Mind Map & My prep update

andyabuitron

On some of the videos you use the mind map note strategy, I was wondering if you have that available for purchase?

I took the Kaplan program in July and after 3 weeks I was completely lost and virtually clueless as to how LGs were being done and LR was not any easier. After looking online for other resources I found 7sage and it was a huge help especially in LG. It seemed like no matter what I did though I could not seem to determine the game type immediately and timing was/is killing. For RC and LR the biggest flaw I found about myself is the inability to read strategically, I keeping finding myself having to re-read over and over resulting in wasted time and repeating the same mistakes.

This has to be the most stressful exam I have ever taken in my life. When I would see some of the anticipated answers that people would come up with it was a WTF moment for sure. Overall I must say that I enjoyed the challenge and whatever my score is I am ok with. The score is certainly not a result of lack of effort that's for sure.

My lowest prep test score was 136 and highest was 140, I know that Saturday's test was no better. Time to prepare for the December test though.

Any advice, comments or criticism??

tanes256

@andyabuitron why did you take the test Saturday, if you don't mind me asking? It sounds like you know you weren't prepared. Was this your first take? I definitely wouldn't take again until you have the fundamentals down. What's your BR score? There's always run for improvement, but if it's not in the high 160s, really 170s you should go back to the drawing board and get those fundamentals down solidly. If you continue to take PT you're reinforcing habits/thoughts/techniques that have proven to not be beneficial not to mention burning PT that need to be used after you've grasped the fundamentals. Also, if you haven't already, grab a copy of The LSAT Trainer. After using both, I think either is sufficient, you don't necessarily need both. I use one or the other to reinforce something I didn't completely grasp from the other. They work really well together? The Trainer definitely helped me with LR and RC. I tell everyone that I would've just bought the book for the LR section. It really breaks down flaws. If you're having an issue with how you should be strategically tackling these questions, I highly recommend you grab a copy. Go to your local bookstore and see if they have a copy you can browse through before purchasing if you're hesitant. I also make great improvement in RC. To be fair, I never really gave 7Sage's memory method, so I was totally clueless. The Trainer teaches you to read for structure. I went from some horrible score of like -12 per section to -4. I've been stuck on -4 for over a month now! So frustrating! I think if I hit -2 I'll be ok. Sorry, I couldn't provide any info re the mind map note strategy. Hopefully someone will chime in and help you out with that.

Alex Short

If you want my advice, you ought to consider what school or schools you want to attend. No offense, but 136-140 is in the lowest range for any school worth the price of admission.

Anyone, yourself included, can score over 150 and probably 160 with lots of effort.

Ask yourself, have I taken every single prep test? (There are 75 + a few more officially released). If so, have you gone over any question you missed or were unsure of until you understood why it was wrong?

Taking in October seems to be a mistake, if you'd like my frank opinion. I'd cancel if I were you because a score in that range can only hurt you.

Also, don't settle for whatever score you get you'll be happy with. Why not aim for a 165? You can do it - the test will test your character, endurance, and discipline.

Specifically for LG, sequencing games (put into order) and grouping games (distribute elements among groups) shouldn't be a primary focus. Understanding rules, how to diagram, conditionality, and how to make inferences is more important for where you're at.

Good luck to you and contact me or anyone else here with any questions you've got!

andyabuitron

I purchased the LSAT Trainer and should be receiving it on Friday October 9th. As for my BR score believe it or not was 158 at its highest and 154 at the lowest. The most frustrating part was the amount that I actually spent studying for the Oct 3rd exam, however, I was just "reinforcing habits/thoughts/techniques that have proven to not be beneficial " as tanes256 pointed out.

Honestly the reason I am so eager to get this down and get into law school is that I'm about to be 36 years old in January, I have a wife who supports us our household and we have 2 kids (4yr old and 7month old) and I feel like my clock is running faster than I can keep up. In addition it was my first time taking it and I wanted to get a complete understanding of what I was up against in a real "game" situation.

