PREPARE FOR GLORY!!!!

I've been checking my admissions ticket regularly and even today, it still only gives me the building name and says "Room #'s Posted on Test Day" So I have to wait until the day of the test to even know what room I'm going to be in? Talk about stressful. Are all the test centers like this?

Hey fellow 7sagers,

This is my first post and it may be long (and more of a cathartic blog-like post), but I wanted to throw this out there for anyone who is also having similar feelings. I am signed up for the June LSAT (aka tomorrow) and am NOT taking it.

You may be thinking, "Oh this is just stress/anxiety." I'm sure that has some part to play, but I'd like to believe my reasoning is more logical than that.

I began the 7sage prep course back in January. When I say began, I mean more like I signed up. I thought, "I have a little less than 6 months. That should be enough time." I started off well, keeping on my schedule, but then LSAT prep took a back seat to all my other activities. As a full time student and part time worker who also attempted to have a social life, it didn't seem like there were enough hours in the day to also make time for LSAT prep. Then May hit. I had not yet finished the prep course nor had I taken any PTs. I thought, "I'm a smart person, I can just dedicate this month to the LSAT and I will be golden." I did spend tremendous amounts of time studying (like 8 hours a day, 6 days a week), but little did I know that wasn't good enough. It's true, you cannot cram for the LSAT. As it got closer and closer to the test date, I felt less and less sure about my ability. All of these posts that JY or any of the other 7sagers posted about the June LSAT would say things like, "You've done your prep tests, you know what you're likely to score. Don't worry so much." The thing is, I've only taken 2 PTs. My first one I got a 154 (158 with BR) and my second test I got a 158 (165 with BR). What a range! Who knows what I'll score on the actual test. My main issue is timing. The LG section kills me. Without blind review I was getting -11, but with BR I was getting -2. From this I learned a few things. My foundations were there, but I need to have practiced more to get the timing down. To put it simply, I am not ready. I've known this for some time and was hoping that by some miracle come today I would feel ready; that maybe in my last week of studying something would finally click. It hasn't. I know that if I were to take the LSAT tomorrow, I would not be performing at my best.

With this feeling, I looked to my parents for validation of my decision not to take the LSAT. My mom said, "What harm can it do? If you don't do well, just take it again. Law schools will see an improvement. You've spent so much time on this. You also can't get a refund. Why don't you just take it and see how it goes?" She makes a good argument and almost swayed me. But the thing of the matter is I don't want to take a test that I don't feel confident about, that I am not ready for. This is not anxiety getting the better of me. This is not a fear of that I won't do well (well maybe just a little) This is me taking an honest look in the mirror and knowing I can do better. I know where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I know what it takes to truly study for the LSAT. Maybe I'll never feel fully ready for the LSAT, but I do know that with more preparation I can go into the October's LSAT knowing I'm going to do the best I can do.

I'm taking the LSAT outside the US so I have a couple more weeks to prepare but I just had a total meltdown on PT 71 yesterday. Worst score I have gotten thus far and when I reviewed the exam I saw many silly mistakes (misbubbling, ignoring the EXCEPT in the stem, entirely misreading the stem). I was taking the exam in a classroom where there was a lot of noise and music playing (?)...I want to chalk it up to these distractions but since I am so close to test day I want to nail down any issues I have now and now overlook them. Is there something bigger going on or do you guys occasionally have "off" days? How do you recover? Is there any value in retaking this exam this close to the test day? Thanks guys!

Hi - so I postponed my test for October but I'm just curious if anyone has taken an exam in these locations:

CUNY School of Law or Pace University? Which one is better?

So I checked out my test center, and the desks are TINY. Like maybe the size of a piece of paper. How should I deal with this?

There are some larger desks in the front but they are handicap accessible but I wouldn't really feel right sitting in one of those. I bet people are going to try to sit there though. Maybe I could ask a proctor if they are spoken for by people who need them? There are 2 desks that each fit 2 people.

What is everybody doing to warm-up on Monday?

I've been missing many "Parallel" (both flaw and not) because of, say, a credited response containing "most" while the passage does not. Am I to generally ignore quantifiers with these question types?

