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⚖ Official May 2020 LSAT-Flex Discussion Thread ⚖

Juliet - Student ServiceJuliet - Student Service Member Administrator Student Services
in May 2020 LSAT 5740 karma

Hey 7Sagers,

Here's the official May 2020 LSAT-Flex Discussion Thread.

Please keep all discussions of the May 2020 LSAT-Flex here!

Rules:

You can't discuss specific questions. 🙅‍♂️
You CANNOT say things such as the following:

  • Hey, the 3rd LG was sequencing and the last one was In/Out, right? (Don't mention the game type)
  • The last question in the LR section was a lawgic heavy MBT! Was the answer (B)? (Don't mention the question type or ask what the answer was)
  • What was the answer for the last question of RC? I think it was an inference question? Was the answer (C)? (Don't mention the question type or ask what the answer was)
«13

Comments

  • edited May 2020 414 karma

    Good luck everyone!! May the glitches and computer malfunctions be GONE!

  • jankleyjankley Member
    edited May 2020 73 karma

    I am very disappointed in my experience with ProctorU and the LSAT-Flex. Here's my experience:

    The proctor's mic stayed on for the first few minutes of my test (I could hear talking and other loud feedback), which was so distracting. This did not allow me to have a strong start to my exam. This proctor also interrupted me and didn't allow me to finish reading the test rules at the beginning. They also did not check my desk, surrounding area, or my scratch paper, which I thought they were supposed to do.

    Towards the end my camera supposedly froze, in which the proctor interrupted my test to fix by using my cursor. My test was not paused, and I did not get time back on my test. I lost several minutes (almost 10) on LG which is huge, and they told me that they couldn't give me back the time they used to fix my technical issue. I likely bombed my last game because of this.

    Additionally, my second proctor used my cursor before telling me they were going to fix a problem, aka, my cursor was flying all over the screen for me to fight with while I was trying to answer questions. This happened a few times and again, was very distracting.

    Didn't they say if there's an issue, the proctors pause your test and allow you to go back after it's resolved? I was told this at least over the phone by LSAC.

    The whole thing was incredibly upsetting and unprofessional. We all pay $200 for this test, expecting good conditions and minimal distractions. My proctors were a big part of the issue, and now my plans for law school are pushed back because I have to take it again... Did any one else have similar issues?

  • EddieMEddieM Alum Member
    279 karma

    That’s BS. The only one of those problems I also had was the proctor mic coming on at the start of my test, which was indeed pretty annoying. Losing 10 mins of LG? You deserve a refund at a minimum.

  • jankleyjankley Member
    edited May 2020 73 karma

    @EddieM It sucks so much. I already complained and asked for a refund and voucher for the next test lol. I hope they create another test date this summer so I can get a good test score down before fall applications...

  • jcylingjcyling Member
    44 karma

    my camera didn't work at the start and I waited for 20 minutes for the help when I finally decided to just reboot my computer. I was asked to walk around the room with my computer and had to show all the components I was using. Plus the mirroring on my phone. Overall the experience was similar to LawHub. Also, I was able to simply put away electronics - not disassemble everything. In fact I threw a blanket over my TV and they didn't comment on it.

  • jmarmaduke96jmarmaduke96 Member Sage
    2891 karma

    Wow, I am taking the test tomorrow and that makes me nervous. Can we just turn the volume on our computer off so if they are making noise we don't have to have it distract us? or is that not allowed for some reason?

  • empocratesempocrates Alum Member
    edited May 2020 170 karma

    @jankley wow that reaaaallly sucks. i'm so sorry. praying you would get a refund and a ticket for a later one! that's the least they could do, geez

  • lexxx745lexxx745 Alum Member Sage
    3190 karma

    How long between your check in time and time you actually tested?

  • Pi031415Pi031415 Alum Member
    248 karma

    If you get the refund and ticket to retake in the future does that cancel your score?

