Foreigner cracking LSAT in 3 months? please help... Forum

[thexfactor]

Im just saying that a lot most english speaking natives cant score in the 170s. It s going to be a hard hill to climb.
I feel that 160 is doable. However, a 160 woudlnt get you into a t14 school. FWIW, at my previous LS, there were 6 Chinese students directly from China. None of them are top 1/3. A couple of them even went to good UG schools in the US.

Good luck!

[whymeohgodno]

Im just saying that a lot most english speaking natives cant score in the 170s. It s going to be a hard hill to climb.
I feel that 160 is doable. However, a 160 woudlnt get you into a t14 school. FWIW, at my previous LS, there were 6 Chinese students directly from China. None of them are top 1/3. A couple of them even went to good UG schools in the US.

Good luck!

The only section I feel being native to English is maybe essential to is reading comp.

[kazu]

A bunch of crap

Banned.

You've been ban-hammering a lot of trolls lately. I appreciate it.

Yep.. Thanks vanwinkle.

[xqhp82]

i'm chinese as well and english is my second language...started with a low 150s cold, i've gone through 8 weeks of hardcore study and now i'm scoring around the low-mid 160s range. and i have 8 more weeks to go. so i think 170 is not impossible...it only takes lots of determination (which i must say im still not pushing myself hard enough). you know that chinese people are notorious for scoring well in standardised test regardless of the language and subject....i don't know how they do it, through years of practice maybe, but i see the LSAT as one of those that you can aim high if given sufficient time. i say if u're planning to study full time for 3 months you can do it. that's precisely what i'm doing.

although i have studied english for many years my english is far from perfect. almost in every PT i encounter lots of unknown words and i really suck at reading and reading fast. but i think the only challenging section is RC, since LG is mainly about symbols, and that applies to some LR questions as well. in some questions that i have completely no clue what it's talking about, i just replace the main parts with 1, 2, 3, or a, b,c, and you can still get the logic right. hope this helps!

[ly2010]

i'm chinese as well and english is my second language...started with a low 150s cold, i've gone through 8 weeks of hardcore study and now i'm scoring around the low-mid 160s range. and i have 8 more weeks to go. so i think 170 is not impossible...it only takes lots of determination (which i must say im still not pushing myself hard enough). you know that chinese people are notorious for scoring well in standardised test regardless of the language and subject....i don't know how they do it, through years of practice maybe, but i see the LSAT as one of those that you can aim high if given sufficient time. i say if u're planning to study full time for 3 months you can do it. that's precisely what i'm doing.

although i have studied english for many years my english is far from perfect. almost in every PT i encounter lots of unknown words and i really suck at reading and reading fast. but i think the only challenging section is RC, since LG is mainly about symbols, and that applies to some LR questions as well. in some questions that i have completely no clue what it's talking about, i just replace the main parts with 1, 2, 3, or a, b,c, and you can still get the logic right. hope this helps!

加油！

How many hours do you spend a day? I started August 1st for the October 9th test. I have to admit I'm not as dilligent as I should...but I'm slowly getting there. Running out of time though!

[xqhp82]

i'm chinese as well and english is my second language...started with a low 150s cold, i've gone through 8 weeks of hardcore study and now i'm scoring around the low-mid 160s range. and i have 8 more weeks to go. so i think 170 is not impossible...it only takes lots of determination (which i must say im still not pushing myself hard enough). you know that chinese people are notorious for scoring well in standardised test regardless of the language and subject....i don't know how they do it, through years of practice maybe, but i see the LSAT as one of those that you can aim high if given sufficient time. i say if u're planning to study full time for 3 months you can do it. that's precisely what i'm doing.

although i have studied english for many years my english is far from perfect. almost in every PT i encounter lots of unknown words and i really suck at reading and reading fast. but i think the only challenging section is RC, since LG is mainly about symbols, and that applies to some LR questions as well. in some questions that i have completely no clue what it's talking about, i just replace the main parts with 1, 2, 3, or a, b,c, and you can still get the logic right. hope this helps!

加油！

How many hours do you spend a day? I started August 1st for the October 9th test. I have to admit I'm not as dilligent as I should...but I'm slowly getting there. Running out of time though!

yeah, i started in early july but still feel time is running out. i started with 6-7 hrs/day for the first month but kind of slowed it down to 5-6 and just had a 1-week break last week. i normally can sit down and study for ages compared to many other people but i dun want to experience any burn out in the next few weeks...i don't see my performance deteriating but its getting constant/improving at an extremely slow rate...