When you register with LSAC please, for the love of all that is good in this world, select NO when you're asked if law schools can contact you.

Otherwise, your inbox will be positively filled with the equivalent of desperate, drunk texts from a lonely ex. I swear I got one last night that read exactly like this...

"PLEASE! It's not too late! We'll still take you! It's June but we still need you.... Please?"

You think I'm kidding but let me assure you, I ain't kidding.

In all seriousness, good luck to everybody on Monday. Go, fight, win. Do the thing.

Talk to me people, how are you all feeling for this Monday?

Ok so I couldnt help but stick it out with Mike's method for LG since a few of you said it was actually beneficial to you in some ways and it's finally coming together! The use of his shapes are not bad. Although unpleasing to the eye, lol in a matter of a day I got used to it and I am already doing a LOT better on diagramming drills.I suppose it was just a matter of being too overwhelmed by the appearance of the diagrams combined with extreme fatigue that caused me to go crazy last night. I ended up re-reading the chapters that confused me last night (proof that studying when you are mentally and physically exhausted is an absolute waste) and I understood it much better today. I have a good patient load at work tonight and I don't have the emergency room so I will be able to get in at least 5 hours of studying! Thanks to those of you who continue to give me advice and inspire me to do my best. If anyone else is using The Trainer and is a little baffled by the LG section I will be more than happy to help clarify.

A fascinating essay by Lewis Carroll about learning that I feel mirrors our experience in training for the LSAT. : http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/13/how-to-learn-lewis-carroll/

For people who have taken the LSAT alrwady, what is typical as far as the difference between your average practice scores and the actual score from the real test? I'm averaging around 173-174 right now, and I'm curious to know if that is what I should expect on test day

So I have now begun studying logic games using the LSAT trainer and omg I am soooo lost. =( I am not a visual learner at all and it is very hard for me to "read" pictures. I often have trouble deciphering how to notate rules and the fact that I even have to draw a picture to solve the problem set overwhelms me. Even more alarming is the use of circles, squares, and triangles that I have encountered with the trainer! The mere visual of the shapes combined with the in/ out chart, lines, and other symbols drive me crazy and I am left feeling dazed and defeated before I even tackle the questions. Anyone else encounter this problem and overcome it somehow? Would you recommend using J.Y.'s method for logic games instead?

If I already know all the strategies and techniques? Now that I'm taking the October LSAT, I need to seriously work on my timing, but I can't figure out how to start. Does 7sage offer anything that could help with that?

Thanks.

It's all falling into place. I saved this test for close to the end in order to get a good picture of how I'll do on Monday, and in my PT I just hit a 171. I think Monday will go well.

Not only that, this was my first PERFECT games section where I actually did the substitution-equivalence! #winning

Reading comp was the usual point sink.. got -4, then -2 and -4 on arg 1 and 2.

Just gotta ride the wave baby.. keep this momentum

In my opinion, and based off of what I've seen on these forums, PT 72, or the June 2014 test was extremely difficult. I scored 4 points lower than my average on it. Being that it was the June test one year ago, does anyone think the June 2015 test Monday will also be similarly difficult? The scale for June 2014 was graded easier (because of the harder test) than most June tests before it. I'm nervous.

So I've finally started my long, arduous journey towards studying for the LSAT. Although it is tough with my son and I often think of how I had more energy and free time during my undergrad days, I am sticking to my guns and getting a little done each day. I started with LSAT trainer like many of you suggested and I plan to follow up with a 7sage course after I complete it. I am aiming to take the LSAT December 2015 (February 2016 the very latest). Feel free to comment if you too are planning on taking the exam at the same time. =) Anyway, I find it difficult to complete full PT's mainly because I am always interrupted by something my son is doing and if it isn't that I start late (like 10 pm at night) when he is sleeping and by that time I am too tired to finish the entire thing. Does anyone practice them by doing split timed sections half and half? I know it isn't the ideal way to practice but it seems like it the only way I would get a full PT done. In the weeks before the exam, I will probably just go to the library (provided that I have a babysitter) so that I can get the full experience. And blind reviewing on the same day? Lol. Forget about it! Between my son waking up, feeding him, getting him to go back to sleep, etc it's a lost cause. Anyone take the exam and blind review the next day? Any suggestions would be great!

