I don't know whether I would attend Harvad Law or not if admitted off the waitlist. Harvard sent me an email with the following guidelines asking me to remove myself if I cannot agree to accept a position if offered off the waitlist.

"By remaining active on the waitlist you agree to:

-Accept an offer of admission if it is extended to you; we will ask that you accept the offer of admission within 24 hours.

-Accept the offer before you have received any information about your financial aid package at HLS. Please keep in mind our financial aid packages are need-based and therefore are not affected by the admissions timeline—packages for waitlist admits are determined in exactly the same way as those admitted earlier in the cycle.

-Accept the offer before you have a chance to secure housing. Historically this has not been a problem since three housing options (HLS dorms, Harvard University Housing, and the private Cambridge housing market) typically remain very active throughout the summer.

-Withdraw your seat at any school to which you have committed if offered admission at HLS.

-While this process is very time-sensitive, please understand that we operate on this timeline in order to get our waitlist admits fully situated before classes begin in the fall. If you have concerns about the above guidelines, or if you have new information about your plans for this fall that prevents you from remaining on the waitlist, please visit your status checker and complete the waitlist withdrawal form. If you are comfortable with these guidelines and wish to remain active on the waitlist, then no action is required at this time."

I don't think they have any way to enforce this guideline. I'm generally predisposed to oppose the creation of unenforcable guidelines or rules. However, I don't want to be on the waitlist in bad faith.

I will be attending University of Michigan Law School with a $150,000 Dean's Scholarship unless I end up attending Harvard (or Yale which I have not heard back from). I think this is an option worthy of being undecided about whether to attend Harvard.

This is my random thought. If I could get the LSAT sections line up in an order. This is an order that I wish it would be LR RC LR LG or RC LR LR LG. My reasoning is simple. I want to save my best stuff to close up and finish well. Much like a baseball game. The last part would be like a pitcher who is an ace that strikes out a lot of batters to close off the game and preserve the lead. Or 4th section to put the strong homer run hitter that cleans up. My PTs have been for the last 18 PTs 180.

Except one or two where it would be 179. I am sitting for the June 2018 LSAT and feel like I am going to the World Series to win the whole enchilada. Some people hate and dread the LSAT. I love the LSAT.

Wondering if anyone has seen improvement in scoring after incorporating something like meditation, qi gong, yoga, vigorous exercise, or anything like that into their daily routine. I used to meditate everyday and I remember it helping me think clearly, which seems like it'd be helpful for the LSAT. What do you think? Does anyone feel like they can attribute positive results to something besides studying?

So I have been off the discussion forum for the most part while I was going through the CC but now I am ready to jump in and get some advice. I have been very embarrassed of my PT scores but I’ve realized I cannot improve if I don’t own them. I would like to think I am fairly intelligent but my test taking abilities have always been lacking to say the least. This is mostly due to my ADD but that wasn’t something I realized I had until after college so I am used to working hard to keep up with everyone else. Which I fully expect to do here because even though I will be requesting additional time, I plan on taking all of my PTs with regular time until my accommodations have been approved. Either way time is my enemy! I know a lot of people like to look at the clock and know how much time is left but honestly that hinders me more than anything. As soon as I hear 5 minutes are left all the questions I have left I can almost guarantee will be either left unanswered or incorrect. My ability to focus is thrown out the window and all I can think about is the clock ticking away. I have watched the webinar on Post CC Strategies but I could really use some advice on what I should focus on next. I am ready to start on fool proofing LG but after my BR I am not sure if that should be my focus right now. I actually really enjoy LG and other than reviewing conditional lawgic and working on timing, LG is actually my strongest section in my BR.

Some background info on my PTs; my diagnostic back in June 2016 was a 135. I actually reconsidered law school at that point but after some time spent reflecting I realized it is something I am really passionate about so I decided to try again. My second diagnostic in April 2017 was a 142. Both of these were done with Kaplan using PT56. Now I really didn’t want to take either score too seriously because I actually remember dozing off on one of them and guessing on some when the time was running out.

