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120 to 170

sagarpatel416sagarpatel416 Free Trial Member
edited August 2018 in General 59 karma

While I'm a bit disappointed in my score as it's lower than my recent PT average, I'm grateful for all the support communities like 7sage, TLS, and Reddit provide to those who are just mediocre or below average. Sure, if your diagnostic is in 150-160 range it's relatively easier to hit 170+ than someone like myself. You may get discouraged over and over again feeling like you've hit a plateau or you're not smart enough. Trust me, my first real LSAT score was a 147 and that was after a year of studying. This post is for those that feel like they're losers. Failure is a better teacher than success will ever be!

Also, just want to give a big shout out to my tutors @Sami and @"Cant Get Right". Not sure if you guys use 7sage anymore or remember me since I stopped tutoring 6 months back but both of your approaches/strategies are the reason I was able to even hit 170. Josh with his tiered time management approach and Sami for teaching me how to read for reasoning structure. And yes, I actually tried on the diagnostic but still ended up with a 120 lol.

Thank you! Keep moving forward!

Comments

  • _oshun1__oshun1_ Alum Member
    edited August 2018 3652 karma

    Damn congrats!!! Years of work paid off!!!

  • keets993keets993 Alum Member 🍌
    6050 karma

    Congrats!!! Your motivation and dedication is an inspiration.

  • sagarpatel416sagarpatel416 Free Trial Member
    edited August 2018 59 karma

    @"surfy surf" Could have been a little better =] @keets993 TY! I've been waiting to make this post for over 2 years!

  • btownsqueebtownsquee Alum Member
    1207 karma

    I love these posts. Congratulations!!

  • Luna LawLuna Law Alum Member
    2 karma

    That is AMAZING! Congrats, man! I'm fearful to take my diagnostic for that very reason, but your story is really encouraging and inspiring! I hope I can have the same success with hard work as well. :smile:

  • Chipster StudyChipster Study Yearly Member
    893 karma

    Wow!!

  • Kermit750Kermit750 Alum Member
    2124 karma

    Well deserved! Congrats!

  • The NoodleyThe Noodley Alum Member
    662 karma

    Congratulations!

  • 362 karma

    Congratulations!!!!!

  • tbrit011tbrit011 Alum Member
    48 karma

    Wow! Congrats!!!!!
    Life goals dude lol

  • SprinklesSprinkles Alum Member
    11542 karma

    Lol@being disappointed in a 170. Congratulations!!!!!

  • SamiSami Yearly + Live Member Sage 7Sage Tutor
    edited August 2018 10806 karma

    Congratulations Sagar! You deserve it. ❤️

    Of course I remember you. You are the only student of mine that tried to bribe me with a Sephora gift card, just so I would continue tutoring you. :joy: :joy:

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27900 karma

    Congrats Sagar, and of course I remember you! So glad everything came together. It’s all about managing the time well!

  • gkoskigkoski Alum Member
    106 karma

    Congratulations! Provides inspiration for those of us who fell off the horse and having a really tough time trying to get back on.

  • NotMyNameNotMyName Alum Member Sage
    edited August 2018 5320 karma

    You did it! Largest score increase I've ever heard of BY FAR! Congrats, enjoy, and best of luck in your apps.

  • lsat4lifelsat4life Alum Member
    edited August 2018 255 karma

    @sagarpatel416 said:
    While I'm a bit disappointed in my score as it's lower than my recent PT average, I'm grateful for all the support communities like 7sage, TLS, and Reddit provide to those who are just mediocre or below average. Sure, if your diagnostic is in 150-160 range it's relatively easier to hit 170+ than someone like myself. You may get discouraged over and over again feeling like you've hit a plateau or you're not smart enough. Trust me, my first real LSAT score was a 147 and that was after a year of studying. This post is for those that feel like they're losers. Failure is a better teacher than success will ever be!

    Also, just want to give a big shout out to my tutors @Sami and @"Cant Get Right". Not sure if you guys use 7sage anymore or remember me since I stopped tutoring 6 months back but both of your approaches/strategies are the reason I was able to even hit 170. Josh with his tiered time management approach and Sami for teaching me how to read for reasoning structure. And yes, I actually tried on the diagnostic but still ended up with a 120 lol.

    Thank you! Keep moving forward!

    Congratulations!

    Do you think you can provide some insight into how you were viewing LSAT problems at the start of your studies compared to how you view things now? I ask only because I have never heard of anyone starting in the 120s making it to the 170s. The 120s that I know of through my experience tutoring have had major language issues such that even if their logic was improving, their language difficulties did not allow them to complete the LR and RC sections. I am very curious for your input on whether it was a true 120 and if so, how your reading/understanding have changed between then and now. I know you said you tried on the diagnostic, but random guessing would produce a better score than 120. So there must have been something seriously different about how you were reading and thinking about these questions - your thought process was actively driving you toward wrong choices and away from correct choices, even on the easiest of problems. It would be fascinating to hear from you how your view of the test has changed.

