o Leaves us a maximum of 1:15 per question if we only get 5 questions and around :35 - :45 seconds per question if we have 8 questions in a passage

How do we deal with the issue of time?

• We DO NOT just “read faster”

• We read smarter and we eliminate answers more efficiently with confidence

• We want to approach this like LG where we’re going to set up our “game board” so we can confidently move through the questions quickly

Helping your very near future self: This goes through the method we’re going to use to help efficiently eliminate answer choices

Combination of JY’s Memory Method and Mike Kim’s approach in the LSAT Trainer:

JY’s Memory Method:

• Read the passage

• Make main points for each paragraph and for the entire passage

• Take a few seconds to walk through the main points of the passage in your head

• Confidently eliminate the answer choices and refer to the passage when necessary

Mike Kim’s LSAT Trainer:

• When we read focus on the reasoning structure

• Our goals when we finish reading the passage should be to know the main points and the author’s purpose for writing the passage

• Ask yourself these questions

o What are the main points

o What are the big moving parts

o What are the viewpoints

• Who holds them

• How do they interact

• Why do care about these viewpoints

Broken down even further you should think of the JY’s method as the what we’re actually doing and Mike Kim’s approach as how we’re doing it. So as we read the passage we’re reading for structure very similar to how we’d look at argument forms. We want to know if we stripped away the subject matter what would it look like (introduce topic, offer view against topic, offer view in defense of topic, acknowledge that view for topic is clearly superior). Also while we’re reading we’re stopping at the end of each paragraph to get the main point of the paragraph, this helps the overall structure because we understand how the pieces fit in with each other. Then as we continue reading we look for the different viewpoints throughout the passage. Finally when we get to the end of the passage we should have a main point of the passage, along with ascertaining what the author’s purpose for writing this passage is. If we can do that we’re ready to attack the questions.

Note that having a good process to fix our RC problems are only half the battle, we now need the appropriate tools to be able to do that job and that’s why we have our RC toolbox annotation system

How and Why to turn your passage into a Toolbox:

• We understand that we will not remember all of the details that we’ll read and will most likely have to refer back to the passage

o We also know that we’re under immense time pressure and we want to maximize every second we have

• When we look back at the passage we want to have the passage work for us so we can be quick and efficient and so we have an annotation system

Notation System Overview:

• This is not a magic bullet meaning that doing this will simply put you in a better position to be able to attack the questions but you will still have to put the time and work into making this work

• It is perfectly okay to not use these exact symbols you want to make your notation system reflective of you and work for you

o Certain things people use as notation don’t work for others

o The important thing is what you annotate (main point, structure, etc.) not how the things are annotated

• Think about this: If this notation system saves you 2 seconds per question this could be the time it takes to allow you to answer 1- 2 more questions overall

Notation Strategy:

Keys: When doing this we’re looking for 5-6 distinct categories of details that we can easily distinguish immediately so that you can refer back to the passage without wasting precious seconds

• Who

• What

• When

• Where

• Pivots

• Questions Asked or Issues Raised

The Who: Proper nouns (Bill Smith)

• Mark with a BOX around the name, actor, agent, etc.

• Proper nouns (Bill Smith)

• Some scientists (Always Box the Quantifier!!!)

• Mainstream historians

• Grass Spiders (animals)

• Hydrogen/Oxygen (because they’re doing something to something else

Do not forget to box the quantifier because it allows you to eliminate so many answer choices is the passage says “some are” and answer choices says “most are”

The When: Certain Date or time that something occurred (1776)

• Mark with a Circle around the date, period or temporal term

• Until recently

o Unless you’re told that this is a recent thing or that something is currently going on, you can’t infer recently

• Since the 1950’s

• In the Middle Ages

• In recent decades

Sometimes helps where if it says before/after X and you can tie it in with exactly what X is being able to visually connect the two ideas could help save you some time. Whether it be a line or arrows being able to connect them so you don’t have to spend time finding the other could save you a few seconds

The What: Any term or phrase defined or used in a specified way, or any defined hypothesis/theory that is defined

• When something is defined, usually an embedded clause that we read without and then with afterwards

• We box the term and then underline the definition or pointing to an underlined definition if in another line

o “Box with a tail”

The Where: “In what context”

• Put brackets around it [ ]

• Geographic locations [Mali]

• Experimental context [a recent study]

• Works/Books/Symphonies [Homeward Bound]

• Other locations [in the arteries]

Context will vary subject matter to subject matter

The Pivots: Used when the author is switching between different viewpoints

• Marked with an arrow without a stem in the margin (>)

• “But”, “however”, “in spite of this”

Very helpful in figuring out argumentative structure and is very often tested on in questions

• Way to signify different views and helps you understand the flow of the passage, extremely helpful in seeing the MP of the passage

Issues & Questions:

• Any time an issue is raised or something is presented use a star

• Any time a question is posed use a “Q” margin

• You don’t have these in every passage but when you do have them it helps see the flow of the passage

Doing your ONE JOB: Your job in RC is NOT to “understand” the passage. It’s to comprehend the passage only enough to eliminate 4 wrong answer choice for each question

• This isn’t Reading Understanding this is Reading Comprehension

• You are going to be relying on process of elimination and you’ll get answer choices that you don’t like but you’ll have to circle

o This is why this is so important to be confident when eliminating answer choices

Read it, notate it, and attack the questions!

