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My 21+ Increase Story: Tips + Gratitude
The LSAT was the last hurdle for me in order to get into law school, and because of that, it was the exam I dreaded. I was petrified of getting a bad score and having all of my hard work go down the drain after working hard after four years at university. Because I amped up the LSAT so much, I had extreme anxiety over it, and made it seem like the most important thing in my life.
So after graduating and receiving a Fulbright, I started studying around May of 2018 towards the end of my Fulbright. I came home in June and was rushing and thought it would be a good idea to take the sept 2018 LSAT. Despite having a concussion and having personal things happening in my life that were impacting my mental and physical health, I took it, thought it did okay, and kept the score. Then, my worst nightmare had come true- I had done extremely poorly on the exam, at least 10 points below what I was PTing. After that, I entered a deep depression and even questioned going to law school. Then I began to talk to people on 7sage, who encouraged me to keep going. I knew that first score didn't define my abilities, and that I could do better if I studied the right way. About a year later, I took the September 2019 exam and received a 169 - 21 points up from my diagnostic which was a 148. I went through so many tutors and so many resources that I feel my experience would be helpful with someone who is still in the process of studying, so I want to share some things I learned here:
1- Dont EVER listen to people who doubt you. I drove my family crazy being so obsessed over this exam, and if it was up to my family they would have let me settle for a mediocre score. I also broke up with my significant other because he thought I 'studied too much' and I am not sorry about it. You need people who believe in you.
2- This one is especially for girls. I have always performed really well academically but with the test I was a literal mess; i lost sleep, lost like 12 pounds and was not okay most of the time while studying until a couple months ago. (side note- taking care of your mental health is very important) Even when I had studied hard and knew I put in the work, I always thought I did bad. You need to have confidence in yourself. By and large women are vastly under-confident as compared to men, and obviously this has to do with societal factors and gender roles but practice confidence. A book that helped me do this was called the confidence code. read it. The moment I started to believe in myself is when I stopped having so much anxiety.
3- Try your best not to depend on other's explanations. I started improving when I stopped depending on explanations so much and really trying to ask myself why is this answer right? In the beginning JY's videos helped me alot cause you're so unfamiliar with the exam and its helpful to see the structure of the questions, especially for LR. Also do not use anything else for LG and conditional reasoning except 7sage. It is by far superior than any other resource I have used so thank you 7sage and @J.Y. Ping love u ;*
4- LEARN ARGUMENTATION AND CONDITIONAL REASONING. I cannot stress this enough. Every LSAT stimulus has some logical structure underneath all those words. For example, If I say P then C, you need to know what I am assuming is P ---> C, and then questions will have you weaken, strengthen, or call out that assumption (known as flaw questions).
5- UNDERSTANDING IS KEY. A huge game-changer in my score was the Loophole, by Ellen Cassidy. Ellen is literally amazing, and she taught me that the most important work you will do hinges on actually understanding what the argument is doing/saying. What helped me was reading her book, and then doing an exercise where I would only look at the LSAT stimulus, translate it into my own words, and ask myself: what is wrong with this argument (also known as a loophole). You have to have to be engaged in the stimulus and the loophole is how you do it (if you want more info read her book it is honestly worth every penny). You need to understand that most of the arguments on LR are flawed, and those loopholes are really assumptions that the questions will have you attack in different ways depending on the question type. Dont rush straight to the answer choices before you understand what is going on in the stimulus. Once you understand the assumptions being made in the stimulus and just what is really going on, it becomes must easier to delineate the wrong answers from the right ones.
6- Take this exam seriously. My Fulbright and my work in the US focuses on working with refugees. Alot of the refugees I worked with abroad have literally no rights and do not have access to education. I'm going to law school to change that but you and I have a huge privilege of even getting the opportunity to attend any college at all- something that the refugee women I worked for didn't have the opportunity to do. So if all else fails, have a light at the end of the tunnel. Keep the end goal in mind. Whenever I doubted myself, I remembered the individuals who this law degree was going to be for and that kept me going. I remembered what a privilege it was to even have an education in the first place, and felt grateful. Practice gratitude, and make this journey about something greater than yourself.
