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[foundingfather]

Hello fellow Dec re-takers.

My LSAT score is in the right in the median for the school I want to go to... Should I apply and let them know I will be retaking for merit scholarship purposes? Or do law schools hold off on reviewing your entire application until getting your next score?

The law school I'm going for stresses early applications for the greatest chance at scholarship. I'm kind of facing a catch22 here

It is sort of a catch22. You can retake for the extra points but there's the risk you get the same or go down. Worst case though, what could you lose in scholarships from applying in Jan? Based on pure speculation, I'd say something like $5000-10000. Can anybody speak to this?

I have no idea. Is there any other way to figure this out besides contacting the admissions office? I've already emailed them about this before I took my LSAT and never got a reply... Maybe I should try contacting them again through my work email (I work at a firm) vs my plebeian uni email. If this even makes a difference

Worth trying. Report back if you find out anything. I've gone through the different application submission times on LSN with the same stats and didn't see much noticeable difference, though scholarship money is a vague thing on LSN if you're not looking at the individual profiles.

I'll email them tomorrow and post results.

[action90]

Update: Called Amazon and complained about the fact that the trainer hadn't been shipped yet. They upgraded me to overnight shipping for free. Hopefully getting it on Friday. Kinda pumped

[bbkk]

QUICK POLL: what score are you guys (realistically) hoping for in dec, now that you know what to expect from the lsat?

me: if i scored 3 or more points for 173+, i'd be deliriously happy

*Sigh* I don't even wanna think about it now. Bee you know me, my PT ave is 177...and the real thing is..you know..

I do need a 174 or above to get in the schools I like. This would be my last try and I WILL DESTROY IT THIS TIME!!

[action90]

Trainer just arrived via Amazon Prime free trial or whatever. Was not aware this thing was so massive.

Just got mine too an hour ago. Going to have to rethink my study schedule considering how much I underestimated this book's length eek haha

I'm probably skipping the LG part and just using it for some LR (along with drills) and RC. Can't you skip all the intros and stuff, hopefully shave off a bunch of pages.

[062914123]

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[bbkk]

you will ugh bbkk, remember those days when we were upset about scoring below 175 on PTs

haha those days! So embarrassing to think about it now

[cheme2014]

Update: Called Amazon and complained about the fact that the trainer hadn't been shipped yet. They upgraded me to overnight shipping for free. Hopefully getting it on Friday. Kinda pumped

Yay that's awesome! I totally should have done that instead of sulking in my room haha

[action90]

Update: Called Amazon and complained about the fact that the trainer hadn't been shipped yet. They upgraded me to overnight shipping for free. Hopefully getting it on Friday. Kinda pumped

Yay that's awesome! I totally should have done that instead of sulking in my room haha

if there is one thing I've learned working in customer service/waiting tables in the past couple years its that you can get whatever the fuck you want if you complain. Its terrible but its true.

[Otunga]

Update: Called Amazon and complained about the fact that the trainer hadn't been shipped yet. They upgraded me to overnight shipping for free. Hopefully getting it on Friday. Kinda pumped

Yay that's awesome! I totally should have done that instead of sulking in my room haha

if there is one thing I've learned working in customer service/waiting tables in the past couple years its that you can get whatever the fuck you want if you complain. Its terrible but its true.

All I did was cancel a subscription one time and they wanted to subscribe me for half price instead of refunding the full price. So you could just be disingenuous and threaten to cancel things and get half price.

[blackbirdfly]

Update: Called Amazon and complained about the fact that the trainer hadn't been shipped yet. They upgraded me to overnight shipping for free. Hopefully getting it on Friday. Kinda pumped

Yay that's awesome! I totally should have done that instead of sulking in my room haha

if there is one thing I've learned working in customer service/waiting tables in the past couple years its that you can get whatever the fuck you want if you complain. Its terrible but its true.

I just copied you and got the same deal. I feel bad, but it was taking so long to ship and I really want that book!

[BerkeleyMan5]

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[blackbirdfly]

QUICK POLL: what score are you guys (realistically) hoping for in dec, now that you know what to expect from the lsat?

me: if i scored 3 or more points for 173+, i'd be deliriously happy

I will cry happy tears if I get a score in 170-172 range (my pre-October PT average).

