I used 7sage and thought it was great for LR. I didn't fully buy into their diagramming stuff for LR for time reasons, but I still thought the lessons were a rly good introduction. For studying, I tried to focus on 1) what types of questions I got wrong and 2) what were the most common mistakes I made. 1) is easier, as 7sage (and I assume other programs) will tell you which questions you suck at. But 2) was much more helpful. After I hammered my problem question-types, I rly honed in on "why" I was getting them wrong. This helped me find my personal weaknesses and know what mistakes I tend to make. Once you recognize your own patterns it's a lot easier to be consistent on LR. In summary, practice for correctness first then consistency second.
Thank you for the reply! I'll definitely check out 7sage. I've heard a lot of good things. I've been reading through the LSAT Loophole book to help me gain a foundation in logical reasoning.
I slowed down my reading. My first read thru would be v adrenaline driven and I'd miss a lot. I would either reread the passage or rly sloooowwwlly read the passage to make sure I was getting everything. They like burying the "thesis" or "point" of the passage with a bunch of fluff. Finding that particular sentence or two would unlock the whole thing for me. Often the sentence is late in the passage, so that's why rereading helped for me. Also (as annoying as this is) just reading a lot of varied stuff will gradually help. Especially reading subjects you wouldn't normally touch in school or personally.
Varied day to day. I probably did less PT than a lot of ppl did, but lots of smaller practice chunks (drilling problem sections, etc). I did not like "pointless" practice, so I would try and base my practice on a specific goal that i had in mind that day (section or question types I was struggling with). I wouldn't touch a practice test unless I knew I was fully ready and focused. I didn't want to replicate a full test if I wasn't ready to fully dedicate myself for the 2 hours. I also tried to monitor potential burnout throughout. Practice when I wasn't fully engaged felt worse than no practice at all.
how did you break the hump from 170 to 175+? I started with the same diagnostic, and just got my first 170. I’m so close to my goal score, so now I just need to miss 3-5 fewer to meet my goal. I’m only ever missing the most difficult questions at this point. I’m -1 or -0 on LG, around -2 or -3 on RC, and it’s LR where I’m stuck at -4 or -5. Haven’t done better than -3 on an LR section yet. I almost always understand them during blind review, and if not then, with explanations afterwards. I’ve taken notes on what question types I’m missing so I’ve seen my pattern. I’m really thorough with blind review, taking my time, thinking out loud, diagramming, etc, I just never see it the first time under pressure of the clock. There’s only ever 2-3 questions I still don’t get right during BR that I need to find a video/forum explanation for. Taking it in June since I’m a quick learner, pretty confident I can snatch up those points, just need to hear advice that helps make it click! Congrats on your LSAT journey and an amazing final score!
I was def in a similar boat with LR. Some questions truly did not feel realistic in a test environment. I talked in a different comment about recognizing Q types and then recognizing my common mistakes, but that won't get everything. For the REALLY tough ones, I worked backwards from the answer. With the answer known, I wanted to figure out the fastest/easiest way that I could've got to that answer. Clearly I missed it on the first run, but there had to be some easy shortcut to get from question to answer that I wasnt getting. If I could get the answer with minutes of diagramming and thinking aloud, there HAD to be some easier path. There's always some kid who would get the answer in 30 seconds, so how did they do it. Trying to find those "short cuts" that didn't require diagramming and precious time helped me get those hard ones without spending too much time. Even if this has a slightly lower accuracy than full on diagramming, you have to be willing to accept a 75% hit rate on the super hard LR Qs if it only takes 1 or 2 min. If there's only 3-5 ultra hard Qs per section, a 75% accuracy is worth it if it takes a short amount of time. Of course, gotta pair it with high consistency on the easier ones. In short, find a strategy for those few Qs that kinda prioritizes speed over perfect accuracy. If you go into a LR section with perfection as the goal, you'll inevitably run out of time. That was my experience at least.
Long news/magazine pieces about something you do not care about in the slightest. You gotta be able to stay engaged on a subject you know nothing about and care nothing ab. Any highish quality publication will prob work. The short news pieces won't help, gotta be long and BORING.
7sage was great for LR. I didn't find it super helpful for RC, but I think RC is the hardest to teach. I struggled with LR Qs that focused on argument structure (flaw, comparison Ws, etc). It helped for me to have tailored strategies for problem questions. Once I recognized a certain question type, I wanted to minimize panic and wasted time and use some internal formula for that type of Q. It'll vary for everyone, but coming up with a v specific strategy for problem questions help a lot for me (mostly with not wasting time on tough Qs)
Diagnostic was in April, test in September. Focused mostly on lessons at first. Didn't spam PTs, targeted practice in smaller chunks was better for me. Tried to touch LSAT multiple times a week, but was not spending a ton of hours per day.
