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I graduated from college back in the dark ages when GPAs didn't go over 4.0. Do I need to point that out?

On the one hand, the dates I attended are clearly written on my resume and I don't want to sound whiny.

On the other hand, David advises us to point out different aspects of our GPA if it makes us look good. For example, he says to compare your GPA to the class average if you benefit from the comparison. While researching I found that the average high school GPA for students enrolling in my former college is 4.23. I realize that's high school but still - it drew me up short. My college GPA of 3.74 may or may not be impressive to the admissions officers, but it definitely won't if 4.23s are typical.

Or is it only high schools that go above 4.0 and not colleges?

#help

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hello!

so for a lot of Phen/Hypo Weaken questions, the way to attack them is to find an alternative explanation. One example of this is PT61.2.11.

My question is - how do you know if an answer choice's "alternative explanation" is TRULY an alternative explanation that weakens the argument? I ask this because there are often TRAP answer choices that seem to be "alternative explanations" but are actually consistent with the argument.

For example, in PT55.1.7, a weaken phen/hypo question, answer choice E seems to provide an alternate explanation but is actually consistent with the conclusion, and is thus a trap wrong AC.

But back to PT 61.2.11, AC A is the right AC. But how do we know it's actually an alternate explanation? Can't it also be consistent with the explanation? Can't it be the case that drivers feel possessive of their parking space and are also less quickly able to perform maneuvers with their car?

When you provide an alternate explanation to weaken a phenomenon, does it have to be completely distinguished from the original hypothesis in the conclusion?

In sum, how do you tell the difference between trap wrong AC's that seem to provide "alternate explanations" but are actually consistent with the original hypothesis in the stimulus, and real right AC that are actually alternate explanations that weaken the argument.

Many thanks!

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Hi,

I am registered for the Oct 14th LSAT.

My plan is to apply with the Oct 14th score. (My current score range is mid to high 160s).

However, if I don't hit my target score(170+) I want to apply with the Oct 14th score and retake in January.

The exam date in January is Jan 27th. Expecting results in mid February(Feb 15) according to the LSAC website.

I want to know if 1.) I can ask schools to consider the Jan score if it is higher than my Oct score. 2.) ask them to hold off until they get Feb score? 3.) Will it be too late for any scholarship/merit-aid opportunities.

I'd preferably not want to sit a whole cycle out due to this.

These are the only test dates available to me.

My law school goal is to get into something within the t14 or t20 possibly with some scholarship.

I am an international student, so I don't think GPA is a hard constraint here.

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Greetings 7sagers!

I am trying to figure out how LSAC's Credential Assembly Service (CAS) works. I know the gist of it is to make creating your law school admissions packages smoother, but I have questions about the logistics if I am applying to multiple schools.

For example, if I want a letter of recommendation from someone, what is that process. Does the recommender have to create an LSAC account? Does that letter go to all the schools that I am applying to?

I looking for some #help !!!

Thanks in advance for your responses!

-David

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My score since June has been 161-165. During that time I went through the Trainer again (skimmed), did the Manhattan LR book, drilled individual sections time and untimed, foolproofed LG, and blind review everything I did. Today I took PT 67 and scored 164. What am I doing wrong and how should I approach my studying going forward? Many thanks!

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it would seem that many schools have a 2 page limit for the personal statement. Do you guys think i schools will care if i were to make the margins abit bigger to accommodate a bit of a longer essay? i dont think they need to follow a specific format APA..etc, it would seem the only requirement is double space

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So I'm kinda stressing out. I have until the November test to get my average above 170 and my actual PT score isn't budging. For reference, PT 68 had my highest BR thus far (177) but I still only managed a 165 timed. The LG section for this PT was very unconventional and I went -7. (I was spinning my tires on that last game). I was able to do the section -0 with ease once the clock was out of the equation. Lots of lessons to be learned there but I'm clearly struggling with time management/making mistakes under pressure.

At this point, what's the best use of my time? I really don't want to submit apps with anything less than a 168 so I'm starting to feel the pressure.

