Advice for my 7Sage journey

The Real Harvey Specter

Hi everyone! I hope all is well. Today I'm writing this thread looking for insights on how to approach my LSAT study. First, I think it's essential that you know I'm an incoming sophomore undergraduate student, so I still have plenty of time before I graduate college; however, I do want to spend my time wisely and begin prep already. Right now, I'm working my way up the core curriculum (at the moment still strengthening questions of logical reasoning). So my question is: should I do the whole curriculum before tackling practice tests (I only did one experimental prep test, and my score was 135)? I'm also unsure if I should do all the problem sets, considering they are real LSAT questions, and I don't know how I feel about wasting them. Does anybody have any tips for beginners in LSAT prep? Any tutor recommendations? How early should I get a tutor? As I work my way up the core curriculum or once I'm done with it?

Note: I'm shooting for a 175+

Any insights would be highly appreciated.

Thanks, 7Sage community.

Matt Sorr

I recommend doing the entire curriculum before taking tests, just because I wanted to at least be exposed to all of the test's concepts before being tested on them. Many people recommend taking a practice test once very two weeks to a month while doing the curriculum, however. I think it's generally just to get you used to the format and timing of the test. It's really personal preference. I don't think taking you'll really be at a disadvantage if you don't take tests while going through the curriculum, but it just depends on how you feel.

I'd recommend against doing all of the practice sets during your first pass through the curriculum. It's inevitable that you'll forget some stuff from the curriculum by the time you start consistently taking practice tests, so it helps to have fresh practice sets to review with when you go back to the curriculum occasionally. Additionally, once you start testing more frequently, you'll identify your weak areas and it's nice to have practice sets to drill with. When going through the curriculum, I generally did every other practice set, so I did roughly half of the sets.

I don't have any tutor recommendations because I've never had one, but my recommendation for studying is to start early, make a schedule, and stay consistent. It seems you're starting early, so that's great! I believe that making a schedule and sticking with it is vital as well. At the beginning of your weeks, try to map out when to study and how much time you'll do each day. If something comes up, then it's okay to revise the schedule. The key is to study when you have the chance, though, and just take it slow and steady. It helps to prevent burnout and to keep yourself accountable. With you still being in undergrad, however, definitely focus on your GPA. It's much more difficult to change if you mess it up. If there are some weeks where you're bogged down with work, you shouldn't feel bad if you don't study for the LSAT at all, or if you only get an hour in. One of the many perks of starting your studies early is the ability to miss weeks and skip days without being hindered. I hope this helps!

The Real Harvey Specter

@"Matt Sorr" this is extremely insightful. Thank you for your comment!

Chris Nguyen

Hi there!

I wrote a blog post about how to utilize the core curriculum for beginner students that I think you'll find helpful. You can view it here: https://7sage.substack.com/p/lsat-tips-utilizing-7sages-core-curriculum

Additionally, 7Sage has it's own in house tutoring program! We employ expert tutors to coach you in maximizing your score. You can view more about our services here: https://7sage.com/pricing-tutoring/

If you'd like to learn more or discuss other learning strategies, we'd be happy to discuss with you! You can schedule a free consultation with us using this link here: https://calendly.com/7sage-consult/7sage-tutoring-free-consult?utm_source=DF_C

The Real Harvey Specter

@"Chris Nguyen" Thanks for the resources. Really helpful!