I’ve taken the LSAT 3 times. The first was in Sep. 2017, went in somewhat blind and got wrecked by reading comp, scoring 157. Panicked, I registered for the Dec. 2017 test with only days before registration closed. During the 6 weeks I had to prepare I took advantage of all the free materials 7sage has to offer and obtained a 161.

I applied to schools with this score and my 3.4 GPA. I’m the son of immigrants and the first in my family to attend college, which allowed me to write purposeful statements that got me waitlisted at Berkeley, USC, and Michigan. Unfortunately I didn’t get in off the waitlist at any of these schools, but it inspired me to believe that with a better LSAT score, I could attend a top school.

I didn’t enroll at schools that had offered me admission and retook Nov. 2018, feeling hopeful about this next cycle. For a solid 3-4 months I went over the free logic game videos, multiple times, and took PTs, making sure to review after. My performance range was between 163-167, but only scored a 162 on test day: -4 in LG, -3 RC, and -16! in LR (when I was averaging -10 max).

I’m disappointed, but have applied to schools with this new score nonetheless. I told friends and family that last time was the last time I was taking the LSAT, but... March 2019. This test would allow me to potentially get off waitlists, get better scholarship money, finally get the score I’ve been chasing (even if that means delaying for another cycle), or finally realize that the low 160s are my limit.

So I’ve just signed up for the premium course and plan to upgrade in a few weeks when I have more money, as I want access to the harder questions. I’m going to do what I haven’t done, complete the CC and do all the drills. Time to find out if this will be a story of perseverance or arrogance.

Hey everyone, I was wondering what my chances at the T-14 are? I also don't mind going to a tier 2 school on scholarship. Also would shooting for a school ranked from 20-30 be more beneficial than attending a regional school where I know I want to work. I see people putting so much emphasis on schools in the T25 or T30, but I don't mind going to a school ranked in the 50's that's in the state I want to work. I want to stay in the NY/NJ/(maybe PA) area. Outside of the T-14 there aren't many decently ranked schools in this area. Any suggestions on schools I should be applying too? I also want to apply to schools that will give me nearly a full ride.

There are a few discussions from just over a year ago about the practical aspects of how to record timed PT's (selfie sticks, uploading and file sizes).

I have that part down. I am curious to know what others do with the data afterwards. I can now see what questions are taking more time and I will drill the worst offenders. I think that knowing that I'll be watching myself makes me more aware of my time management, which is valuable in and of itself.

I just want to know if there is another step that I am unaware of.

I appreciate the input, as always.

Hi All,

Does anyone have experience crafting a 350 word statement about contributing diversity to a law school? Berkeley's prompt is: How will you (your perspective, experience, Voice) contribute diversity in our classrooms and  community? Any advice would be highly appreciated. I'm struggling with this one. Please note that I have already spoken at length about my minority/first-gen/immigrant background in my personal statement.

Hi all,

Is it ok to elaborate on things that are listed on the resume on to the DS?

Thank you!

.

Hey everyone, I'm wondering what trends this admissions cycle will follow. I've recently read an article that said this cycle will be slow and that applicants are down. I've also read that less people are reaching top scores. But I've also seen some saying this year may have a surge of applicants (just like last year) due to the "Trump Bump". Can anyone give any insight or direct me to any articles that are helpful?

I took a test untimed and scored 153 , is that a bad score for untimed?

Hi everyone,

Just like the title says, I’m on the fence about a retake. I took September and got a 169 and then got a 172 in November. My PT average over the last five PTs was 171 with a high score of 175. My gpa is 3.9. I’m not planning on applying til next cycle. Is it worth the time and stress to try to bump myself up the one point to Harvard and Yale’s medians?

Ok I finally looked after 3days (I know, I’m a little crazy). 163.

So. My PT average is 167 with a pretty tight standard deviation of +/-2. I took the Sept. and got 158 and was very rattled, I’d never scored there (that whole test is a blurry, blacked out memory) except for my diagnostic back in June. Then Nov felt much better and more like my practice tests. I wasn’t particularly nervous — ya know, just regular “this is important, stay calm” kind of thoughts.

I didn’t think “test day fatigue” would figure so prominently in my scoring, but I guess it does.

Would you guys retake in Jan? I really don’t want to apply next year. I’m 28, 6 years out of school (working in criminal justice reform) and desperately want to dive into law school.