Implementation:

• Practice this notation strategy on a few RC sections you’ve taken before trying it out on a fresh PT/section

• Focus on eliminating answer choices with those hammers you pick up from the passage. If the AC says “most scientists” and you’ve only got two “some scientists” that AC is smashed

• The goal is for this to be muscle memory and make this automatic!

Random Q&A:

1. Should I rely on process of eliminate every question?

a. You are always using process of elimination on the LSAT, this is no different from LG or LR. When in doubt use process of elimination.

2. When you have the whole page marked for the Who/What/etc. with limited time how can you answer questions?

a. Use parts of answer choices that you know you annotated and can thereby confirm or eliminate answer choices

b. Even though you have lots of annotation symbols and potential for things to be marked each one is distinct so you can quickly find information you need

3. How do I BR a passage?

a. I always practice BR on a fresh sheet of it

b. Write why you have answer choices got wrong

c. Before you check your answer choice do a BR

d. Confirm the answer with line references because it will be supported by something in the passage

4. I’m missing more now on recent tests what I can I do to help?

a. You need to hone in on words that make the answer choices unsupported

i. Don’t want an answer choice to be so strong

ii. Rely on process of elimination and you see the tricks that the LSAT makers give

5. Do you make multiple reads through?

a. Read through once and notate and then you do your walkthrough in your brain of what everything is saying and how it fits and then attack the questions.

6. How do you attack the weird analogy questions?

a. Think about the analogy questions very similar to conform to the principle/parallel reasoning etc.

b. Looking for an answer choice that conforms to the same principle because you want to look at that part of the passage and say okay, what is the role/rule/function in this. What is the critical part that’s in play right now.

7. What would you advise for someone who has lots of fluctuation?

a. Are there outside factors that varied?

b. Look at the subject matter and not allow the subject matter to dictate how well you’re engaged.

8. Should you use the same thing for comparative passages

a. Yes, and the only other markings will be boxing something that both of them talk about and connecting it with a line throughout the passage

9. How do you drill RC?

a. Depends on where you are in your prep, how many are you missing, why are you missing questions?

i. If you’re RC performance is suffering from poor habits, spinning your wheels, over inferring, bringing in outside information, only focusing on part of the passage, then drilling a bunch actually will make it worse.

ii. An option to see how your habits are lining up, 7sage BR calls are incredible and talk to people on the call

b. Always do it timed to see how long it takes for you to read

10. How do you focus on the passage structure if you don’t understand what the passage is asking about?

a. Focus on the words that you do know, focus on the pivot points and proper nouns and inferences that you can make, this will help you be able to move forward

b. Just by notating effectively you’re giving yourself a chance to eliminate answers

c. Remember that you don’t need to understand the subject matter to get the question right, we’re training to be lawyers not subject matter experts

Can someone help me with this? It is one of the questions where the reasoning for the right answer completely eludes me...

The MSS Question basically states that:

"There is a difference between morals and manners. Manners are 'necessarily social in nature', whereas morals are 'not necessarily social in nature'. 'So the rules of etiquette do not apply when one is alone.'

The correct answer is:

A: "One could be immoral without ever having caused any other person any harm." - Huh?

I went with:

E: "What is social in nature could not be a matter of morality." - I figured, sure why not, if morals are 'not necessarily social in nature' and manners are, then something, say a manner, could definitely be social in nature while not a matter of morality... Right?

Hey everyone,

Could really use your advice. So I took the Dec. 2015 and Feb. 2015 administrations and subsequently cancelled them both after. I know this isn't an ideal situation or move pre se, but it was one I was forced with after bombing both sittings due to what I think is some sort of performance anxiety amongst a couple of other pertinent issues. I PT consistently around the the low to mid 160s.

I had high aspirations of trying to achieve a 170+, but would of been content with scoring around my average. Unfortunately , on both tests I had pretty bad draws with protcor/ test site ambiguities and had trouble moving on from a section that I know I have gone wrong.

To illustrate this scenario clearer, I opened with back to back LGs and got "the real" LG second during this past Saturday's administration. The easy "mirror game" took way longer than it should have (9) min and I even had to leave one or two circled, although I was a little flustered I was then quickly able to move through the second game .. only to become completely "frozen" from the European cities game. I was shocked, because those games are usually my best.. I tanked a bunch of time just trying to interpret the rules and before I could confidently answer two questions I realized I sank another 11 minutes. Needless to say I freaked out. I jumped right over to the 4th game but could confidently answer only about half the questions. All in all, I believe I bombed the section with at least -11. From that point forward I was so livid, I couldn't move forward. I had LR next and had difficulty just parsing out grammar and finding conclusions -- two of my stronger skill sets-- while I was battling the section. LR is my strong point, but it felt like I just pretty much forgot everything. That trend only continued as the test went on. After 7 months of studying I wasn't ready to accept a potential sub - 150 score. A very similar situation happened to me during the December administration. Nevertheless, I plan to retake in June and conquer this beast once and for all.

