Did PT85 before my last take on Sunday

missed 1 on RC; 0 on LG; 13 combined in LR; no LR love for me even though I did every single PT and BRed them except 86 (guess my brain is not wired for this)

well gonna BR this test and do LR sections from 86

good luck to everyone who is taking the Jan test!

@keets993 @eRetaker

I'm writing this because I promised to and because the internet has a sort of strong response bias where only those who do well to report back on their experience.

I ended up with a B in Civil Procedure, a B+ in Constitutional Law, and a B+ in Torts for a total of a 3.2.

As a consequence, it is a little bit hard for me to claim that I know what helped me and what didn't with regards to how I prepared before or throughout the semester.

My 0L prep: I bought E and Es for Tort law and Contracts since I didn't know what classes I would have. Once I found out I focused mainly on the Torts E and E. I also listened to the Sum and Substance audio lectures for torts. My goal was to be able to take practice tests early in the semester in at least one class. I read Getting to Maybe. I also learned to touch type over the summer before law school.

Preparation during the semester: I was fairly busy just reading and rereading the texts, as well as outlining. As a consequence, I did not begin taking practice tests any where near as early in the semester as I had hoped. However, I still ended up going through quite a few. My Torts professor made all of his past exams available. I took all of them, using their model answers and comparing answers to some of them with my peers. In Constitutional Law, I took the three practice exams which my professor made available as well as others from other professors. In Civil Procedure my professor did not give us an old exam so I tried other professor's exams and also just spent a lot of time going over my class notes and re-reading cases as well as looking at other people's outlines who had taken him and trying to incorporate any nuggets of their wisdom into my own outline and memory.

What I think probably worked?

First of all, it is pretty clear that not much worked very well.

Typing Practice: I would say that learning touch typing was very important to me not doing substantially worse. It is hard to make any claims for sure, but in Civil Procedure where we did not have a word limit most people seemed to have typed a lot. I felt like mine was on the short side, but probably more because I never felt like I had a great grasp on the material no matter how much I studied. I would not have wanted to compound that by also having had to struggle to literally type the exam. Most of my fellow students seem to type faster than me(I now type about 70 words per minute max and probably more like 50 when I am composing the sentences rather than just copying). However, at a certain point I am sure there are diminishing marginal returns on investment in typing. I think that it is worth learning to touch type before law school if you don't know how. I further think that whenever you type notes up for an outline or work on a legal practice assignment you should consciously maintain this skill.

Substantive 1L prep:

I had read the E and E and listened to the sum and substance lectures on Torts before 1L. I felt much more comfortable in that class. I also had a fairly good exposure to American history and the Constitution before 1L which I think led me to be fairly comfortable in Constitutional Law. In contrast, I felt lost and adrift for most of the semester in Civil Procedure. As a consequence of this, I struggled through Civil Procedure readings and instead of using the time which I had saved in Torts and Constitutional Law to practice exam taking early in the semester, I spent it on trying to understand Civil Procedure. Consequently, I don't really think that the 0L prep ended up helping me all that much. However, if someone were to actually dedicate themselves to it and then to practice exam taking once in law school, I think that it could help.

Non-substantive 1L Prep:

While the prevailing view is that reading Getting to Maybe is about the only thing that you should do prior to law school, I think that is pretty much backwards. I read Getting to Maybe and listened to the LEEWS audio tapes over the summer. It was basically impossible to practice anything in them without having something to practice on. This meant that I don't think that I necessarily gained all that much from them. I think that they are more useful once you actually have something to apply them to.

My Recommendations based on my 1L experience:

0L Prep: I think that if I were to decide how to prep for 1L again, I would read supplements for all of my 1L classes(or just the first semester classes if I knew what they were early enough). I wouldn't be trying to learn everything perfectly since you don't know if your prof and casebook are going to agree on every element of a tort with your supplement. However, I would try to get the gist. I would go through the E and E questions and such.

If I couldn't touch type, I would definitely still dedicate some time to working on that.

1L prep: I would do the readings and outlining and all the other normal 1L stuff. However, I would hopefully do it a little faster and more easily. I would try not to worry about cold calls or really focus on them. I also would as I think I did, still participate a fair bit in class and attend office hours regularly. Having a relationship with the professor is important even though grading is blind.

Mainly, I would try to practice exam taking very early, taking about 1 exam per class every week rather than trying to cram them in at the end as I ended up doing. (This semester, that is basically what I am going to try to do, except that I need to read the supplements while doing my work for each class, while applying for jobs(which is a little more frantic with my grades), and still won't be able to start any practice exams for at least a month.