I have been hearing about people talking about having tutors for studying, some from 7sage. How exactly does that work?

as someone who is not ethnically or socioeconomically diverse is it inappropriate to write a diversity statement?

either:

Hey guys. So I got my November LSAT results back, and scored a ~163. I’m content with the score, having only studied 2 months so far, but feel that I can do better. I want a score in the 170s.

My situation is a bit different as I’m already going -0 on games. My weak areas are in Logical Reasoning and Reading Comp. For LR, I’m going around -7 per section, and for RC, I’m going -5.

Any advice on how to shore up LR and RC for the January administration? Should I just keep taking practice tests and BR, or should I go back to the Core Curriculum for a few weeks before starting a heavy PT cycle?

Thanks in advance!

I just heard the newest 7sage podcast. It was such a great episode and encouraged me to keep persevering in my LSAT studies. I thought I heard @"Grey Warden" mention watching J.Y. doing RC passages in the curriculum. I'm a little unclear if that was part of the explanation videos or if it was part of a timed test.

Are there videos of J.Y. doing RC passages in the curriculum as part of a timed test? I think it would be great to observe how exactly he approaches RC.

Hi Everybody,

So I graduated from college in May 2015. A few months ago I asked 2 of my professors to write a LOR for me. I sent them my resume, my transcript, and a few of the essays I had written for their respective classes. Neither of them had any issue writing a letter for me, and I was a dedicated student throughout my college years. I went to their office hours, participated in class, and got As in both courses; however, I don't know that I was anything that special or particularly memorable (especially 3-4 years after the fact). I also had my current manager who is a corporate attorney (I am a paralegal at a hedge fund) write a LOR for me - he knows me quite well personally and professionally, and I have been working for him for 2 years now. While I know it is commonly said that your academic LORs are much more significant than your professional LORs, I think my manager's letter would likely be stronger than either of the ones that my professors wrote. So my question is....for the schools that only accept 2 LORs, should I select my 2 professors' letters? Or 1 of my professors' letters and my manager's letter?

Any opinions? Thank you!

I am currently on the premium level on the LSAT study program. I want to know if it is worth it to upgrade to the Ultimate version ($570)? If anyone has feedback on their experiences I would greatly appreciate it.

Hey everyone I've never posted before but I just wanted to take the time to say how amazing the comprehensive consulting is. I wavered on the price, but I am so so glad I went through with it. David and Kurt really really know their stuff. Their writing and editing skills are beyond my ability to put in words. They really held my hand and helped with every single aspect of the application. They answered every question I had and responded in a professional manner without fail. I owe them more than I can express. They helped me write 12 point font/ 11 point font versions of everything - 1 page /2 page versions of my diversity statement, personal statement, resume, etc and provided guidance on whether I should submit an addendum for multiple LSAT scores and David even personally reached out to an admissions committee at a T14 school on my behalf to seek a clarifying answer for me (without even my having requested his doing so!) I had a character & fitness issue as well and they helped ensure that I had the best possible answer uniquely tailored to my personal situation. They even made sure that the differences between my essays as they had to be filled in the textbox vs. being an attachment would look perfect. To sum it up, if I could, I would TOTALLY do it all over again. I seriously cannot recommend or thank them enough. In short - you are getting exactly what you sign up for and more. As you can tell by my username - I wouldn't have been able to do it without them (3(/p)

I have taken the LSAT 4 times. I have gone 158 -> 160 -> 164 -> 163, all of which were terrible disappointments for me. Especially the last one from this November, which has completely shattered my confidence that I can do well on the LSAT.

Because of personal financial reasons, it is extremely hard to justify attending law school outside of the T14. My gpa is 3.77, so with a 164, even th T20 is largely out of the question. Let alone any scholarship.

I have managed to get logic games to -0/-1 largely thanks to 7sage, but I have just constantly struggled with LR. I can do BR, I can prepare, I can elinjnage wrong answer choices, but I cannot improve it no matter how hard I try. Everytime I go back to see what I did wrong on a question, the reasoning JY uses doesn't seem like something I can replicate and always seems to be unique to that specific question. It seems entirely contingent on sone manner of intuition that can't be explained in a way I can repeate another LR.

I don't know if a fifth take will do it for me. I am starying to believe I am simply too unintelligent to score 170+ on this exam and that building up these skills requires a core level of intuition you simply can't train. The logic games follow the same patterns. RC can be fairly repeatable. But LR seems totally alien and the explanation is completely different every single time. Even when I see the correct answer, especially for difficult question, I fail to understand the explanation for the correct and why the wrong answer isn't correct.

Employment prospects for law schools outside the T14 and at least the T20 are quite miserable. If I can't attend those institution, I greatly struggle with why I should attend at all. Perhaps the trades woukd better suit me.