Having gone through the curriculum in it's entirety and completing the vast majority of PTs 40--70s, how would you recommend studying for my third, and FINAL, re-take in June. Also, any advice on how to combat the psychological battle with questions you feel you might have missed?

Hello All, I just have a quick question for those of you with the most experience with this. I just wanted to know how many 5 section PTs do you take compared to 4 section PTs. More? Less? Those of you that take 5 section PTs more often, do you find it to be substantially beneficial? Thanks in advance for any insight.

So took yesterdays Feb 6 LSAT......

(Few quick details so you better understand where I'm standing)

So I did not at all take myself seriously months prior to the LSAT, i have withdrawn twice form the LSAT due to knowing this fact.

(OCT & DEC) Prior to taking the LSAT I had minimal knowledge of formal logical( negating , contrapositives,etc...) Like very lightly I understood the concepts but never enough to actually employ them(Assumptions.n all that).. so about a week an a half prior to the LSAT I did my usual thing and procrastinated. My goal was a 158+ (Target school Loyola) which soon I realized after taking my first legit PT with a (149)......that I would downgrade to a goal of Southwestern( ya i know doomed)......However after a week and a half of almost pure 5-10(had class some days) hour a day practice tests and few reviews, i was hitting 154-ish and the material was actually making more and more sense ( even in that godawful amount of stress)....at one point I actually even got intrigued as to why like....I don't know it felt like a hunger to spot-recognize-repair-improve....

Sorry for all that bit long but heres my question I'm seeing my life with two options as of now....

1.If I score a 152+ with my (3.3UGPA) apply to Southwestern(YES I KNOW).....work my ass off first year top 15-20%(Yes i know its difficult,everything in life is) then transfer to (,USC..ect) or.....its a big OR

2.Spend this next year studying for the October LSAT apply to top tier schools(T14- 20) with likely a scholarship....(And yes I believe I can hit 170+) not cause I'm a genius...(i wish) but because I'm decently inteligent with a new acquired taste in LSAT...

Ill give you an idea of what I'm feeling, literally after sitting through my first LSAT.....I came home my mind was blurry and literally the only comfort I found was by doing LR questions to calm my nerves....

PS:JY STRAIGHT UP TAUGHT ME EVERYTHING ABOUT LG GAMES...Smart Gentleman( Will be buying the ultimate test guide if option 2 is chosen....I hope that doesn't suffice as evidence in some kind of bias fashion to anything you may post :)

Special shoutouts to @DumbHollywoodActor, @"Quick Silver", and @"Nicole Hopkins" for this amazing webinar because without them I never would have had these notes, which I know will help me as I start going through RC again. I know the webinar was long but I highly recommend that anyone struggling in RC check out the webinars because there's tons great amount of wisdom shared in each one. I apologize for this being so long but there was a lot of great information that I didn't want to leave out.

RC Question Types with @Quick Silver

General RC Tips:

1. Use the LSAT Trainer to supplement for RC:

• Tons of good information and complements the material very nicely

• Also goes into Question types and tries to get you to focus on passage structure when reading, which is very useful

2. What to annotate in RC?

• Nicole Hopkins did an amazing webinar focused on RC annotations but in both they stressed this:

i. Have an annotation system that works for YOU. What other people do, might not work as well for you, so try different things and tweak and make your own method that works

2 things to annotate:

1) Main Point of the Passage:

2) Author's Opinion/ Point of View

1) Main Point of the Passage:

How to do this:

1. Follows JY’s memory method somewhat, take the main point of each paragraph and write a phrase or a symbol that represents the main point of the paragraph

2. Look at all of the main points after you’ve read the passage and see what the main point of the entire passage is

Modifications to this system:

1. Timing Issue: If you run out of time because you’re writing slow then consider taking a few seconds and running through the main point of each paragraph in your mind and then the main point of the passage. While this isn’t the best it’s useful to at least start engaging with the passage

2. Main Point Sentence: If there is a sentence that encapsulates the main point of the passage somehow to annotate that (box it, circle it, underline it, star it etc.)

a. This RARELY ever occurs because the reading is very difficult and having one sentence that gives away the main point is considered far to easy.