However here is my breakdown of my after CC PT I did this past weekend:

Original 1st BR 2nd BR

RC -17 -12 -10

LR -12 -5 -5

LG -11 -7 -2

LR -11 -7 -7

The reason you see a 1st and 2nd BR is because I only went over the questions circled in the 1st BR. I then scored the PT without looking at the answers and was not happy with a 157 BR score. So I went ahead and went back over the entire test and that is how I came to a 2nd BR score of 160. My plan is to now watch the explanations of the questions I got wrong. However, after I do that, I don’t know if I should go ahead with my original plan of fool-proofing LG or if I should focus on LR and RC first. What does everything think?

Also I do not plan on going to a t14 school nor do I expect my score to eventually be in the 170s. I want to focus on Child Advocacy and Juvenile Law and just want to get into school and get a scholarship. I’m hoping to get into Texas A&M and after doing research on people accepted and offered scholarships based off GPA and LSAT scores I believe a 160 should be good with my 3.38 GPA.

I really appreciate everyone for taking the time to read this :)

LSAT 21.S2.Q5 For D, it says, "Concedes the very point that it argues against."

I thought it meant this person is not arguing against the main point of the argument. However, the other website explanation says it's circular reasoning answer. Is it really circular reasoning ...?

Hey y'all,

A few details to explain the situation:

My VA benefits will pay for the first two years of law school.

I was offered a 50% scholarship.

For those first two years, the school will be paid full tuition by the VA and the scholarship will not apply until I have exhausted my benefits.

During a phone conversation with the dean of admissions, he told me that he could apply those unused scholarship monies to completely cover my tuition for the third year.

However, when I received the official letter yesterday, there was no mention of reallocating those funds per the phone conversation. Another member of the admissions team told me that practically speaking the school would have to give me a 100% scholarship, which they are not willing to do. She then told me would she have the dean call me, but I have to yet hear from him.

Any thoughts on how I should go about having this conversation with him?

Long story short: I have been waitlisted at 5 schools. Sent 2 loci, visited. It's been 3 weeks with no answer. I want to keep in touch. Should I send a quick email? What should I say? Is it appropriate to send a transcript addendum?

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone has tips for LG on finding the floaters when you're just hit with a bunch of game pieces, usually like 8+ and then a bunch of rules that may or may not have mentioned these pieces. I know JY says to find the floaters each game, but I find that I'm spending more than I probably should to do this step each game, so if anyone has tips..

In addition, in many of the games, for questions you have to go back to the rules and see if they've been rendered irrelevant or if they trigger, on the videos JY just crosses out etc. But ofc we can't do that on paper, it was suggested that we cover it up with our hands but I find that's unhelpful esp when there's a bunch of rules. So does anyone have tips for some sort of systematic way to keep track of whether each rule was triggered/irrelevant for each question (when the question requires you to go back to the rules ofc not EVERY question) so that we don't just have every rule still staring at us while trying to eliminate those that don't matter. I do try to pare down rules and write them next to the Q when there aren't that many, so again, this Q is more for those games where there are just a ton of rules and you can't afford the time..

thanks so much in advance!

Hi guys! I've been taking practice LSATs at 168 with a BR score of 173. I'm trying to improve timing so I can get to that higher score. I just read something that said people wait to the end of a section to fill in the answer sheet. Whereas I just fill it in after every question I complete. I'd really appreciate your insights about whether waiting to fill it in saves you time or whether it increases error rate in the transfer process? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I just received an offer from a lower rank school which I am willing to attend. However, I am still waiting for a response from a higher rank school which I really like but hasn't get back to me yet (not even waitlisted).

So I would like to know, will sending the higher rank school the offer from the lower rank school increase my chance of getting in, or will it help speed up their decision making?

Just so you know both schools are in Chicago.

Thanks in advance!

I've been waiting for a long time to write this. Perhaps too long. But as I sit here on this rainy day I couldn't think of a better time.

Before I start, I have to give a huge thank you to @danielznelson and @dml277. They have helped me so much on this journey and I'm so appreciative for everything they've done. But the person I attribute most of my success to is @twssmith. Without her motherly love, there's no way I would have gotten into the schools I have. She has been more than a study buddy. She is one of my best friends and I am eternally grateful for that. We even went to the masters together! Anyways, on with the story.