[ly2010]

I've been told that you literally only need 5 weeks of INTENSE studying to do well. I figured it would be enough so I waited until August so I wouldn't "burn out." Now I don't really feel like I have enough time. I am forcing myself to do nothing but study but I don't feel that it's helping. I'm still very inconsistent... I don't know what I will do if I'm not where I am come October.

As another English 2nd lang. person, what section do you have most problems with?

[whymeohgodno]

I've been told that you literally only need 5 weeks of INTENSE studying to do well. I figured it would be enough so I waited until August so I wouldn't "burn out." Now I don't really feel like I have enough time. I am forcing myself to do nothing but study but I don't feel that it's helping. I'm still very inconsistent... I don't know what I will do if I'm not where I am come October.

As another English 2nd lang. person, what section do you have most problems with?

Really?

I've heard people say around 2 months is good. I've never heard anyone say you should start 5 weeks before the LSAT...

[northkitty]

wow, i'm really surprised to find so many posts in just one day...and this thread morphing into a "zhong wen hao nan xue ya" one. are people really that interested in Chinese?

ly2010, nullisecundus, xqhp82: it's so reassuring to see positive feedback, and in chinese characters! lol. almost nobody other than a few of my classmates knows anything about the lsat, thus i came here after browsing through a myraid of chinese forums in vain b.c. there was very limited info, and almost nothing to download or use. knowing that there are others going through the same thing can erase at least a portion of self-doubt. thanks to the 3 of you and good luck on the test!

nulliscundus, may i ask in what section did your score raise the most? were you scoring very high in LG when you first started?

acrossthelake, nomsawyer, thexfactor: you're exactly right-i understand my current situation is one that needs a lot of time, dedication, and not too much hope XD. yesterday i could only finish a little over 3 out of 4 articles in RC under timing, which was 7 questiones unanswered, however there was only 1 mistake in the completed qs. i guess timing is a greater problem than accuracy for me then. since it was my fastest reading speed, i guess the only feasible solution is PRACTICE. argh.

veyron: loans is not my primary concern right now since i can get it from china, or borrow money from relatives,etc. anyway that should be settled pretty easily.

whymeohgodno:thanks for the continued support. if you ever feel like a free conversational chinese class PM me

and i really appreciate you guys for not turning this into a "why should international students attend law school anyway" discussion. on top of that, quite amusing how some people are so determined they can write a perseverance essay.

[xqhp82]

I've been told that you literally only need 5 weeks of INTENSE studying to do well. I figured it would be enough so I waited until August so I wouldn't "burn out." Now I don't really feel like I have enough time. I am forcing myself to do nothing but study but I don't feel that it's helping. I'm still very inconsistent... I don't know what I will do if I'm not where I am come October.

As another English 2nd lang. person, what section do you have most problems with?

i was going to say that all sections are about equal in difficulty for me, until today an RC passage from PT20 totally let me down (one about medieval canon lawyers). 2 key words from the passage that i did not understand led to complete confusion. but everything seems so easy after i checked the dictionary....

at the onset i thought LG was the hardest but now i think RC is. this is very personal though, i'm a bit allergic to big chunk of words on a page, so the layout of LG is much more friendly to me. it also depends very much on the content. e.g. i always fail on LR questions about economics/finance and some difficult science RC passages.

[ly2010]

I've been told that you literally only need 5 weeks of INTENSE studying to do well. I figured it would be enough so I waited until August so I wouldn't "burn out." Now I don't really feel like I have enough time. I am forcing myself to do nothing but study but I don't feel that it's helping. I'm still very inconsistent... I don't know what I will do if I'm not where I am come October.

As another English 2nd lang. person, what section do you have most problems with?

Really?

I've heard people say around 2 months is good. I've never heard anyone say you should start 5 weeks before the LSAT...

I think most of my friends (not ESL students) did 5-6 weeks of INTENSE studying. They went through the bibles in 2 or 3 days and then just did 1 or 2 PT's a day....

Even though I've been here for many years, I can see why it's not that simple. I am not worried about the LG because I know if I just spend 2 weeks or so doing them, I'll be fine. However, I find myself being thrown off by some weird phrases/word usage. I don't see how studying longer (a few more months) will alleviate that problem though...

[motiontodismiss]

Im just saying that a lot most english speaking natives cant score in the 170s. It s going to be a hard hill to climb.
I feel that 160 is doable. However, a 160 woudlnt get you into a t14 school. FWIW, at my previous LS, there were 6 Chinese students directly from China. None of them are top 1/3. A couple of them even went to good UG schools in the US.

Good luck!

The only section I feel being native to English is maybe essential to is reading comp.

I think fluency in English would override even that.

[jlhero]

seems like your english is pretty good.

how is your vocabulary? if you have a large vocabulary it is definitely possible for you to score a 170+

still u might need more than 3 months