Why this is important: Both of these are forcing you to engage with the passage much more than one had originally thought. The material is very difficult and you don’t want to get lost or fall asleep and this is forcing you to engage and internalize the material

2) Author’s Opinion/Point of View:

How to do this: when you’re reading if you see the author’s opinion or someone else’s view on a certain topic annotate that somehow (Underline it and mark AO or POV)

Why this is important: Whenever someone gives their opinion generally this is either tested directly or indirectly

1. This can also be combined with Nicole Hopkins Pivot annotation so that you know exactly where the point of view’s switched in the passage and can go back if necessary to answer a question

3. I seem to struggle with natural science passages, how can I deal with this?

• Last Resort: If you know a passage is going to be challenging for you personally there is no harm in saving it for the end. You keep your momentum going however, psychologically it’s good to move away from saying “something is challenging” we want to go into this LSAT war aware of our strengths and weaknesses but we don’t want to go in defeated

• When we read any passage we don’t have to understand everything in the subject matter. WE’RE TRAINING TO BE LAWYERS NOT SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS. When you realize that you read and approach the passages in a different way.

i. Read for the big picture and not the details

ii. Read for function: What is the author doing in this paragraph, “why did he write this”

iii. You only need to identify the big picture and be able to seek out the specific pieces of information when necessary

• See the structure of the passage rather than the subject manner and you begin to see that many natural science passages are formulated in a similar manner. (Watch the Story of Science in the 7sage Curriculum)

i. Introduce a hypothesis/theory

ii. Introduce new evidence against hypothesis/theory

iii. Original theory is either accepted or rejected

iv. If rejected outlook for future is given (whether new theory is accepted, whether problem will ever be solved, etc.)

4. RC is definitely possible to improve dramatically on:

• One of the biggest myths is that LG improves a bunch, LR improves a little less than that, and RC improves little to none. You’re in control with how much you can improve every single one of those areas.

• Tips to improve RC:

i. See how much similarity there are between various questions. We categorize every other section but for RC we go in with a “I’ve been doing this all my life, hope for the best kinda thing”

ii. Have an annotation system that works for you, whatever it may be

iii. Feel free to make some changes and try to experiment with different strategies to find which works the best for you and break through plateaus

1. Go to BR calls

2. New annotation system

3. Ask yourself if you’re reading for understanding or just to attack the questions?

4. Are you reading for detail or for structure?

5. Are you actively reading and engaging with the test or are you just surviving RC?

RC Question Types:

1. Main Point: What is the passage trying to tell me, what is the passage looking to convince me of, what is the central argument

Tips/Traps:

i. Make sure that you don’t supply a sub-conclusion as the main conclusion

ii. There are specific questions that won’t talk about the entire passage, they will talk about a specific paragraph and these are NOT main point questions. These are Purpose of Paragraph questions

1. Read carefully so you actually do what the question is asking

iii. Similar to doing a Main Point LR question

How is this question phrased:

i. “What is the primary purpose of the passage”

ii. “What is the main point of the passage”

Strategy:

i. Want to actively read the question and determine are we having to supply the main point of the entire passage or just a paragraph within the passage

ii. This should fall right in line with both the 7sage memory method and the annotation system because we should have a good pre-phase for the main point of each paragraph and the overall passage

iii. Pick the answer choice that best matches your pre-phrase

2. General Organization: How is the passage structured, from a bird’s eye view what is going on in each paragraph

Tips/Traps:

i. The answer choices won’t always be specific they will be intentionally vague

1. Ex: “Idea is introduced, critique is given, idea is rejected on the basis of critique, and possibility for a new idea to emerge is deemed unlikely”

ii. Anticipate Answer Choices whenever possible:

1. Forces you to engage with the passage from a macro level

2. Makes you less likely to fall for trap answer choices

3. Gives you a standard to apply to each answer

How is the question phrased:

i. “The passage proceeds by”

Strategy:

i. After reading the passage combing the 7sage method and the LSAT trainer that focuses on structure you’ll have an understanding of what the flow of the passage is

ii. Use the Main Points of the paragraphs to compliment your understanding of the passage structure so that you can pre-phrase the answer, then select the one that best matches your pre-phrase

3. Purpose of Paragraph: This is looking for the main point of a specific paragraph rather than the entire passage

Tips/Traps:

i. This is what happened if MP questions and General Organization questions had a baby. You use the elements of general organization to understand a bird’s eye view of a passage and then zoom in on a micro level to find the main point of that specific paragraph

ii. You want to be sure that you realize that this is NOT the same as MP question types because there will be a TRAP ANSWER CHOICE that gives the MP of the entire passage

How are these questions phrased:

i. “The purpose of the 2nd paragraph is to…”

Strategy:

i. This continues to build off of the memory method and LSAT trainer foundations, if you have the MP and understand the structure of the passage at a macro level then when you zoom in and look at each paragraph you know how it fits into the passage.

ii. From there pre-phrase how you believe it fits into the overall passage and choose the answer choice that best fits.

4. Purpose of word or phrase (Vocabulary in Context): These you are trying to figure out what a specific word or phrase meant or why it was used

Tips/Traps:

i. Don’t just look at the word or phrase read at least a sentence before and a sentence after to see how it works in context

ii. The biggest trap for this question type is the bias towards our own definition of certain words

1. Our brains automatically favor our definition and what we believe the word means as opposed to what a dictionary says.

