I'm normally making in the low 160s when I prep-test, which isn't too bad - it is good enough to get in to the school I want to go to, but I generally miss half of my questions solely in reading comprehension. I normally miss 10-12 in RC, and then 3-4 in each of the other sections. I'm just not retaining any of what I have read. I can do it no big deal when I BR because I don't have the pressure of time...but when I do have the timer I seem to be always picking the most common wrong answers. Does any body have any tips for what I could do to improve retention/understanding of what to pay specific attention to while reading?? I take the LSAT in June! Thanks!!

Today, we have our first discussion about attitude. This is a rather sensitive topic, because nobody likes to be told that their attitude sucks, but the fact is that sometimes peoples’ attitudes suck and sometimes they don’t even realize it. I also tend to be very blunt when I talk about this stuff (could you tell from the prior sentence?). Nevertheless, I think that it’s an important topic worth discussing.

This first topic is a UNIVERSAL problem that happens up and down the scoring scale, so everyone stands to gain something here. My goal here is to get everyone to think about the mental barriers that may be impeding their progress, so try to remember that if something strikes a nerve. That being said, if I have to be the bad guy and ruffle some feathers to help people, then that is a price I’ll gladly pay.

Ready? Let’s go.

===========================

The #1 most important decision you make regarding your LSAT prep is not about what materials you use, or how much time you spend each day studying, or what your overall timeline will be. Nothing like that. Rather, the most important decision you can make is the decision to set aside your ego and embrace the likelihood that you are actually very bad at logical reasoning and reading comprehension.

That last line feels sort of like I’m insulting everyone who reads this, so perhaps I’d better explain where I’m coming from.

Let’s start by considering exactly why it’s so demoralizing when you don’t do well on your diagnostic. It can’t just be because you don’t have the skills – after all, you probably wouldn’t feel bad if someone pointed out that you didn’t know how to juggle chainsaws. It can’t just be the academic component either – you probably also wouldn’t feel too bad if you couldn’t solve a differential equation or write an academic analysis of Shakespeare’s work.

And yet, just about every single person thinks that they should be scoring better than they are.

Why?

My theory is that it’s because the LSAT is ‘just’ logic and English, and everyone thinks they’re experts at those things.

This is not a universal thing. You can tell the average person that they suck at calculus or chemistry and they’ll probably laugh and maybe even agree with you. But try telling someone they suck at reading comprehension or logical reasoning, and the reaction is wildly different and much more defensive. Math and science can be, and often are, rationalized away as over-technical mumbo-jumbo that is irrelevant to most peoples’ everyday lives, so it’s easy for people to separate their inability to do math/science from their ‘actual’ intelligence level. But reading comprehension and logic? Challenging those things feels to the other person like you’re directly challenging their intelligence, because pretty much everything we do on a day-to-day basis relies on one or both of those skills.

Fact is, everyone thinks their viewpoint makes sense and is arrived at rationally, because nobody considers themselves to be irrational or their reasoning poorly-considered. When’s the last time you heard someone say “My logical reasoning skills are terrible and it’s a big problem for anyone who has to work with me”? Now when’s the last time you heard someone excoriating someone ELSE for making no sense? In most cases, calling someone out for being illogical or being a poor reader is just one step away from straight up calling them stupid, so it’s really not hard to see why most people take so much personal offense to being challenged in this arena.

And yet, the proof is in the pudding. The LSAT is nothing but a mix of logic and reading comprehension. Not doing well on the LSAT demonstrates that one or both of those skill sets isn’t up to par, at least in the specific (and highly relevant!) context of understanding and responding to written argumentation. It’s understandable why people would be defensive about their skills, but that doesn’t make it justified.

Let’s be clear here. The LSAT is not the sum and substance of your worth as a candidate, or as a human being generally. The LSAT cannot tell me that you spend your weekends volunteering at the local homeless shelter, or that you have excellent leadership skills, or that you’re an incredible musician in your free time. But here’s the thing – it’s not designed to do any of those things. Despite its limitations, the test really does do a good job of testing a specific set of logical reasoning skills; just ask anyone who’s made a big score improvement how obvious the mistakes they were making before are to them in retrospect. The fact that there are other considerations relevant to whether a candidate will make for a good law student or lawyer doesn’t change that. Overemphasized as the LSAT may be in the admissions process, it is still a hugely relevant piece of information.