  • EddieMEddieM Alum Member
    279 karma

    @jankley I don’t think there’s any question that there will be another Flex date to sign up for this summer! Haven’t heard any speculation at all that they would outright cancel July. Has anyone else?

  • 1234abcd-11234abcd-1 Member
    422 karma

    Wooow, this makes me so nervous for my June exam. Also were yall using PC or Mac? Another thing, couldn't you just lower the volume on your computer so the feed back would not be distracting?

  • Oni LSATOni LSAT Alum Member
    218 karma

    I didn't have any technical issues with the test. But I did find the LR section to be the hardest section. I usually don't struggle in LR but I struggled hard. I don't know whether it's due to pressure, anxiety, difficulty, or other reasons.

    Amount of questions per section.
    RC: 27
    LG: 23
    LR: 25

  • liz08080liz08080 Alum Member
    46 karma

    I am supposed to take my test tomorrow, but when I look at the LSAT flex tab, it presents a certifying statement - can someone who took it today just let me know what the process is exactly? Like do you log in at your scheduled time and just start? I'm so confused....

  • mlhinklemlhinkle Member
    292 karma

    I have a question regarding the minute in between sections is that minute counted towards the 35 min of the next section or is this a perk of lsat-flex because usually you don’t have that extra minute to regroup

  • AwokenNovaAwokenNova Alum Member
    176 karma

    @jmarmaduke96 I was thinking the same thing.. I may mute my computer that is terrible...

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    edited May 2020 3481 karma

    @jankley

    Wow I am so sorry to hear about your awful experience. I feel like they need to allow you to retake this week if you want because the problems were not your fault and now they are going to throw off your timeline. That's so absurd that all of that happened.

    I feel like now I'm gonna be at the mercy of if I get a stupid proctor lol.....

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    3481 karma

    @AwokenNova Maybe we aren't allowed to mute in case the proctor wants to yell at us about something? But either way I'm gonna turn my volume to like level one.......

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    3481 karma

    Yeah can someone confirm how cancellations/refunds work if you complain? Hopefully they don't force you to keep that score...?

  • RonaldRoRonaldRo Free Trial Member
    29 karma

    @noonawoon Yeah I put my sound at like level one and it wasn't too bad. Plus my proctor shut up in like 20 seconds luckily. The weird thing for me was that I couldn't hear my proctor at all until the test started, and then suddenly when it started, her mic came on... Idk man.

    @mlhinkle The one-minute countdown didn't subtract from your 35 minutes of section time! It was definitely a nice and unexpected perk.

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    3481 karma

    Also I see you said "second proctor" - does the test make you change out proctors??

  • mlhinklemlhinkle Member
    292 karma

    Wow that’s actually really nice to have that minute to kinda get organized and prepare mentally!

  • Pi031415Pi031415 Alum Member
    248 karma

    Friend of mine said she’s been waiting for almost 2 hours for a proctor to “arrive” so she can start her test.

  • tremcdowtremcdow Alum Member
    52 karma

    Just finished my exam. I had to wait over an hour just for a proctor to connect, so sitting there did not help with my stress. I struggled with logic games compared to usual, but I feel RC and LR were comparative to most sections for me!

  • empocratesempocrates Alum Member
    edited May 2020 170 karma

    im hearing people have trouble connecting, and the wait time is like an hour and half to 2 hours long.

    a friend was in the middle of going over the process, and transferred over to tech, and then when transferring back, the new proctor literally ended the session, so she had to restart all over again. and she's still waiting, she was suppose to start at 3

    can you complain about this? the emotional and mental stress of this uncertainty of waiting is crazy

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    3481 karma

    Why on earth are proctors just not showing up to their times?? They need to be fired if they can't do their one job. I can't imagine waiting 2 hours to start the test, I would get so hungry if I just had to sit there and stare at the screen waiting for the proctor to pop up......