2. Test makers prey on this because they know that people approach these as “I know what these words mean and I know that the test is hard so the answer won’t be the easiest definition”

How these questions are phrased:

i. “In line X the author most likely used the word Y to mean”

Strategy:

i. Cross out the word/phrase or cover it up until you can’t see it within the sentence.

ii. Reread the sentence without saying that word and turn it into a “fill in the blank” where you supply what word/phrase you believe should be there

iii. Use whatever word/phrase you put there as a pre-phrase and look for a synonym as the answer choice

5. Contextual Definition: This is similar to purpose of word/phrase but instead you’re applying the same approach to context rather than a specific detail

Tips/Traps:

i. The question won’t be for a single word but maybe it would be for something like asking for a definition

ii. This is more cut and dry because you won’t have to replace a word

iii. Not as common of a question type

How these questions are phrased:

i. “The author defines X in the second paragraph as …”

Strategy:

i. Find where the word/phrase/context is within the passage

ii. Read the sentence before and after the context

iii. Pick the answer choice that supplies the context in the answer choice

6. General Author Opinion: This is the author’s general feelings/position/opinion

a. Tips/Traps:

i. In your annotations be sure to note when there are multiple opinions so you don’t supply someone else’s opinion instead of the author’s

ii. The answer choices will not be as specific or airtight as some other answer choices

How these questions are phrased:

i. “The author would agree with which one of the following”

ii. “The author would be most likely to agree with which of the following”

Strategy:

i. In your annotation system take note of the author’s position or opinion along with when the opinions change between different people

ii. Also look for the way the author says certain things throughout the passage because you might have to use certain words to ascertain his opinion on a topic that isn’t directly given to you

1. “While the second approach wasn’t helpful, the 3rd approach was slightly more effective” we could conclude that the author believed the 3rd approach was better than the 2nd

iii. After going through and noting the author’s position use that to answer the question

7. Specific Author Opinion: This is the author’s feelings/position/opinion on a specific thing

Tips/Traps:

i. Having an annotation system is vital in this because you want to know not only where the author talks but also where the author talks about a specific thing so you can refer back to it to refresh yourself

ii. Make sure that the position that you’re taking note of is indeed the author’s position and not someone else’s opinion. The latter is NOT the same question type (specific opinion)

How these questions are phrased:

i. “The author’s attitude between X and Y can be accurately described as…”

Strategy:

i. Look back over your annotations regarding the author’s opinion on this specific subject and take note of his position

ii. Find the answer choice that matches his position

8. Specific Opinion: This is someone, other than author’s, opinion on a specific subject

Tips/Traps:

i. Make sure that in this you do not accidentally supply the author’s opinion because that’s not what the question is asking for.

1. There will potentially be answer choices that are the author’s opinion and this is not what it’s asking for

ii. The key to answer this question type is again a good annotation system that lets you know when another opinion has started and how they interact with the author’s opinion

iii. Just because it’s not the author’s opinion this does not mean that the opinion cannot be the same as the author’s

How these questions are phrased:

i. “Scientist A would most likely agree with which of the following”

Strategy:

i. By having a good annotation system along with reading for structure you should have a decent idea where the individual in question’s opinion is in the passage.

ii. From there read a few sentences before and after so you can understand his position within context

iii. Choose the answer choice that best outlines his position

9. Strengthen/Weaken: These add information that either strengthen or weaken the author’s argument

Tips/Traps:

i. These are based off of the author’s opinion but actually end up applying the author’s opinion because you have to see how the information interacts with the passage

ii. This is why having a good annotation system where you know exactly what the author’s position is key because if you don’t know his opinion you don’t know what will weaken/strengthen it

iii. Make sure that the answer choice actually does what you’re looking for the test makers might provide TRAP ANSWER CHOICES that do the opposite (strengthen when you want to weaken and vice versa)

How these questions are phrased:

i. “Which of the following would weaken the author’s argument”

ii. “Which of the following provides most support for the author’s argument”

iii. “Which of the following undermines the author’s argument”

Strategy:

i. This all boils down to having a good annotation system so that you know what the author’s opinion is to begin

ii. Once you have the author’s opinion you want to add information that either weakens or strengthens his argument

1. This is the exact same strategy as the LR strengthening and weakening questions

iii. Remember that you’re only wanting to support/attack the support between the premises not the premises/conclusion themselves these could be TRAP ANSWER CHOICES

iv. Pick the answer choice that fills the gap and does what you’re wanting to do

10. Illustrate: This relates you understanding to the answer choices by providing another example that is similar to this one

Tips/Traps:

i. You want to figure out the opinion of the author and then apply it to another example

ii. This is very similar to a Parallel Reasoning Question and Parallel Flaw question type

iii. Work from wrong answer choices to right answer choices

1. Eliminate all of the wrong answer choices you see and then attack the remaining ones

Right Answers:

1. These will illustrate the author’s opinion but they may not necessarily be a slam dunk and match the subject matter, the illustration of the concept is really what matters

Wrong Answers:

1. Misunderstand the author’s opinion or a concept

2. Present an opinion that is too strong or too specific, i.e. will go beyond the text

a. Text will support “some people say X” and the answer choice will say “all people say X”

How these questions are phrased:

i. “Which of the following is an example of X”

ii. “Which of the following illustrates the dangers represented by X”

Strategy:

i. For questions like this you really need to fall back on your understanding of structure and what the passage is saying once you know what the passage is saying or how a concept fits within the current passage then you can illustrate that in an answer choice.