I started my LSAT journey around 2014. I took my first PT during that summer and got a 132. The 135 comes from me bubbling in B on the 40 or so questions I didn't have time to get to. When I looked at where I was and where I wanted to be, I was furious. I wanted this so bad and reading TLS articles where people scored higher than me without even trying enraged me even further.

I was using fox test prep at the time. The instructor said on average, people go up ten points. This was so discouraging. I wanted to get into Harvard. How am I supposed to do that with such low scores? So I followed his curriculum and kept burning fresh PTs. I didn't know what I was doing. Logic games seemed impossible. I didn't even know what a game board was never mind writing rules down. So I did what any rational person would do. I walked away and tried to find other resources.

I stopped studying for a few months. I bought the trainer but didn't read it for two years. Instead, I used fox prep books, foolishly, despite knowing that the course wouldn't work for me.

Where I was in undergrad, I focused on my grades for the rest of that semester and tried not to think about LSAT much. But I knew I wanted to go straight through so I had to get started soon. Towards the end of that academic year, I found 7Sage. At that point, I made up my mind that if this didn't work, I would quit studying and find a new career path.

So I made it work. I studied all the time. I studied at my summer internship. I sacrificed everything: my college friends, my family, even my girlfriend. All to beat this test. I was even studying during my classes to get ready for the September 2014 LSAT. Which got postponed to December. Then June 2015. Which meant I had to find a job because I no longer could go straight through. But I kept telling myself, "how bad do you want it?"

I finished the curriculum in May 2015 was PTing around 155 during that time. But for some reason I thought that I could go in there and hit a new personal best of 160. I was so wrong. I left the test center, crying, regretful. I blew it and I knew it. I wasted my time and my score ultimately reflected that. 153. I wasn't surprised but I was disappointed. Following the familial pressure, I applied anyways. I blanketed the T14. Shockingly, I was waitlisted at Chicago and Columbia. Hell, I even interviewed with Chicago. And even more surprisingly, I got into Georgetown. I had such mixed feelings. I went to the open house and all that it did was motivate me even more. "If this is the results I got with a 153, imagine what I could do with a 163 or 170," I told myself.

Where there were some things going on at my job that I won't mention, I decided to leave and study full time for the September 2016 LSAT. After restarting my studies in January of 2016 I was now well into the 160s. I was happy with my scores but not satisfied. I was working with Nicole Hopkins and felt myself improving each day. But when I walked in that testing so center on September 24th, 2016, it all hit the proverbial fan.

It was a disaster. It was the first time in my life that I was suffering from severe anxiety. I felt paralyzed. I put so much pressure on this moment that I could not move. I was petrified of making a mistake. I mean I'm not trying to make excuses but I feel that my situational anxiety got the best of me. Even worse, I was going home unemployed, leaving my job for what felt like nothing. I took a risk and failed, only scoring 1 point higher than my 153.

I applied anyways and was waitlisted at every single school from #4-9. Again, I was just more motivated than before. If these are the results I'm achieving with a 154, what could I do with a 164? How bad did I want it?

I didn't do any LSAT until I found a new job. But where my commute was now 2 hours each way and I was too tired when I got home, I woke up at 5am four days a week to study. Every single day I woke up, I would ask myself "how bad do you want this? How bad do you want to go to Harvard?" So I did what was necessary and plugged along.

It was around this time, in February 2017 that I found my lord and saviors: @twssmith and @dml277. For some context, I can be really rude sometimes. In fact, I hated Tyler. More than I hated study groups. I was a lone wolf. But she pushed me. She forced me to dig deeper. Literally our study calls would not progress until I provided her with an answer sufficient enough to make her happy. Which is exactly what I needed. @dml277 did the same thing...but was less Socratic about it. Kinda like good cop, bad cop. This was all so weird to me. I hated studying in groups but this was working so well.

Still, there was another postponing dilemma. I postponed June. Then September, ultimately taking December 2017 reluctantly, knowing that this is late in the cycle.

But it finally went well. Finally. After 3 long years I felt like I had taken an official test that I did well on. Given my standards, it was still not good enough. I crawled under my bed and laid there for an hour. But that day, I mustered up the courage and pressed submit on all of my apps.

