148 to 169 - 164 Nov to 169 Jan THANK YOU 7SAGE

emmmmmmm-1

Hello!!

Excited to be at this stage. This is a long one.

21 Point Increase LSAT Journey Overview

After taking my first diagnostic test with Khan Academy and receiving a 148 I knew I had to get serious about studying. The internet seemed to have many positive things to say about 7sage. I was really into the growth mindset that the program advocates and the blind review process just seemed to make so much sense for me as a tool for learning. So happy I was right!!

Overall the study process took me one year - started in February 2019 and received my 169 score on the January 2020 test. That being said I took about 4 months off for travel/work related/life reasons. When I was studying I averaged 10-20 hours a week. Less if I had other things going on (it's okay to have balance and take breaks). I found myself refreshed and never noticed my skills sliding back after a break which was very encouraging - burn out is so real!!

In one of the 7sage podcast episodes JY suggested that once you are scoring where you want to it might be helpful to sign up for 2 LSATs back to back. It takes the pressure off both takes. I knew the January LSAT was the last one accepted for Canadian law schools and had plateaued in the mid-high 160s (did not need to do better than that to get into good schools here) so I signed up for November 2019 and January 2020.

November 2019 164 Experience

1) Before the November 2019 take I felt like I still could learn more. My scores were ranging from 163-168 with an average of about 166. My BR was consistently in the 170s. I had just picked up a copy of Ellen Cassidy's The Loophole and really felt like with a few more weeks I could break my plateau.
2) Invariably my scores fluctuated with how closely I stuck to my test taking strategies. I felt I needed to make those strategies an ingrained reflex and not something I had to consciously think about in order to consistently hit high 160s.
3) Nerves: I was so nervous during my first take - I couldn't help it. Even knowing I was taking another test in January did little to calm me.
4) Location: The test centre was in a hotel and we took the test in one of their large conference rooms. This venue obviously made the whole thing feel more real and not like it was just another PT.
These last 2 points you really cannot control and I think that's the benefit of doing 2 takes. I was so much more ready to let go of the things I could not control because I knew I had another shot.

164: I knew I could probably get into most schools I applied to so I was happy to have this score under my belt. Knowing I had a score that could get me in was a huge boost. However I knew I could do better and was very excited to have the opportunity.

164-169 in 6 weeks

LR Took 2 weeks after reading The Loophole and my November take to really do nothing but the exercises advocated in the book. Really went back to the basics and restructured how I thought about LR. I melded the 7sage and Loophole approach in a way that worked for me. My issue was always focus and timing so the basic translation and advanced translation drills did wonders for me. Little things like not reading the question first made me focus more intently on the argument. After doing these painstaking drills for 2 weeks straight I found myself anticipating answers and being much more efficient. I created an LR problem set that was ALL THE LR questions I had ever gotten wrong during a PT and did the advanced translation drill on that too.
LG Honestly just kept on with ol' faithful: foolproof method. I love it.
RC I did not really focus on RC that much during this time (maybe if I did I would have broke 170.. who knows!) apart from PT and BRing as usual. However I think basic translation drills helped with RC as well .. my issues with RC was getting flustered and losing focus.

After my 2 week Loophole intensive (while doing 2 games a day) I started back on my PT/BR cycle with the purpose of focusing on timing strategy and not score. This is when I hit my first 170. It was a happy day.

Then the holidays hit and I 100% took 2.5 weeks off to see friends and family. So glad I did. Did one more PT/BR - really took it easy and just like that it was Jan 2020 take time.

January 2020 169 Experience

1) Nerves: they were there but minimal - I felt ready. In my mind I had already proven myself and I just needed to go through the arbitrary task of sitting down and writing the test. I think physically going through the experience of the previous take got SO MUCH of test day anxiety out of my system.
2) Location: my second take location was muuuch smaller. It was in an office building and the rooms were tiny (7 test takers per room). I got there pretty early and was able to select the desk that was closest to the orientation that my desk is at home (where I did most of my studying). In my room were 6 other women and we spent the 45 minutes before the test taking about our experience studying for the test/applying to schools and all of our opinions on the films nominated for the Oscars. It was a really chill and calming experience. This is so not something I could have planned for but it made the experience so much better. I was in a great headspace going into the test.