The assistant dean of admin said they’d have a decision to me by the end of this week. Pray for me.

To everyone else applying or still working on LSAT, good luck. I mean it. GOOD LUCK. And remember that everything happens for a reason.

Hi all,

I just got my November LSAT score and it not only wasn’t my target score, but also didn’t improve from my last score. I was PTing a good 7-8 points above where I ended up scoring, so I feel bad not retaking. But for various reasons, I’m also set on applying this cycle. Is it at all possible to apply to schools with the scores I have and then re-take the LSAT in January and have that score added to my file? I don’t want them to hold my application for that new score because I wouldn’t want to apply that late, so I guess I’m wondering if it’s possible to take the test after the fact and then have a score added to my file (at least for those schools that haven’t made a decision yet).

Thanks!

I will be eternally grateful for this site and this community. My initial diagnostic was a 152 and I started studying a few years later. I was lucky to have decided on 7sage after researching other prep companies and I couldn't have made a better decision. Started studying feb/March of this year and after a bad test center experience and a cancel in Sept I miraculously got a 172 in November. I had only managed 2 171s while studying and that was only on retakes. Otherwise I was scoring between163-166 but my BR scores were always above 170, usually in the 175+ range. My mindset played a huge role in my score the second time around, as I had through the roof anxiety in September along with a 2+ hour test delay that I did not see coming. I had a newborn at home during the November administration (I delivered on Oct. 30th) so I thought my stress about leaving him and leaving him enough milk was going to negatively affect my performance but I think it played the opposite role - it pushed the lsat out of my thoughts because there were more important things to worry about. I accepted that however I did during November it didn't matter, I was still applying and everything would be ok no matter what. This was thanks to advice that I read on this forum a few weeks before the exam to just do what you have to do, in the long run your score and the school you attend will fade into the background, what you make of your career is what's going to matter. Your best is all you can do - especially because I felt as if I was more prepared this time around, I didn't take many prep tests in the few weeks before November (for obvious reasons), but I was scoring in an ideal range during timed sections. I think the key was getting out of my own head, accepting where I was at progress wise when test day came around and just approaching sections like I'd done time and time again, relying on habit, not worry. Never give up on yourself no matter your previous scores or circumstances. I was so close to accepting sept. (Which would have been a score nowhere near 170) as my only chance since I thought it would be close to impossible to test with a near two week old baby. I'm so glad that I didn't.

The July 2019 LSAT presents us with a very unique opportunity. LSAC's thinking is that this will be the test on which they transition to digital, and so they should provide some benefit in order to counteract any detriment the switch to digital may present. The benefit seems subtle at first: You will be allowed to cancel your test after you see your score. The more I've thought about this, the more I realize how enormous it is. I've actually come to strongly disagree with LSAC's decision to offer this. If I had been in the room when this decision was made, I'd've been vociferously opposed to the point that it may have become uncomfortable for everyone. But with the decision made, everyone needs to shamelessly exploit this mistake. They take advantage of our errors, and so it is incumbent on us to take advantage of theirs.

Forgive the sports metaphor, but it's just too perfect: This is like a defensive offsides in football (real football, not soccer). When this happens, the offense gets to finish the play and decide if they want to accept or decline the penalty after the play has played out. Go for the end zone! If you make it, decline the penalty and touchdown! If it's intercepted and run back for a defensive touchdown, none of it counts; you get to accept the penalty and try again! Literally nothing can go wrong, there is no bad outcome possible. This is the July 2019 LSAT. Plus, the switch to digital won't be universal. Many test centers will still be administering the test on paper! If you're in one of these groups, your advantage is truly pure and unmitigated. I'm the poster child of "Don't-Take-Until-You're-Ready" but all bets are off for July 2019. This is a test worth taking for a much broader range of students. If you're not quite ready, take this test anyway. Take it for practice with the digital formatting. This alone is worth the take. The fact you could get lucky and spike a score worth keeping/applying with is just crazy. It's actually crazy.

TIPS?

Admin note: edited title. No all caps please

https://www.lsac.org/about/news/lsac-announces-technology-collaboration-microsoft?access_latest=a8xdazrwIwsZ0GYfgsqyOXox-B6I3uvO-MNpZl2bI1E

Hi all,

I have taken the September and November LSATs and basically got the same score--which, was not what I wanted. Can I take the March LSAT or June LSAT or will schools not look at it? Is the January LSAT the latest acceptable LSAT for this cycle?