Other Lessons Here:

First of all, my law school related advice obviously is not that of an expert and all the old guides and stuff from TLS are probably better.

Second, it really is true at least in my experience that LSAT has very little ability to predict your grades. I had LSAT high of 180 on my retake which is of course pretty much as above the median as you can get. From the beginning of class, I have nonetheless found my peers to be every bit as smart and as hardworking as me which is pretty much as I expected. They just for whatever reason either were not as good at the LSAT or alternatively didn't put as much of a systematic effort into improving on the LSAT as 7sage enabled me to. That worked to my benefit by ensuring that I got my scholarship and therefore have a tolerable level of debt if I either chose not to try to get Big Law or if by virtue of grades and other circumstances(for example a recession) I end up not exactly having a choice in the matter.

So don't go to a school thinking that you will be able to get good grades based on an above median LSAT or work ethic and that those grades will make the experience worthwhile. Go if because of a combination of your drive to be a lawyer and how good a financial deal you can get, you will be happy with your decision even if you end up with below median grades and maybe a below median(financially) career outcome.

I'm still happy with my decision to come here and will be as long as I end up with some legal job because with basically any job(as long as I find one) I can pay back my small debt pretty quick. If I like said job, I can stick with it and have opened a door that was not available to me before law school. If not, I won't be trapped in that job or the law forever or even for more than a couple years. Additionally, while I felt like I was struggling in Civ Pro, I have generally liked being in law school because the classes have been interesting and at least at Michigan the people have by and large been very friendly and nice. I have made friends who I hope to have for life and am overall very happy to be here.

That brings us to the last point:

Some of you may have heard of the notable exception to the general niceness of the people at Michigan Law School. https://abovethelaw.com/2018/12/law-school-student-mocks-the-disabled-because-why-not/

https://www.reddit.com/r/LawSchool/comments/a8h96r/dont_be_this_stupid/

This student has lost the respect of everyone in the law school who knew who he was(and law schools especially Michigan where a large share of the 1L class stays in the Lawyer's Club are pretty close knit communities). He probably would have trouble transferring since the Dean would certainly tell any other school that asked of the situation if asked why he was transferring down or parallel. Therefore, he is likely very much alone and deservedly so. Having got my own generally discouraging grades today, I can tell you that it is the friendships with classmates which make them tolerable. So if you happen to have vile and unmerited negative feelings about your classmates at whatever school you eventually attend, you should get some help, you should not drink to excess, you should not tell people about them other than a counselor, and you should definitely not send out an email to the whole school disparaging students who are part of your community.

The school is taking some actions in response, but has generally dealt with it quietly(perhaps because they are worried about publicity or perhaps because they are worried about the student's mental health and substance abuse problem). They are also taking positive steps. At 4 today we have a(previously scheduled speaker) for Martin Luther King Jr. day which is focused in part on disabilities and there is a mandatory event on Friday.

If anyone has any questions about Michigan Law, 1L, 0L prep, or my experience in law school so far, feel free to ask. Obviously I am pretty busy and am going to get more busy as a result of my need to improve my grades and expand my job search. I justified taking the time to post this on the basis that I was too stressed out by seeing my grades to get much done for a couple hours anyway. However, I will check back and respond to any questions sooner or later.

Many of your say that you've made your peace, and are ready to accept any outcome that comes to you.

The thing I would say is that, it doesn't sound like you're truly ready to move on. It doesn't sound like you've sincerely internalized the possibility that you won't get into anywhere you like, and can move on, because if you have, then you wouldn't be anxious. Embrace that other side of the coin flip, because that's what this is, it's out of your control now, and simply a coin flip.

I would say that you should focus on other things, things that are in front of you, and things that you've put off because of law school. Learn to love fate, wherever it takes you, and whatever it gives you. The likely truth is, you will be just as happy, if not happier, without law school, and you've learned a lot about being a logical and good person from this experience either way. Look at the long run, 5, 10 years down the line, there is no guarantee that having gone to law school would mean you would have a better future. The legal job market is more competitive than ever before, people are working more hours and taking longer to make partner; relationships suffer; you might be making more money, but there is no guarantee that you will be happier; IIRC, turnover is higher than ever before; you would have spent 3-4 years in a grueling bootcamp, and another 2-3 years insufferably working 80+hours a week. Is losing this future really worth getting anxious about? Don't let the delusions of law school success blind you. Sure, it sounds good, and prestigious, but do you need that in life? Remember there is survivorship bias in every area of life. Even if you got into law school, what's to guarantee that you would do well, or even not flunk out or not fall into depression like so many current law students?