  • leah8282leah8282 Alum Member
    75 karma

    truly horrible tech experience. I hope it was just me. but my camera (which I had tested many times, and I have a new macbook, all was good) wouldn’t connect and I was trying to get in touch with tech support for over an hour — they would help for a bit, then sign off and leave me hanging. I tried to reboot the program but each time it just made my wait to connect to a technician longer. I was so ready to crush it and in a great mental spot, but the hour and half before the test started was a total nightmare. I really think it impacted my performance and am also at a loss. I hope this was an isolated experience. Once I connected with the proctor she was perfectly nice.

  • HarrisHarris Core Member
    edited May 2020 188 karma

    Best of luck to eveyone today! Take stock....if they give you a negative turn it into a positive...Thanks for everything JY!

  • jankleyjankley Member
    73 karma

    Make sure you all advocate for yourselves and call/email LSAC over the issues!!! They said they need to know feedback and to email testsecurity@LSAC.org if you are looking to get a refund/voucher for the next test. Maybe if they get enough requests for refunds we'll have a higher chance of another summer test... I was on hold with LSAC for over 30 minutes on the phone to complain lol

  • 66 karma

    Were mouses allowed?

  • isaacdesantoisaacdesanto Member
    edited May 2020 95 karma

    @Pi031415 said:
    Friend of mine said she’s been waiting for almost 2 hours for a proctor to “arrive” so she can start her test.

    This happened to me too. I waited for a proctor for like an hour, then as soon as I was assigned one they disconnected, so I had to re-download the proctor app which put me all the way at the back of the line. Waited over an hour again, all the while unable a hold of anyone on their live support chat or on the phone. Finally got a support person on the chat who was like "Sorry you should receive the next free proctor." All said and done it was basically more than 2 1/2 hours after my appointment that I was finally able to take the test.

    Other than that no technical issues, once I got a proctor I didn't have any problems, I just left them on mute and we communicated through the chat box. Test was definitely challenging.

  • Pi031415Pi031415 Alum Member
    248 karma

    @isaacdesanto omg that’s so stressful. My test is tomorrow. I’m so nervous.

  • 86 karma

    Did anybody else's proctor try to tell them they were not allowed to use scratch paper or a writing instrument?

    I told her as politely as I could that she must have been misinformed, and a few minutes later she came back saying sorry and started the test...

  • Pi031415Pi031415 Alum Member
    248 karma

    @"Left My Wallet in LSATgundo" good for you for advocating for yourself. I saw on another blog that if someone was told they could not use paper to contact lsac asap for a retake.

  • kzw402kzw402 Alum Member
    27 karma

    I take mine tomorrow at 3:30 hopefully they learned from today's issues and things run smoothly tomorrow im so nervous!!

  • lexxx745lexxx745 Alum Member Sage
    3190 karma

    For me LG was hard i think it was nervous and anxiety but LR and RC was p normal idk

  • mlhinklemlhinkle Member
    292 karma

    Can you use touch screen if you have Microsoft where Procter u works? (Stills)

  • zaney learnerzaney learner Member
    65 karma

    Was able to connect after 5 minutes but my proctor has problems with their camera and I had to wait an hour while they tried to trouble shoot their situation! I thought LG was incredibly easy but dang I sweated through the RC! The first passage questions were hard!

  • pbrittnepbrittne Free Trial Member
    52 karma

    I found that the exam lacked structure/ clarity overall... it was obvious that the proctors weren’t familiar with the LSAT format. When the exam was over my proctor was just silent.... I was like... can I close you now...

    As a side note I didn’t have a timer between sections (I don’t think I did anyways...?) I probably took about a minute break but it wasn’t counting down or anything between sections. Also did anyone else’s exam say they got every answer incorrect after each section?? That kind of threw me off. If no one else had that, please disregard, maybe I got zero!!! :P haha

  • dcstyles51dcstyles51 Alum Member
    320 karma

    Do you all think that there will be a bigger than usual curve to deal with the issues that people were experiencing? Some of the factors that came about due to proctoru, and just the newer testing environment could lower people's scores and result in a larger than usual curve right? Or do you think it will stay relatively similar due to it being a pretty average difficulty test?