169: I am so happy with my score. Do I think I could do better? Absolutely. If 7sage has taught me anything it's that there is alway room for growth. That being said I am so happy to be ending my LSAT journey here and shifting my focus to admissions.

Takeaways

1) Using The Loophole in tandem with 7sage is such an asset*
2) Focusing on test taking/timing strategies as if it were the 4th area of study for the LSAT is vital*
*I truly think doing these 2 things earlier would have helped me do better sooner
3) So much of studying for the LSAT is learning how to study for the LSAT so gotta let that previous footnote go
4) Really taking the time to understand the basics and BR is SOOO important.You cannot walk before you run etc, etc. Type out explanations of questions you got wrong. Lean into your weaknesses - be honest and do not shy away from them.

Best resources (imho): 7sage and The Loophole
Best mindset throughout the journey: know you are capable, know your score does not define your worth/potential, take breaks, have balance, do not let this test take over your life!! And try to enjoy the process.

Thanks all!!

EDIT: 2 important things I forgot
1) Feel free to ask me any questions at all - this post is obviously a (not so) small snapshot into my experience and I am happy to go more in depth into a specific area if someone thinks it might help them on their journey.
2) I cannot say enough about how vital the 7sage CC, videos, podcast, ethos, etc. was to my learning and growth. The community I found here made me feel like I was not in this alone.. because I wasn't!!

Hopeful9812

Congratulations!! Thanks so much for sharing these tips! Very helpful!

Michael.Cinco

Thank you for sharing!
I found similar experiences with Loophole and Foolproofing.

I think loophole + 7sage + lsat trainer is the holy trinity of lsat preparation.

Who knows maybe we will run into each other in the Halls of Jackman in UofT. 😁

This_is_Hard

Congratulations!

FlashLSAT

congratulations!

Logician

Congrats and thanks for sharing your experience! Good luck with apps!

lexxx745

Thanks for sharing! A lot of helpful tips here, especially the test taking strategy part.

Are you applying for the 2020-2021 cycle?

theravdiaries

Congratulations!!

Markmark

Great post. Congrats!

JPJ July2021

Huge congrats! I've been hearing so many amazing things about Loophole so I'll be sure to pick it up.

Markmark

Buying The Loophole now.

Its_MyAmbition

Congratulations 🍾🎊

TheresaAnn

This is so encouraging, thank you. I also am pretty convinced by now that I should buy the Loophole LR. My LR issues center around timing and the questions with the most difficultly (with my nemesis being Flaw-descriptive weakening). Would you say the Loophole has good strategy for these issues? Would I benefit just as much from drilling what 7sage provides? I am consistently scoring -7 on LR and hope to bring that down to -4 or -3 by the April exam. Thank you again for sharing your success, this is almost exactly the journey I hope to have. Good advice on signing up for consecutive LSATs.

Jay Tee

Thank you so much for the advice!

For the Loophole's basic translation drills, how long did they take you to do starting out? They're taking me an hour and a half to do a single section, which is super discouraging -- I feel like I'm never going to get faster.

Were you stopping to check your translation after each stimulus? That's what I've been doing since that's what the instructions for the basic drill say to do, so I know the timing is a little off due to that; but even w/ taking that into account, it feels like I'll never get it down to <35 mins. >_<

lexxx745

Ill take March and if my score isnt good will dedicate more time to the Loophole

Juliet - Student Service

Congratulations on your great score!

emmmmmmm-1

@lexxx745 said:
Thanks for sharing! A lot of helpful tips here, especially the test taking strategy part.

Are you applying for the 2020-2021 cycle?

I am applying for a Sept 2020 start - the Ontario system works a little different than the US - all schools have an application deadline of Nov 1st with a final LSAT acceptance date of Jan 2020 so I technically applied before writing the LSAT which was definitely risky

emmmmmmm-1

@TheresaAnn said:
This is so encouraging, thank you. I also am pretty convinced by now that I should buy the Loophole LR. My LR issues center around timing and the questions with the most difficultly (with my nemesis being Flaw-descriptive weakening). Would you say the Loophole has good strategy for these issues? Would I benefit just as much from drilling what 7sage provides? I am consistently scoring -7 on LR and hope to bring that down to -4 or -3 by the April exam. Thank you again for sharing your success, this is almost exactly the journey I hope to have. Good advice on signing up for consecutive LSATs.