  • akistotleakistotle Member 🍌🍌
    9382 karma

    Congrats!!! <3

    @Sami said:
    Congratulations Sagar! You deserve it. ❤️

    Of course I remember you. You are the only student of mine that tried to bribe me with a Sephora gift card, just so I would continue tutoring you. :joy: :joy:

    Damn I should have bribed you! :joy: :joy:

  • sagarpatel416sagarpatel416 Free Trial Member
    edited August 2018 59 karma

    @"Luna Law" @btownsquee @"Chipster Study" @Kermit750 @"Testing..." @denzeljones14 @tbrit011 Thank you guys! Really means a lot!

    @Sprinkles LOL - I've met some people who were devastated over their 173. Lives ruined.

    @Sami Hey, glad you remember me! just wanted you to make a favorable decision. think that falls within the scope of a bribe lol. hope all is well =]

    @"Cant Get Right" Yeah, man! Coming back to questions with a second round did wonders for me! There's much more clarity and the right answer becomes so apparent. Sometimes on my second round I think to myself how I even missed the question on the first lol. Thanks bud =]

    @akistotle thanks =]

  • studyingandrestudyingstudyingandrestudying Core Member
    5254 karma

    Thank you for telling your story. And great work!

  • BroccoliBroccoli Core Member
    352 karma

    How long did you actually take to get 170? I;m like in same situation :(

  • sagarpatel416sagarpatel416 Free Trial Member
    59 karma

    @Luminate Well, I never really excelled at standardized tests nor did I read much when I was younger. Even though I was born here, I lived in India and eventually had some difficultly speaking English. Throughout middle school, I was enrolled in ESL.

    Now, the LSAT was truly difficult for me because the passages were dense and convoluted, LR all the answers seemed so appealing, and LG I had no idea how to setup, diagram, and make inferences up-front. I starting drilling for 2 months strictly LG where I would spend more time up with a diagram that had positions and letters. I started to link up rules, seek out that inference that plays a significant role in the game, and finally circle floaters. From there I would decided if I wanted to brute force and I decided based on the possible number game boards to questions. If game boards were less than questions, I would do all possible worlds. It was really important that I keep the limiting factor in the back of mind. When working through the answer choices, I would check them against the rules. Usually for the harder questions, I would come down two appealing choices and go back to them at the end of the game.

    LR: Initially, all the answers seemed so appealing and I would answer the question based on my gut. After going through the CC once, I was going -19+ in LR. I decided to redo the CC at a glacial pace. I doubled the time CC time and went through each lesson slowly until I got a full grasp of it. I started to drill LR with the question stem being my guide. I would isolate the context, premises, and conclusion for each question with the exception of resolve/reconcile stems. Over time, I hit -12 in LR and started to drill by question type. For MSS, I thought of a soft mbt question stem where the information in the stimulus would dish out a conclusion. Flaw/Descriptive weakening only to two criteria - 1. descriptively accurate and 2. is it the flaw. I got a good grasp on all the flaws from LSAT trainer. Often times, I would need to cross out the wrong answers to get to the right or I could anticipate the answer after reading the stimulus. RR - Sami, helped me on this where I spend more time understanding the discrepancy or what's at odds to get the right choice. Before, I would just read the stimulus and jump into the answers - that's a no no. For SA, I spent a lot of time understanding quantifiers and conditional logic. I would always draw out the conditionals but I started to do the linking in my head and these become freebies after a while. I just focused on linking the premises to the conclusion where the premise(s) were the only factors that would link to the conclusion. All looking for words that were consistent - if the conclusion had a word like more than half, then you should be looking for similar words in the answer choices like most or majority. After I started to hit -6/7 in LR, Josh helped work a strategy where I learned to move on from questions and come back after. This was crucial for me because I would just sometimes drain a significant amount of my remaining time into one question and still end up getting it wrong. Even after Josh had told me initially to stop doing that, I only started after a few sessions. I couldn't really let go of a question until I finished which led to me sometimes not finishing a section or focus my time more efficiently on questions that I could get right.

    RC: This was so so difficult. In the beginning, my approach was to spend all my time on two passages and try to complete the 3/4 if I had time. For one, my goal was a T2 school and 3/4 were usually the more difficult passages. Passages tended to be dense and convoluted and I was dying of boredom. I would focus on the details of the passage rather than the author's position, linking the paragraphs together, and viewpoints of others. Tutoring helped me with the latter. Went from -15 from -4/-5. This will always be my worse section.

    Wrote this quick so hope I kind of answered your question. In short, I just become more familiar with the test and employed strategies that my tutors and others advised. After December of last year, I didn't study for the LSAT until June 2018, just over a month before the July administration. It helps not making the LSAT your life.

  • sagarpatel416sagarpatel416 Free Trial Member
    edited August 2018 59 karma

    @Broccoli180 Graduated UG in '15 and worked on the LSAT on and off so I want to say 2.5 years. I wanted BL + a school where the debt would justify the return. I already work in the bulge bracket so starting out w/ a 80k salary after law school wasn't economical for me. Also, 170 was 5 points below my PT average so I would advise you to have a PT average higher than your target.

  • samantha.ashley92samantha.ashley92 Alum Member
    1777 karma

    Omg that's truly amazing. You should do a webinar (even just on YouTube). And I appreciate the endorsements of @Sami and @"Cant Get Right" because I really need a tutor for a few question types!

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