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Hey everyone!

I have pretty severe ADHD, which has led me to change my study habits for the LSAT quite a bit. @nicole.hopkins, @amanda_kw and I have been working pretty hard on really nailing the fundamentals of logic to improve our scores over the past several weeks, and it's been helping immensely. That said, there's still a lot to be done and as Jonathan said a few weeks ago, knowing logic like the back of your hand is crucial to scoring highly on the LSAT.

I've been studying up on mind-maps to help stimulate my creative side and find something that'll really make all of the logic lessons click for me. I'm finishing up the full logic map tonight, and will be doing two more over the course of the week: one for valid/invalid argument types, and one for LR question types.

I wanted to reach out and see if anyone would have an interest in me uploading these to share with anyone who might be more of a visual learner such as myself, or even if any of y'all have made mind maps that have worked for you!

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Hello 7sage! As always, thanks so much for all the help and resources.

I was wondering if there will be a price discount since the PDFs of LSAT questions are now all gone. I really want to enroll in the Ultimate course but its quite over my budget. Thanks!

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If you're interested in joining please PM me or @nicole.hopkins your Skype name so we can add you to the call :)

It runs pretty smooth. All you have to do is take PT 56 and BR before the Group BR (do not check answers). During the Skype call we go through all four sections and we also go more in depth if there is not consensus or if anyone wants to for any reason.

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If you're interested in joining please PM me or @nicole.hopkins your Skype name so we can add you to the call :)

It runs pretty smooth. All you have to do is take PT 57 and BR before the Group BR (do not check answers). During the Skype call we go through all four sections and we also go more in depth if there is not consensus or if anyone wants to for any reason.

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Hi all!

I desperately need your help! I planned for the February test, procrastinated and postponed it to June. After the winter break, I've decided to take LSAT really seriously and finished the core lessons with 7Sage. Now I have been through more than 10 pts but don't see anything above 161, though my highest br score is 174.

My final goal is at least to break 165.

I am not sure if I am ready to take the June test. But I don't think I should postpone again because I have studied for several months. Another three or four months may lead to burnt out, besides my internship starts in July.

However, I am graduating this May from grad school, lots of things going on before graduation. I doubt I will have enough time to score 170s consistently to feel ready for the June test.

Any suggestions/thoughts? Shall I take the June test anyway? Maybe cancel the score if I performed badly?

Thanks for your time!

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Please note that as of July 6th, I am not updating this thread as much. There are far too many BR groups for me to keep track of. The newest BR groups will be at the top of the "Study Groups" category, here:

http://classic.7sage.com/forums/categories/study-groups

Please PM the author of each thread to be invited to the BR group! (Note: I am not the author!)

BR Calendar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wNxrEU0-YfiID5upvTUlAOo8J-MvXfM2K7mvUkcD1xc/

BR groups always active through Skype! Add nikkers625 on Skype, or PM Nicole! ( @nicole.hopkins )

Q: What happens during these BR groups?

@nicole.hopkins We go through every question in the test, in order. Where LR questions benefit from diagramming, we use a white board app (links provided during the call); we also diagram all of the LG using the same app (several people diagram since some of us use slightly different methods).

Everyone takes the PT for that week under timed/exam simulating conditions. Then, those who are able BR the whole test on their own (I am often not able to BR the whole thing on my own and it's literally never been a problem). We meet on Skype at the appointed day/time (usually 3.5 hours, give or take) and go through the whole test. It's fun and hardcore.

For a lot of us, the PT's we do are retakes but everyone benefits, no matter if it's a fresh test for you or not. Feel free to listen in sometime to see what it's like (PM me with your Skype handle).

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Hi All-

Shot in the dark...

Does anyone know of a "7Sage" type of online resource for learning to Code?

I used LSAT classes and books and even another online course before finding 7Sage and nothing has been better for learning the LSAT. I'm now trying to learn to Code, so as a shot in the dark, does anyone know of anything close to 7sage for coding?

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***I love to write, and I also happen to have a little knowledge about the LSAT and law school admissions generally. With JY’s blessing, I have decided that I will scratch my writing itch on a semi-regular basis by posting long-form blog-style pieces on the forums. If you have a topic that you’d like to see me write about, feel free to PM me. And please, discuss the piece freely in the comments below, especially if you disagree – I love to hear other viewpoints and am happy to engage in respectful and reasoned discourse.

Not a lot of people know this about me, but once upon a time, I was a Dance Dance Revolution fiend.

I picked it up around the year 2000 or so, when DDR was just starting to make a splash in the US market. At first, I was obviously awful at it, but I was enamored so I stuck with it. Eventually, I managed to become a pretty good player, though I never quite made it into the top tier.