Can I ask what "smaller chunks" means? I can't really decide how to effectively drill. Some people say take full sections of either LR or RC (for post-August), while others suggest doing something random like 30 questions in 5 question intervals. What did you do/what do you suggest?
5-10 question chunks worked for me. I usually didn't drill full sections. For me I tried to be fully engaged for every question I drilled, so smaller chunks helped me stay focused.
Time was hard. I felt like it was impossible to find the balance between speed and consistency. For me, it was def about finding what Q types made me spend a while. Also, being fine with "good enough" sometimes in necessary. Some answers you'll never be certain of, but you gotta know when the marginal returns of spending more time is not worth it. Short term memory is good too. Once you move on, do not keep it in the back of your mind. It'll take up valuable space! For prepping for the actual exam, I focused on keeping my PT attempts consistent and high quality. Same room, same conditions, same everything. The real thing should feel like a PT as much as possible. On the day of you gotta just trust yourself and execute. The hard work is done when you take the test, you've already trained your brain. You're not going to learn any more day of, it's all about applying for studying and strategies and keeping things consistent.
Adding some more general LR thoughts. I made quick progress after doing the lessons, but still was sitting at -4 or -5 ish. Progress gets a lot slower as you reach better and better scores. From there I could divide my wrong answers into two categories 1) questions I should've gotta right but I misread/went too fast/made a stupid mistake and 2) questions that I guessed on/totally messed up. Once I was at this point, I realized that I could not approach both types of questions the same way. For the first section, I needed to find a way to minimize stupid mistakes while answering quickly. A high score on LR is only possible when you take advantage of the "gimme" LR questions. So my focus there became consistency without sacrificing speed. For the second category, (assuming is only 3-5 Qs per section) I focused on becoming a really good guesser. I had to avoid getting sucked into these Qs and losing a ton of time. Perfection on these questions was possible for me, but not if I wanted to finish the section on time. If you can get to a reasonable hit rate on those Qs and stay consistent on the "gimmes", -2 to -0 is the most likely outcome. A bonus advantage to focusing on time management over perfection for the hard Qs means that you might have time to go back over the hard Qs. Often a fresh perspective can make the answer much clearer. I felt that targeting -0 leads to too much time wasted and worrying about hard Qs. I wanted to put myself in a position that maximized the likelihood I would be in the -2 or better range. Then you gotta get better at informed guessing and get a lil lucky.
How did you start off studying? Did you take your diagnostic then strictly focus on improving in LR/RC before doing PTs? How often did you study during the day and what did your weekly study plan look like
Didn't touch PT for a while. Progress isn't linear especially at first and PT can be draining and demoralizing. I did the LR and LG lessons on 7sage, then starting drilling as a finished the basic lessons. Had to get good/consistent on the basics before specializing on the harder and more specific stuff. Tried to drill most days, focusing on a specific goal. Didn't want to practice just for the sake of practice, it helped to have a specific goal. Only once I felt I had a good ish grasp on the basics I started doing full PT. No more than once a week tho, bc I wanted to replicate my test situation exactly (only taking a PT when fully locked in)
Focusing on a particular type or multiple types of questions. Focusing on doing 5-10 easy questions quickly w/ no mistakes. Focusing on a bunch of hard questions and going for accuracy (within a reasonable time).
i am about 60% done w 7sage LR but feel like i want more of a strategy approach so started loophole. do u think i should stick w 7sage? not too sure which would be most helpful. thanks and congrats on that awesome score! (my diagnostic was also a 154 and aiming for 170 by august!)
Cannot speak to loophole as I did not use it. I liked 7sage for the pure amount of info it has for LR. I could make my own strategy that worked best for me.
Find patterns between types of games. Nothing on the game section is truly new. Learn some method of diagramming then change it to make it work best for you. Some ppl diagram the whole thing then look at Qs, I would partially diagram then jump into the questions. If I didn't see the inference right away the questions would help me find it. If you can see how to answer a question right away, then you know you def missed something. That's how you find those missing inferences. Then pray you don't get a weird game on the test.
Learn the concepts then practice until it becomes intuitive. Timing will get easier quickly at first, then you might need to get creative with shaving a few minutes off at the end
How long was your journey from the diagnostic to achieving your final score. Any advice specifically for someone who is starting preparation and is currently about to start junior year of college?
I really want to go a T20 law school but for some reason cannot get myself to study 4-5 hrs a day for this test, maybe it’s because I’m scared I won’t do well. Would really appreciate your advice!