Every close friend I have spoken to, who is a current student or alumni, talk to me about law school with shades of regret and sadness, and they're all incredibly successful relative to their peers in T14 schools. This has helped me understand that law school, like anything else in life, is not all it promises to be, and that the grass only looks greener on the other side, but isn't really.

Hope this ramble helps you feel better. Cheers

PS: I'm glad that everyone has such positive outlooks. Know that I'm not saying everyone going to law school is going to be miserable, as you should be able to do with so much practice with MBT questions. All I'm saying is that this is a possibility, and life is unpredictable, and any path you take, will be a good one, as long as you choose to walk it with a positive attitude.

Does anyone have any insight on how you video yourself? And once done, how do we upload it to our computer or youtube?

I'm trying to figure out how to do this and not being very successful. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I'm about to take my first LSAT this Saturday and I already know I'm not going to get a high score.

My questions is, what can I do or what actions should I take to improve my score the second time around?

I kind of know what i'm weak at but not really.

My highest PT was 155 and I get a consistent 147-149. Honestly, my aim is 155-160.

I eliminated all of the answer choices. I'm not sure how the author does not question the ethical basis of an economic situation. The moral that the author suggests in the stimulus is that a country cannot live for long without foreign trade. However, we are told that the U.S. has found most of it's raw materials and customers within the country and has suffered consequences from not participating in more foreign trade. Wouldn't this suggest that the author is questioning the ethical basis of the economic situation (not a lot of foreign trade) in the U.S.?

Admin note: edited title

I am especially excited about a specific program that the school that I'm applying to offers, so I noticed that my essay is basically only about that one program. I discuss how I feel that I can learn a lot about it through the excellent professors, and how I feel that I can go into that field when I graduate etc.

But my question is, should I talk about other types of law too and how I feel that I would be a good fit for them as well... or is sticking with the one topic okay? Is it weird to just really focus on a single program and make that the sole reason I want to go to this school? Please #help

[Edit 3: All done! Total analytics downtime ~ 1.5 hours :) Everything should be working again. Please let us know if you run into any problems]

Hi everyone,

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Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that we've done a backend update on the predictor. We hope it will be slightly more accurate now! (You should still take it with a grain of salt and a few dabs of hot sauce, though).

https://classic.7sage.com/predictor/

I don’t think I understand the fundamental argument here... Initially I hesitantly chose A (the correct answer) thinking - the professor disputes the crater causing the extinction, this is irrelevant. However, during my review, I switched to E thinking he is arguing that, in spite of the common belief, because the rocks are normal polarity, the impact happened after the Mesozoic era when earth’s polarity was flipped. Therefore, the size of impact leads people astray, the rocks were caused by, melted, and recrystallized soon after the impact, but the mass extinction didn’t happen shortly after the impact, but rather much earlier.

This is the wrong answer, so I’m trying to determine where my thinking went wrong.... Thanks!

Admin note: Deleted. Please review the forum rules:

4. Do not post LSAT questions, any copyrighted content, or links to content that infringe on copyright.

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-22-section-2-question-19/

Does anyone else notice a shift in language from test 82 to 83? Also I notice that in LR there are more difficult questions at the beginning and easier questions at the end.

We had another great BR session on Saturday and finished the parts of the Nov. test (PT 86) that we were unable to go over in JY's group sessions. Next we're taking PT 50 and meeting to BR it on Sat., Feb. 2. I've been hosting in the fancypants lounge area of my building in Long Island City, Queens. We've had about 4 people each time, and I make snacks. Please message me if you're interested.

Hey everyone, for my last week before the LSAT I just want to tune up on games to ensure a -0. Would like 4-5 prep tests with solid and challenging game sets that I could do before the actual on saturday. Any suggestions?

Does anyone have any advice for approaching “attitude” questions? They often seem highly subjective and trip me up, while other have clear right or wrong answers.

Ex: June 1997 - RC Q. 13

Which of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude toward proposals to introduce personal stories into legal discourse?

A. Strongly Opposed

B. Somewhat Skeptical

C. Ambivalent

D. Strongly supportive

E. Unreservedly optimistic

While a - c were obviously false since the narrative spoke positively about personal stories in legal discourse, how do I distinguish between D and E?

I chose E because the author stated “narrative might play a crucial, positive role...” (a very optimistic statement) but never directly comes out in support of a proposal to make the change. Tips are appreciated!