That being the case, it is imperative that our reflexive defense mechanisms don’t limit our learning potential. The most important thing to get out of your head is the notion that you ‘deserve’ a better score, because even if it were true (which it probably isn’t), it doesn’t help anything. Your score is largely the result of your skills, and if you’re dissatisfied with your score then there are clearly some things you need to work on. The test isn’t changing, and if your skills don’t improve then your score isn’t going to change either. This would be true even if the LSAT was based on truly arbitrary principles, but it’s especially true when the LSAT is based on actual logical precepts. You can either get defensive about not knowing how to do it, or you can do something about it. Only one of those things is going to make a difference in your chances of going to law school.

Your ego will take a huge hit in the short term as you make mistake after mistake, but that’s honestly how it should be. Every mistake you make is 100% on you, because sugarcoating your competence level only hurts yourself. You need to be your own biggest critic, and that means not being too prideful to admit when you’re bad at something. We’ll deal with the motivation issues this brings up another time.

Bottom line: the faster you let go of your pride, the faster you can get to the business of actually improving yourself, and the higher your score will rise as a result.

Is it normal that one hits a point in their studying where it all just "clicks" and your score just rapidly increases? Or is it more likely to slowly progress?

Hi everyone --

I know that many of you are getting ready to take the exam, and so with J.Y.’s blessing I thought it might be helpful for me to post a few quick last minute tips here on the 7Sage site (I’ve also posted this on reddit and my tls thread). These tips are not specific to the trainer (though those of you familiar with the trainer will be familiar with these suggestions). I know that at this point, most of you are focused on taking and reviewing PT’s -- what I’m about to mention are all simple suggestions/exercises that you should be able to integrate into that PT work fairly easily. Not all suggestions are meant for all students, so please, of course, pick and choose whichever you think might be useful for your situation -- if any of this accidentally contradicts 7Sage advice, please assume that they are right and I am wrong :) --

For LR

During this final period it can be very helpful to firm up and habitualize your question-specific strategies and thought processes. To that end...

Without looking back over your work, create a notecard for each type of Logical Reasoning question. On one side of this notecard, write out the most important things to know/keep in mind for that q type, and on the other side, write out the basic strategies you generally try to employ. Once you’ve done the best you can from memory, return to your notes and lessons and such and make sure to fill in the q types, key priorities and such that you missed initially. Review these cards before PT’s, then, in your PT review afterwards, use these cards to assess your methods, figure out where you need to modify strategies or put in a reminder for yourself, and so on. These actions can help you notice, and address, those areas of prep where perhaps your learning has yet to fully convert into skills and habits.

LG

The more automatic you feel about your notations/diagramming strategies, the less nervous you will feel about what might appear on the games section, the better you will be able to set up your diagrams, and the faster and more accurate you’ll be at doing the work necessary to solve questions.

So, to that end, without look back over your work/learning products, try to create a list of all the different types of rules that can appear in Logic Games, and try to organize all of these rules in some way (for example, trainer students know I organize rules in terms of ordering, grouping, and so on). Note how you plan to diagram each of these rules. Then go through games you’ve played in the past, just looking at the scenarios and rules, and fill in your notes with all the various other types of game rules you missed initially. Create notecards of any rules for which you don’t feel automatic about your notations, and study those carefully. Review all your diagramming strategies before taking PT’s, then, in your review, review carefully whether you were able to use diagramming methods effectively for every rule. Take note of, and carefully review, those situations when you were not.

RC

It’s very important to understand what pressure does to your brain (and, consequently, to your reading process): it literally changes the way that you think and the way you read. If, in all your practice, you are far more relaxed (and perhaps forgiving of yourself) than you will be during the real exam, it is possible that you are going to find it very difficult to apply all that you’ve gained during your practice on the real thing -- it’s very possible you will end up reading the passage very differently from how you intended to, and end up rushing too much and overlooking important concepts, or being too careful and wasting too much time, and so on.

