Broke through 170!

scottshimi

After nearly 8 months of studying, I've finally made the leap into the 170s. I feel so relieved and happy that all this work is paying off.

To give a bit of background, I began studying last Fall by myself out of a workbook. I had no real idea about the "racket" that exists around studying for the LSAT, so I figured any study guide is just as good, plus I didn't want to pay a ton of money before I knew I needed to.

So I self-studied, and improved by a lot - first PT was a 155, and my Jan Flex score was a 167. Huge leap, and I felt good about it, but toward the end of that test prep I was becoming incredibly frustrated by how I was getting stuck in the upper 160s.

After only 2.5-3 months of 7Sage, I've made that leap and just had my first 171 PT (before blind review)!

I think what really did help was the timeframe. I know it sounds completely insane when JY says you should ideally spend a year studying for this test, but it did help to percolate on these concepts. I think what facilitated the leap was a really fundamental understanding of two things:
1) Argument structure. Being really quick and accurate on determining this is a premise, this is a sub-conclusion, this is the main conclusion...especially for the harder, wordier questions, this foundational knowledge is what kept me from panicking toward the back half of the LR section. Accuracy is key here, which I honed in all these f-ing Problem Sets! Do the Problem Sets! Consider it like homework in high school - it's a time suck, but it's training your brain like lifting weights.

2) Complete understanding of Sufficient vs. Necessary, and how to translate to and from Lawgic quickly and accurately. At this point, the questions I'm missing are mostly ones where I either screw up the Lawgic translation, or I don't "have enough time" so I try to speed through thinking that my brain is a little bit better than it is at holding these concepts without jumbling them. I have a study sheet that I keep next to me while I work that breaks down the 4 categories of Lawgic indicators, and I will constantly glance at it as I go through the lessons and Problem Sets. I take it away during the PTs, but I allow myself this security blanket during the Problem Sets because again, it helps me not panic and it's kinda like training wheels...the PTs are the time to take off the training wheels and see how you hold up on your own. If you feel like you're getting totally bogged down in remembering the Lawgic indicators, try to find ways to give yourself these training wheels and slowly take them away. Like the lifting weights analogy, you've gotta build up to the heaviest lifting.

So while I came to 7Sage hoping to get some great insider tips or that intangible, key thing I was missing, and discovered that I really, really just needed a stronger foundation. For those worried about the breadth of material you may still have to study, I hope I can encourage you all to not skimp on the basics, even if they feel redundant. I cannot tell you how many "hard" questions I was able to blow through because I could identify the structure and specifically how the premise relates to the conclusion, and therefore realize that all the wrong answers were way off because they didn't relate to the premise and conclusion. The test began to open up for me once you solidified a fundamental understanding of grammatical structure (and took my ego out of the picture).

Best of luck to all of you, and hope you all find the same satisfaction as I did today!

MistaTee001

Congratulations on your success scottshimi!

Granger Danger

Congratulations!