Though I'm still unsure how I am going to approach this retake, but the first 5 chapters of the LSAT Trainer has convinced me to start from the basics (though I really just want to drill and PT all day).


I would also love to know how the trainer compares to Manhattan LR. I hope to go through the first six chapters of Manhattan LR again while I wait for my trainer. Do they work well together?

[snagglepuss]

Took PT42 with RC32 experimental tonight. I found focusing on a PT to be so damn difficult without that test day energy. Though, I feel good about the PT and will score it later tonight after I read chapters 4 and 5 of the LSAT Trainer. I definitely feel like taking a PT got me excited about getting into hardcore study mode.

[sphillycheese]

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[062914123]

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[sphillycheese]

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[mellow]

I'm probably skipping the LG part and just using it for some LR (along with drills) and RC. Can't you skip all the intros and stuff, hopefully shave off a bunch of pages.

I was hoping to go through the LG too in case there are a couple tricks in there I could use, but I probably will end up just skipping/skimming those sections like you.


Would you guys say the really old PTs (#1-20) are still useful for drilling LR and RC or mostly a waste of time?

[dosto]

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[angels2fly]

Anyone have any advice for the fact that my RC started strong before prep and then tanked and fluctuated going to October? I started at like 0-3 wrong in the summer and was drilling LR and working with 7sage for LG, both complemented by the respective bibles. But then close to the test day I began to get 4-7 wrong on RC with the occasional -3.

Did the sections really get that much harder in the recent tests? Trainer should be here today so I hope that will help but was wondering if anyone has similar experience.

October LSAT (165) was LR1: -3 RC: -6 LG:-3 LR2: -6. The second LR was because I couldn't divorce myself from how uncertain I felt in the games section (the movie question to be specific)--I am also working with Manhattan LR right now. So moving on after a section mentally is definitely something I should work on. I was average PTing at 169 and would love to get that or above it in December. I have a 3.95 and just feel like I let myself down.

[buffalo_]

Anyone have any advice for the fact that my RC started strong before prep and then tanked and fluctuated going to October? I started at like 0-3 wrong in the summer and was drilling LR and working with 7sage for LG, both complemented by the respective bibles. But then close to the test day I began to get 4-7 wrong on RC with the occasional -3.

Did the sections really get that much harder in the recent tests? Trainer should be here today so I hope that will help but was wondering if anyone has similar experience.

October LSAT (165) was LR1: -3 RC: -6 LG:-3 LR2: -6. The second LR was because I couldn't divorce myself from how uncertain I felt in the games section (the movie question to be specific)--I am also working with Manhattan LR right now. So moving on after a section mentally is definitely something I should work on. I was average PTing at 169 and would love to get that or above it in December. I have a 3.95 and just feel like I let myself down.

I am not sure if the RC has actually gotten harder in recent years or if you just psyched yourself out? Do you happen to know which kinds of RC sections you struggle on? If you happen to struggle with the comparative passages then the recent tests would obviously be more challenging for you.

I actually find with RC that the harder I try to find the answer, the more likely I am to get the questions wrong. I used to approach it as just long form LR, and I know a lot of people use this method, but whereas with LR I can isolate specific words or phrases in the mini prompt that make my answer choice absolutely correct, with RC it takes far too long to go back and try and find these bits of evidence in the passage. On recent tests especially, I find that if I read quickly and just pay attention to a few basic things, I rarely need to refer back to the passage. I think of it like this: "these questions are easier than you think they are, just pick the most obvious choice." In LR the answer choices really try to trick you, but I don't see that as much in RC. The questions simply want to know about what you just read. It's like in college when your buddy didn't do the assigned reading and wants you to just give a quick summary. If you can give a quick summary, you should be able to answer the questions. So just read close enough that you can summarize it for your lazy friend.

