What do I do next?

tiena

So I’m honestly starting to believe that this test is impossible for me to even get into the high 160’s. I’ve been struggling with this exam since last May and haven’t gotten as far as I would have liked. I’ve taken a live prep course and invested a few hundred dollars in private tutoring but I still think the November exam was a dud. I don’t know what to do. If I delay, I feel like I’m gonna grow old before ever going to law school and if I don’t delay, that only leaves a little over a month before the next exam. I was planning on going to law school last year and have already delayed until now. I do not believe delaying another year is going to help, but I honestly don’t know what to do. Could someone provide some specific advice?

Chris Babinskyy

This past Monday (11/25/2019) test was my first official LSAT. I've been studying since June of this year and am hitting in the range of (156-162). You can certainly keep studying and retaking it if you absolutely need to hit high 160s, low 170s, but of course it depends on what schools you are considering. You mentioned wanting high 160s. If your GPA is in the high 3s and you are in the mid 160 range on the LSAT, you are looking at some pretty decent law schools. Basically anything above the top 15. My advice, for what it's worth, is send those applications in with what you have and if you're not satisfied with the amount of scholarship or the ranking of schools that accept you, you can always take another LSAT and reapply.

ler2133

I am in a very similar situation except my LSAT score is not very good. I've been advised on another forum to wait till next cycle and apply with a better LSAT but what babin says sounds far better. Would love to also get feedback on my situation:

My tablet froze during section 5 of the October LSAT and I wasn't able to finish the test. I submitted a test center complaint and LSAC ruled in my favor. I ended up with a 156. I have been scoring in the low 160s on my LSAT practice tests.

LSAC will be including a letter with my October score saying that they confirmed that my tablet froze and that I was unable to complete section 5 as a result which affected my score.

My dilemma is: Do I submit with this score? Or do I take it in January and apply late in the admissions cycle? Or -- worse -- do I wait till next cycle?

I have already delayed my applications by one year. I am a URM and also a non-traditional student/applicant with a very strong CV and 3.75 undergrad GPA from an Ivy League.

It is challenging to study for this test, as I work about 60 hours per week, travel quite a bit, work weekends, blah blah blah. But I wouldn't mind taking it again in January -- I'm just worried that I would actually have an even worse chance of admission because it would be so late in the cycle, and of course there is no guarantee that I would score much better. My target score was modest to begin with -- low 160s.

Any feedback is helpful.

Chris Nguyen

I totally understand that "this test is impossible I'm never going to improve" feeling. I know you said that you tried private tutoring, but I really think a great tutor can make or break your LSAT score. It's so hard to diagnose yourself what you need to do to increase your score, and that's where I feel like having an amazing tutor can help a lot. I get tutored from Sami and I've been to a lot of CantGetRight's free sessions and I truly think they can help increase your score as they did mine.

As for delaying or applying this cycle, it really depends on what you want and your life situation. I chose to delay because I have a great job right now and I know that law school will always be there. Sure, it's another year, but another year can mean a much higher LSAT score, more scholarships and better schools if you play it out right. Additionally, many people do go to law school later in life. Northwestern's average age of matriculation is 27.

But there are reasons to go to law school immediately, too. If you're not gunning for top 14, want to practice locally, don't want to do biglaw, I say go for it and apply this cycle. You should also take into account your current life situation. Do you have a job that you like and don't mind staying there for another year? Or, do you hate it and can't imagine another year there? How is the family situation? Are you expecting to have children? etc etc.

It's honestly a very personal decision and there's a lot of factors you should take into account, but I hope this helps!

ler2133

Thank you, Christopherr. Very thoughtful feedback. For the reasons you mentioned, I am leaning towards applying this cycle and seeing what happens.

Going to speak to my alma mater's law school advisor first and then decide on Monday.

Little Grasshopper

@tiena Let me ask this. What was your battle plan for LR,RC and LG? If you did that, you are in the good. Did you work all the questions in order without any skipping and they are hard? If so, that is one of the most destructive ways writing an exam. Did you use any time management in your exam plan? Did you use any skipping? With RC, did you use a notation strategy. If not, did you just read straight without thinking about each paragraph,which makes the reading harder.

Here are the most common mistake that seem to I ran across at start my prep before I was able straighten it out and took the actual LSAT:

1) Answering the questions in order when you encounter a hard question without any skipping.
2) Not making use of time management with regard to the each section.
3) Not using any kind of diagramming for the arguments and using hunches instead.
4) eliminating every answer choice that eats up clock time and not stopping when you found the right answer choice or not eliminating answer and guess at the right answer.
5) not reviewing the section while the clock was still running.
6) not paying attention to the commas and getting wrap up in the context parts of the argument since the context is design to trap you.

After 7sage and taken the November 2019 LSAT.
Here is what I changed.
1) Use skipping hard questions and come back to them later.
2) Get to the easier questions first.
3) For LR, I skipped the Principle conform, Parallel reasoning and Except/Least questions they are designed eat your clock times and prevent from scoring well. I saved them for last.
They force you go through every answer choice right off the bat and know that they clock time destroyers.
4) On LG, I worked the local questions/constrainted conditional question first. I save the global and substitution questions last. Also, I save the combo/hybrid games last.
5) On RC, if I saw the comparative reading any place in the RC, I would save it for last. I worked the global question: Main Point,Author's viewpoint, purpose of the paragraph or organization. I would used the strengthen.weaking/parallel and inference questions last. This helped. I used notation strategy that was broken down by paragraph.
P1 conclusion
P2 conclusion
p3 conclusion
Proponent viewpoint
Opponent viewpoint
Main Idea:

Comparative RC

Passage A
P1 conclusion
P2 conclusion
p3 conclusion

A's viewpoint/conclusion

Passage B
P1 conclusion
P2 conclusion
p3 conclusion

b's viewpoint/conclusion

6) I used a time management strategy that works.

7) smart elimination meaning we use a negation for question types: NA/SA,strengthening and weakening, mBT,mbf,parallel and principle questions. The smart elimination works for the RC and elimination works for LG and RC, we keep eliminating to match until we find the right answer. We stop once we have the right answer and move on. This ensures that we don't waste valuable clock and can use it on our next pass for the blind review.
I can say this help me with the exam. I used it during my PTs. Also, having strong positive attitude makes a big difference. I didn't allow any questions intimidate me at all. I went the attitude "Do your best on the exam to pass or die trying".

newlyadmitted1L

This is great, thanks

tiena

The main reason why I want to go this cycle is because my job situation is very unstable (I could lose my job anytime) and I don’t want to be in the workforce; I quite frankly enjoy school). I’ve also already delayed a year and I think this will negatively impact my score even further.

As for my test strategy, yes, I skip and flag questions that I cannot answer immediately and then go back later to answer them. I do not read passages blindly and I am repeating logic games over and over. I get the main point questions correct; the questions I am getting wrong frustrate me because I eliminate two or three answer choices then don’t know how to progress. My timing is not an issue; I don’t think my problem is general strategy, but is a simple one that I cannot solve: how to actually answer the questions. Even after I read explanations, I sometimes don’t understand and have no sources to turn to unless I’m ready to fork over $120/hour

I just feel screwed because I have a little over a month left before the next test but I will feel more screwed if I delay another cycle

I thank anyone who takes the time to read my response