Newcomer looking for advice. I want to reach a score of 175-180.

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• 3 Likes

  taschasp Alum Member Sage ⭐

  April 2020 796 karma

  Hey @PatrickM7, have you taken a diagnostic? If not, you can take on on Khan Academy for free: https://www.khanacademy.org/prep/lsat/intro

  That's a good first way to gauge how much work it's going to be to get to a 175-180. The best way to study depends a lot on both your diagnostic and your learning style. Are you more comfortable with self studying, or do you feel like you need something more hands-on (like a tutor or course)?

  Either way, you'll want some way to cover the fundamentals (e.g. going through the CC on 7sage, using prep books, etc.), and then do lots of practice tests with solid review. In my own journey to score a 179, I found that the reviewing part was the most important. You can do loads of practice and it means very little if you don't challenge yourself to work through harder problems on your own and try your best to figure them out, and internalize lessons for future questions.

  But, that's all a ways ahead. You should start with taking a diagnostic and figuring out what would be best for you to get through the fundamentals. I'm sure everyone on here will tell you that 7sage is a fantastic resource for that (it was for me when I was studying!), if you're willing to sign up for a subscription.
• 1 Like

  taschasp Alum Member Sage ⭐

  April 2020 796 karma

  Also, I err on the side of excessive optimism, and I'd be a hypocrite to dissuade anyone from aiming for 175+, so I won't do that--and I'm sure you've done your research into the odds of scoring that high--but just know, it's no easy feat.

  Feel free to DM me if you have more specific questions for recommendations and guidance!
• 2 Likes

  jmarmaduke96 Member Sage ⭐

  April 2020 2891 karma

  Hi!

  Welcome to 7sage! I have not taken the LSAT yet and I am sure that the sages on here can give you much better and more nuanced advice, but I thought I would throw in my two cents.

  First and foremost, and something that I wish I could go back in time and tell myself at the beginning of my prep, is do not underestimate how hard this test is. Throughout my prep I had a goal score similar to yours and ive been studying for more than 2 years on my way there.

  I started out studying with the PowerScore Bibles and read all three books cover to cover. I also got a chance to get acquainted with the Kaplan course, although I never actually purchased the course myself. The point is that it is critically important to have a very solid foundation before you start to take practice tests. While there are multiple different ways to get that foundation, I do think that 7sage is superior to all others. For example, conditional logic is a basic framework for many questions on both LG and LR. I don't think that Kaplan or PowerScore breaks down conditional logic in nearly as simple and helpful a way as 7sage does.

  So, once you have a platform that gives you a foundation, study it. You can't skip on the fundamentals. Many people (including me) are very eager to get to the PT stage of prep. The reality is that if your foundations are not where they need to be, you are going to be wasting a lot of the potential gain that you could be getting from preptests. If you use 7sage and have the CC at your disposal, really take the time to go through it in depth. Listen to all the lessons, do all the problems sets. Take all of JY's advice lol. For example, it is absolutely worthwhile to memorize all of the conditional logic indicator words, all of the valid and invalid argument forms, the rules for what happens when the sufficient condition is triggered/failed, the rules for what happens when the necessary condition is triggered/failed etc. I made flashcards and would go through them if I was waiting for an appointment or was early to class or something.

  Once you get to the PT stage, working on rigorous blind review is very important. Go through each question that you either missed or were unsure about. Break it down into premises and conclusion. Figure out the structure. Find out why each answer is wrong in detail. Challenge your understanding. Try to change the wrong answers in a way that would make them correct. Then go the other way and try to change the stimulus in a way that would allow the incorrect answer choice to actually be correct. Make your own analogous arguments. For questions that are especially challenging, keep a log of them and come back to them every few weeks. All of those are ways to more deeply understand and internalize the way the LSAT works. All of that will translate into comfort and speed, even with difficult questions.

  Likely at some point you will hit a plateau where your BR scores are very high and your timed score gets stuck. I hit a really bad plateau when I was scoring around 167ish and I was stuck at that score for 8-9 months. Generally when you get to that point the issue is going to cease to be mostly your fundamentals and start to become more based in your timing strategies. At that point, if you have the resources for it, I think that getting a tutor can be extremely valuable. When you are spinning your wheels and don't really know what you are doing wrong or how to improve, having a tutor who has encountered and surmounted the very same barriers that you are facing will be invaluable. At that point your work will become much more nuanced and it is much harder to give specific advice, but this is a great community and the answers will be here!

  Also, there are a lot of opportunities on 7sage that I would take advantage of if I were you. Several of the tutors have held webinars or BR calls or tutoring sessions for free. If you are able to attend, I cannot recommend those highly enough. JY is currently holding sessions once a week where he goes over particular types of LR questions, those are another fantastic resource.

  Lastly, in spite of everything I have said, I would caution you to still be careful to give your grades enough attention if you are still a sophomore. I am assuming that with a goal score that high, you have your eye on some top tier law schools. The LSAT is very hard, but you do have some solid time to study. I started studying when I was halfway through college, and I do wish that I could go back and give a little more attention to my classes to keep my GPA a little higher.

  All in all, props to you for getting started so early! You are in a great position to do fantastically well on this test. I hope this helps, feel free to let me know if you have any questions!