Last week I had increased my PT score by 7 points, but the one I took after that was 5 points lower. Has anyone had a fluctuation like this before, or do most people just consistently improve? Any advice/comment would help on how people generally improve from PT to PT

So I was all ready to leave for my European vacation when I receive an email from the system telling me I have a private message on 7Sage. Hmm, what is this? Oh, it’s @nicole.hopkins suggesting an article topic? Grumble grumble. Whoa, it’s really been like a month since I’ve written one? Grumble grumble. FINE, I guess I’ll put something together. Don’t say I never did anything for you, Hopkins. Better watch your back.

OK, so. BURNOUT is the word of the day.

Cutting right to the chase - I recommend Burnout: Paradise. It’s a really sweet open-world driving game that’s held up surprisingly well over the years and…oh, not that kind of burnout? Darn.

How to tell you’re burning out:

The ideal learning attitude is for you to come into the whole thing expecting to make all kinds of awful, terrible mistakes that you have to spend hours upon hours cleaning up. When you just get started with a new task, that’s the high that accompanies it. “I’m going to get this”, you tell yourself. And for a time, you’re willing to roll with the punches and (assuming that you’ve put your ego aside, as we’ve discussed a few times previously) learn what needs to be learned without it affecting your mood too much. Frustrating as it may be, you work through your mistakes because you can feel yourself learning.

But like all ideal things, this cannot last forever, no matter how much you consciously try to maintain it. Usually, it starts when something doesn’t click right away or when you otherwise plateau, however temporarily. Don’t worry – nothing’s wrong with you. That just means you’re human (or a highly-realistic cyborg clone). It’s normal to get irritated sometimes when you feel like you’re not progressing (or even if you’re not progressing as fast as you feel like you should be, though that again has to do with the ego thing we talked about before). But that’s where it usually starts. Because here’s the thing – have you ever heard of someone burning out when they’re on a constant upward trajectory? Yeah, right. You show me a student who goes +1 scaled point every test, and I’ll show you a student who will never burn out.

Assuming you hit snags on your path like a normal person, you will eventually reach a low point where you dread studying because you’re sick of making mistakes and always having to struggle to find the right way to fix them, only to make what seems like negligible progress. Instead of properly analyzing the latest error you made, you just throw your hands up in frustration and complain about how ‘nobody writes like that’ (and since that’s one of my biggest pet peeves, I’ll state for the record – yes, they do. All the time, in fact, so you'd better get used to it). Mistakes make you increasingly more irritable, as you lament the fact that you made a sufficiency/necessity mistake, AGAIN. I mean, can they really just stop that? This test is so dumb sometimes.

Many times, this increased irritability and loathing results in avoiding studying, sort of like one avoids doing the laundry in favor of lounging on the couch catching up on back episodes of Pokemon (no? just me?). Go downstairs to put my laundry in the dryer? Maybe later, Ash is about to finally gain the trust of his Charmander! That scene always hits me right in the feels. Who cares about the laundry, anyway? Maybe I’m just not cut out for laundering.

That’s a state of burnout in a nutshell – the apathy, the excuse-making, the frustration finally boiling over. Which, if you’re a particularly nervous type, can even result in you panicking about not studying while simultaneously making excuses not to study. A pretty odd spot to be in, frankly, but it happens more than you might think.

Addressing the issue:

There are degrees of burnout. Small instances of burnout happen all the time, and usually just necessitate a bubble tea run to clear your head, or perhaps a quick trip to these discussion forums to bask in the schadenfreude of your similarly-suffering peers, or maybe just yelling a swear word at the top of your lungs and scaring the dog. Larger instances of burnout happen over a period of months, as your dedication continues to wane on a macro level. But the micro instances of burnout are instructive, because they suggest the solution for larger instances. Which is rather simple, in my opinion.

When you’re burned out, you need to take a break. Yes, you. Listen up:

Take.

A.

Break.

There’s no way around it. You are no longer in the mindset required to learn, and you need to get it back. Studying more isn’t going to help, because remember – you’re already no longer in the mindset required to learn. Which begs the question – if you’re not going to get anything out of it, why would studying more ever be the right call? It’s not. You have to take a break and recharge your batteries.

Q: But what if I don’t have time to take a break?

A: Yes, because you’re accomplishing so much more by forcing yourself to study when you clearly aren’t learning anything from the time spent.