  • lizzogonzolizzogonzo Member
    628 karma

    Sorry to hear about some of your bad experiences :/ Do they have a period in the beginning where they test the audio, connection, etc, before officially starting the exam? Like even 10-15 minutes troubleshooting everything to make sure it's all in place before starting would be helpful.

  • parso341parso341 Member
    93 karma

    Does anyone know if we can use the touchscreen on our laptops to bubble in answers? The laptop would still be in laptop mode with the camera visible.

  • tayjay44tayjay44 Member
    13 karma

    Would someone, who didn’t have technical difficulties, be able to share the process that ProctorU went through before the exam and what to prepare for that came as unexpected to the May test takers?

  • rbrevillerbreville Member
    67 karma

    So besides tech issue, How was the test? Did you find it easier/harder or the same as previous test? What format of the test did you get? What questions were the hardest ?

  • SnowWhiteSnowWhite Member
    21 karma

    This was such an awful experience! I spent nearly 2 hours (pre-test) either waiting in a chat room for tech support, chatting with a useless bot or chatting with a live person who I'm pretty sure was preoccupied with something else (he kept being MIA). I finally got connected to a proctor after struggling for 30 mins to install the applet. And like some of the other posters, my proctor didn't really check my environment at all...he checked my ID and made sure I didn't have a watch on, but that was it. All the time I spent waiting and trying to get connected really threw me off. By the time I was finally able to take the test, I was so flustered and tense that I couldnt really concentrate. I also lost time (at least 10 min), during LG due to a tech issue and was not able to get the time back! Talk about pissed! I asked him to see if he could figure out a way for me to get the time back, but I didn't expect him to send me multiple chat message updates while I was still taking the test. All that did was further distract me, and in the end I still didn't even get the time back. I got a new proctor during section 3, and once I finished the test I asked her about getting the time back as well, but she didn't have a clue as to what to do. She was asking me what website she had to go on to reload the test -_-. She finally gave up and said she couldn't help me, but she would leave a note for my instructor explaining what happened. I was like...WHAT??? This is not a simple unit test, mid-term or final exam lady, so there is no instructor! She really didn't even know the nature of the test. IDK what I'm going to do next. I called LSAC as soon as I logged off and it took me 45 minutes to get through to them, only to be told that I should send a detailed email about what happened. I did that earlier, so now I'm just waiting to hear back from them, but I honestly don't want to retake the entire test...sigh :(

  • leah8282leah8282 Alum Member
    75 karma

    update: I sent a detailed email to lsac about my massive tech issues and they said they can waive fee for future test ONLY if I cancel yesterday’s score before seeing it... this feels insane and like an added handicap after everything that happened yesterday. I at least want to see how I did. they said if I don’t cancel my score I have to pay the $200 to register — a steep fee that’s difficult to afford especially during a pandemic. did anyone else find a way through this?

  • empocratesempocrates Alum Member
    170 karma

    Okay did mine yesterday. Questions are comparable to all other tests, LG pretty straight forward. RC was my best section I felt. But honestly the waiting really threw me off. I was connected within mins, but the proctor was having issue with my laptop, spent about 20 mind and then sent me to tech, took another 10 to connect with tech just having technical say it's fine, and then sent me back. That took another 15. Reconnected to a new proctor, AND THIS PERSON LITERALLY ENDED MY SESSION!!! I WAS LIKE WAIT DID I JUST GET KICKED OUT!? CAN I DO MY TEST? literally didn't know what was happening, so I checked my account, and it says for me test I was in progress but I was like uhm...... So went to the live support, took about 20 mind lolz...and person goes yeah you in queue just wait. I'm like how long is that gonna take? The person goes up to 2 hours, I was like uhm... What... Are you kidding... So I waited for 2 and half hours. What I hated the most was thank God I came back to the screen at a good time, because I went to the bathroom when I was waiting. And I got connected shortly before I came back to my seat. But i literally scrambled to get started since I wasn't expecting to start. So that def didn't help. What I hate the most is had I come back a little Later, or in some other event, who knows .. I would have gotten disconnected again and would have had to wait again!!!

