159 to 170 - Do I need an addendum for this?

jerry.nguyen496jerry.nguyen496 Alum Member
in Law School Admissions 28 karma

Hi everyone! 7Sage Alum here. After a year or so of grueling practice, I finally got a score I wanted to shoot my shot for a T-14 this past August - a 170! I'm a bit nervous applying because I took the LSAT three times, with 2 previous attempts with logic game and the August one without (does that also matter? will the 170 be discounted in anyway because it was in the new format?) I wondering if I need to write an addendum to explain what happened and if so, what to write in it.

For more details, here is my LSAT history: November 23: 159, January 24: 163, August 24: 170

Comments

  • NayNayNuggetNayNayNugget Live Member
    61 karma

    Honestly, I am not an expert, but it looks like a gradual score increase, I don't think this looks suspicious, it looks like you poured in the work!

    I am interested on how you accomplished this, I need a 9-point score increase but I really only have 2 months if I really want it done for this cycle. Any Tips?

  • jerry.nguyen496jerry.nguyen496 Alum Member
    edited September 3 28 karma

    Thank you so much for your response. It honestly still feels unreal that I actually pulled it off. Yeah! I'm happy to share some tips:

    1. I started with Mike Kim's The LSAT Trainer and then subscribe to 7Sage Core. I loved everything that these two sources offer. Everything on 7Sage is honestly so good. IEven though all the lessons are on the website, I kept a separate notebooks and take detailed notes there like I'm going to a college lecture. That helps with information retention a lot. Whenever possible, I attended free live webinars offered through 7Sage for some additional help. I highly recommend a wrong answer journal and a blind review journal if you don't already have those and actually doing them/ reviewing them before your next PT. The analytics and drill tools were great to determine weak points and what to practice in between PTs.

    2. Reading was super hard for me until I followed this reading format on what to read for: Main Point (low-res summary), Concepts, Characters, and Organization. Something clicked when I did this and RC became a lot more manageable. I practiced doing RC with unlimited time until I got great accuracy rates and then moved on the doing timed session.

    3. Train like an athlete - another golden 7Sage advice here. Routine was super important for me. For the first two tests, I was just too nervous to do well and I tried to follow a set routine for the third test. For one month leading up to the test, I wake up at the same hour, ate similar high-protein breakfast, worked out, and did the same pre-test routine before doing a PT at the exact time that I scheduled the test for. It took me a minute to figure out what to eat and what form of caffein to consume to stay full and alert during the test without having to go to the bathroom! I stay sober for the entire time I was studying too!

    4. Anxiety management - I struggled a lot with testing anxiety. I always scored 170+ during PTs and so it was a shock to get a 159 during my first attempt. I'm a big volleyball fan so I watched a lot of Olympic volleyball this summer and decided to adopt a mentality like them: you can't think about the point behind you or the point in front of you, just the point in front of you. If you lose a set, you can't delve on it, have to move on to another set. I literally wore a shirt from Haikyuu to the test and then when I didn't do that well during the first section, I wanted to CRY!! I took that one minute between sections to do some breathing then literally said to myself "You lost that set. Time to move on to another set!" and then I did much better during the last three sections.

    5. A little luck - Logic games were the bane of my existence. I nailed them outside of real tests but always cracked under the pressure to solve these on time during game time. Honestly so glad it is no longer on the test! Also I'm pretty sure the first section that I "bombed" was experimental. Woohoo!

    Hope that helps and good luck!!!

  • Tisha0909Tisha0909 Live Member
    56 karma

    I have not yet taken any LSAT, but your history looks amazing to me. Any recommendations for someone struggling to understand the logic set? and not being able to finish the Core Curriculum from last 2 months.

  • jerry.nguyen496jerry.nguyen496 Alum Member
    28 karma

    @Tisha0909 what in particular about the logic set that you are struggling with? Same for not finishing the curriculum: is it a time issue? Motivation? Format?

  • Tisha0909Tisha0909 Live Member
    56 karma

    @"jerry.nguyen496" I am having hard time wrapping my head around the conditional logic for the MBT and MSS question types. For the core curriculum, I haven't done timing drills yet, so timing is not the issue for now as I am taking it slow at first to understand the pattern. Motivation is there but I am weakened by the thought of not having done any PTs yet. The lessons are formatted well to be understood easily but time is constraining.

    I started to study in June, but Law hub did not help so switched to 7sage and have been doing the core curriculum since July and its September now. I am hoping to finish the LR section of CC and move on to taking the PTs. I believe I am unable to find enough time to study even if I am giving 1-2 hours a day while I work on the side. I plan to take the January LSAT but always feeling low on confidence if I will be ready by then. I hope I made sense lol
    Thank you for catching up!!

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