Q: But the test is just two months away!

A: And?

Q: So I need to be studying all the time, right?

A: That’s not how it works.

Look, here’s the deal. If you aren’t getting anything out of studying, you might as well be banging your head against a brick wall. In the process your mood will continue to worsen, leading to further frustration, panic, or both. (Frus-panic? Pan-stration?) Whatever you call it, it’s bad. And, not only are you literally wasting your time studying with that kind of mental state, it can be actively detrimental to you because this is precisely the time where you are most vulnerable both to lapsing back into old (bad) habits and also creating brand new (bad) habits in your attempt to make things make sense again.

Never confuse the steps you take to get to a goal with the goal itself. Having a consistent schedule is important, but it is not the end goal – learning is. Studying consistently is merely a means to that end. When the circumstances change, you need to adapt. You would not go to the gym and try to do leg presses if you broke your ankle. Why are you trying to ‘go to the gym’ (study for the LSAT) with a ‘broken’ brain (a mindset that will not allow you to do what you need to be doing)?

The hardest part is actually giving yourself permission to take a break without feeling guilty. My suggestion – write yourself a contract. You are going to take 48, or 96, or 144 hours away from the test. During that time, you are expressly prohibited from opening an LSAT book, looking at an LSAT question, visiting 7Sage, or anything else. Use this time to remember what life was like before you put the weight of the world on your own shoulders all those months ago. Read a book, sit by the pool, go out with your friends. Give yourself permission to punch anyone who asks you about the test in the face, too. In exchange, when you come back, you promise to do 30 minutes of (X), where (X) is some combination of fundamental tasks like question stem drills or conditional translation exercises. Just 30 minutes, to get back on your feet. And then take it from there, one step at a time.

If your mental game is in shambles, no amount of LSAT mechanics will save you.The test will be there when you get back; you just need to be ready to tackle it. Do what you need to in order to preserve your state of mind.

Just like I'm going to do, right freakin' now. No LSAT for 10 days for me! Catch you suckers later!

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-20-section-4-question-20/

Can anyone summarize the flaw? I'm confused.

I mean can you actually deteriorate in your ability to take LSAT as you study more? I've recently started taking PTs in the 50s after finishing the ones in 30s/40s - only to realize that both my actual and BR scores are dropping each PT (from mid 160s to currently high 150s actual). I've taken about 17 PTs and this is really discouraging. I can't believe my BR score is dropping too below 170s now. Are PTs in the 50s harder than the previous ones? Or am I just losing my fundamentals as time progresses... Or this is just a burnout? It's really frustrating to see that I'm doing worse each time - I feel like maybe this test is not for me (I know some of you will hate me for saying this). :(

I currently suck at this question type. I mean I do not have a clue on what I am doing even when applying the negation test. what is a good strategy to get over these woes?

@blah170blah Forced me to create a Myers-Brigg thread (at knife point no less...). What's yours? Share please!

What was/is the question type(s) that you struggle with? How did you get over your struggle? What word of advice can you give to someone struggling with the question type?

Not sure if such a post was already attempted before, but I think this would be a good thread to start to get different question types perspectives, and ways to get over the difficulty of a question type.

So, let me begin. The most difficult question type for me are assumption questions. I did not really get over my struggle yet with NA but with SA I got over my struggle by first mapping out the conditionals, and with that practice I just began to see what needed to be linked up for a valid argument. My advice would be practice with a purpose, and understand what you are doing wrong, and why you are not getting to the right answer. Look for what terms need to be connected to make the valid argument, and understand which is the premise and the conclusion.

Hello everyone!

First time poster, long time lurker.

I'm looking to get some advice on what would be my best study option leading up to the October LSAT. My PT scores seem to have hit a plateau around 158-160 right now. My latest BR score was 173, so I realize that there is room for PLENTY of improvement in both PT and BR. Anyway, I've started to obsess over this stupid test and have no problem with retaking in December if I can't reach my goal of 170 by October. With that said, what study method do you all recommend for maximizing my score for October and leading into December? I know more PT/BR will help but should I be focusing more time on fundamentals/specific question types?

Thanks!

Hope you're all having a lovely HUMP DAAAY.