    I honestly think the psychological state of waiting and allll these uncertainties that's happening to everyone def has an effect on test performance. Like we are ready to go when the test starts, but all these problems really throw you off the curve. Im extremely disappointed with LSAC on their lack of communication prior to this on the process and what to expect. I am going to write a long detailed complaint to LSAC. I honestly think everyone should cuz this was just extremely ridiculous. Thought 3 sections was gonna be better on my mental being well but that 2 and half hours of waiting and all the problems were probs even draining than writing a 5 sections test lol

  • Oni LSATOni LSAT Alum Member
    218 karma

    For people asking about the procedure for testing, it went like this.

    1. When the counter goes down to zero, it changes to “start exam” button. It launches a portal that checks your computer for webcam, microphone, internet speed and so on.

    2. You are prompted accept terms and conditions to share your information, screen, and recording.

    3. Verify your face by taking a photo through the ProctorU portal and present your identification card.

    4. When you pass the preliminary, the portal makes you download an app from ProctorU which launches a chat box that puts you in queue for a proctor. This process took me 5 minutes and the proctor arrived 5 minutes later.

    5. The proctor will take over control of your PC and check if other programs are running and if there is a second monitor. Then they will ask you to show your work environment (4 corners, mirror, under desk, blank sheets, pencils, and so on).

    6. Once you complete the step above, the proctor will ask you to log into your lawhub and go to the flex section. They may or may not ask you to read the terms for the last flex.

    7. Once you accept the terms (my proctor clicked I agree on my behalf for some reason), the proctor pastes in the password to start the flex and your exam begins.

    8. Once you finish, you notify your proctor who will give you instructions to rip the scrap paper you worked on and you should be good to go.

  • anzolaanzola Alum Member
    edited May 2020 9 karma

    I was scheduled for an early morning exam and the setup was relatively easy. The proctor got me set up right away. One thing that annoyed me, like others have said, was that their mic was on so I kept hearing him help other takers as they were coming in. It felt weird to mute my proctor so I just had to keep the volume low. All in all, an interesting experience.

    As for the exam, overall I found it challenging but not overly so. One game tripped me up and I had to guess for the most part, and I didn't really get one of the RC passages. LR was straightforward.

  • NewYorker-1NewYorker-1 Member
    edited May 2020 13 karma

    ^ my commentary on the above post, all these points held true for me, some differences:

    1. When they asked me to present my ID, I experienced technical issues where the screen was black, then waited 20 minutes for a technician to direct me to 2 different proctors who remoted into my computer to close out all my applications. This process took a little under an hour

    2. When I finished the exam, my proctor didn't leave me instructions or say anything to me, so I just closed out the programs.

    Overall, I was scheduled to start the exam at 9:20 and didn't begin until after 10:20. Other than that, the test went smoothly.

    Also my proctor was really kind. As I was waiting, twiddling my thumbs for an hour waiting for the technician to respond--I was downing coffee/water and the proctor let me use the restroom really quickly during the room check.

  • ramasobhaniramasobhani Alum Member
    25 karma

    @dcstyles51 said:
    Do you all think that there will be a bigger than usual curve to deal with the issues that people were experiencing? Some of the factors that came about due to proctoru, and just the newer testing environment could lower people's scores and result in a larger than usual curve right? Or do you think it will stay relatively similar due to it being a pretty average difficulty test?

    I'm not holding my breath on that. That's not LSAC's style. I felt like they took it easy in the difficulty of the test (though the RC on the one I took was definitely spicier than usual) because of all the uncertainty, so they're not going to throw us any more bones than they already have. I may be wrong, but I guess we'll see.

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