How I didn't waste time and got a 165. Thanks, 7sage!

C_S_D 01

I graduated college over 20 years ago and never considered law school as a serious option until this past January, and when I researched the nature of the LSAT, well...I almost gave up right then.
But a friend had turned me onto 7sage and after poking around only a tiny bit on Youtube and other sites, I very quickly determined that no one else was offering anything close to what 7sage was. So I never even tried another course because, why bother? J.Y.'s teaching manner and curriculum is inspired--and also encouraging and entertaining along the way, and it made the process of getting back into study habits actually bearable.

At the start, I was pretty sure that a diagnostic score would do more harm than good so I skipped it. My fragile ego didn't need to see such a low number, I knew, but besides that I didn't have the stamina for an hours-long, intense test. Even for studying, I had to start slow, working my way into studying for lengths longer than 30 minutes a day. Like I said, my college days are in a distant prehistoric past.
When I finally took my first PT I got a 157 and I hovered around that score over the few PTs, running out of time to do more than about 4 before the June test.
I went into the June test hoping that I wouldn't bomb it, panic and have a mental shutdown of some kind, or experience proctor interruptions (as others have complained about). Although I have 5 kids, I have been successful at shutting out interruptions my at-home practice drills and tests, and I did NOT want to deal with that during my first attempt at a real test.
I came out feeling pretty good but I was still surprised to see that 165 and I am still on a high about it.

My takeaways: I am not sure that I have very solid tips to pass along. A lot of what helped me came from situational or life experience. It was pretty easy for me to focus during my limited study times, and I studied HARD. Sometimes waking up very early (like before 5am), and putting in long hours during my husband's days off while he had time to attend to the kids. I didn't waste that time since it was limited, and hard-earned for us both.
I would say that in some ways, my years of not-studying were actually a perk. There was the novelty of being a student again, I had a goal to aim for that was tangible and measurable, and with the help of this online community I found here it was attainable. I appreciated what the community had to offer, and then I also didn't let myself get distracted by too much poking around on threads (here or elsewhere).
So that's the main thing: I didn't waste time. I didn't shop around, the 7sage CC is focused so I didn't get lost in the weeds, it was easy to speed through and then go back and re-visit areas of weakness, and the way the site is structured I could build drills that helped me hone in on what still seemed fuzzy to me. I took advantage of a couple of webinars and that was super useful, too. No regrets for any of it!

7sage really worked for me and I am certain I would not have gotten to the end of my LSAT journey so efficiently or so fast without it. Thanks to J.Y. and the whole team!
-CD

shaheersinn

Thats awesome. Congratulations. Do you mind sharing your routine/study schedule?

Cherry - Student Service

@"C_S_D 01" congratulations on your score! We are happy that we are a part of your LSAT journey!

Juan23vr

How can you build drills?

rwolf_wolf9

That's great, congratulations!! Thanks for sharing. I think my situation is similar, and this was encouraging to read going into my test next week!

C_S_D 01

Good luck to you, rwolf_wolf9!!!

C_S_D 01

Juan23vr: Instead of going through Practice Tests, I selected from the test questions according to category and difficulty. For example: LG games of a certain variety (CondSeq, or whatever) and star rating.
I would make a drill set of no more than four at a time so i could do a thorough review and try to figure out where I tripped up. Same for LR.
For RC, I mainly drilled Science passages since I found myself freezing up with fear on those.

Glutton for the LSAT

Congrats, that's a phenomenal score. How did you decide to go to law school as a non-traditional applicant?

C_S_D 01

Shaheersinn: For my study routine, I am not sure if you mean daily or the long-term vision schedule. I will try to answer both.
What I did at the start was aim for 10 weeks of study and mapped out a plan for 20 to 25 hrs/week. (My max ended up being 25 and on those weeks I felt like that was a real stretch in my schedule.)
I started off with only Curriculum lessons and tried to speed through the 200hrs. At about the 80% completion point I did a P/t and then from there honed in on drills and reviewed portions of the Curriculum I didn't "get"the first time around.
I also realized it would take longer than 10 weeks and ended up studying for 3+months.