1. Also like I pointed out above many times there will be answers that go beyond the scope of what the passage will support so in going through answers it helps to go through and eliminate those so it’s easier to find the right answer choice

ii. Choose the answer choice that best matches the illustration of the concept within the passage.

11. Identify the Detail: A question about a specific detail in the passage, that usually is referenced by a line number, paragraph, or a specific topic that was talked about

Tips/Traps:

i. Because it’s so specific it is hard to find a way into the answers

1. Not like main point

2. Not like Structure

3. Not like Context/Definition

ii. Helpful to eliminate other answers and reverse engineer the right answer because they’re not like anything else we’ve done

iii. They will not phrase the answer choice in the same way that it is phrased in the passage

1. Have to paraphrase between the two

2. Beware of exact wording of a similar detail because it might not be the detail you’re looking for and they’re a TRAP ANSWER CHOICE

How these questions are phrased:

i. “What was one of the reasons that supported X in paragraph 2”

Strategy:

i. This also goes back to your annotation system and understanding of the passage structure because if you have a big picture idea and have noted where certain things are talked about you can refer back to the passage

ii. Because you understand the framework of the passage then when they give you a line number, paragraph, or major topic you know where it is in the passage and you have a grasp of how it all fits into the entirety of the passage

iii. Once you do that you’re ready to attack the answer choices and find the one that best matches your understanding of the detail in question and how it fits into the overall framework of the passage

12. Infer the Detail: These questions ask you to make an inference based off of some details given in the passage

Tips/Traps:

i. Key Words: Inferred, Suggested, Implied, Indicate, Most likely, probably, Most strongly supported

ii. These are not cut and dry

1. Have to play detective

2. Want you to make a logical leap from details to make an inference

How these questions are phrased:

i. “What can be inferred from the passage”

ii. “What can be suggested from the passage”

Strategy:

i. Look at the information and make an inference based on the information

ii. Not going to be directly paraphrased in the passage

iii. Logical leap that you can make using those details

iv. Doesn’t have to be airtight

v. Ask yourself what can I “reasonably draw” from these details

1. Extremely difficult to be 100% true with an answer choice

13. Infer From: These are the exact same as Infer the Detail but may be a concept instead of a detail that you make an inference from

Tips/Traps:

i. Key Words: Inferred, Suggested, Implied, Indicate, Most likely, probably, Most strongly supported

ii. Have to play detective:

1. Use a detail/concept as clues to make an inference

iii. You do not have to be 100% sure with the answer choice

How these questions are phrased:

i. “What can be inferred from the passage”

ii. “The passage strongly suggests”

Strategy:

i. Look at information and make an inference based on the information (details/concept)

1. Understand that this isn’t going to be a paraphrase of a detail/concept

ii. Ask yourself “what can I reasonably draw from these details/concepts”

iii. Pick the answer choice that best matches your inference

14. Find an analogy: In this question we’re looking for an answer choices that mirrors the relationship given in the passage

Tips/Traps:

i. Do not take these questions for granted/think they’re easier

ii. Understand what an analogy is: Similar situation between two objects that don’t have to be the same

1. Do NOT be biased to situations where the subject matter is the same, the only thing that matters is the relationship between the two objects

2. Want to see a similar relationship between the two objects

iii. Want to be careful about answer choices that are too extreme as well

1. A lot of the answer choices are not going to be slam dunks, we just want to have something that’s too right

2. LSAT Trainer: Price is right example

a. If you guess over the amount then your answer is wrong, on LSAT questions if you go too far then the answer is wrong

b. Even if an answer choice isn’t as strong but doesn’t go over it is right

How these questions are phrased:

i. “Which of the following is most analogous to X in the passage”

ii. “Which example/scenario is most similar to”

Strategy:

i. Articulate in your mind what the relationship between the 2 objects are

1. Ex: Dolphins eat tuna, so the answer choice we’re looking for is something that eats another object

ii. After you’ve found the relationship between the two objects/theories/entities then you find the answer choice that mirrors the relationship

iii. Remember:

1. We want to avoid having an analogy that’s too far

2. We also don’t want to fall for the trap of similar subject matter we care about the relationship more than the subject matter

come Monday nothing to do after FEB LSAT? All friends working busy don't want to not be studying ..feel depression around the corner any one else feel the same? What are you planning to do?

What type of decrease, if any, do you all experience when taking too long of a break between timed, 5-section tests? What is recommended as an ideal schedule for PT taking?

I know what I will have to face, the fear of stress and boredom. This is a journey of a serial procrastinator planning to study and LSAT, Monday to Friday. I tried everything from listening to music while studying, going hard close to deadlines to watching all kinds of motivational videos. I always resort back to my ways of procrastinating. Relapsing again and again. I've had enough.