I certainly hate settling and my competitive side is getting the best of me, my goal has always been 163, but as I got closer to test date and saw that number further and further away I began to settle for 146, which was the median for the school of my choice.

harrismegan

@andyabuitron said:
Honestly the reason I am so eager to get this down and get into law school is that I'm about to be 36 years old in January, I have a wife who supports us our household and we have 2 kids (4yr old and 7month old) and I feel like my clock is running faster than I can keep up. In addition it was my first time taking it and I wanted to get a complete understanding of what I was up against in a real "game" situation.

Feeling like the clock is running is a terrible feeling for sure. But, I have confidence in you that you can do this and you should have confidence too. Sign up for 7Sage if you haven't already, dig into the course and get those fundamentals down, PT, PT, PT!

nicole.hopkins

@"Alex Short" said:
I'd cancel if I were you because a score in that range can only hurt you.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Literally nothing to gain by keeping that score.

nicole.hopkins

@andyabuitron said:
The most frustrating part was the amount that I actually spent studying for the Oct 3rd exam

I and others spent about 15 months preparing for the same exam. So, this is a long process for most of us.

DumbHollywoodActor

@andyabuitron said:
Honestly the reason I am so eager to get this down and get into law school is that I'm about to be 36 years old in January, I have a wife who supports us our household and we have 2 kids

I’m 39 with a wife (we both work, she days and me nights) and 2 4-year olds. I feel you. I thought this process would only take 4 months. But after a month of studying (I’ve been prepping since January), I realized that I am not taking the test until June 2016 (average 20 hours studying/week). This test is no joke. It’s do-able, but it takes time. You literally have to alter the way you think. But you have to get your fundamentals down, then you have to do it over and over again, so that those fundamentals become intuitive.

Just know you’re not alone. There are a lot of us nontraditional students out there. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Allow the process to take as long as it needs to take, so that you can get you into the school you want to get into, not a school whose JD isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

nicole.hopkins

@andyabuitron said:
I was wondering if you have that available for purchase?

Oh—and, no.

andyabuitron

I thank each and everyone for your honesty and constructive criticism

So much to think about it such little time. I am contemplating canceling my score, but the what ifs eat at me. The school that I would love to get into told me that they would choose the highest score and not the average. I literally have less than 24 hrs to decide whether to cancel or not.

The advantage I have is that time to study is on my side. I am not working, so I truly have all day to devote to studying.

As for a new study approach, would you all recommend starting from page 1 of the LSAT trainer and reading word for word? How should I incorporate 7sage? Obviously I can take a play out of each and everyone of your play books, you all are scoring high for a reason. What study method do you all follow (if I may ask)?

tanes256

@andyabuitron I would probably do a thorough read of The Trainer because you need to see what you're now as opposed to what you should be doing. It's kinda hard to tell you how to incorporate the two. I had already been through the course before purchasing the book but my next go around I read through The Trainer and then back to the course for PT and just to solidify anything I was shaking on. You'll definitely want to read the flaws section at the same time you're working on the cooresponding question type in the course. If you're solid with LG you can tackle a couple of those randomly throughout the day just to stay refreshed. I wanted a start fresh so I just sat down with the Trainer and went to it. Word for word. Use the schedules on the website to tell you what PT you should be taking. I didn't want to start doing any PT until I had finished the book but since you've already been through the 7Sage course that's entirely up to you. I wouldn't do a lot of skipping around or telling yourself, "yeah, I know that," type stuff because it seems like there are lots of bad habits and incorporate strategies that need to be unraveled here. You're going to have to read the book more than once. Maybe not cover to cover, but you probably won't retain everything the first go through. I read the entire RC section 3x before I was able to bring my score down to -4 from a previous -12, -9, some ridiculous number along those lines. For the LR section there were lots of times I had "open book" drilling. I had the book there beside me just to make sure that I was incorporating the correct strategy, such as strengthen and weaken questions. The causation and correlation type questions were throwing me off, so I used the book to guide me through the questions initially. I also noticed that I wasn't answering questions in the RC section according to the stimulus, such as selecting an answer that would be correct for "the main point" of the passage but not necessarily "the author's main point." It also helped with POE on LR and RC sections. I wasn't necessarily drilling in the traditional way, finish X amount of questions in X amount of time. I did open book when I finished the book and was just starting to give it a go. I still ran the timer though just to see how long it had taken me to complete the selected amount of questions. As you said, you'll take bits and pieces of what every one says and you'll eventually tweak all of that so that it's "right" for you.