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I am completely lost on my personal statement. It feels as if I cannot find the perfect story to share. I want it to be unique and have been advised to stay away from the "immigrant child story and transition into US". I feel like it is very difficult for me because I am only 19 years old. I've been quite fortunate to not face challenges in my life and things have gone per plan. I don't want to write the basic "I am a perfectionist" story either. I have been very confused and would appreciate any help you are able to offer.

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Of the top 10 schools, Columbia and Penn have personal statements that suggest putting in elements of a "Why School X" essay in them. How are my fellow applicants handling these personal statements?

For reference, here are Columbia and Penn's prompts:

Columbia:

Candidates to Columbia Law School are required to submit a personal statement supplementing required application materials. We are curious about your interests, goals, and aspirations and how the J.D. program at Columbia can help you achieve these. You are encouraged to think about the contributions you hope to make to both the Columbia community and the legal profession while considering your personal, intellectual, and professional background and any relevant information that you may not have otherwise conveyed through your other application materials. Please note that the personal statement should be double-spaced and approximately two pages in length. This statement should be attached electronically.

Penn:

The Admissions Committee requires that every applicant submit an original example of written expression. The purpose of this personal statement is to provide you with as flexible an opportunity as possible to submit information that you deem important to your candidacy. You may wish to describe aspects of your background and interests--intellectual, personal or professional--and how you will uniquely contribute to the Penn Law community and/or the legal profession. Please limit your statement to two pages, double spaced and label it as "Personal Statement" with your name and LSAC account number on each page.

How's everyone handling these? Are you guys explicitly addressing why you're interested in Columbia and Penn in your personal statements? If so, how much space in your two-page allotment are you dedicating to addressing that?

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I am currently applying for Law School and notice some schools have slightly different requirements. Harvard allows for two pages resumes- Yale doesn't. Columbia and Duke want specific things in your Personal Statement, others don't. Chicago wants hours worked on your resume, Penn makes no such requirement. Obviously you should do what they say, but how drastically are you guys noticing your materials change from school to school? Should I alter slightly for each school or change drastically? Just interested in opinions.

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So... I think I have my resume cut down to short and sweet and applicable to law school. I have a few odd jobs going back to high school, and I don't think it's helpful to list everything I've ever done. So, I just listed things I have done in recent years that did seem positive. I know some schools will ask for it all, and I would provide if they asked for it.

Anyway... I wanted some input on a few issues, if you good folks will oblige :)

I snuck a little humor in there. At the end, I have a "Talents" section. Some have "hobbies" or "interests" or whatever. I am open to changing this, too. But anyway... I listed some talents that I have that are also interests for me, and "ruining murder mysteries for my family." It's funny, but true. Do these people have any sense of humor? I always hear that we should show our personalities -- glimpses of ourselves-- through our applications in some way. Inappropriate?

I have some stuff that is under some iron clad NDAs. I can't say specifics, or even the companies it was for (the ones who hired me/any that the work was for). I condensed it all into one job listing instead of separate projects, and gave a really broad overview of what it entailed. It's frustrating, because it entails a lot of things over a number of years. Would this raise massive red flags? How would I even prove any of it, due to the heavy handed non-disclosure agreements? I really want to leave it in, because it covers a lot of time I spent at home raising my child, and it shows I was doing something. Thoughts?

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Would it be best practice to submit documents (resume, PS, why X, etc) as PDFs instead of word documents? In my overly obsessive little law school applicant mind, I'm imaging all sorts of unintentional formatting / processing errors occurring at some point after I hit submit to the point where the document appears before a decision maker. Is this just a symptom of too-much time thinking about this or would it help to submit documents as PDFs?

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Hey guys,

I'm taking my first prep test today, and I wanted to clarify what a blind review was.

From my understanding you circle the ones you're entirely unsure of and you review thoses before checking your answers.

However, I plan on blind reviewing the entire test -one section a day, is this a good idea? Moreover, I don't really see myself taking the test until march the earliest or June the latest. I work full time and occasionally i do between 45-and 50 hours a week. my ultimate goal is one prep test a week with one blind review section per day, averaging about 12 hours a week.

