Received 180 on Sept 2016 LSAT - here to answer questions and help! Forum

[avily]

Hi! I scored 180 on the LSAT and I'm here to answer any questions that you might have. I online tutor the LSAT and have 4+ of general teaching experience, so I am adept at connecting with general concerns and not merely speaking on my own experiences. I've read many of the other 180 guides on TLS and found them insightful. Now I'm basically here to offer myself up in case anybody has questions or wants advices! I also answer PMs. Hope I can help!

[Mikey]

Any tips for reading comp? I can never finish on time, and even when I do I end up doing terrible in the section.

[Barack O'Drama]

What materials did you use to prepare?

What was your diagnostic?

How many PTs did you take?

How long did you study for?


Thanks for doing this!

[Nebby]

White bread or whole wheat?

[maybeman]

What was the average of your last five PTs before the test?

Did you do anything special to try to adapt to the new misc. LG trend?

[PrezRand]

OP is one of those genetically modified special humans that excels at everything

[Ilovemydogxo]

Did you eat a snack during the 15 minute break? If so, what was it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

[Hikikomorist]

What were your other standardized test scores? What was your diagnostic score?

[Mikey]

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

So people who are considered URM can't get high scores? What??

[A. Nony Mouse]

Did you eat a snack during the 15 minute break? If so, what was it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

Yeah, I get the statistics about scores but don't say this, it's crappy.

[Instrumental]

Did you eat a snack during the 15 minute break? If so, what was it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

[dj9i27]

Did you eat a snack during the 15 minute break? If so, what was it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

coming into this thread

[blackmamba8]

OP's not gonna want to help us now

[appind]

Hi! I scored 180 on the LSAT and I'm here to answer any questions that you might have. I online tutor the LSAT and have 4+ of general teaching experience, so I am adept at connecting with general concerns and not merely speaking on my own experiences. I've read many of the other 180 guides on TLS and found them insightful. Now I'm basically here to offer myself up in case anybody has questions or wants advices! I also answer PMs. Hope I can help!

which ones you missed in the test, if any?

[avily]

White bread or whole wheat?

Probably whole but I secretly prefer white

[avily]

What materials did you use to prepare?

What was your diagnostic?

How many PTs did you take?

How long did you study for? About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before


Thanks for doing this!

- I used the 7sage curriculum, read through the LSAT Trainer, and I also looked a bit at the Powerscore LG Bible and read through the LSAThacks explanations online

- I didn't take a diagnostic because I thought it might be unreflective considering I had no experience with LG, so I skipped it to avoid a potential self-esteem dump

- I did all the LG I had (from 7 to 74) and I did timed PTs of 52-74

- About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before

[avily]

Any tips for reading comp? I can never finish on time, and even when I do I end up doing terrible in the section.

RC is (unfortunately) acknowledged to be the section that is the hardest to improve on. It helps to have good reading habits, lots of experience and interest in general reading, and also specific background with philosophy, literature, and political science reading. I recommend focusing on the science passages first as a spot to improve. They're the hardest for unaccustomed readers because they can be dense and technical, but they are also the easiest type to improve on. Familiarize yourself with basic experimental design, the scientific method, and hypothesis set-up. Read old science passages and practice picking out the important details.

For the other types of passages, read for tone and argument structure . How does the author feel about the subject matter, and why is the author telling me this now in this passage/paragraph? Both 7sage and LSAT Trainer focus on argument structure. Don't read for detail (you can always come back to it when you see that a question asks for it) but instead read to understand the structure of the author's argument in the passage. Why is the author telling me this paragraph and what is the main idea. How does it lead to the next paragraph? Keep in mind that for LR, passages often start with context about the subject matter which turns out only to introduce the author's actual position (which is not the previous context). Learn to read comparative passages and anticipate their questions by thinking about how the authors feel bout each other's arguments. Comparative passages are almost always about overlap and disagreement between the two authors. I recommend reading the LSAT Trainer section on this for some discussion of timing strategies (it's normal to have questions per passage that you are unsure about!) The important thing is to make sure those questions don't become 3-5 minute time dumps. Learn to skip questions that you're unsure about so you have enough time to finish. Even high scorers have q's they're unsure about which they revisit later with the extra time they've saved up.

also one tip I have is to try and be really interested in the passage. read it as if you want to know and learn about what it's talking about. I find that this helps! Good luck!!!

[cherrygalore]

White bread or whole wheat?

Probably whole but I secretly prefer white

so white then?

talking about the bread not about whether you are an URM lol what is happening in this thread

[cm4998]

What materials did you use to prepare?

What was your diagnostic?

How many PTs did you take?

How long did you study for? About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before


Thanks for doing this!

- I used the 7sage curriculum, read through the LSAT Trainer, and I also looked a bit at the Powerscore LG Bible and read through the LSAThacks explanations online

- I didn't take a diagnostic because I thought it might be unreflective considering I had no experience with LG, so I skipped it to avoid a potential self-esteem dump

- I did all the LG I had (from 7 to 74) and I did timed PTs of 52-74

- About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before

How did you incorporate the LSAT Trainer with the 7sage curriculum? Did you read chapters from the trainer that related with 7sage lessons or did you just read the trainer all the way through in order?

Also, did you have other commitments or were you prepping full time? What was a typical study schedule throughout the 4 months?

Are you out of school or still in undergrad/graduate? What was your major? Just curious lol

[Nebby]

Do you lift?

[Barack O'Drama]

What materials did you use to prepare?

What was your diagnostic?

How many PTs did you take?

How long did you study for? About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before


Thanks for doing this!

- I used the 7sage curriculum, read through the LSAT Trainer, and I also looked a bit at the Powerscore LG Bible and read through the LSAThacks explanations online

- I didn't take a diagnostic because I thought it might be unreflective considering I had no experience with LG, so I skipped it to avoid a potential self-esteem dump

- I did all the LG I had (from 7 to 74) and I did timed PTs of 52-74

- About 4 months intensive, and I started looking at it a few months before

How did you incorporate the LSAT Trainer with the 7sage curriculum? Did you read chapters from the trainer that related with 7sage lessons or did you just read the trainer all the way through in order?

Also, did you have other commitments or were you prepping full time? What was a typical study schedule throughout the 4 months?

Are you out of school or still in undergrad/graduate? What was your major? Just curious lol

Thank you for the awesome response, OP. I really appreciate it. Congrats on the 180!

Also interested in this as well. Did you use any of The LSAT Trainer's study schedules?

[NotTheNSA]

- I used the 7sage curriculum, read through the LSAT Trainer, and I also looked a bit at the Powerscore LG Bible and read through the LSAThacks explanations online

Sweet. This was my exact plan.

[PrezRand]

Did you eat a snack during the 15 minute break? If so, what was it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not an URM given your score but would just like confirmation.

I'm a URM and I don't think it was really that bad for you to assume this but since everyone is posting a gif

[avily]

What was the average of your last five PTs before the test?

Did you do anything special to try to adapt to the new misc. LG trend?

I think the range was between 174/175-178. The average was probably around a high 176, low 177. I crammed a lot of PTs at the end (would not advise), so all those 5 were taken in the last week. I never hit 180 cleanly going into the exam.

I did all the games that I had access to. I recommend now to students I online tutor to focus on older games. They're stranger and more unorthodox as opposed to the games between 40-60 for example. Doing old games can help you adapt to the unpredictability of the misc games. For my test, I personally had the virus games, which were definitely unorthodox, but I think if you approach it with a calm mind and an open-minded approach to diagramming, you can do it.

[Mikey]

RC

Thanks!! That was helpful!