Your sincere advice is welcomed for my studying habit Forum

[wjamiz]

Hey everyone, I am new to the forum. I have been visiting this forum for the past 2 years however, it was not until recently that I took the LSAT studying quite seriously. I needed sincere advice from individuals who seem to pretty much know when its a good time to take the LSAT or not. I began studying for the LSAT in late July, however i studied previously for a short while 2 years previously in 2012.

After studying for the past month, the main area that I seem to have trouble with is LR. LG i tend to have trouble with getting 4-5 wrong as well as the same thing with RC(4-6) even though I rarely studied for those. The problem I was having was LR, so i began studying and from the first PREPTEST June 2007, i received a total of 34 wrong from both sections. However, now after studying I seem to be getting a total of 18-19 total from both sections and quite frankly, the ones that I really get wrong (besides the misread or not understanding what the question is asking) really tends to be 4-5 per section.

So to summarize, out of the 8-9 i get wrong a section, 3-4 of them are due to me just not answering because I just honestly do not want to guess and the questions that are usually like that are Matching the flawed reasoning which tends to be 2 questions every exam, and which one logically makes sense( I found a trick that works sometimes, by taking the last condition or word and matching it with one from the first sentence if that makes sense).

But nonetheless, I feel that I want to take the September 2014 LSAT knowing that I am a URM as well. Even though my GPA is 3.3 with two different bachelor degrees and me taking the pre-reqs for medical school at one point which brought me intensely down to 3.3 from a 3.8ish ( I hope the law schools understand that).

Essentially I am seeking your advice for the following questions,

1) Should i keep this routine? The routine focuses on whatever questions I get wrong, i go back look and understand why I got them wrong. The remaining questions I get wrong I tend to always narrow the answers down to two choices and keep picking the wrong one. I bought the LSAT Trainer (kind of helped) LR Bible (HELPED) Manhattan LSAT( kind of helped) to see why I get some wrong. I assume this is the way to go.

2) Should I delay until the December LSAT? Since I want to get into the 170s to score a chance at a T14, but someone mentioned that being an URM helps major and considering the fact that I have recommendations from a few international political figures, i hope these 2 score for me well even if I score about the 165.

3) Does URM really help that much like they say it does? or is it just smoke in the screen?

I am trying to nail it into Cornell

[BP Robert]

Hello Wjamiz,

Complicated question.

1) You should definitely keep the routine of reviewing wrong answers, yes. Spend some time identifying why each wrong answer choice is wrong, in addition to why the right one is right. I think you should strongly consider taking a prep course; your approach to Parallel Flaw questions is unsound.

2) I think you should be open to taking the test in December, yes. Check LSAC because the withdrawal deadline is fast approaching. If Cornell is your goal they you should be shooting for at least a 167 since that's their 50th percentile. If your practice tests aren't quite there then you should plan on pushing your test back to December. Also, because your GPA is significantly below their 25th percentile, you should shoot for a LSAT score even higher than 167 in order to compensate. Higher scores also make you more competitive for merit based scholarship, assuming you are admitted.

3) URM can help quite a lot. It is not a smoke screen. It's difficult to quantify on an individual basis, but TLS has forums specifically dedicated to URM stats and discussion so that might be worth looking into.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=230319

Best luck.

[wjamiz]

Thank you for your Response,

I was a bit concerned as I see that now I have passed the threshold for the examination, meaning I have to pay a 72 dollar late fee to take this exam. The reason why I want to take the exam in September is to get rid of this stress of waiting until December, even though I am confident if I take it in December, My score may go up significantly in points. But, at the same time, I am worried about not securing that Early Decision to my advantage.

I am going to take a practice test today, and if I can score above the 170 range, then I think I can be confident enough to score at least 165 on test day.