While I'm by no means an LSAT aficionado like many of you here, there's one thing I'm really good at: crafting an application. My application tells a coherent story that makes sense and captures the readers attention. Just like an LSAT question, each and every part of my application lends support and is supported by something else. In a cycle like this, that is the most important thing. To some ends, it is a numbers game. But that's only 67% of the application. What about the other third? Why should the admissions committee pick you? It's truly because my essays (thank you @"David.Busis") and résumé telling a compelling story. It's because of the hard work I put into not only studying but the application.

My results are as follows:

Yale: Denied

Stanford: DLS (Waitlist or Denied (probably denied))

Harvard: Waitlist

Chicago: In with $$

Columbia: In with $$$

NYU: In, awaiting aid

Penn: Waitlist then denied (lol whatever)

UVA: In with $$

Duke: In with $$$$

Michigan: Didn't apply because I can't stand @danielznelson

Yes. I didn't get into Harvard (yet). I failed at my ultimate goal. But Chicago is more than good enough. And I'm not saying that out of pure rationalization. I'm saying that because I went there and I loved it. Small class size, great faculty, amazing clerkship numbers. I truly feel that there is nothing I couldn't achieve from Chicago in this profession.

This process has been a long and difficult one. Honestly it's been the hardest thing I've ever done. By far. But without this community I couldn't have done it. I'm so appreciative I can't put it into words. Thank you all so much. I hope I can help the same way that I have been helped time and time again.

Edit: I had no intentions of making this controversial but the internet being the internet, the trolls came out to play. I am a URM. I also had 16X, 3.7X, one year in a V50 firm, one year in a top state public office, and other great softs with only 3 months off to study. I wrote this to express gratitude and motivate those in similar positions, not to promote any controversial or particular agenda.

Hey all! Would appreciate some thoughts on this question:

I took the February 2018 LSAT, and while I think my score was pretty good, I know I can do a few points better, at least. My goal was to take the June 11 LSAT coming up, but I'm graduating university in 2 weeks and with that, finishing my senior thesis, and finding a job, I feel like I have a TON on my plate and basically no time to study.

For those who have applied or are in the know, would you say there's a huge advantage admissions-wise between taking the June 11 and July 23 LSAT coming up? I know earlier is better, but I can't imagine that there would be any difference since most people apply in September at the earliest.

Hi everyone! Not sure if anyone is familiar with Canadian law school admissions. I go to a university where only letter grades are shown on my transcript. Due to a bell curve and high percentage cutoffs for certain faculties (95% and above for an A+), I have an excellent percentage average but just by looking at my transcript with the letter grades, it doesn’t translate well. Especially as my university doesn’t have a law school, I would be going to a nearby university WITH a law school and at that university, their letter grade conversions put me at a huge disadvantage. (90%+ for an A+ there). I have so many courses where I only got an A but had 92.7%, 97% etc.

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this? Is it something that I can write and incorporate into my personal statements? I just feel so disadvantaged and I’m not sure what to do!

Thank you so much for the help!

Admin note: edited title (no caps for titles please)

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well.

I have been meaning to write this for a while now; however, I got very busy with exams. Now that I am all done, I really want to write a detailed post about my LSAT journey in hopes of inspiring someone else on here. There is a lot I want to say and I will try to organize everything in chronological order and in as much detail as I can.

To start off, the entire LSAT process and law school application process was very isolating for me. I did not know anyone that was applying or taking the LSAT. I had to be proactive throughout the process. Yes, mistakes were made, but I am glad I went through it no matter how difficult it got at times. I hope those reading and still going through the application/LSAT process will learn from my mistakes. And please do. Don't make this any harder than it has to be!

My very first post on here was some time last summer 2017, when I asked for help regarding improvements in my score. I did not seem to be making any improvements. I wasted so many tests studying the wrong way (no proper review following an exam and taking an LSAT every single day). By the time I realized this, I had already gone through tests 50-65~

Another big mistake I made was I took the September test without being ready. I went in thinking I'll be fine and maybe I'll end up with a really high score. Let's just say man... was I wrong, lol.

