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stuck in 130's

jasg2345jasg2345 Core Member

I have been studying for five months but I have been stuck in 130's and recently took another test and I went down to the 120s. I am confused I don't know what to do. #help

Comments

  • Lizardking-1Lizardking-1 Member
    edited May 2022 358 karma

    Dude, quit while you're ahead. There are so many amazing occupations out there. I'm sure I'll get blasted for writing this, but that is a really tough score to improve upon. You're going to have to improve by 20+ points just to have a shot at T3 schools. Maybe you have a 4.0, and can compensate for that score with a stratospheric GPA, but I'd question your compatibility with the law school curriculum. I'm not being elitist. I'm not a gifted LSAT test taker. This test isn't about intelligence. There are very bright people who are terrible at it, as well as the inverse. But practicality is really important, especially as the U.S. enters another recession. You don't want to be faced with a constant uphill battle, in a hyper saturated field, in an unsavory economic climate. Read the ABA reports from 2010-2017. Not a pretty picture. Not trying to sh** on your dreams, but there's a real contrast in attitude between practicing lawyers and pre-law students. The later are overly optimistic and idealize the occupation, while the former frequently advise young law school hopefuls to do something else. I'm sure you're going to get some "you can do it, follow your dreams" responses, so I'm balancing out that feedback with my cynicism. I'm really not trying to be an a**.

  • sdumlaosdumlao Member
    187 karma

    Hey @jasg2345 ,

    It sounds like there could be a few different things going on. I don’t want to speculate about your current situation or your future potential prospects without knowing more information (e.g., you said you had studied for five months- what did those five months look like? Were you studying every day?Are there other contributing stressors in your life that might impact your score negatively? Etc.) I am not an expert nor am I a tutor—but it’s a good thing that 7sage has experts and tutors on staff that could give you a more accurate assessment of your testing capabilities and are better suited to give you guidance. My advice would be to ask a tutor to meet with you before you throw in the towel.

    You can schedule a FREE consultation with one of 7sage’s tutors and get their expert opinion here: https://calendly.com/7sage-consult/7sage-tutoring-free-consult

    Hope that helps! Happy Studying!

    -S.

  • Steven_B-1Steven_B-1 Member
    794 karma

    The question is: how are you studying? Are you doing in-depth review of the mistakes you're making? Are you jorunaling your mistakes to learn from them? If you're at the 120-130s, then you're still making basic reading errors, you might still be unfamiliar with what the question stems are really asking, and you're not focusing on building your foundation. Focus on building your foundation and be brutally honest wtih yourself, find your weaknesses, and attack them.

  • LawUnicornLawUnicorn Core Member
    27 karma

    If law is your passion, don't give up on your dream. Hire a tutor. 7 Sage has great tutors and expensive, relatively. If you are confused, you may not be able to dig yourself out. Go on Reddit /LSAT. They have lots of tutors cheaper. Find a kind one and believe in yourself. Stop spinning your wheels. Someone out there can guide you.

  • juliahanzhuyajuliahanzhuya Member
    22 karma

    Hi! I am disappointed by some of the comments I read. I started at a 141 and received a 162 on November's test. I've been studying for June and I recently took a PT and got a 170. You are 100% capable of getting in the 160's and 170's. The issue is what you're doing. Clearly, something is not clicking. I would be more than happy to help you in any way that I can! We can get in touch if you'd like some help :)

  • Hinde SophiaHinde Sophia Alum Member
    edited May 2022 165 karma

    Hey there. I second Steven_B-1's comment. The best thing you can do for yourself is be truly self reflective and have good data to assess where and how you are weak. Without that critical information, it's really hard to create a game plan for success. How do you know what to work on if you don't know where your weaknesses lie? For example, if the LR section is giving you trouble -- do you know which questions are giving you the most trouble? if so, do you know why those specific question types are hard for you? Is it a problem in understanding the question stem or (as Steven suggested) is it a weakness in your understanding of the foundations?

    ***Disclaimer: I'm not a tutor or anything, these are just the things that seem to be working for me and have also been recommended by a lot of others on 7sage and other forums.

    Here are my two main recommendations:

    (1) DAILY DRILLS of the fundamental skills: (here are a few examples, you can find them in the 7sage curriculum and there are also free versions on quizlet as well)

    • Conditional Indicators Drill Flashcards
    • Quiz - Logical Indicators Mixed Translations 1 w/ Answers
    • Quiz on Drawing Valid Conclusions with Translations 1 w/ Answers
    • Distinguish Valid from Invalid Forms Flashcards
    • 21 Common Argument Flaws
    • LSAT Vocabulary Flashcards
    • How to Quickly React to Logic Games Question Stems Flashcards

    (2) Keep a WRONG ANSWER JOURNAL: notebook or (preferably) a spreadsheet collecting the following info, journal in it during Blind Review for any questions you flagged or think you got wrong BEFORE you check your answers

    • Question Type: this will help identify if there are patterns in the type of question you're getting wrong
    • Why I picked my Choice: this will help identify the type of errors you're making
    • Why the Correct AC is Better & Mine is Wrong: ditto the above, plus show you the patterns in the correct ACs
    • Assessment & Action Items: with the above information, you can create a game plan for yourself to strengthen the areas where you are weak

    The LSAT is not a test of intelligence. It is a test of reading and reasoning ability but most of all, mental discipline. It is learnable. With time and effort, you can do it. Feel free to private message me if you have any questions :blush:

    Study smart, not hard!