Day 1

I picked up where I left off. Last time I was on 7sage was in Nov. Work and fear of not perfecting of my studying prevented me from continuing. I studied a good 3 hours today, not bad considering all the stuff I had to do. Voices in my head told me to go back to sleep as I chipped away at the syllabus at 8:30am. They told me to do it later, they told me that it's just too cold in the room right now.

I thought to myself, why don't I take a break and check my email, or look at Facebook. These distractions, which I refer to as screens, are triggers. The pull me to the endless black hole, the Internet. I call it the black hole because once I get sucked in, I can't stop. It is the place I go to escape reality and imagine myself successful, when in reality, I'm at the same job, same house, same city. There is nothing wrong with where I am, but it's not where I want to be. I put my life on hold for many years, but I'm going to reclaim it.

This is my struggle, not with the LSAT, but with myself.

So I took my first official LSAT yesterday and my gut reaction was that I did pretty well. When I would take practice tests I always felt as though I did worse than I actually did. Has anyone else had a similar experience? and if so how did that reflect in your score? I know this is all complete speculation, and that I might go crazy in the 24 days until scores have to be posted. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello all,

I thought I'd share my difference between my timed and blind review score. I apologize if this has been brought up in previous discussion threads. I have finished most of the curriculum and plan on taking the test in June 2016.

I took PT 56 (Dec 2008) and my timed score was a 152 and my BR was a 173. To me, this is a huge difference and I honestly thought my BR was a fluke. I was not expecting to see that big of a jump. I was wondering if anyone else has been in my position and how they were able to close the gap between their timed and blind review scores. Any strategies/anecdotes would be helpful!

Also, what lessons should I take from these scores? Does the blind review mean it is possible for me to hit a 170+? And as a person working a full time job (I study after work and on weekends), is it possible to improve that quickly by June?

Thanks again for your advice and thoughts!

Okay so I'm facing a dilema that I feel is a gamble either way. Last year I took the LSAT and didn't do as good as I would of liked, I got a 151 and I was looking to move to California since my parents live there. I also applied to the University of Denver since this is where I live. I did get in with 20,000/yr scholarship. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to move because there was a custody case going on with my son. Yet the decision wasn't made until November. I wanted to wait until court to schedule my LSAT to know if I was taking it in California or Colorado. I messed up and didn't pay enough attention to deadlines and could no long take it in December. Court also didn't go our way so I was unable to move to California. Now I need to go to DU and I just took the LSAT today. DU's priority deadline is March 1st this year. Yet scores come out March 3rd. I'm pretty sure I got somewhere between a 158-161, I kept track of what I think I got right, how many I guessed. Is that jump worth waiting until two days passed the priority deadline to apply?? Or should I use it to try and negotiate more money as long as they do accept me again? Please help!

Real Sections

LG:

- Pillows and Mirrors

- Madrid, Paris, and London / Cities

- Volunteers

- Photographs of Authors / Bookstore

RC:

- Shrubs & Bushes

- Urban Smart Growth / Suburban Sprawl

- Employees Rights / Workplace Ethics

- Female Sculptor

LR:

- Moths / Bats / Tweek Tweek Sound

- Physics / Psychology

- Intention Pollution

- Politican

- High Cholesterol

- Vital Interests

- Nests / Fleas

- Broca Area / Bilinguals

- Altruistic Behavior / Monkeys

- Redefining Church

- Bacteria Fungi

- Wolves and Wolf Subspecies

- Machine with blue/green light

- Outdoors vs. Treadmill

- Intentionally creating art

- Electronic toll systems

- Burglars with initials G and S

- Cellphone insurance deductible

- Laughter and social bonding

- Desires and beliefs

- Absinthe

- Neanderthals' food

- Expanding downtown

- Damming a river

- Gala / Music Awards

- Skin Disorder / Cancer

Experimental Sections:

LG:

- Via Numbers

- FGH (Field/Hydro/Geo) / Professors

- 8 Floors a Building

- France, Italy, Switzerland

- Horse Racing

- Cabinets

- Tour of Homes

- Streets Paved

RC:

- Money and Happiness

- Jazz and Latin Music

- Volcanoes

- Problem of Evasion

- Water on Mars

- European politics / Economics

LR:

- Life in the solar system

- First-year business students / Dresses and Rhinestones

[This thread is closed for discussion. Official post Feb. LSAT discussion here: https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/6352/official-feb-lsat-discussion-thread]

I watched the video explanation for this, but I don't think I understood it 100%.

I think the author's logic is simplified as farther=brighter=younger but I don't quite understand how a brighter star is supposed to be younger. Is this true in real life? Ha..

Maybe I'm overthinking this problem..?

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-62-section-2-question-20/

anyone have a sample letter of intent / interest for a school that you got waitlisted on and want to really go to? Or maybe recommend what to write ?

Hey you.

You taking the LSAT tomorrow?

Come back here. You're taking it, aren't you?

Ok. Me too.