About 3 weeks after the September test, I decided to start from scratch and signed up for the February test. I started visiting many forums like the one on here, Reddit, and even TLS (to some degree) to get an idea on how people prepare. After reading a bunch of guides/advice, I started with LG and fool proofed games 52-80. I decided to stick with the newer tests and did no tests before PT 52. I am not sure whether that was a mistake or a good thing, but it turned out fine.

After semi-figuring things out, here was my plan, and yes, mistakes were STILL made (lol).

I fool proofed the games from PT 52 to 81. I did all of this in about one month. Yes, you read that right. One month. I was waking up at 5 am every day and doing nothing but the LSAT/school work all day until about 7-8 pm. I was literally fool proofing an entire LG section per day. And once I finished fool proofing tests 52 - 81, I did some games I found difficult again, which took more time.

After I was done fool proofing the games for the day, which would take approximately 3-4 hours depending on how easy I felt they were, I was alternating between an LR or RC section as my second section for that day AND blind reviewing it that same day... (I know, some of you may think that this already sounds like a bad idea).

After the BR, I would look up explanations for the answers I got wrong. I created a document which I organized by question types for LR and wrote down the conclusion, premise(s), wrong answer choice explanation and the correct answer explanation ALL IN MY OWN WORDS, followed by a "takeaway" I had learned from this question -- something to look out for the next time I see a question/idea like this.

I was taking classes during this time too. I am in my final year and I was also completing applications, which were due November 1st (Canadian deadlines). AFTER my LSAT work, depending on whether an essay was due soon or whether I had an exam or not, I would do schoolwork. I did not want to ruin my GPA that I worked so hard for over the past 3 years so I know I had to suck it up. And when I was not doing school work, I did a little bit of my law school applications.

I really enjoy playing video games and going to the gym; however, because of how stressed I was with the LSAT and how much of my day it was consuming, I sacrificed playing video game until I was done with the LSAT for good. But, I kept up with the gym as I knew how much it helped me to concentrate while studying. Sadly, I also did not have much of a social life. Based on the schedule I was working with (whichI know is bad), I pretty much did not see my friends until the LSAT was done either... another mistake.

Around mid December, I was legitimately starting to get frustrated with this schedule. I felt I was burning out, but there was only a month left and I pushed through. I tried to do whatever I could to help with the burnout... relax, take frequent breaks during the prep, listen to motivational talks from one of the best motivational speakers IMO (Greg Plitt), etc...

Fast forward to the February LSAT, I went in feeling VERY confident with the material but also feeling kind of burnt out. The week before the Feb LSAT, I literally stopped everything except LG and going over that long document of wrong answers I had created from LR sections I'd done in the past few months. The Feb LSAT went GREAT. I finished every section before the 35 minutes and I felt great. In particular, the LG also seemed very easy as I did not find one of those "misc" games on it, so that helped. After the Feb LSAT, I can't tell you how relieved I was; however, over the course of this LSAT journey, I was beginning to feel more and more stressed out at the fact that it was getting late in the cycle. Clearly my September score was not going to help me no matter how good my GPA was. I was getting worried that regardless of how strong my LSAT score is, I may not even get in as classes may have gotten filled up. I was also worried about not doing well. What if I had to do the LSAT again? I really don't think I would have had it in me to prepare AGAIN. I stopped thinking about things that I did not have to worry about though.

Fast forward a little bit more to when we finally got the scores, I was SO happy. I got a 169. The past several months of excruciatingly difficult prep and balancing school work were finally over. This score was good enough for every school in Canada and I was SO relieved.

And you must be wondering: what about the schools you applied to? Did you hear back? Yes, I did! I heard back from all the schools I applied to. You may consider this another mistake but I only applied to two of the top schools here, and yes, I know that is a risk, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I did not want to leave where I lived and I was happy going to either. I got the call from U of T one afternoon at the end of March and the next morning, I got an email from the other school, Osgoode. It was by far one of the happiest moments of my life. The journey was very difficult and I know I still made many, many mistakes and I hope whoever is reading this can really learn from it. There were many times I felt I was going to quit and just apply the next cycle, but I kept pushing. If I had to do it all over again, there are SO many things I would have changed.