  • jasg2345jasg2345 Core Member
    edited June 2022 59 karma

    @Lizardking-1
    thanks a lot you gave me a reason to prove you wrong @Lizardking-1

  • mz.roganmz.rogan Alum Member
    36 karma

    in the 120s/130s you don't have a solid foundation yet. Join a course 7sage, lsat max, or blue print to help get you basics. But since you are on 7sage already utilize their lessons. no worries once you get the foundation which has a lot of nuances your score will greatly improve.

  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27809 karma

    I’d recommend stepping away from Logic for starters. You need a grammar course. The LSAT is actually more about language than logic, and your score range indicates a lot of work is needed on that before studying logic is going to be productive. Breaking sentences down grammatically is probably the most important thing to master at this point: Isolating the basic subject-verb-object structure of sentences, studying how adjectives and prepositional phrases form to create noun phrases, understanding the limitation of meaning of a subordinate clause in a complex sentence, etc. All the language and grammar stuff needs to be more or less second nature, and until it is you can forget the logic. I’m wildly speculating with very little information, but my experience is that this is the threshold problem for an outsized majority of people in your score range.

  • LawyerDude513LawyerDude513 Member
    18 karma

    @"Steven_B-1" said:
    The question is: how are you studying? Are you doing in-depth review of the mistakes you're making? Are you journaling your mistakes to learn from them? If you're at the 120-130s, then you're still making basic reading errors, you might still be unfamiliar with what the question stems are really asking, and you're not focusing on building your foundation. Focus on building your foundation and be brutally honest with yourself, find your weaknesses, and attack them.

    I like this response , and I have a similar story but I have only been studying for a month in a half. What I have gathered is I am not understanding what the question is asking but I can easily spot the Conclusion and [premise on LR. On LG I have to get back to fundamentals hence I am on this board trying to see if the 7Sage monthly plan would help with those foundations.

  • LawyerDude513LawyerDude513 Member
    18 karma

    @juliahanzhuya said:
    Hi! I am disappointed by some of the comments I read. I started at a 141 and received a 162 on November's test. I've been studying for June and I recently took a PT and got a 170. You are 100% capable of getting in the 160's and 170's. The issue is what you're doing. Clearly, something is not clicking. I would be more than happy to help you in any way that I can! We can get in touch if you'd like some help :)

    This is so awesome that you have the encouragement. I am not saying that some of the harsh critique on here is bad; because i do think Lawyers need tough skin. Potential lawyers need to learn to endure so I would say find a way to learn the fundamentals. Which is what I'm trying to do . I do think 130s is a score stating more focus on ground level items is needed.

  • LawyerDude513LawyerDude513 Member
    18 karma

    @"Hinde Sophia" said:
    Hey there. I second Steven_B-1's comment. The best thing you can do for yourself is be truly self reflective and have good data to assess where and how you are weak. Without that critical information, it's really hard to create a game plan for success. How do you know what to work on if you don't know where your weaknesses lie? For example, if the LR section is giving you trouble -- do you know which questions are giving you the most trouble? if so, do you know why those specific question types are hard for you? Is it a problem in understanding the question stem or (as Steven suggested) is it a weakness in your understanding of the foundations?

    ***Disclaimer: I'm not a tutor or anything, these are just the things that seem to be working for me and have also been recommended by a lot of others on 7sage and other forums.

    Here are my two main recommendations:

    (1) DAILY DRILLS of the fundamental skills: (here are a few examples, you can find them in the 7sage curriculum and there are also free versions on quizlet as well)

    • Conditional Indicators Drill Flashcards
    • Quiz - Logical Indicators Mixed Translations 1 w/ Answers
    • Quiz on Drawing Valid Conclusions with Translations 1 w/ Answers
    • Distinguish Valid from Invalid Forms Flashcards
    • 21 Common Argument Flaws
    • LSAT Vocabulary Flashcards
    • How to Quickly React to Logic Games Question Stems Flashcards

    (2) Keep a WRONG ANSWER JOURNAL: notebook or (preferably) a spreadsheet collecting the following info, journal in it during Blind Review for any questions you flagged or think you got wrong BEFORE you check your answers

    • Question Type: this will help identify if there are patterns in the type of question you're getting wrong
    • Why I picked my Choice: this will help identify the type of errors you're making
    • Why the Correct AC is Better & Mine is Wrong: ditto the above, plus show you the patterns in the correct ACs
    • Assessment & Action Items: with the above information, you can create a game plan for yourself to strengthen the areas where you are weak

    The LSAT is not a test of intelligence. It is a test of reading and reasoning ability but most of all, mental discipline. It is learnable. With time and effort, you can do it. Feel free to private message me if you have any questions :blush:

    Study smart, not hard!

    Thank you for this post. I know it took some time for you to detail this out. I am grateful that you gave us this knowledge. I have pinpointed the questions I'm getting wrong but I never thought about a journal. I'm going to try the Spreadsheet and see if that works for me.

    Under the Daily Drills portion of this message - "Is all of those included in the 7 Sage Curriculum"

    I went to quizlet and you have to sign up , is that a fee for doing so ?

  • LawyerDude513LawyerDude513 Member
    18 karma

    @"mz.rogan" said:
    in the 120s/130s you don't have a solid foundation yet. Join a course 7sage, lsat max, or blue print to help get you basics. But since you are on 7sage already utilize their lessons. no worries once you get the foundation which has a lot of nuances your score will greatly improve.

    Which plan would you suggest?

  • ninaaaa15ninaaaa15 Alum Member
    edited January 2023 124 karma

    can I ask how you are doing now? and how many months did it take to improve your score?

  • Ikakaadelina2Ikakaadelina2 Free Trial Member
    34 karma

    I'm curious too
    How are you doing? Did you decided to quit or continued studying

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