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LSAT To Be Offered Six Times Next Admissions Cycle

JustDoItJustDoIt Alum Member
edited June 2017 in General 3112 karma
Do you agree with this change?
  1. What are your thoughts?45 votes
    1. I hate change...
      13.33%
    2. Stoked!
      53.33%
    3. Meh...more PTs
      33.33%

Comments

  • rafaelitorafaelito Alum Member
    edited June 2017 1063 karma

    If there was an for option why didn't you do this earlier, I would have gone with that. Stoked is second best though.

  • JustDoItJustDoIt Alum Member
    3112 karma

    @RafaelBernard lol wut

  • dml277dml277 Alum Member
    775 karma

    @RafaelBernard That was actually my first thought when I first found out, ha.

  • JustDoItJustDoIt Alum Member
    3112 karma

    @dml277 @RafaelBernard I'm confused what you two mean...haha

  • Mellow_ZMellow_Z Alum Member
    1997 karma

    @JustDoIt said:
    @dml277 @RafaelBernard I'm confused what you two mean...haha

    They mean, why didn't they start offering 6/year numerous years ago (Long overdue change)

  • JustDoItJustDoIt Alum Member
    3112 karma

    Ohhhhhhhhh lol my b

  • rafaelitorafaelito Alum Member
    1063 karma

    @JustDoIt said:
    Ohhhhhhhhh lol my b

    Lol I can see how "you" was ambiguous

  • akistotleakistotle Member 🍌🍌
    edited June 2017 9372 karma

    I wish they could offer every month and let us send only the best score to law schools.

  • SprinklesSprinkles Alum Member
    edited June 2017 11542 karma

    @"Alex Divine" said:

    Don't be the dud who has 3-4 attempts to get a 170. It's noble and all, but you will be judged for it. Again, I don't want to nam drop, but this had been confirmed by a top law school consultant.

    While it is heavily emphasized not to take the LSAT until you're completely prepared, there have been instances where people have taken the LSAT 3-4 times before reaching the 170s and that is completely fine because the end result was that they got admitted into their top choice law school. Since we're all still studying for the LSAT, I don't think it's necessary to call people out who took longer to reach the 170s when in reality they are still ahead of us in their law school journey. It's easy to give up after a one or two "failed" attempts at a grueling exam, and so I applaud them for sticking through and not giving up. They're an inspiration :)
    I said it once, maybe twice, and I'll say it again: Keep on grinding, everyone!

  • nessa.k13.0nessa.k13.0 Inactive ⭐
    edited June 2017 4141 karma

    I totally agree with @akistotle . This change doesn't seem that helpful to me because it doesn't change what admissions offices see.

    @"Alex Divine" said:
    Don't be the dud who has 3-4 attempts to get a 170. It's noble and all, but you will be judged for it. Again, I don't want to nam drop, but this had been confirmed by a top law school consultant.

    Woah umm we have some sages and 7sagers who have taken the LSAT 3 times and have been admitted to top (t10) law schools. I would not consider them duds at all. I agree with @Sprinkles those people are an inspiration and great example of perseverance, intelligence, and hard work. There is direct evidence of 3 takes meaning rejection being debunked. Perhaps the consultants you use are looking at a limited set of data from their specific clients--regarding total number of LSAT takes. Yeah it's ideal and the perfect scenario to take the LSAT once, but different people have differing circumstances. If you can address the weaknesses in your application, show growth, and have it fit with a compelling narrative; I wouldn't worry too much or call someone a dud for having a top score along with a couple low ones on record.

  • SamiSami Live Member Sage 7Sage Tutor
    edited June 2017 10774 karma

    I agree with everything @Sprinkles and @"nessa.k13.0" said above <3. Well put.

    I honestly think its fine if you have already taken LSAT a couple of time and are still trying to get into 170's. So take your time. Your chances do increase when your score increases. Don't stay with a low score if you wish to get into better law schools. Study and when you are ready take the test. It's harder to get into a good law school with low numbers.

    It makes a world of difference to your future to have a high LSAT score. This test is not easy and in my opinion it favors people who have a background in logic and debate. Just because you don't and it takes you longer to master either conceptual or language part of LSAT doesn't mean you should feel bad and give up on your dreams. It also doesn't mean you are not going to succeed in future with either bar or as a lawyer.

    So don't give up on your dreams just because your last two or three attempts did not work out <3. Happy studying <3

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

    It took me three takes to get to 170 and I was admitted into my top choice, T10 law school. It'll be interesting to see how the lifting on take restrictions changes things though. That combined with increased number of administrations, schools will start seeing candidates with maybe 10+ takes. Of course, a scoresheet of 161, 159, 164, 170, 165, 163, 165, 165 will raise more flags than an application like mine with one significantly higher score out of three. If USN&WR changes how they determine the rankings in response to the change in policy, then all bets are off. For now though, the conventional wisdom still holds: Your top score ultimately is the best indicator of your prospects. But I do expect scores to begin rising because of applications like the above hypothetical. With higher scores across the board, number of takes may very well be a factor in differentiating candidates. So I think it's as important as ever to wait to test until ready. In any case, we won't score our target score before we're ready to test, so we lose nothing by delaying but a score we'd just rather have off our record anyway.

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma

    First* I meant "DUDE" not Dud lol. Apologies for anyone I offended.