Not sure what I'm looking for here...Probably pity points if I'm being honest with myself. Just a heads-up, this is a long one. I know writing can sometimes help vent frustrations, and since I can't repeatedly punch the drywall to combat my stress and fleeting moments of panic, I'll give this a shot. Today I took what I planned on being my last pretest - hopefully ever (PT-73) and notwithstanding the fact that I haven't graded it yet, I know it was a total bust. I completely bombed a Logic Games section and --for me in particular-- this hits especially close to home. Logic games have always been a bit problematic for me. On the december 2014 administration, I sat for the exam and did higher on the logical reasoning sections than I've ever done otherwise, but completely botched a logic game (getting about 7 wrong). My experimental was logic games as well, and happened to be the first section so it was literally back-to-back games and I essentially came out being ambushed by 8 games. Consequently, I received a 164 which is pretty solid but I decided to commit my time to more study, and give it all I've got for June.

"170 or bust," served as the ideological truism to which I --among others-- subscribed. From early Feb until now I've been studying consistently, logging 380 exact hours hitherto (can corroborate with Excel spreadsheet). This doesn't include the hours from Oct-Dec. To combat my weakness in logic games I purchased the cambridge bundle which includes all the logic games sections from PT1-70. I've been doing several logic games sections a day 2-4 which ranges from 8-16 games a day. Scoring perfect very often. For some reason my reading comp has plummeted lately, I feel like I can't register and process what I'm reading at times. Not sure if this has anything to do with the stress or not. I've also taken 24 PTs from Feb-Now. All have been 5 section save for one (the free preptest offered on the LSAC site). I feel like I've paid my dues here. Going back to today's pt, it was a total farce. I felt brain dead for my 2 sections of reading comp. Section 4 was games, which made me so irate, I broke 3 pencils and contemplated ripping up my test and just stopping there. In spite of my lapse of self-control and anger, I decided to continue but couldn't focus much on my last section (LR). Not sure how I did but for the last few tests I've taken Logical Reasoning I've been in a sort of auto-pilot mode. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, I'm at that point where I'm reading questions, even ones I should diagram and just feeling out the answer. Sometimes I can't even successfully diagram the question but my mind scans the choices until it finds what feels right and I move forward. I know this strategy sounds like an incarnation of LR Russian Roulette but oddly enough I've been getting them mostly right and relatively stay in the same range of LR questions missed.

I don't know if this autopilot mode is the result of some intuited conditioning or just my total apathy and disillusionment with the test. I've become sloppier, fancying myself a lone gunslinger, secretly wishing the gun I've put to my temple is loaded -- or in my analogue, the question is wrong. I know many would advise to reschedule but that's not an option. Should I take a day or two off? It might help but I'm scared of losing precious minutes that could be utilized for studying. I feel as if I'm in some LSAT limbo swimming amongst concepts, games and ideas. I literally can write questions for the LSAT at this point. What is most strongly supported by the statements above? B) I'm tired of the LSAT. What would most undermine my argument above? C) User Dgelf321 is known to be a drama-queen who over-exaggerates academic related endeavors. This argument rests on the assumption that? E) The stress related symptoms Dgelf321 has reported are not the result of other non-lsat related obstacles, or medical issues. The argument above is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms? A) The author implies causation between stress and the LSAT, when only correlation has been shown. What would most explain the dip in scores despite the amount of studying? C) Studying harder isn't necessarily studying smarter. What is the main point of the argument? D) I feel like I'm losing it. The sentence " From early Feb until now I've been studying consistently, logging 380 exact hours hitherto (can corroborate with Excel spreadsheet)," figures into the argument in which of the following ways? It is a premise to support the sub conclusion "I've paid my dues" and acts to establish sympathy for the writer. Which of the following can be concluded? E) Overstudying is a real thing. Which of the following assumptions would allow the author's argument to be properly drawn? You get the picture.

I've read over and over that people advise against drinking coffee before the LSAT to avoid a crash and to avoid the... Laxative response it often elicits. However, I believe I am probably not the only one who is physically incapable of functioning at a college level without some form of caffeine. I generally drink coffee both before and during my PT's. What are you coffee drinkers planning to do? Drink a cup before going inside the testing center? Bring some coffee for the break? Caffeine pills? ADULT DIAPER!?!?