Pacifico

This might get a little brutal, but you need it.

You have remarkably consistent scores, so you're likely not even clearing 145 on your absolute luckiest day, and there is no point in keeping a 145 no matter what your goals are. Schools that admit non-URMs with 145s and anything less than a top GPA are almost never worth attending unless you have very specific extenuating circumstances (family is certainly one of those, but you'll be jobless for 3 years so you need to be able to handle the financial burden, but more on this later). Cancel the score. Just do it.

The bottom line is that you had no business even taking PTs let alone an official administration if you struggle just to identify what kind of game you're looking at. While you say there was no lack of effort on your part, there actually was: the effort to find an approach that actually had positive benefit to you. You could read a book a day because you heard there is an RC section on the LSAT, but it doesn't mean that that is the best use of your time. So just understand that everything you did previously with Kaplan and whatever else that didn't help your understanding was a waste of time and money, and then get over that and move on because now you've got real work to do.

As the only other mentor with multiple children besides @dumbhollywoodactor (somebody correct me if that's factually inaccurate), you really need to think about the quality of life you want during and after law school. Do you have to stay local? Do you want/need to keep the family together? Can your spouse support all of you while you are in law school? What employment outcomes are you working towards? These are the questions that matter, so stop worrying about something as silly as how old you are. I have mentored/tutored people on here from ages 22-65, and so there is no time limit on this. Law school will always be there because there will always be a need for more good lawyers (bad lawyers we can do without but since it's all relative there will always be bad lawyers no matter how desaturated the profession becomes). I've advised kids who have never had a job, middle aged paralegals, and even older doctors and surgeons, so there are more types of people with more goals than you can imagine that are pursuing this same dream. 40 is the new 30, so get out of your head and understand that your goal should be to provide the best quality of life to your family both during and after school without sacrificing too much of one for the other.

That means not going to an unranked school at sticker, hell don't go anywhere at sticker. Put in the time to get a 160+ and you can get a full ride to lower tier law schools and there's likely one near you I'd imagine just given the sheer number of law schools in the country. If you keep your likely 138 from this past test and apply with that you are going to get a mediocre or worse law degree from a shitty school and pay 100-200k for it. You'll then likely enter a legal market you're underprepared for and may struggle to find work.

At this point I feel like it should be pretty obvious but I'll drill my point home. Nothing is more important than your family, so investing the time to set all of you up in the best possible position is not something you can half ass. I will tell you right now you will not be ready for December... That's less than 8 weeks away and a 20+ point jump is just not happening in that time frame given your situation. Even February is likely too early. You need to take the rest of this year to get intimately acquainted with all that 7Sage and the Trainer have to offer and then shoot for June 2016 and use next fall as a backup test since the cancellation from Saturday will count against you. Then apply for the fall of 2017 and you'll be a lawyer by the time you're 40. No big deal. If a surgeon can transition to law at 60, you can do it at 40.

Best of luck to you and feel free to hit me up if you have any questions or need more help. But before you do, CANCEL YOUR SCORE.

Pacifico

P.S.- Either do 7Sage or the Trainer all the way through on their own and then do the other. They are structured so differently that you will just confuse yourself more by going back and forth. I went 7Sage to Trainer and many have gone the other way. Whichever medium is more comfortable for you, I say start with that one. Put the other one down and don't look at it at all until you finish the first one so you build up a solid foundation.

nicole.hopkins

@Pacifico said:
Cancel the score. Just do it.

The man has spoken true.

nicole.hopkins

Man. @Pacifico 's and others' advice here is the kind of thing folks pay hundreds of dollars to get in therapy/life coaching. And here it is, ripe for the picking. OP, you're a lucky fellow and I heartily hope you heed this advice.