If you are struggling specifically with the comparative passages, I think you can improve this a lot. With practice I found the comparative passage to be much easier than the single ones. Basically it is a gigantic structure of the argument section. I do these last because if I am short on time, I can usually speed read through them, get the gist of each passage, and be able to answer the questions more effectively than the single passages where you really need to understand more of the nuances of the arguments and evidence. I find I just need to read for these sorts of things:

1. What specific things (evidence, cause, example, effect etc...) are mentioned explicitly in one or both of the passages?
2. What do the authors agree/disagree about?
3. What is the point of having two passages? What is their relationship to one another? If the two people were talking, what is the second author trying to accomplish by making his point after listening to the first author speak?

The first one is a little harder, but the second 2 things are basically 80% of all of the comparative reading questions.

[foundingfather]

Anyone have any advice for the fact that my RC started strong before prep and then tanked and fluctuated going to October? I started at like 0-3 wrong in the summer and was drilling LR and working with 7sage for LG, both complemented by the respective bibles. But then close to the test day I began to get 4-7 wrong on RC with the occasional -3.

Did the sections really get that much harder in the recent tests? Trainer should be here today so I hope that will help but was wondering if anyone has similar experience.

October LSAT (165) was LR1: -3 RC: -6 LG:-3 LR2: -6. The second LR was because I couldn't divorce myself from how uncertain I felt in the games section (the movie question to be specific)--I am also working with Manhattan LR right now. So moving on after a section mentally is definitely something I should work on. I was average PTing at 169 and would love to get that or above it in December. I have a 3.95 and just feel like I let myself down.

I am not sure if the RC has actually gotten harder in recent years or if you just psyched yourself out? Do you happen to know which kinds of RC sections you struggle on? If you happen to struggle with the comparative passages then the recent tests would obviously be more challenging for you.

I actually find with RC that the harder I try to find the answer, the more likely I am to get the questions wrong. I used to approach it as just long form LR, and I know a lot of people use this method, but whereas with LR I can isolate specific words or phrases in the mini prompt that make my answer choice absolutely correct, with RC it takes far too long to go back and try and find these bits of evidence in the passage. On recent tests especially, I find that if I read quickly and just pay attention to a few basic things, I rarely need to refer back to the passage. I think of it like this: "these questions are easier than you think they are, just pick the most obvious choice." In LR the answer choices really try to trick you, but I don't see that as much in RC. The questions simply want to know about what you just read. It's like in college when your buddy didn't do the assigned reading and wants you to just give a quick summary. If you can give a quick summary, you should be able to answer the questions. So just read close enough that you can summarize it for your lazy friend.

If you are struggling specifically with the comparative passages, I think you can improve this a lot. With practice I found the comparative passage to be much easier than the single ones. Basically it is a gigantic structure of the argument section. I do these last because if I am short on time, I can usually speed read through them, get the gist of each passage, and be able to answer the questions more effectively than the single passages where you really need to understand more of the nuances of the arguments and evidence. I find I just need to read for these sorts of things:

1. What specific things (evidence, cause, example, effect etc...) are mentioned explicitly in one or both of the passages?
2. What do the authors agree/disagree about?
3. What is the point of having two passages? What is their relationship to one another? If the two people were talking, what is the second author trying to accomplish by making his point after listening to the first author speak?

The first one is a little harder, but the second 2 things are basically 80% of all of the comparative reading questions.

Thanks for your advice on RC... I'm looking to greatly improve on this section this time around.

[mhaas]

Like everybody else in this thread, I have jumped on the LSAT trainer bandwagon. It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping it will help me with my RC woes. Gonna do a few chapters of the trainer tomorrow night, PT 57 Saturday, review on Sunday. Back to the grindstone everybody! (at least it's only a month till test time)

[becs]

Uhhh... starting to feel like the only one in this thread that isn't using (or about to start using) LSAT trainer.

Although, I'm kind of an anomaly in that I'm focusing almost 100% on LG, which I somehow still suck at. Used PS bible, waiting on Blueprint's LG book. Someone please reassure me that this isn't a terrible course of action?

[yomisterd]

Waiting on that Trainer! Should be in Friday.

Took PT46 as a diagnostic to see how rusty I was after a month of no LSAT. With a 173 (RC: -3, LR: -3, LR: -1, LG: -0), I'm definitely ready to PT and drill the hell out of this month!

[dosto]

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