How would you guys translate this stimulus from words into symbolic logic?

Barf (SpaceBalls movie character) only goes to the ocean on clear nights, and tonight is quite a clear night. Thus, we can conclude that Barf is going to the ocean tonight.

.

Most contrapositives makes sense to me except in the case of a negative condition, and positive reaction.

Can someone help me understand this example. (I don't think the rules are supposed to build off of each in this drill, so I've only listed the relevant one).

Scenario: A singer will perform, in order, five of seven songs: L, M, N, O, P, Q, and R.

"IF no L, then O." The answer (by negating and reversing clauses) according to a text book is "if no O, then L."

This doesn't seem true to me. There could be an L, but absence of O does not demand L. I have spent 30 minutes on this single example.

Help is greatly appreciated.

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-72-section-4-game-4/

So I was blowing through the games section of section 4 and then I got to this last game with about 13-15 minutes to spare. I saw that there were only two rules given and knew that I had to make some deductions ahead of time -- except I didn't know what they were. I tried to do as many questions as I could but realized I was missing something crucial (for instance, I saw that almost every answer choice had something about K-L but I couldn't tell if this was significant -- turns out, it kind of is). I missed every single question minus the elimination question for this game.

I'm curious as to what I could have done differently if I got this on the real test. Paging experts here: what would you do if you saw this game and realized you were missing the key deduction? How would you get yourself to see the game a bit differently?

Ok, folks. Let's discuss options for BR groups heading towards October.

(s)We have two matters to consider:(/s) Consideration done! Here's what we're doing:

Next week, Wednesday will be PT47, Friday PT67, and Saturday PT48, and so on, and so forth, until we ride into the Oct 3rd tests on chariots of fire.

We do have a special request to switch the Wednesday session to a Tuesday session. For this week, obviously we will be meeting tonight, but I will raise the question on the call to see if everyone is ok with this change. I'll keep y'all posted with any changes.

_______

(Archive of original post follows)

1) Which tests to BR

My top priority is to get all the way through PT75 (June '15). I'm sure this is your priority, too. We have 34 sessions between now and September 30th if we meet twice weekly (with PT65 happening this Saturday), which should be the last group call for the Oct 3rd test.

That means we have to make a choice between:

1) Starting with PT36, making it to PT51 on August 1st, and then skipping ahead to PT59 on August 5th. That would mean we would skip tests that the group has already BR'ed (but I recognize that new people might not want to skip these tests).

2) Starting with PT45 and going all the way through to PT75. This is better for those who favor exposure to the newer tests over exposure to older tests. On the whole, this one would be my recommendation, but I want to see if others have a preference.

My question to you: Which course do we follow?

2) When to do the groups

I propose the following. Please either respond to this thread or PM me if you have strong objections.

—Every Saturday at 8pm EST (note the time change). Our sessions have been averaging around 3 hours (shorter than previous sessions) and I do not think 11pm is too late for most of the East Coasters to wrap up the call.

—Every Wednesday at 8pm EST (if we have a lot of West Coasters who work full time, we can perhaps find some wiggle room depending on how long your commutes are. I hesitate to set it any later as that would push the East Coasters near midnight by the time we finish)

My question to you: Do these days work for you?

To all who have participated or reached out to me about participating: Please make your lovely voices heard!

@Jengibre @jyang72 @susan777 @Matt1234567 @majilacudy3 @brna0714 @hj060815 @a554n558 @mpits001 @alexandergreene93 @woodyhey @iampenpal @sierravs @JMelissaRoby @bcervant @nvenega63 @jenifferk @gstar2015 @hylycdi! @ddakjiking @asamarie @lschoolgo @matthewj @btdean82 @louis2014 @mandavni @Afterthought @sagarpa @nye8870 @"C-A-T spelt dog" @"Jordan McMahon" @victoriap7 @"Quick Silver" @mariii_m @pujals @coreyjanson @clarkwass @jihyun.lee @lsathopeful @nch2092 @mkulkarni713 @"Matthew LLC"