Along this LSAT journey, there are many, many of you whom I messaged for help on LR or LG or RC and I cannot thank you all enough. I know I asked so many questions and it may have gotten annoying at times (I don't blame you). There are too many of you to list but you know who you are if you're reading this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The community on here has been so supportive of me throughout the journey. No one turned me down when I asked for help. Everyone always made me feel welcomed. This was very important to me because despite not knowing anyone applying or taking the LSAT personally, I knew that I had an entire awesome community in 7Sage that is full of supportive individuals. And for those of you reading this who are also alone on this long journey: reach out to others. Dealing with this alone may only do you harm. Others WILL help you. I wish everyone here the best of luck on their LSAT/law school/life journey. We will all make it. DO NOT QUIT. I am strong believer in not thinking "what if" later in life because I know at that point, there is nothing I can do. I would have wondered "what if I pushed through that adversity? Would things have been different?" - regardless of the answer to that question, the outcome won't change anymore and that is something I really could not live with if it had happened. Be honest with yourself and keep working. Improvements are slow and what works for someone else may not work for you. Do things in the manner that they work for YOU. You know yourself best. And with that said, I think that ends my LSAT journey. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask! Also, sorry if this was a long post!

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN TO THE MOST SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY I HAVE KNOWN.

-LP

I'm sure this relates to the LSAT somehow...

.

After combing through numerous tests looking for ways to improve my logical reasoning score, I isolated a concept throughout the preptests that I was having trouble with. I will not really be discussing any particular question type, more just the concept behind statistics, and the way the LSAT uses it. I'm going to break it down into two types of statistics: formal statistics and informal statistics. Formal statistics will deal with percentages, numbers within totals, and totals. I will also discuss average under formal statistics. Informal statistics are questions that involve polls, studies, surveys, and stuff like that.

FORMAL STATISTICS:

The test writers love confusing students using percentages and totals because they can be confusing concepts for people like me, who was never very good at math. "Formal statistics" questions have three elements to keep in mind when reading: overall total, numbers within the total, and percentage. You cannot make inferences without at least two elements.

Words indicating %: percent, proportion, fraction, likelihood, probability (note that the last two are speaking in "terms of probability" meaning the chance that an event will occur. "More likely" and "Less likely" are telling you that the chances are greater than 50% or less than 50% respectively.)

Words indicating #: amount, quantity, sum, total.

Note: there are other indicator words, but these are the ones most commonly used.

Here are some common tricks test writers use on students:

2)Decreasing percentages lead to decreasing numbers (this is not necessarily true because the size of the group under discussion could be larger)

Here are some inferences you can make:

% decrease + # increase -> overall increased

Example: if I drink 30% less coke (in my overall diet of drinks) than I did three years ago, but now i'm drinking 20 more cokes a day than I was three years ago, then it just has to be true that I am drinking a lot more over all than I used to be.

% increase + # decrease -> overall decreased

Example: lets look back at the coke example. If three years ago, I drank 2 cokes and 8 glasses of water. That is only 20 percent. Now I only drink one coke, but it makes up 30 percent of my liquid diet. Then it must be true that I am drinking less than I used to.

Most of the time LSAT uses formal statistics like this, they talk about it in terms of change I.E. percentage and number differences between two periods of time. Example: between 2000 and 2006 there was a 30% increase in violent crime or In 1990 the number of crashes was less than it was in 2000. Etc...

It is important to remember that despite the changes within the total, there are only three logical options for what change the total could take: it gets smaller, it stays the same size, or it becomes larger.

Tips and tricks:

AVERAGE:

When you get a change in average, whether it be higher or lower, it gives rise to a few possibilities.

When you have a rise in the average, the possibilities are:

When you have a dip in average, some possibilities are:

Example: PT 46 Q 22

"Over the last 10 years, ... Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-46-section-3-question-22/

Our possibilities are: more older people, fewer younger people, or both. Our conclusion is that there are more older people, so to strengthen it we have to rule out the possibility that the average change was not because there were fewer younger people. To weaken it you could say that there are fewer younger people.