PT61 BR Tonight at 8pm ET

Ok, ok, ok. we've had 2 people so far say they can't make 7pm ET like we'd planned. SO. We're doing 8pm ET for tonight. Let's just all calm down and play it by ear. Oh BTW, we're 52 days from October 3rd. Freaked out yet ???!?

Nah, bro. Join us for soothing rhythms and transcendent insights on tonight's BR call.

Note on all groups

This might seem a bit silly, but in after doing the translations into lawgic exercise...do we always diagram logic whenever we see it in any LSAT question? For instance pt 27 st 1 q 17, I started reading the stem and noticed the logic and diagram quickly but then I didn't really need it. Is that a special case? Does anyone have a recommendation? Thanks!

You know that whole piece of advice to skip those turdy substitution questions?

Well. Look. I just did that in a section. Saw it, said NO THANKS, boxed it, moved on, didn't care. Had a tish of extra time, came back to it, still didn't care, eliminated some AC's, pulled the trigger. Nothing to lose, possible 1 point to gain.

-0. That would NOT have happened if I had wasted time on this Q, friends. Was tighter on time in this section than I'd like to be; if I'd wasted the likely 2min+ had I gotten sucked into that vortex, I wouldn't have gotten to one or two questions at the end due to the confidence sink these substitution questions often entail, time sink aside.

Just an example of how following one little bitty piece of 7sage wisdom can result in a real difference of a couple of points.

So, in summary ...

PS: It was thanks to @Pacifico who recently was advocating for this on the BR calls. This is why we listen to Pacifico.

Hi Everyone!

Just a heads up. Got the below email from Cambridge LSAT regarding their LSAT content.

"You may have seen the announcement on our website, but just in case, please see the points below.

Our license to sell LSAT materials to the "general public" has been revoked, and as of August 15th, we will no longer be selling official PrepTest content in either digital form or paperback form. Should you have any questions about LSAC's digital content policy, please inquire with them directly.

We will continue to offer downloadable explanations for a broad range of PrepTests.

Our bookstore will remain open for purchase of mostly non-Cambridge paperbacks and Kindle eBooks.

We have a very limited number of the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package (paperback) bundle at a special discount. These won't last long!

Complete explanations for the Official LSAT PrepTest 75 (June 2015) are available for instant download.

It has been our pleasure providing high-quality downloadable materials over the past six years, and unfortunately, there wasn't a way to both satisfy LSAC's requirements and keep our downloads free from onerous restrictions. If you feel, like we do, that LSAC's digital policy is unnecessarily restrictive and harms students preparing for the test, please voice your disapproval. If enough students express discontent with the status quo, LSAC might reconsider its position.

Sincerely,

Cambridge LSAT"

TL;DR their license expires on August 15th so if you plan on using Cambridge for drilling and/or tests, plan to buy before then!

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-18-section-2-question-22/

Hi there, I found the correct answer choice makes sense. But I chose A when I first do this question. I think A also explain the conflict by point out the possibility that: maybe because generally people don't know the fact that the mistaken scientific finding is mistaken; therefore, nowadays scientists study them and make more people know about the the inaccuracy of the earlier flawed research." (I know it sounds weird when you read this, but it comes out naturally to me when I encounter this question at first time). Answer D seems also problematic to me. Would it be valuable for nowadays scientists to study earlier but mistaken research just because they want to be more familiar to the older research. Maybe they are interested in scientific history, because the word "valuable" is really vague here, different people may have different standard of "valuable".

I notice that I made some assumption unconsciously, but I do not know what are those assumptions. I would really appreciate your help.

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-41-section-1-question-07/

Can someone explain to me how they arrived at the correct answer using their process?

This is my final post. Best of luck everyone with your dreams.

I have been kind of looking around posts with advice on what to do, how to do it, and in what time range, and I see a lot of "don't do this," "no, you can't do that," or my favorite, "it take more than x amount of time." I feel as if some people take that as a predictor of what is going to happen. I want to clarify something for everyone who misunderstands posts of guidance, ONLY YOU CAN DETERMINE ANYTHING, whether it be it length of time, what your approach should be, how to do something, or anything that pertains to, not just this test, but anything. Let me clarify a bit. I am not saying do not listen to ANY of the advice, what I am saying is take everyone's advice with a grain of salt, and rely on yourself, and be confident in yourself no matter what it is that you do. I read something on another site, and someone was asking if they could reach 170 in 4 months with a 150 diagnostic, and a few people outright said it was near impossible. Nothing is impossible if you work hard, only failures, and people who lack self-confidence think anything is impossible. Just work hard, trust yourself, and don't sell yourself short.