"Would you say the Loophole has good strategy for these issues?"

The whole idea behind the Loophole is to train your brain to 1) have an intuitive understanding of the stimulus the first read through and 2) immediately pick out a necessary assumption in the argument. This is where anticipating the answer choices comes in. Many questions in LR are just a variation on understanding what necessary assumption has been made to connect the premise to the conclusion. If on your first read through you understand the stimulus and the gap (loophole/necessary assumption) that's been made it becomes a lot easier to know what you're looking for in the answers without being distracted by decoys.

For example with flaw-descriptive weakening questions if on your first read through your brain is trained that way it becomes a lot easier to zoom out from the specific NA you intuitively picked up on to describing what assumption was made more broadly. If your brain immediately upon reading the stimulus goes "what if Lisa's views do not represent the whole club's views?" then it's easy to jump to "assumes that one person represents the whole group" once you read the question stem. The answer will be some variation on that wording.

I cannot overstate how valuable it was to train my brain to immediately see NAs in an argument. So many questions are variations on this understanding. Training your brain comes from the translation drills and these are very very tedious drills.

This book is by no means a magic wand but a tool that really worked for me personally. But it took a lot of effort.

In regards to timing The Loophole allowed me to get easier-mid range questions right faster, which allowed my to spend more time on the tougher ones. You will not anticipate answer choices on everything but the ones that you do frees up time for tougher questions.

"Would I benefit just as much from drilling what 7sage provides?"

That is such a personal question that I am not sure if I can answer fairly. Personally 7sage did wonders getting me from 148 to my 164 - using the Loophole in tandem with 7sage pushed me to 169. The thorough BR advocated in 7sage was extremely valuable for me and I definitely recommend writing out your thought process for why one answer was right and why all others were wrong for questions that you are struggling with. That being said the retraining and "back to basics" approach that a deep read of The Loophole allowed me to do definitely made something click that got me that final score jump.

WOW I AM SORRY FOR THE LONG RESPONSE

Basically The Loophole is not a magic wand neither is 7sage but both (combined with many hours and grit) were the tools that worked wonders for me personally, and based on the amount of similar acclaim from others I am sure you will get something out of as well.

emmmmmmm-1

@"Jay Tee" said:
Thank you so much for the advice!

For the Loophole's basic translation drills, how long did they take you to do starting out? They're taking me an hour and a half to do a single section, which is super discouraging -- I feel like I'm never going to get faster.

Were you stopping to check your translation after each stimulus? That's what I've been doing since that's what the instructions for the basic drill say to do, so I know the timing is a little off due to that; but even w/ taking that into account, it feels like I'll never get it down to <35 mins. >_<

Honestly I never got down to 35 minutes.. I am a slow writer!! I had similar timing issues so I did the timed BTD stopped the timer and checked them after. This got me to 45-50 minutes. The self-check thing (idk what the actual name of it is) on the website I found helpful. Basically it asks you to keep track of how many times you had to go back because you forgot something, how many errors you made, etc.

Using this as an indicator for growth allowed me to focus on quality of study over beating the clock and was much more encouraging as I was seeing improvements even if my timing was not improving.

I would not be discouraged by your timing. If you are seeing improvements with retention and understanding on the first read of the stimulus THAT is what translates to a better score, not how quickly you can write or check your answers.

emmmmmmm-1

ALSO THANK YOU FOR ALL THE KIND WORDS!! I love this community so much.

Jay Tee

@"emmmmmmm-1" said:
Honestly I never got down to 35 minutes.. I am a slow writer!! I had similar timing issues so I did the timed BTD stopped the timer and checked them after. This got me to 45-50 minutes. The self-check thing (idk what the actual name of it is) on the website I found helpful. Basically it asks you to keep track of how many times you had to go back because you forgot something, how many errors you made, etc.

Using this as an indicator for growth allowed me to focus on quality of study over beating the clock and was much more encouraging as I was seeing improvements even if my timing was not improving.

I would not be discouraged by your timing. If you are seeing improvements with retention and understanding on the first read of the stimulus THAT is what translates to a better score, not how quickly you can write or check your answers.

Whew! That makes me feel so much better haha 😅 thank you!! 🙏

Those debrief questions always make me feel like trash LOL but you are def right -- I need to keep track of my progress somehow; quality > quantity!