So at this point you want to do whatever is necessary to train your brain to read the passage exactly as you want it to. Make your decisions about which reading strategies you want to apply, make sure you are practicing applying them under enough pressure, and get enough practice in so that you can feel a “set rhythm” for how you read LSAT RC passages. It gives you a great advantage to go into the test with a consistent, habitual, and effective method specifically tailed for reading LSAT RC passages, one which is practiced enough so that you apply it without having to think about it.

Timing Strategies/Mindset

Finally, you want to use for final prep to set your timing strategies, determine what you are going to do should tough timing decisions arise, and practice applying those timing strategies/making those timing decisions.

Nearly everyone who takes the exam wastes a lot of unnecessary time and energy thinking about section timing, rather than the question in front of them. It puts you in a much better position if you’ve anticipated potential issues, have the right mindset about them, have practiced dealing with them, and so on.

So, getting your timing strategies set should be one of the main goals of your final PT work. You want to think about your ideal timing, and how you’d like to balance your time through a section and so on, but you also want to make sure to practice and think about timing challenges -- how long to give yourself when stuck on a certain type of question, or how to balance your time between two RC passages when it seems like you don’t have enough to finish both, and so on. One way to experience/practice these challenges, especially if you are in a very high score range, is to artificially limit the time you have per section (say, to 30 mins, etc.) for a couple of your PT’s and test out your survival strategies.

Final Random Timing Tip

In my experience, one of the most common ways in test takers end up wasting time is by over-investing it in the hardest problems -- you want to avoid this as much as possible.

To illustrate, imagine that you are in the 160-165 range and your goal is to get that 165. Depending on the scale for that test, you know that you can miss about 20 q’s or so and still get the score you want. And if you were to take all the q’s from any one particular LSAT practice exam and order them in terms of difficulty, you’d perhaps find that about 70 of them are ones that you feel fairly confident you can get right without too much difficulty, 20 of them are ones that are challenging for you, and, depending on the day, your mindset, etc., you might get right or wrong, and finally perhaps 10 are so hard that you think it’d be very unlikely you can get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time no matter what.

The best way for you to use your time is to --

1) get through the easier 70 as fast as you comfortably can without making errors.

2) recognize when a problem is of extreme difficulty and don’t allow yourself to spend too, too long on those hardest 10.

3) give yourself as much time as possible for those 20 in the make/break down that will determine where you will score within your range.

Keep that in mind, and make sure you don’t allow yourself to over-invest too much time or energy in those hardest problems -- the harder ones aren’t worth any more points.

Again, not every suggestion is for every student, but if you read this whole thing I hope you found at least some of it useful -- I wish you all the best on test day -- Mike

So I just completed the course and took my first time LSAT, PT36. It had four multiple choice sections and then the written. So, basically, no experimental section. Is that just luck of the draw or do certain years not have the experimental sections? Also, is the same test given during all four times of the year or is there the chance that the Feb 2015 had an experimental section and the October or December will not? Thanks ;)

Hey guys,

I am struggling with weakening questions, SA questions, and NA questions. I bought JY's starter package, and I am currently on the weakening questions section, and I am missing something, I just do not know what it really is. If it helps I am struggling more on the ones that are slightly hard, and just plain out hard. I know the term "hard" is so subjective, but I guess what I mean is that I am not struggling with the ones that are obvious. Is there something I can do to improve on this section? or if you guys can give me any pointers that would be great. I currently study about 4-5hrs sometimes more, about everyday, and if I am not studying I am reading online on how to approach certain questions, and how to progress in my understanding of the LSAT. What I am trying to project is that I am dedicated, motivated, and I really want a 99th percentile score. I do not like to be average, or just above average. So please, if you guys have any hints, tips, suggestions please let me know, anything that can help is greatly appreciated.

Hey guys, i'm wondering if any of you have any suggestions or tips for keeping yourself engaged and continue with a stable level of momentum throughout the PT. I've noticed recently that i tend to get these mini-burn outs around the end of the section where i start to lag in situations where i should be going a quicker.