When I was still developing my skills, there was a song called “MAX 300” that I made it my mission to beat. At that time, it was one of the two ‘boss’ songs in the game - songs that even the best players could barely beat, never mind score well on. Nowadays it’s a joke, but back then nobody had ever seen anything like it. For reference, a video of the song being played (not me, in case that wasn’t clear):

Pay particular attention about 1:15 into the video as the song approaches its midpoint, starting with the appearance of green ‘freeze’ arrows (which require you to hold down the arrows in question). After 366 steps in about 45 seconds, the song seems to be giving you a reprieve – an 8-count to catch your breath and rest a bit before launching into the second half of the song. How nice of them, right?

Wrong.

For most people, it’s much easier to stay in “the zone” once you’re already there, as opposed to having to find it from scratch. When you’re in a state of full concentration, it’s easier to maintain your thought process as you make your way through the task at hand. In DDR, once you get in the rhythm of parsing the arrows and stomping the appropriate arrows, you can essentially go on autopilot and play almost unconsciously, just reading and reacting. MAX 300, as hard as it was, was essentially just a stamina test – no weird rhythms, no tricky step patterns, just a straight up challenge to see if you could keep up. And indeed, many fairly average players were able to do so, at least for a while.

But, when they gave you those precious seconds to rest, all of a sudden you had time to realize that your lungs and thighs are burning and you can’t quite stand up straight or see clearly anymore. And when the steps started up again, you simply didn’t have the energy to keep up anymore. So, while it superficially looked like a gift from above, that break was actually one of the harder parts of the song – not just for the actual physical difficulty of going from full speed to a full stop and immediately back to full speed again, but also for the sheer psychological toll it took on the player in doing so.

That’s what the break in the LSAT does to you. If you’re not careful, you will spend the entire 15 minutes dwelling on things that you did wrong in the first half of the test. You’ll suddenly remember that you didn’t get much sleep the night before, or remember that you’re actually incredibly nervous because this is your third attempt and you REALLY don’t want to wait another year for another bite at the apple. You’ll spot that despondent test-taker (there’s always at least one) who’s already contemplating canceling his score due to bombing the first half of the test, and that’ll start you questioning how well you’re doing. You’ll hear some guy talking about how he got two RC sections, and panic because you could have SWORN that your experimental was that unusually difficult LR section. No matter which one of these happens to you, you’re sunk. Your mental game is torpedoed, and there’s only one thing that happens from there.

What DDR players took to doing during this break was doing something – anything – to stay active and maintain the beat and not allow themselves to be psyched out by the structure of the song. Take a look at this video for an example, around 1:04:

He could take a break, and it would likely be well-deserved, but instead he’s making additional work for himself in order to avoid taking that break. This allows him to continue on after the pause without a hitch, because he never actually stops what he’s doing – he’s “in the zone” even when he’s not explicitly required to be.

Treat the LSAT the same way. Test day is one monolithic entity, from the moment you wake up to the moment you exit that testing room, and you must maintain your focus at all times. The break is not a time for you to relax – it is a test of your ability to remain focused. During your practice, make sure to simulate your breaks, because they are not optional and they have the potential to completely derail you if you’re not used to taking them. Eventually, you’ll get used to maintaining your focus through the break, or at the very least quickly picking back up where you left off once the break is over.

My suggestion for the break is to maintain a low-level state of readiness. What I mean by that is that you should focus on some concepts that you know like the back of your hand, and keep yourself LSAT-engaged by using those concepts to occupy your mind. Recite all of the LR questions types, or play with some conditional translations and make sure you can go between all four groups fluently, or go over your strategy for tackling a particular section you haven’t seen yet, or even just run your personal highlight reel (we’ll talk about this some other time) through your head over and over again. The name of the game is to make sure that you’re not headed into section 4 cold – that you “hit the ground walking”, as I like to say.

Oh, and make sure to seek out a local DDR machine and pump some quarters into it during one of your study breaks. 15 years and many mixes later, it’s still a ton of fun.

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Any ideas about how to keep it together for the 2-4 hours before the 12 pm test? With the 8 am test - you just get up and go - but I'm a bit worried about what to do with my time before the LSAT.

Mainly...how do I not ruin my day before I go in to take the test?

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Please could you share your advice related to law school choices? I most likely want to work in SoCal after graduation and am accepted at UC Irvine, but because of rankings should I go with WashULaw in St. Louis instead? Personally I'm really impressed with Irvine going straight in at #30 and I love the feel of the place and community.

Also, I'm wait listed for Northwestern's accelerated JD program. Should I hold out as long as possible in case a slot opens up?

Thoughts?? -- Many thanks!

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I've been trying to improve the RC section for the last 4 months with little luck. I've tried a few notable methods, but I'm still consistently picking incorrect answer choices in every passage. I do pretty well on LG and LR however so I've been thinking of just allocating the time I'd use on the fourth passage to making sure the first three are perfect. Do you guys think this is a good idea?

I'm not sure what else I can do with RC. Thanks.