Inversely, it works the same. If I tell you that the average LSAT score has changed from 157 to 150 over a period of 10 years, that could be because there are more people scoring in the 120s or that there are less people scoring in the 170s, or both. Tailor your answer choice to the conclusion. Don't get caught in whether the total number of people increases or decreases unless they tell you they are members of the group that will affect the average (120s group). These are sometimes disguised causation problems, if the conclusion says that the change of average happened for a certain reason (more older people), the answer choice could strengthen that by blocking out the other alternative.

INFORMAL STATISTICS

Informal statistics are things like polls, surveys, or experiments, or studies. You can recognize these questions when the stimulus says something like:

"In a recent study"

"50% received vaccine X and 50% received a placebo" (Really anytime they talk about experimental and control groups)

"Randomly selected"

"A nationwide poll"

"Consulted"

" _____ were surveyed"

Etc. The LSAT will almost always (maybe always I haven't taken every test) indicate when you are in informal statistics territory. While many questions that fall under the category of informal statistics have answer choices that refer to the causation mechanism in the stimulus, there are a lot of questions that revolve around your understanding of how an experiment should be tested. Here are some questions you should ask yourself.

what am I studying?

comes from the context + premise

PT 51

"Seventy-five percent of dermatologist surveyed Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-51-section-1-question-04/

So here we are studying dermatologist's preference of skin cream using Dermactin, and they are conducting a survey to figure out the results

PT 30

"In a recent study, a group of subjects had Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-30-section-4-question-22/

PT 34

"A group of 1,000 students was randomly selected Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-34-section-3-question-04/

It does not have to be a detailed summary of the experiment, but you should know a brief summary of what they are testing because it is helpful in answering the other questions.

Is the premise representative of the conclusion?

Representativeness is a concept the LSAT repeats frequently. What does it mean for the premise to be representative of the conclusion? Well it means the conclusion should not be too broad compared to the evidence presented. If your conclusion is that most Americans love McDonalds then the answer come from a survey, poll, or study, that is diverse, large and unbiased enough to represent the general sentiment of most Americans. For a long time whenever I thought of representativeness in studies and polls, I usually only thought about if the sample size was large enough. While this may be important, it is only part of what you should be focused on when you are reading a stimulus for representation.

Here are some other flaws you should look for:

Lets look at some examples of representation in logical reasoning problems

PT 36 #24: Flaw

"George Orwell's book 1984 has exercised much influence Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-36-section-1-question-24/

The correct answer picked up on the fact that we don't know the specific numbers of who picked what. Does 1984 influence a great number of readers? Not if 999 people picked the bible and only 1 person picked 1984.

PT 31 #3: Flaw

"Announcement for a television program: Are female physicians Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-31-section-2-question-03/

PT 34 #13: Necessary assumption

"Essayist: one of the claims of laisses-faire economics...

Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-34-section-2-question-13/

For the conclusion to hold, the fast-food restaurants must be representative of the industries in general.

Note: although representation is a big thing that test makers will test you on, there are a lot of wrong answer choices that try to trick you into thinking the flaw or assumption is about. Don't bother too much with it unless there is a glaring representation issue. Example: 40 fourth graders took lessons in reading, and all of them improved their reading skills. Thus, lessons in reading can help fourth graders improve their reading skills. The conclusion is weak enough for the 40 fourth graders to be sufficient evidence. Would more students help? yeah probably. But as it stands "it shows reading classes can help students on their reading skills." Here is 40 students where it did.

Is there a control aspect to the experiment?

Control parts of the study are crucial aspects of conducting experiments because they allow you to eliminate and isolate variables.

PT 31 #9: Strengthen

"During the three months before and three months after Admin note: please review the Forum rules "Do not post LSAT questions"

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-31-section-3-question-09/

What are we missing? To find out whether or not earthquakes had an effect on California student's dreams, we would need to control for what they dreamed of before the earthquake, and monitor the change.

Was there a difference in the results of a laboratory experiment vs the same experiment tested out in the real world?

One way a study/experiment can be flawed is if they only study it under laboratory conditions. Imagine you plant seeds in a testing center, and they grow amazing. Out in the world the seeds grow like shit. Well there are a lot of reasons why the seed did not grow as well in the real world. It could be because in the lab they got more water, or they weren't vulnerable to insects, etc...