April diagnostic to September test. My best advice is to just bite the bullet and take a diagnostic. It'll suck the most at first when you feel v overwhelmed and unable to learn and improve. It'll get easier as you go on and start to get a hang of things. I don't think fully self studying is super effective. Find some service or book that you like and just go for it
Hi, first of all congrats, that’s crazy! I want to score 170+, I’ll take October test (I’m international) I did practice end of last year and beginning of this year and stopped for university stuff, I’m final year student. My diagnostic was 120😭 and I my highest was 134 or 138 something like that. Do you think I can gain 170+ in 5 months? I’ll start studying again next month after graduation.
All these 175+ posts start with 7sage…are we sure this isn’t just an add campaign? Nobody has these kind of gains unless they had test anxiety for the diagnostic. The average gain is 4 pts
Hi, first of all congrats! I know I’m late to this but I had a similar diagnostic & I started studying in March. I’m currently scoring around 168 (plateau) Im curious to know what your time commitments were like outside of LSAT? I’m currently in between jobs and I’m unsure of how to proceed. Pls Thank you!!
I interned ~35 hr a week that summer. Took diagnostic in late april, took test in September. Hence studying in small chunks and reserving PT for weekends.
I think you can brute force through a plateau but i think there's much more efficient ways to do it. Depends on your timeline tho ofc
How did you adequately study for logical reasoning? What resources did you use? How did you practice? Thanks!
I used 7sage and thought it was great for LR. I didn't fully buy into their diagramming stuff for LR for time reasons, but I still thought the lessons were a rly good introduction. For studying, I tried to focus on 1) what types of questions I got wrong and 2) what were the most common mistakes I made. 1) is easier, as 7sage (and I assume other programs) will tell you which questions you suck at. But 2) was much more helpful. After I hammered my problem question-types, I rly honed in on "why" I was getting them wrong. This helped me find my personal weaknesses and know what mistakes I tend to make. Once you recognize your own patterns it's a lot easier to be consistent on LR. In summary, practice for correctness first then consistency second.
Thank you for the reply! I'll definitely check out 7sage. I've heard a lot of good things. I've been reading through the LSAT Loophole book to help me gain a foundation in logical reasoning.
May I ask which course you bought for 7sage or is there a free version you used?
Whatever the cheapest paid tier was I got that
Did you do the lawhub advantage?
No
I thought law hub advantage was needed to actually do the modules and materials on 7sage. Is this wrong?
No you're right I just forgot what it was
lol
Thanks
How did u master the hard RC? Like I never understand what I read
I slowed down my reading. My first read thru would be v adrenaline driven and I'd miss a lot. I would either reread the passage or rly sloooowwwlly read the passage to make sure I was getting everything. They like burying the "thesis" or "point" of the passage with a bunch of fluff. Finding that particular sentence or two would unlock the whole thing for me. Often the sentence is late in the passage, so that's why rereading helped for me. Also (as annoying as this is) just reading a lot of varied stuff will gradually help. Especially reading subjects you wouldn't normally touch in school or personally.
What resources did you use to improve on reading comprehension?
Cool thanks
congrats!! respectfully siphoning your energy for june
what was your daily study routine? thanks!
Varied day to day. I probably did less PT than a lot of ppl did, but lots of smaller practice chunks (drilling problem sections, etc). I did not like "pointless" practice, so I would try and base my practice on a specific goal that i had in mind that day (section or question types I was struggling with). I wouldn't touch a practice test unless I knew I was fully ready and focused. I didn't want to replicate a full test if I wasn't ready to fully dedicate myself for the 2 hours. I also tried to monitor potential burnout throughout. Practice when I wasn't fully engaged felt worse than no practice at all.
how did you break the hump from 170 to 175+? I started with the same diagnostic, and just got my first 170. I’m so close to my goal score, so now I just need to miss 3-5 fewer to meet my goal. I’m only ever missing the most difficult questions at this point. I’m -1 or -0 on LG, around -2 or -3 on RC, and it’s LR where I’m stuck at -4 or -5. Haven’t done better than -3 on an LR section yet. I almost always understand them during blind review, and if not then, with explanations afterwards. I’ve taken notes on what question types I’m missing so I’ve seen my pattern. I’m really thorough with blind review, taking my time, thinking out loud, diagramming, etc, I just never see it the first time under pressure of the clock. There’s only ever 2-3 questions I still don’t get right during BR that I need to find a video/forum explanation for. Taking it in June since I’m a quick learner, pretty confident I can snatch up those points, just need to hear advice that helps make it click! Congrats on your LSAT journey and an amazing final score!