How ya feelin'?

I know that feel.

Here's how it's gonna go.

1) LG's gonna throw a thing at you that you're like—wait, what? OH. Please. That's nothing. LOL. Really LG, nice try on that twist there. Nice try.

This is you when LG tries to throw a twist:

2) RC's gonna have some weird subject matter. But we don't change the way we read based on subject matter, do we? No. We don't. We know all RC is the same damn cookie cutter business and that we're always reading for reasoning structure.

We know RC is all like this:

So we are gonna devour RC like this:

We're gonna get about ankle-deep in a couple of time sink questions. WE WILL NOT give in to timesink temptations. We will remember that no one RC question is worth more than a minute of our time.

But we're gonna see that we're in the mud and we're gonna get the hell outta there and skip-skip-skip away. When in doubt ...

3) LR's might feel kinda weird at first. Time warp-y. Trippy. You might feel like a couple of the first few questions are hard (and they might actually be hard questions).

At first with LR you might feel like this:

But then you're gonna summon the Huntress.

Oh shit.

She's HERE.

I think you know what this means for LR. LR's gonna get taken down hard. Like, 25-in-25 hard. Sitting around with nothing to DO for 3 minutes hard.

Once the Huntress is summoned, she is on the hunt. Here is what the Huntress does with her prey.

Are you the Huntress?

I SAID ARE YOU THE HUNTRESS.

YES YOU ARE.

NOW GO CRUSH THIS TEST.

I am currently reading the updated thread by Dillon.. But there seems to be contradictory answers. Was the floors 1-8 (game 4 of the section), the experimental? Thanks.

English is not my first language and I cannot finish all four passages in time; I barely manage to finish 3 passages. Any advice would be great

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-33-section-1-question-22/

Can anyone help me restate option B to better understand what it really says? I can't find anything that helps me understand this question.

I am taking the February 6th LSAT (tomorrow) and wanted to hear some input on what the best snacks are for test day. Remember, it has to fit in the 1 gallon ziploc bag along with all of your other items like pencils, erasers, wallet, keys, 20 oz plastic drink, etc. Thanks for your input!

I was pretty burnt out by the date of the December exam. I didn't do my best, and now I'm wondering if I should just cancel my registration for tomorrow and do what I'm sure will be a better job in June for the next enrollment cycle, when I'll have my apps in at a better date also. But then, I'm "old" (30+ crowd) and waiting another year seems pretty severe. If I were 25, I'd definitely just retake in June while prepared to the best of my abilities. Or should I just roll the dice tomorrow and hope for a better score, even after a 2 month hiatus? Any advice is appreciated.

The snack discussion made me laugh about my own bag... it was STUFFED! But I was not worried about forgetting anything. It was rather funny seeing how people utilized their bags at the testing center. It seemed most guys had a drink, pencils and a cliff bar (plus wallet and keys) whereas the girls seemed to have much fuller bags.

This was mine....

Contents:

Inhaler (with the large tube) PS they let me keep this on the desk

5 pencils

1 White eraser

Tissues

Pencil Sharpener

Ice Pack

Water Bottle

Starbucks Refresher serving

A hard boiled egg in a little container

A Costco Jiffy snack pack (peanut butter, celery, carrot and apple slices)

A Coconut granola bar

4 energy gummy vitamins

Car Key

ID

LSAT Ticket

I think that was all... haha....

I took my first LSAT 2 years ago in June and then again over a year ago in October. I got in the low 150s both times but I didn't put in enough studying that I should have. I've been working a full time bartending job so studying has been hard. I took almost two years off because I ran into some personal issues with the man I was living with. I've been studying full time whenever I'm not working using the ultimate 7sage package. My score has definitely improved. I'm hoping to use my 3rd try in June, but I was wondering since it has been almost two years, will I technically have another try after those two years are up? I'm hoping not to take it again, but I'm also curious if I can use more attempts how bad does that look with law school applications?

I've been stuck in the mid-150s for the last 6 months and I just don't know what to do. I've taken a Blueprint Prep Course, gone through the PowerScore LG and LR Bibles, and read through the LSAT Trainer. I don't want to try another LSAT prep course because I feel like they'll just do the same thing BluePrint did and give me some short-cut tricks that don't help at all.

I have significant problems with RC and LR; missing -9 to -12 on RC and -7 on both LR sections. I've gotten better on LG thanks to 7sage's full-proof method, and have gotten it down to -6. Unfortunately, LG is what's bringing up my score. I Blind Review every RC and LR section, but it's beginning to seem like I'm wasting my time because I'm not learning anything. I can eliminate 4 incorrect answer choices under untimed review, but I just can't seem to finish any sections during timed prep. This test is beginning to stress me out.

Thus far, I've taken the LSAT once (scored 155) after pushing back the test like 3 times. I postponed the February test after, again, scoring 155 on PT59. I hear stories and read posts about people going from my score range to high 160s or even mid-170s after a few weeks, but nothing is working for me. Makes me feel like I'm defective or something. What am I doing wrong?