    I think what I was trying to say came across wrong. I was typing from my iPhone so I made a ton of spelling and grammatical errors.

    I agree with what @Sprinkles @sami and @"nessa.k13.0" are saying. However, it does not look good to have multiple takes on your record. I'd feel comfortable surmising that the more takes the worse your app will look. If you take 3 times and get a 170, that's fine and nothing out of the abnormal. I should have been more clear that with the unlimited take rule not to be the DUDE who takes like 8 times. It just won't reflect well on your app. But if you do eventually get there, go you! :)

    Again, sorry for the typo.

  • nessa.k13.0nessa.k13.0 Inactive ⭐
    4141 karma

    @"Alex Divine" said:
    First* I meant "DUDE" not Dud lol. Apologies for anyone I offended.

    I think what I was trying to say came across wrong. I was typing from my iPhone so I made a ton of spelling and grammatical errors.

    I agree with what @Sprinkles @sami and @"nessa.k13.0" are saying. However, it does not look good to have multiple takes on your record. I'd feel comfortable surmising that the more takes the worse your app will look. If you take 3 times and get a 170, that's fine and nothing out of the abnormal. I should have been more clear that with the unlimited take rule not to be the DUDE who takes like 8 times. It just won't reflect well on your app. But if you do eventually get there, go you! :)

    Again, sorry for the typo.

    Noted. I see what you're saying now. I was about to say...LOL

  • nishanik15nishanik15 Alum Member
    87 karma

    @"Cant Get Right" said:
    It took me three takes to get to 170 and I was admitted into my top choice, T10 law school.

    What were your scores leading up to the 170? And over how long of a period of time did you get those 3 scores? Also, did you attach an addendum to your application to explain the multiple takes/score difference?

    Sorry for all the questions, but I'm very curious to hear about your LSAT journey to the mystical 170 haha

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    edited June 2017 23929 karma

    Removed.

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

    @nmk_1995 said:
    What were your scores leading up to the 170? And over how long of a period of time did you get those 3 scores? Also, did you attach an addendum to your application to explain the multiple takes/score difference?

    Sorry for all the questions, but I'm very curious to hear about your LSAT journey to the mystical 170 haha

    Haha, no problem! I'm happy to share my journey; especially my mistakes, disappointments, and failures and how I overcame the issues behind them.

    I began studying in May 2015 for the October 2015 test. I scored in the low 150's on my first PT after going through the powerscore bibles, so I've always assumed maybe a mid to high 140's diagnostic. I scored a 163 on the October test. In hindsight, what progress I made in that time is pretty remarkable. In fairness, my academic background is really well suited to the test, so a lot of what I needed to do was just learn to apply skills I already had more critically and effectively. I registered for December, left my job to study full time, and scored a 162. I'm actually really glad now that I dropped a point on that second test after so much more effort. If I'd stayed the same or gone up a point, it wouldn't have been quite as painful. But to lose a point after all that was a really awful feeling which later served as a powerful motivator. My immediate reaction was to give up and just not go to law school. That lasted a few weeks before I started getting mad and resolved. So I decided to take my last take and to do it right. I signed up at that website with the guy from those youtube videos, and I started over--going much deeper into the much better curriculum. By the time I took my third test in Sept 2016, my PT average had peaked at 176, and I underperformed, still hitting my 170 goal score.

    For anyone aiming for the 170's, I think my timeline is actually really revealing. It took me a few months to move from the high 140's range to the low 160's range. That's an enormous jump, so I feel like that demonstrates I'm reasonably intelligent and hardworking. In the next few months, I continued to be reasonably intelligent and hardworking, and my abilities did not improve even though I was able to devote far more time to studying.

    When I started with 7Sage, I was simultaneously undergoing a personal transformation. I fundamentally changed. I studied with a discipline and focus that I'd never applied to anything before. The LSAT is different from undergrad. You can't just "be smart" and expect that to be enough. That's exactly what I was doing in 2015, and that's exactly why I could never have improved. The task of the LSAT is not in learning information, it's in developing cognitive skills which is an entirely different mental function. If you want to consistently score in the 170's, it's not enough to understand how something like conditional logic works--just as understanding how a car works does not mean you are a competent driver. For both of those tasks, you have to transform that understanding into a natural mental process. Driving is hard and unnatural at first, and it requires enormous mental effort and focus. With time and practice though, it changes to become so second nature that our brains frequently go on autopilot. The way you think about conditional logic must make this same transformation so that your brain just naturally recognizes and processes it. That's the difference between 2015 and 2016, and that's the difference between a 163 and a 170.

  • SamiSami Live Member Sage 7Sage Tutor
    10774 karma

    Honestly there are not enough likes for what @"Cant Get Right" said above. Although I didn't take the test twice, because he saved me from making that mistake, the journey has been equally difficult.

    I love what he said about a mental transformation that occurs. I definitely had the fastest jump from 150 to 160, I think it took me a solid 2 month of studying while I was in full time school. But then I slowed down as I had to cross so many plateaus each requiring a mastering of different skill. It took time and I still have a little bit more to go. But I know I'll make it.

    Thanks for sharing your story :smile:

  • NotMyNameNotMyName Alum Member Sage
    5320 karma
  • abbybethabbybeth Member
    37 karma

    now if only lsac allowed us to pick what scores we could send in...

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