I've been through the CC.

is my understanding of BR correct?

is one prep test until june reasonable?

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I am confused because the correct answer to this question seems like it's a necessary assumption and not a sufficient assumption, as the question stem would describe it to be. I generally regard necessary assumptions to be the "bare minimum" standard. It seems that "societies being geographically isolated enough not to have been influenced by any other society" only allows for, and does not guarantee, the conclusion to be drawn. When I really analyze the question I guess I could see how it's sufficient, but am I crazy to think that this reads so similarly to a necessary assumption? Is there a helpful technique for distinguishing the two in a situation like this?

Admin note: edited title

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-60-section-1-question-22/

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Hey folks, I wanted to post a few questions here that contain “most” relationships in them that are not that common. They collectively might only take 45 minutes to memorize, and who knows: one might show up on your exam and you can get the point! This is part 1 in what I hope is a 3 part series examining weird most relationships.

The first most relationship I want to discuss takes this following form:

Most As are Bs

Most Bs are not As

The following are 2 questions that make use of this relationship, we are asked for a must be true and the answer to both is the same iteration of the must be true.

Pt 77-4-13

Pt 80-1-22

I have left one other question out. As an exercise, I want you, the reader to try to memorize this form and see if you come across it yourself, that way you can see if you have actually retained the memory and understanding of the form and if you would net the point come test day.

Lets take a look at what these two statements mean. Mr. Ping points this process out in the lessons, but it is worth repeating.

Here is an example:

Most people who live in the United States know who The Beatles are

But, most people who know who The Beatles are do not live in the United States

In combination, what must be true here?

Let’s pretend there are 320 people in the United States and lets assign a number constituting “most” of that set to be those who know who The Beatles are: 200. It might be helpful here to view “most” as simply something equal to or more than 51%. So that assignment of 200 is our “most.” This is a very basic way to look at this concept, there might be more thorough ways to look at it, but I think this will work.

Now let’s rephrase that first statement with something more concrete:

200 out of a total of 320 people in the USA know who the Beatles are

Now let’s look at the other statement and its relationship with the first statement:

But, most people who know who The Beatles are do not live in the United States

Here we are looking at the total set of people who know who The Beatles are and we are making a statement about that set: that that 200 we know comes from the United States constitutes less than half, or less than what we are colloquially calling “most” or more specifically, a maximum 49%, this has to be true in order to make room for the number of people that constitute 51% or more not from the USA who know who The Beatles are. So whatever the rest of that set is (not USA): it must be something more than 200, because if it were less, the statement itself would be false. So what raw number constitutes most in one context does not constitute most in another context.

So the second statement tells us that the 200 we have from the USA falls short of most, and the remainder of the total set of people who know who The Beatles are comes from Not USA. So the total set of people who know who The Beatles are might be 1,000 and 200 come from the USA and 800 from elsewhere/not USA. That is a fact pattern commensurate with our statements. A number that constitutes most (200) in one context is less than half in another context.

Most professional Bull riders are from Texas

Most people from Texas are not professional bull riders

This is an example that might make the idea of sets in this context easier to grasp.

Texas has roughly 30 million people, a set much larger than “professional bull riders.”

In one context “most” means something like 180/300 (bull riders)

And in another context “most” would mean something like 16 million (From Texas)

Intuitively, this makes sense, and I submit so does the must be true inference: that there are more people from Texas than there are professional bull riders.

I have designed a small exercise to help demonstrate this point. Below are 3 total sets that reference our Beatles/USA example above, which one is not commensurate with our fact pattern in the stimulus? Here is a reminder of what the fact pattern in the stimulus is:

Most people who live in the United States know who The Beatles are

But, most people who know who The Beatles are do not live in the United States

Total set:700 know who the Beatles are

USA:200/320 know who The Beatles are

Not USA:500 out of a total set of 700 know who the Beatles are

Total set:300 know who the Beatles are

USA:200/320 know who the Beatles are

Not USA:100 out of a total set of 300 know who the Beatles are

Total set:200,000 know who the Beatles are

USA:200/320 know who The Beatles are

Not USA:199,800 out of a total set of 200,000 know who The Beatles are

That’s correct, set (2) does not fit our fact pattern.