7- Dont listen to anyone who says you can only improve by a couple of points because that is a complete lie lol
8- Lastly, I just took the October exam because I am hoping for a little of a higher score. I love the LSAT so much and really want to help people who feel hopeless about this exam because honestly you CAN do it!!! I promise. So I will be offering tutoring for people- if you are interested you can DM me 
- Also actually join BR groups or tutor people. It pushes you to a greater level of understanding and forces you not to be lazy!! Do it!
The LSAT changed me: it made me more patient, a more careful reader, a more critical thinker, and a bigger believer that hard work pays off if you are really dedicated. So thank you 7sage for being on this journey with me and helping me along the way; My journey is officially over!!!
Comments
Congrats! Always inspiring to read posts like these. I'm also interested in working with refugees/immigrants/victims of human trafficking, so these survivors have been my inspiration to crush the LSAT and go to law school. Kudos to you!
Congratulations! Thanks so much for sharing these tips and your journey thus far!! I totally needed to hear this so thank you! Wishing you all the best in your law career!
Congrats! This community is special because of people like you who carry on and advance the mission of giving back to the students still on their LSAT journey. Best of luck with admissions!
Inspirational.
I love this! So happy for you. Congrats-- you deserve all the good things that are coming your way!
Thank you!! Good luck to you as well- thought i saw you say you were applying this cycle?
@Hopeful9812 you can do it! Dont doubt yourself
maybe we'll see eachother in the courtroom one day!!
Way to go Nicole. I'm really proud of you!
For anyone going through the lsat struggles theres a bunch of us (Nicole included) who are part of whatsapp groupchat dedicated to lsat prep.
Join us on the link below!
https://chat.whatsapp.com/HEr9S37YrIFBZNN6w4pFpZ
@Nicolekh This is really inspiring, thank you so much.
Yes, having a great cycle so far! Excited for things to really get under way once admissions officers are done traveling so much. Your work sounds really interesting and it’s awesome that you are so focused in your legal career goals. I’m sure that will stand out to admissions committees and you are going to have some amazing opportunities.
2nd everything you said here! Congrats to you!!
CONGRATS on 174!!!! That is amazing.
Congrats Nicolekh!! I've been studying off and on for about a year and have been losing so much confidence in myself. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, I have 3 crazy animals and a stressful job. After work, I normally just want to relax, until I have to do it all over again the next day. I haven't been particularly active on this board but have decided to reach out more when I'm struggling b/c I really want to get into school. Your post is so inspiring.
That is awesome @Nicolekh , I am happy for you. I really like what you said about how much of a privilege it is to be in this position. I have been working in law enforcement full-time, and then I go to the library to study for 4 hours M-Fri after work. I get home and only get to see my wife and child for like an hour before they go to bed. There was about a week where I was starting to feel bad for myself. Luckily, one night when I was driving home from the library, I became aware of how fortunate I am to even be interested in pursuing higher education. So many people that I come into contact with each day didn't have the opportunities that I have had or didn't have the requisite interest. To be in a position where we get to even think about going to law school puts us in a very rarefied, privileged space. Even when studying for the LSAT gets rough, I find it useful to zoom-out and recognize how fortunate I am to even care about it in the first place.
I hope your October score, like your September one, continues to reflect all your hard work, dedication, and mental fortitude. Good luck on your application cycle!
Congratulations! Very happy for you.
Hello,
Congratulations! this is very inspiring. I was wondering if you know recommend any tutoring services?
@slyndsey112 remember the light at the end of the tunnel
@stephanieflores8094 7sage has tutors and I also tutor! You can dm me for more info
@BranTwice yes that has always helped me. I would literally keep a sticky note on my laptop reminding me of the reasons why I wanted to go to law school. Thank you so much
Best of luck to you, I know you can do it!!