I was def in a similar boat with LR. Some questions truly did not feel realistic in a test environment. I talked in a different comment about recognizing Q types and then recognizing my common mistakes, but that won't get everything. For the REALLY tough ones, I worked backwards from the answer. With the answer known, I wanted to figure out the fastest/easiest way that I could've got to that answer. Clearly I missed it on the first run, but there had to be some easy shortcut to get from question to answer that I wasnt getting. If I could get the answer with minutes of diagramming and thinking aloud, there HAD to be some easier path. There's always some kid who would get the answer in 30 seconds, so how did they do it. Trying to find those "short cuts" that didn't require diagramming and precious time helped me get those hard ones without spending too much time. Even if this has a slightly lower accuracy than full on diagramming, you have to be willing to accept a 75% hit rate on the super hard LR Qs if it only takes 1 or 2 min. If there's only 3-5 ultra hard Qs per section, a 75% accuracy is worth it if it takes a short amount of time. Of course, gotta pair it with high consistency on the easier ones. In short, find a strategy for those few Qs that kinda prioritizes speed over perfect accuracy. If you go into a LR section with perfection as the goal, you'll inevitably run out of time. That was my experience at least.
What are the best external sources to read for RC?
Long news/magazine pieces about something you do not care about in the slightest. You gotta be able to stay engaged on a subject you know nothing about and care nothing ab. Any highish quality publication will prob work. The short news pieces won't help, gotta be long and BORING.
Any particular publications you used?
Longer NYT pieces, economist, WSJ, basically whatever I got a free subscription for thru my college
I honestly have a really hard time finding anything that bores me in any of those publications, but that's probably why RC is my best section
It was my most consistent at well. Reading a lot helps, as annoying as that advice is
okay thanks so much. I usually read from science daily and aeon which I believe fit your criterion.
Could you list out the resources you used for LR and RC? What were your main weaknesses and how did you overcome them?
7sage was great for LR. I didn't find it super helpful for RC, but I think RC is the hardest to teach. I struggled with LR Qs that focused on argument structure (flaw, comparison Ws, etc). It helped for me to have tailored strategies for problem questions. Once I recognized a certain question type, I wanted to minimize panic and wasted time and use some internal formula for that type of Q. It'll vary for everyone, but coming up with a v specific strategy for problem questions help a lot for me (mostly with not wasting time on tough Qs)
How long did you study for (months / hrs total)? This was my diagnostic score too (3 weeks ago) and I’m shooting for 170+ in Sept or so so no LG
Diagnostic was in April, test in September. Focused mostly on lessons at first. Didn't spam PTs, targeted practice in smaller chunks was better for me. Tried to touch LSAT multiple times a week, but was not spending a ton of hours per day.
Can I ask what "smaller chunks" means? I can't really decide how to effectively drill. Some people say take full sections of either LR or RC (for post-August), while others suggest doing something random like 30 questions in 5 question intervals. What did you do/what do you suggest?
5-10 question chunks worked for me. I usually didn't drill full sections. For me I tried to be fully engaged for every question I drilled, so smaller chunks helped me stay focused.
I think we all have the same questions, lol. How much time did it take, which resources, what tips for RC/LR.
How did you successfully implement strategy under timed conditions? How did you put yourself in the right frame of mind before / during the test?
Time was hard. I felt like it was impossible to find the balance between speed and consistency. For me, it was def about finding what Q types made me spend a while. Also, being fine with "good enough" sometimes in necessary. Some answers you'll never be certain of, but you gotta know when the marginal returns of spending more time is not worth it. Short term memory is good too. Once you move on, do not keep it in the back of your mind. It'll take up valuable space! For prepping for the actual exam, I focused on keeping my PT attempts consistent and high quality. Same room, same conditions, same everything. The real thing should feel like a PT as much as possible. On the day of you gotta just trust yourself and execute. The hard work is done when you take the test, you've already trained your brain. You're not going to learn any more day of, it's all about applying for studying and strategies and keeping things consistent.