Do you guys have any advice on deciding when to map out all possible game boards after reading the conditions (for sequencing games) and when to tackle the questions and make inferences as they come? I've found that my intuition is awful with this - I never know when to map everything out or when I should just go straight to the questions. I usually start by trying to make some inferences and set up alternative game boards but sometimes it works and sometimes I get stuck. Then when I watch JY's explanation videos, he'll sometimes have set up like, 6 different boards for a game I didn't bother doing at all in the beginning, or it'll be the opposite where I've set up a ton of different boards in the beginning (and it's a time killer) and he just went straight to the questions. Any tips would be appreciated!

Have any of you taken any foreign LSATs for practice? Three Indian LSATS (administered by LSAC) are available for free on Cambridge's website (http://www.cambridgelsat.com/resources/free-downloads/logic-games-practice/). Since LSAC administers the exam, is it safe to assume that the content is comparable to the test administered here in the U.S.?

@"Jonathan Wang"

@amanda_kw

@nicole.hopkins

@emli1000

@ddakjiking

@"Nilesh S"

@"Dillon A. Wright"

@blah170blah

I wanted to share mine. I frequently look at the law school numbers website to see who's been accepted, how much money has been awarded and etc. I see scores better than my official score, but much lower than my PT scores (either having worse gpas if not exactly the same) getting accepted and even with some scholarship pocket money. I was given a second chance to re-apply to my first choice if I can improve on my June exam. My blood boils at the fact that I can do so well but under performed when it counts, this motivates me to keep going, even when mentally fatigued (I don't mean burnt out.) To clarify I mean that if I've set up an agenda for that day I don't allow myself to fall short OR do it half-assed. GAAA I'm so angry! Fortunately this makes me a crap ton more motivated to keep going and noticing my improvement makes it all more enjoyable! If anyone else wants to share their take please feel free! I just had to let this out!

So the other day I got a crazy difficult game (curse you subzones) and I kinda panicked and sat there for the next 9 minutes. I wasn't sure what to do the whole time or even how to make a game board, which totally killed my score on what would have been a decent test.

I was just wondering what you all do you when get a crazy difficult game (other than panic). I know J.Y. talks about taking a step back and look at the questions but in this case it didn't work for me. Please share any strategies that you have when this happens to you. Thanks!!

Hi 7sagers,

I have a question about test taking. At the end of the section the test proctor says "please put your pencils down."

While the proctor is saying this, can we bubble in our last answer(s)? Unfortunately as I am often considering 1 or 2 questions at the end of time on a section, this is a real concern for me. I want to be able to at least fill out a bubble for each question. And there is a second or two between when the proctor starts saying this and stops saying this which (if you are hovering on a last question) can allow you to jot down your best (or automatic) guess.

What are the experiences of those who have taken the test with this issue?

Thanks

So I'm going to be writing the October LSAT, and from what I've been reading scores are generally released 3 weeks after you write the LSAT on the LSAC website. I've also heard that they can be mailed to you in 4 weeks.

My question is how do the scores look like when you login to see them, is it a simple number out of 180, without showing what you got on each section, or something different?

Also I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to apply to schools if I receive scores in November, as that's close to the deadlines for most Canadian schools.

And place it near our booklet? Also what pencils should I use ? I've been drilling c mechanical ones up to this point .

I wanted to describe my experience and see..... more or less... if I am on the right track!!

I took the LSAT December 2014 and scored a disappointing 155. I have so far been rejected from 2/4 places I applied, and I have no hope for the last 2 schools! I took a mini break since December because I started prep for my bikini competition on May 18th. I did (since December until now) study between 1-2 hours a day, I retook the entire Ultimate Course again, and I recently finished the LG Bundle.

I took #36 today and consider that my "baseline" score. I received a 163. Although I am happy that it's higher than a 155, some questions felt "familiar" although I did still have to go through the answer choices to determine my answer. I know, once I get into the 60s and 70s for prep tests, that they won't feel familiar any longer, which is good! However, I am still a wee bit disappointed that my mark wasn't higher, especially given the familiarity of the questions.

Regardless, I am going to take this process slow, as I felt I burnt out considerably last time... with doing 5-6 hours of studying a day, waking up at 3:30 AM to workout, working 40 hours a week, and getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night. NOT GOOD. SO, I plan on writing a prep test 1x a week (Saturdays) and doing a full blind review on Sundays. THEN, once the blind review is completed, I plan on determining where my weaknesses are, make a study plan for the week, and utilize the Cambridge packages for both RC and LR practice.