How long was the study? Did it need to be longer?

There was a really tough parallel flaw question that hinged on you understanding of the timing concept in the study. It was something like they asked a bunch of young kids if viewing a cigarette pack made them want to smoke, and concluded that because the kids didn't want to smoke it at the age of 9, it had no impact on the desire to smoke. The obvious flaw is why are you asking kids this? They are not representative. But the more subtle flaw is that the experiment should have taken longer, maybe come back to them when they are a few years older and can buy cigs and ask them again.

Your job is to strengthen, weaken, point out flaws, or explain experiments. Remember to ask yourself these questions when you see informal statistics, it will allow you to be able to better pre-phrase the correct answer choice.

I hope this lesson has been helpful for anyone who took the time to read it. Statistics is such a big concept that i'm sure that there is stuff I missed out on. Please let me know if there is anything I should add on, or change, to make this better!

and please please tell me how I can change my username... I never use that as my username. don't know what happened.

When I take timed sections/tests, I try to take my time and ignore the clock. Usually, I end up doing relatively well by focusing on accuracy rather than finishing on time (scoring in mid-high 160s). However, it is a bit discouraging knowing that when I blind review and take my time with all the questions, I get almost all questions correct. It's discouraging because I know my untimed potential, but it is completely different from my timed results. For background: this is the case with pretty much every section and I think I get stuck in the choices sometimes (especially for LR).

How did anyone with similar issues overcome them? How long did it take? Should I focus on being very strict with timing myself? Or, will I naturally get over the hump eventually?

Hello sagers. I am in doubt about this. I have a terrific GPA in undergrad. 3.85. My LSAT performance is dismal. I am thinking of accepting an offer from a school which accepts lower tiers LSAT and possibly transfer from there to my school of choice later. is that a good strategy? I don't want to lose anymore time on dreaming im going to do well on the LSAT. I really dont have time to study like many of you i must work for a living and its hard to find time, even tough i put at least 20 hours a week to study. im all over the place. sometimes i do well sometimes i do not so i really cant gauge my level of performance.....

i really want to put the lsat on my rearviewmirror and start law school asap. I know I will do well in law school. its my dream to be there and I will succeed, but the lsat is really pushing me back.

Should i persist on the LSAT or should i enroll in a school that is not really a choice.....and try to transfer.

What say you?

Any comments are welcome.

Is there any information I can glean from this language. Is it truly neutral? Just saw this on a status checker. Thanks.

Recently got admitted to Loyola, but they gave me no scholarships. I called and they said that I'm welcome to email the Financial Aid Office so they can reconsider/reevaluate. I was told they don't match other school's financial aid and that all scholarships are merit based.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on what I should include in the email. I'm at their 75th percentile for LSAT and a bit above their 50th percentile for GPA.

I know that Georgetown offers a two year MPP program you can apply to with an LSAT score and given my interest in public policy and concern with my current lack of impressive gap year job experience I'm wondering whether this could be a worthwhile avenue to pursue. Any thoughts are much appreciated

Hi, so I took the first practice LSAT in the course (June 2007). I found that I'm very, very good at finding the right answers, but it takes me longer than 35 minutes. I was wondering if anyone else has been having this problem? When I don't try to answer everything in 35 minutes, I get only a few wrong. It's frustrating because the explanations to each answer make total sense to me, but I missed the question because i had to start rushing through my thought process in order to fit them in 35 minutes.

J.Y. summed it up perfectly in one of the intro LR lessons - the LSAT LR stimuli are terribly written. Not in the sense that they lack deliberate meaning, but in the fact that the meaning is impossibly worded and very difficult to discern.

I've been finding myself having to re-reard some of the stimuli 3-5 times to dissect the meaning, often being hard pressed for time towards the end of each section. This sharply contrasts with RC, where the passages are far more intelligible and I finish with plenty of time to spare.

So, I wanted to see if anyone has recommendations for authors that write in the similarly shitty style of the LSAC test writers? I think that reading overly verbose, awkward prose for meaning will help my speed on LR. However just like the LSAT the writing needs to be deliberate in intention and meaning (while still maintaining an awkward and generally shitty structure).

Recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!