As for daily schedule: it depended on the day. Sometimes 1 or 1.5 hours before the rest of the family woke up. Coffee, a little stretch and allowing myself to wake up for 15 min but no more.
I havepreschoolers in half day school so the most i could get was 3 or 4 hrs during that time. Maybe an hour or two during naps if i was lucky.
On my husband's days off I could stretch it into the evening to dinnertime sometimes. Those would be my longest days. Otherwise some days I got 1 to 3 hours of studying in a day.
For exercise and to take a good study break, I would go on a walk early afternoon. I stuck to this and felt it really helped. I also built in a couple of days for outings or something completely different so that my mind could do something else for longer than 24 hrs. I believe that really helped me to stay balanced and also to avoid burnout.

Because of unavoidable interruptions by the kids, I tried to log a little of what I had done and jot down some notes on where I needed to pick up, and also where I saw I needed to go next, so that I wouldn't get too frazzled by the interruptions. It helped me manage that feeling of frustration that can come with having to drop something midway through, knowing I might not get back to it until the next day or even after the weekend. It kept me on track for my next session and also with the feeling that I was actually moving forward and making progress. (This last part will probably make most sense to other parents, maybe)

C_S_D 01

Glutton: I guess it's silly of me to say I didn't waste time when it took me 20 years to get here. 🙃
I worked as a paralegal after college but instead of law I opted for grad school and was pursuing a PhD though I ended up dropping it (family reasons, mostly).
Now I am back to thinking about law and hoping it will be a shorter degree to earn (10 years or more for that PhD) and more immediately useful than a career in academics.
Sick and tired of watching friends and strangers in my community get swindled by lazy and/or corrupt notaries and lawyers when all they need is a little help navigating the system.

sharalyn.vester-1

Congrats! Your story gives me hope and helps me realize I’m crazy for a career change 20 years after “being done” with school myself. Do you remember how many months you studying the 20-25 hours per week? I am doing my best to follow the course schedule and I’m struggling to get in a solid 5-10 hours per week. Thank you for encouragement.

SLODHILL-1-1-1-1-1-1

Congrats!!! definitely gave me some hope as I am in a similar situation!!! Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on your score!

C_S_D 01

sharalyn and SLODHILL: I am so glad this is giving you a little boost. It's no joke to decide to tackle something new. Little by little and you'll get there!

sharalyn: I did 15 to 20 hours per week for almost 3 months. A few times I hit over 20 hours. Maybe three times total, ish? It took ALL my spare time and then some. I just put a bunch of other life stuff on hold and had piles of work to catch up on over the summer. I'm STILL not caught up, ha. Worth it!!
But: I'd say that if you've been staying sharp with other pursuits, you probably don't ever need to reach the 15 or 20hr mark. I needed this, but I can definitely imagine that for some others, less overall hours could work just as well. Good luck to you!!

18hadp-1-1

Amazing story, a very big inspiration! It's very uncommon for people to score better on the actual test than their PTs, did you get anywhere in the 160s before?

Lovevayner-1

Thank you so much for all the information and sharing your story. It feels really good to know that we are not alone out here swimming in a pool of fresh college graduates. I too am 15 years out of college and grad school, 3 kids, looking for a career shift. You are a true inspiration! Good Luck to you with all your endeavors!

C_S_D 01

Lovevayner: Woohoo, way to be super gutsy. Best of luck to you!!!

C_S_D 01

@"18hadp-1-1" said:
Amazing story, a very big inspiration! It's very uncommon for people to score better on the actual test than their PTs, did you get anywhere in the 160s before?

Right!? I once scored a 161 on a practice, but that's it.

As I have tried to pinpoint what "went right" on Test Day, I have a theory. The content and positioning of the experimental section in my test was so sneaky and so difficult that the test writers compensated with an easier LG section. I base this on what I gather about what others experienced in LG---sounds much harder than my test version.
And since LG mastery (speed, esp) was my only missing piece, this worked out for me very well.
That's my guess, anyway.