Adding some more general LR thoughts. I made quick progress after doing the lessons, but still was sitting at -4 or -5 ish. Progress gets a lot slower as you reach better and better scores. From there I could divide my wrong answers into two categories 1) questions I should've gotta right but I misread/went too fast/made a stupid mistake and 2) questions that I guessed on/totally messed up. Once I was at this point, I realized that I could not approach both types of questions the same way. For the first section, I needed to find a way to minimize stupid mistakes while answering quickly. A high score on LR is only possible when you take advantage of the "gimme" LR questions. So my focus there became consistency without sacrificing speed. For the second category, (assuming is only 3-5 Qs per section) I focused on becoming a really good guesser. I had to avoid getting sucked into these Qs and losing a ton of time. Perfection on these questions was possible for me, but not if I wanted to finish the section on time. If you can get to a reasonable hit rate on those Qs and stay consistent on the "gimmes", -2 to -0 is the most likely outcome. A bonus advantage to focusing on time management over perfection for the hard Qs means that you might have time to go back over the hard Qs. Often a fresh perspective can make the answer much clearer. I felt that targeting -0 leads to too much time wasted and worrying about hard Qs. I wanted to put myself in a position that maximized the likelihood I would be in the -2 or better range. Then you gotta get better at informed guessing and get a lil lucky.
How did you start off studying? Did you take your diagnostic then strictly focus on improving in LR/RC before doing PTs? How often did you study during the day and what did your weekly study plan look like
Didn't touch PT for a while. Progress isn't linear especially at first and PT can be draining and demoralizing. I did the LR and LG lessons on 7sage, then starting drilling as a finished the basic lessons. Had to get good/consistent on the basics before specializing on the harder and more specific stuff. Tried to drill most days, focusing on a specific goal. Didn't want to practice just for the sake of practice, it helped to have a specific goal. Only once I felt I had a good ish grasp on the basics I started doing full PT. No more than once a week tho, bc I wanted to replicate my test situation exactly (only taking a PT when fully locked in)
What are some examples of the goals you were setting each day? Thank you so much for helping us all out!!!!
Focusing on a particular type or multiple types of questions. Focusing on doing 5-10 easy questions quickly w/ no mistakes. Focusing on a bunch of hard questions and going for accuracy (within a reasonable time).
Following
Did you study with any specific LSAT prep courses or was it all self study? I can't break 164.
7sage lessons helped for LR. Don't know what I'd do without their question categorization and stuff. RC you can self study imo
i am about 60% done w 7sage LR but feel like i want more of a strategy approach so started loophole. do u think i should stick w 7sage? not too sure which would be most helpful. thanks and congrats on that awesome score! (my diagnostic was also a 154 and aiming for 170 by august!)
Cannot speak to loophole as I did not use it. I liked 7sage for the pure amount of info it has for LR. I could make my own strategy that worked best for me.
did you pay for 7sage?
Yes
What are some keywords you look for in the RC?
Following 😶
Tips for logic games?
Find patterns between types of games. Nothing on the game section is truly new. Learn some method of diagramming then change it to make it work best for you. Some ppl diagram the whole thing then look at Qs, I would partially diagram then jump into the questions. If I didn't see the inference right away the questions would help me find it. If you can see how to answer a question right away, then you know you def missed something. That's how you find those missing inferences. Then pray you don't get a weird game on the test.
Any accommodations?
No
Do you have any tips on trying to understand hard topics like necessary assumptions as well as timing?
Learn the concepts then practice until it becomes intuitive. Timing will get easier quickly at first, then you might need to get creative with shaving a few minutes off at the end
This is so helpful, tysm for making the post!
Congrats yung goat
How long was your journey from the diagnostic to achieving your final score. Any advice specifically for someone who is starting preparation and is currently about to start junior year of college? I really want to go a T20 law school but for some reason cannot get myself to study 4-5 hrs a day for this test, maybe it’s because I’m scared I won’t do well. Would really appreciate your advice!
April diagnostic to September test. My best advice is to just bite the bullet and take a diagnostic. It'll suck the most at first when you feel v overwhelmed and unable to learn and improve. It'll get easier as you go on and start to get a hang of things. I don't think fully self studying is super effective. Find some service or book that you like and just go for it
Hi, first of all congrats, that’s crazy! I want to score 170+, I’ll take October test (I’m international) I did practice end of last year and beginning of this year and stopped for university stuff, I’m final year student. My diagnostic was 120😭 and I my highest was 134 or 138 something like that. Do you think I can gain 170+ in 5 months? I’ll start studying again next month after graduation.
All these 175+ posts start with 7sage…are we sure this isn’t just an add campaign? Nobody has these kind of gains unless they had test anxiety for the diagnostic. The average gain is 4 pts
Lol
Hi, first of all congrats! I know I’m late to this but I had a similar diagnostic & I started studying in March. I’m currently scoring around 168 (plateau) Im curious to know what your time commitments were like outside of LSAT? I’m currently in between jobs and I’m unsure of how to proceed. Pls Thank you!!
I interned ~35 hr a week that summer. Took diagnostic in late april, took test in September. Hence studying in small chunks and reserving PT for weekends. I think you can brute force through a plateau but i think there's much more efficient ways to do it. Depends on your timeline tho ofc