So I am in the section of the curriculum where I am doing Logic Games, and I wanted to get your opinions on my strategy of tackling the practice problems. What I have been doing is doing the games on my own no matter how long they take until I figured out every inference on my own, sometimes it takes really long, sometimes I get the inferences in seconds. I do not watch JY's explanation until I am done with the game. Is this what I should be doing to get better at inferences, or is it better to just watch the game explanation if I am unable to make the inference?

So based on GREAT advice from people who've posted on here here (@pacifico, @nicole.hopkins etc), I've decided that I will definitely take advantage of taking the test in December. I plan on studying as if I'm taking it in Oct.

However, should I cancel my current spot to take it in Oct and get my $$$ back since I'll be taking it in December anyways?

Who here has developed a system for skipping questions? What type of criterion does it/must it fulfill for you to justify a skip? Any and all insights will be illuminating! :)

I bought my copy of The LSAT Trainer this weekend and am looking for the most effective way to use it along with 7Sage. For those of you who have used both, did you complete one before moving on to the other, work through the individual sections in both concurrently, or use some other strategy? I'm currently about halfway through the first RC section on here and I don't want to lose the momentum I've built over the last few weeks, but I'm also aiming for the December test and having to complete another curriculum after I finish this one will seriously cut into the time I have to get through all the practice tests. Thanks in advance for your help!!

I thought this one was worth discussing. I feel as if the diction really invites you to botch the set up. I know for the politician's statement I diagrammed that as SK --> /D (Save Koala, stop deforestation). My initial logic when I see a word like needed or required is to place it in the necessary position -- in fact I did this almost mechanically -- but upon review it occurred to me that "all that is needed" is basically like saying "the only thing you need" which upon further extrapolation becomes "The Only" which introduces sufficient. In any case I still think the answer choices were a bit confusing and I definitely believe the 7sage community would be well-served by taking a look at this must be true question type.

Hey guys, what's the consensus on drilling the weird games from the early 90's? I''m not finding that similar inferences come across these games and I don't know if doing one will help with another. However, I understand that these styles of games have been popping up again on modern LSAT's but unless I'm completely missing something here, I'm finding that a lot of intuitive inferences arise from the individual games, but don't parallel across the misc game range. I've been doing them for the sake of flexing some mental muscles here and there, but not necessarily drilling using the Fool Proof Method.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I just reread this poem after I wonder why I chose law school. I remember last year my mom and uncle said law school does not fit me since it is too hard. They said I should just choose an easy major and get an easy job. However, I know that an easy job can't win me a green card and there is no shortcut to success. Today, after I read this poem, I realize that I choose a path that lots of international students do not choose. That makes all the difference. What do you guys think of this poem? Besides the LSAT, we can still have some discussions for fun to avoid burn-out. :)

Hello 7sagers,

Have you read the book "Tomorrow's Lawyers"?

http://www.amazon.com/Tomorrows-Lawyers-Introduction-Your-Future/dp/019966806X

I don't even know whether I should recommend it to you before the LSAT since it is quite pessimistic about the legal profession.

In a nutshell, the writer predicts that in decades most law firms need to, if not be forced to, ultimately transform themselves to survive in the market due to the new technology. He also claims that the apogee of legal profession was in 2006, and most law firms charge much more than they deserve, merely because corporations used to pay since it seems only small percentage of a given deal.

The author's argument is that most well-paid lawyers currently only provide technical services, which is not as professional as it seems and can be replaced by new technologies.

Since I am not a lawyer and not familiar with the firm milieu, I can't tell whether it is true or not.

I believe that some of you like me don't pursuit the law degree just for a lucrative job, but I am still concerned about the future, especially when it comes to paying back loans.

I would love to hear any of your opinions, for the book, for future, etc.

I just wanted to open a discussion on how everyone is dealing with struggle when in comes to studying specific sections. I am a self study and I find myself getting very emotionally attached when not performing well when studying. It then makes me feel discouraged, but the opposite is true. If I do well I will spend extras hours studying to boost my confidence. How do y'all handle this struggle? Any advice is greatly appreciated!!