What do people think the odds are that the LSAT writers put a weird, old-school logic game on the test this Saturday? Something in the vein of a mapping or pattern type game. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say one shows up though, of course, I hope to be wrong.

Does "Many" = "Some" or "More than one" ?

7sage says "many" = "some." Thus, "many" can include "one."

But other resources have said "many" means 2 or more. Thus, "many" would NOT include "one."

So does "many" include one or not?

I think this is important because for PT 76.4.12, (I think that) whether answer choice A is right or wrong depends on what definition of "many" you have.

IF we assume that "many" includes "one," and that the negation of "many" is "none," then the way LSAC uses "many" in answer choice A of PT 76.4.12 is INCONSISTENT. In this context, it assumes "many" is "two or more." This is HUGE, because if you assume "many" equals "one," it changes Answer choice A from a WRONG answer choice to a RIGHT answer choice.

So LSAC seems to be inconsistent with how it uses "many."

Any suggestions or advice appreciated. thank you.

I've been going through MP questions to make sure that I am able to flesh out the main point/conclusion of different texts. I remember at some point JY says that often for harder questions, the LSAT's will try to trick you by throwing in a "Thus," or some indicator word around those lines at the end of a paragraph to throw you off. But, I've found recently that I've gotten a couple of questions wrong because when it came to the wire I choose the choice that was not the final sentence, but turned out to be the final sentence. For example I'm currently on LSAT 44 - Section 2 - Question 16, and was tricked because I ignored the "Hence," at the end. While I read the comments and understand the explanations for why B (what I choose) was wrong and E (the correct answer) was right, I was wondering if anyone has some general advice/steps to take when looking at a stimulus to figure out whether a last sentence with a conclusion indicator is right or wrong.

I'm having trouble figuring out why A is a wrong answer choice.

If we apply the negation test to AC A, it will say -- "All of the scents that have a tendency to reduce susceptibility to illness do NOT do so by reducing stress."

Wouldn't "All of the scents" also include lavender, meaning lavender does not reduce susceptibility to illness by reducing stress? Wouldn't this wreck the argument?

Any advice or suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

Admin note: edited title

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-76-section-4-question-12/

#help

Question 10: How do we know that "additives" was ever the cause of behavioral problems in the first place? Researchers being "trained to assess the presence or absence of behavioral problems" does not mean whatever behavioral problems are there are caused by additives. I feel like the question omits declaring the cause of the behavioral problems is in-facts additives. Grrrrr.

Admin note: edited title

I badly need access to PT86 in the next couple of days. I have tried contacting book stores in my area, but o won’t get it through them until the day before Saturday’s administration of the lsat. Are there options to purchase access to that one file alone? Thanks

This was my first BR using 7Sage's method on the June 2007 test. I haven't BR the other sections yet but my BR score on LR wasn't that much of an improvement compared to my timed score. On my first section timed my score was 18/25 and after BR it was 20/25 and my second session my scores stayed the same with 20/25 on both the timed and the BR section.

Should I be worried that my score increase hasn't improved that much after BR? I'm worried since the BR is supposed to show how much your score could improve.

I still have yet to get through the CC as I'm just on the first diagnostic PT but I have already taken the LSAT before and received a 155. I'm just worried that I didn't see improvement after this BR. I also followed the method closely and for each question that I circled (which was almost all of them) I wrote out an explanation for the stem/stimulus and then using a blank PT wrote why each AC was wrong or right.

Can someone explain to me how answer B is the correct one? The sentence the question is asking concerns how cooking has impacted biological evolution; B is about domesticated animals and has nothing to do with cooking?

Admin note: edited title

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-84-section-1-passage-4-passage/

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-84-section-1-passage-4-questions/

I am submitting my law school apps this week and would appreciate any advice regarding my resume and any errors I have made. I want it to be perfect and all advice is appreciated.

I know this might be a silly question, but do letters of recommendation need to explicitly say that anywhere on the letter? I ask because I understand there is a distinction between a letter of reference and a letter of recommendation, and one my recommenders included "this reference is provided at..." It would be easy enough to have them change it and maybe this is trivial, but I'd appreciate all of your input. Thanks!

Hi there!

So I'm still trying to answer this question and could use some help! Lots of different sources, including 7sager and the Trainer, suggest I find the flaw in the argument if I can, before considering answer choices. The question I've never been able to answer is this: Why? What does a correct answer choice in an NA question do to that flaw? With SA questions, the correct answer choice makes the flaw disappear. But with an NA, I don't have an answer. Any help would be amazing! I'm taking the Jan Lsat next week and I'm trying to tie up loose ends.