Now here is another intuitive example:

Most people who currently attend Harvard Law School are really smart

Yet, most people in the world who are really smart, don’t currently attend Harvard Law school

Intuitively, we know that the second set “really smart” is a much large set than the total group currently attending Harvard Law school.

Now, try applying a fact pattern to the two questions above and see what emerges as a must be true! Keep this form in mind, it might be rare, but getting it correct could be the difference between a 159 and a 160, or getting it correct quickly and efficiently could free up time that could lead to getting 3 questions correct you otherwise might have been pressed for time when you got to.

You know the drill: I'm open to correcting any mistakes I might have made here.

Thank you for reading!

David

10

I just finished CC across the span of about three to four months (very on and off) and did my first timed PT (Prep Test 62) yesterday. I scored a 154 and BRed a 159 (admittedly, I gave up on some of the Logic Games).

My score by section was:

-13 RC. (-6 BR)

-8 LR. (-5 BR)

-10 LG. (I just completely freeze on Logic Games).

-11 LR. (-9 BR)

I got most questions right on the first two RC passages, but I completely ran out of time by the third and fourth which were far harder.

For Logic Games, I plan on using Pacifico's Logic Games Attack Strategy beginning today so hopefully I'll become a lot more familiar with them soon.

I honestly think I'm just straight up bad at LR. It's a huge hit or miss for me mostly and it's all over the place.

I'm just really worried at this point because I really want to attend Law School next cycle which means the November test is pretty much my only shot. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to make the most use of my time from now until then? Currently, I'm not working either due to family issues so I have pretty much the entire day to focus on prepping. Thank you so much!

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Quick question for all you full-time working and part-time studying 7sagers. Do you think it's smart to take PTs after a full day's work? The LSAT is administered in the morning so I imagine it's best to get into the habit of taking timed practice tests in the AM. but for those of us who work full time, that limits us to 1 test a week rather than 2.

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Hey future lawyers,

I am in the midst of applying for accommodations for my disease. This condition causes me to have various complications when it comes to concentrating. My condition becomes worse under stress, which is inevitable when taking the LSAT. I was wondering if anyone has requested for accommodations before, and if so how did you go about it? Also I am applying for 100% extra time. However, if I get denied, will they deny me without considering me for 50% extra time? Anyone who has been approved for accommodations, please help!

1

I was just in the admissions webinar hosted by David but didn't get a chance to ask some questions. I hope David can see this :)

But also, it would be tremendously helpful if you 7Sagers can comment if you have any thoughts!

So, I've got essentially three questions.

I am a foreign student (UK educated) and UK institutions do not have GPA system per se. I've already submitted the transcript to CAS for their individual evaluation but their academic summary report does not say anything about GPA (it only says "Foreign" under the institution section and 'Above Average' for quality academic record) although the transcript has been already processed. How would this work? Should I just care about LSAT score since undergrad GPA is kind of unknown for now?

I know Law school admissions are mainly about the numbers (LSAT and undergrad GPA). But where does having a graduate degree (Master's) kick in as a factor? Does it only count as an academic/research experience?

I am in Asia so I'm obviously taking the LSAT this October. But depending on the score, I'm willing to travel to US/Canada territory to take the November LSAT. Would this say something unsettling to the admissions process? I mean I was fine and still am fine with the idea. But I have consulted one of my professors and he suggested that taking 2 LSATs in a row within two months may send a wrong signal to schools although I'm not really sure what he meant by that signal. He said that 1 more month wouldn't make a difference but I personally experienced that even 2 weeks of intense PT-ing makes a difference. Since even 1 point increase in LSAT score boosts your admissions chance by many points, I'm more than willing to take both OCT/NOV LSATs.

So.. questions got a little lengthy haha but I would appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on these matters!

Good luck everyone!!

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