I don't have a specific "target score" in mind, but I would like to get as high of a mark as possible. I plan to rewrite in October but I strongly feel that this is an exam you do better on the longer you practice, so I would consider taking it in December of 2015 if I don't feel prepared by October.

Also, to eliminate the "familiarity" of the questions, I'm going to start next weekend on Prep Test #50!

Does this seem like a good plan!?

Hi All...

I'm accepting reality and changing my test date from June to, well, October or December. I can't decide. On the one hand, if I don't keep having things happen that interrupt my preparation I could be ready by October, but life keeps happening, so maybe I should do December. If I change to October now, and later decide I want to stall ... er, change, again, can I later switch from October to December?

Thanks...

I just hit PT 65 and 66 and something definitely feels different with LR. Different enough that I have seen a few point dip in my score.

The questions aren't much more difficult, but some of the earlier questions in the sections are definitely trickier than they were in the 50s and early 60s. (For example, PT66, S4, Q5 -Q7: what is with these questions? They're not super difficult, but I wasn't breezing through the first half of the section like I have been the last preptests).

Has anyone else noticed this shift as well? LG and RC seem comparable to the other PT, but I've been getting more LR questions wrong than usual.

So, to make a long story short I took the Dec 2014 actual LSAT and did pretty decently (164). I plan to sit for the June 2015 administration (2 weeks!) and I aim to take about 7-8 more PTs before then. Today I was considering retaking the actual dec LSAT (aka PT 74) but I'm not sure if it's a good call. To be honest, my fear is that if I perform even slightly worse, let alone much worse, I will freak myself out before the June exam and carry this defeatist mentality that I am worse prepared now than in Dec (which I doubt to be true as I have been studying consistently since Feb). On the other hand, If I have any weaknesses in my game now, it would be better to reveal them with perhaps two weeks left to try and do some damage control, than go in there blind, so to speak. The most recent PT I have taken in this study cycle has been 54 so far. The PTs I have remaining are a few high 50s, low 60s, 71 and 73.

What are your opinions? Thank you so much in advance, and good luck to everyone in June!

I have not logged on in quite some time and can no longer find the place to print preptests from. I'm clicking n the test on the syllabus but it takes me to the page where I proctor and grade. Can someone help me navigate to the way to print the preptest itself?

I see there are just over 1000 questions with the Cambridge LR bundle.

Just wondering if they are more comprehensive than all of the LR practice sets with the 7Sage Ultimate package?

Trying to decide if I should buy the Cambridge bundle or just print off all of the LR practice sets on here to drill with.

http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-66-section-4-question-23/

I just wanted to hear other people's thoughts on this question. It just felt totally weird to me, it seemed like the correct answer choice was inconsequential compared to the central disagreement, which I *incorrectly* assumed was damaging to the environment vs. not damaging.

Jolene appears to be taking issue with Alex's premise rather than the conclusion or the argument itself. Thoughts?

I thought I had cleared my major hurdles with logic games... Boy,was I wrong. If 68 is any indication of how future logic games will be then I am screwed. Did anybody figure these out at first try? This would have led to me walking out of the testing center and going home. The third is hard but the fourth is just ridiculous.

Hi - looking for a study/accountability buddy. I've been getting ready for the October LSAT. I am finishing up the 7sage curriculum by mid June or so and then I will be taking PTs. Let me know if you want to buddy up. Thx.

This might be a strange question; hoping I can explain myself properly...!

I plan to start PTing soon for the October test. I've been through the core curriculum twice, the Trainer twice and the LG bundle once.

For those of you PTing, is it normal to start the process without feeling you have a totally firm grasp of each concept? Something inside me is misleading me into thinking that I need to be 100% sharp-skilled and "test ready" for I dive into the PTs. When deep down I know that the extra work that the PTs spur on, in context, is what will actually make me test ready.

So, in conclusion, is it normal to enter PTing somewhat foggy? I don't want to keep feeling I must learn more first, and enter dangerous ground of delaying PTing too much.

I'm debating whether to take june or October And can't schedule October without canceling june .

How do test sites look for October in SF?