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http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-61-section-2-question-23/

So in JY's explanation the stimulus represents invalid argument form 4. But I'm having trouble seeing this. Had the second sentence read "most BRICK houses on river street with front yards also have two stories" it would have been a lot clearer to me. But it just says "most of the houses on river street that have front yards also have two stories" So presumably there could be 100 wooden houses on river street with front yards and only 5 brick houses. The 5 brick houses could have front yards but not two stories while the 100 wooden houses all have two stories. So I'm not sure how we are justified in claiming most brick houses with front yards have two stories. Very confused on this.

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I would like to know if there is a way to download the LSAT Prep-Test 1 through 35 on 7sage. Please I really wanna know this as the clock continues to tick for the April 21st deadline.

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Tomorrow, I’m entering the next phase of LSAT development:taking PTs under testing conditions. (Woohoo!) I’m wondering if there’s benefit to mixing up the order rather than taking them in sequential order. Given the recent posts about PTs getting harder in 50s and 60s, I figured it’d be better to get to that difficulty sooner rather than later and suffer a crisis of confidence. Any thoughts?

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Hello all! I hope your weekend is going well and you are given the time you need to focus on studying for the LSAT!

I was wondering if there was anyway to see the videos, even though I check the box that says "Do not save answers." As I mentioned in another thread, I haven't been able to finish PTs, so I do a lot of sections w/o completing exams. For example, 2 LR, 2 RC, next day 1LG 3 LR, and any other variation you can think of. Unfortunately after I BR, I can only see whether my initial answer/BR answer is correct but I can't watch the videos that explain why I'm right/wrong. Is this intended, going to be changed later, or am I just missing something and I can already watch the explanations? I do plan on having the whole PT scored, just not all at once. So because my BR and review is so staggered I was hoping to review questions without having to officially complete a PT.

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I don't know if anyone else has had this happen to them but the LSAT is two months away and I've been taking PTs for about 2-3 months now. I was working through the 40s and low 50s PTs and wanted to start moving into more recent ones so I'll have experience with those. I was scoring consistently in the high 160s and now on my last two PTs (PT 64 and 67) I scored a 159 and a 162. I'm baffled. I don't understand why all of the sudden I'm having so much trouble and it's really hurt my confidence. Has anyone else experienced this?

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Thank you so much 7sage for all of your LSAT prep! Thanks to you (and a hell of a whole lot of determination) I just received my first law school acceptance email after having just sent in my application 3 days ago! I swear that has to be a record or something. When I first received my February LSAT score, I was so depressed because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I went to visit my pre-law advisor soon after having received my LSAT score to discuss it with her. After having told her my score and my cumulative GPA, she told me that I wouldn’t get into law school and that I should pick another career goal. Also, she told me that the LSAT score is a strong indicator of whether or not I will be a good lawyer in the future. In conclusion, she stated that I should go to graduate school instead and study public advocacy. By a matter of fact, she told me that I didn't need to go to graduate school; I could easily find a job in public advocacy without a Master's. I was even more depressed. My mother and I went to her boss to file a complaint about her employee. The boss and her colleague were just as condescending as she was! They told me that I shouldn't apply to law school for this fall and to wait until next year. They said that law school was a "number's game" and no one would accept me- even with my amazing writing skills. I told them "No" and that I would apply for this fall. (You should've seen their faces when my mother told them that her score was even lower than mine and that even she got into law school- priceless.) And now, thanks to my determination, I just received my first law school acceptance email! I can't wait to collect all of those acceptance letters to shove in that "advisor's" face. Never let anyone put you guys down! We are the future lawyers and we will make it! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

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I can't remember what JY says about this, but when I read the LR Powerscore Bible they strongly emphasized reading every single answer choice. I'm scoring in the mid to high 160s now and I've gotten pretty good at knowing when I'm certain it's the right answer and when I'm not so sure (I used to not know what I didn't know lol). Once or twice per section, I know the right answer immediately without a doubt. Do you think it's still necessary to read through the remaining answer choices? If I skipped reading the remaining answer choices, I could devote 5 - 30 seconds checking another question or devoting more time to a harder question. What do you guys think: still read all the answer choices or don't bother?

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Can someone please correct me if I'm wrong? From what I've collected I print out 10 copies of a LG from the syllabus, then I do one under extremely loose time constraints, then I do them over and over until I can complete the game in 5 minutes. Then choose a different game and repeat? Thanks!

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Hey guys i'm trying to be a realist. I'm aiming for a 160 on the LSAT in June. I started out with a low diagnostic, 142. Since then I've improved about 10 points. it's been about 4 weeks, now I'm seeing PT's between 150-153. Is the jump from 150- 160 harder to attain? I've heard it takes a lot of hard work and months to go from 160-170. I am currently studying about 10 hours a week, then when school ends in mid-may I'm taking an in-class course through Nathan Fox LSAT. I will be able to commit around 25 hours a week a month before the June LSAT. Any tips/thoughts/advice/estimations/theories?

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