I'm kind of hitting this motivational roadblock. I took a class over the summer, didn't do too much research into the class, and it burnt me out in all honesty. I took the August LSAT, had a lot of problems with Proctor U before it. Really best with my head, scored 7 points under my average PTs, got a 150.
So I'm just, you know, I'm taking November and I'm just trying to keep myself motivated, but I'm also graduating pretty soon. So I'm taking the toughest classes right now and I'm trying to balance everything and having trouble with the motivational aspect. Sure, sure. Well, thanks for the background there.
I'm sorry to hear about what's happened for you on the August LSAT, but the good news is that you still have some time to improve significantly. And if everything goes right with Proctor U, maybe you achieve your goal. Regardless, let's do what we can to get your score above your minimum so that even if something went wrong on test day, you'd still end up with a score that you're happy with. Definitely, definitely.
Now, you mentioned before I call that Reading Comp was an area of trouble. You want to tell me more about that? Reading Comp is definitely an area of trouble for me. I actually just did a practice section and I'm reed while I were before this did pretty well.
Only got like two or three wrong, which is pretty, really good for me. But RC, whenever I get to the fourth that I do not necessarily in the order that they're given, but whenever I get to that fourth one, I just have a lot of trouble getting through it, staying focused in it and, you know, answering the question, well, I usually see the timer ticking down and, you know, I usually have trouble getting through it in general completing the section. Got it. Okay.
So are you saying that fourth passage is tougher because it's fourth and endurance is a factor or is it the difficulty level of the passage? I think it's the endurance and especially using the not the self-paced mode, but the other mode on my hub, that's always the fourth section given. So it's the last thing I'm doing, you know, just a little taxing at that point. Right.
Well, you definitely want to change up the order because on test day, as you know, reading comp could be first potentially could be the sections could be in any order. Yeah, and I have used self-paced a lot and put it first or second or third, but still for some reason I just can't I can't give myself through that last passage. So that's kind of my main issue. If I get that up, I usually get most of the questions wrong on the last passage to usually over 50% of them wrong, which is really bad.
If you're like, if I can, you know, give myself that fourth passage, I'll be able to really, you know, score three or four points more than when I'm PT, which is about 157, which would put me in the 160s, my goal is a 160. Right. So we're in a good position here because you don't need to improve that much more to reach your minimum. And we have a specific idea of what the problem is.
It's reading comp the fourth passage. So improving endurance on reading comp is one area to work on, but for improving your approach to reading comp to help you get more efficient is another thing that we can do. Yeah. Okay.
So what does your reading comp approach currently look like? I will spend usually about the first 15 to 30 seconds looking at every passage, reading the first sentence and last sentence, determining my order. Usually I save the AB passage for third and science is last, not a science guy. And I think that's part of the issue.
And then I will launch in and I go global them local for the questions and just go passage by passage. Okay. Cool. So as you know, I like global then local then differential.
Yeah. So read all the passages first, though, read the skim them all first to look at the first sentence last sentence, as you said. I find that some topics are actually, they're easier for me to read about and to get through quicker. I know that I need to make the passages interesting for myself and get in the mindset of what can I learn from this?
And so I can really be engaged in it, but I think it is easier to do when I'm familiar with first. Of course, a priority feel like it helps you. Yeah. And you said it's taking you 15 to 30 seconds per passage to evaluate or 15 to 30 seconds.
I go quick. It's a quick process. Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Good. I'm generally hesitant to recommend that, but if it's only taking you 15 to 30 seconds and you feel better about it, I'm not going to knock it. Yeah.
First sentence last sentence. That's all. Okay. Cool.
Now with that fourth passage, are you feeling time pressure at that point in the session? Definitely. Yeah. Definitely.
Okay. So we do want to see what we can do to improve your efficiency on those first three passages so that you have adequate time for that fourth passage. Yeah, definitely. What do you do in terms of note taking?
Minimum. Very little. Very little. And if you can't like another voice is coming in or a dramatic change in language.
I'll note that, but I watched your videos on reading comp and tried the tips you gave and I found that taking little notes is more effective. I tried the whole big note thing and I'm just asked this. Cool. Okay.
What is your reading comp review process look like? I use the methods that use the geographic methods. I'll reread everything and try to figure out the basic why I got the question wrong. I noticed that on the passages where I get the main point question wrong tends to be terrible after that.
So usually if that's the issue that I'll focus more on the main point questions. Good. I think that's wrong. And you said that science tends to be one that you don't a topic that you don't feel as comfortable with.
Yeah, I'm very, very bad at those. Have you ever tried drilling science passages? I've not. That could be something to explore.
Just to build up your familiarity with the kinds of science topics that come up not that topics will necessarily repeat, but just putting yourself in that position where you're learning about a totally new topic, something that you may have little to no prior familiarity with. Yeah. Give yourself that exposure. Yeah.
And especially the science passages typically include words that aren't, you know, found in normal English language that are very exclusive to the topic. And I usually get hung up on those words, even though I know that around them, there's context or definitions, I still get hung up on that. And I think it's very mental. So I'm trying to get through that, but that's been a big roadblock for me.
It still is. Yeah. One thing you might do in those situations and supplies to logical reasoning as well is see if they define the difficult term somewhere in the text and then hold on to that definition of the term rather than the difficult vocabulary word itself. Yeah.
And then you substitute it for yourself. I like that. That's smart. I like that a lot.
Another technique you might try is for these difficult science passages rewriting the entire passage in simpler language as an exercise later after the fact, of course, under untime conditions. If you look at any of the deep dive reading videos in the course, you'll see where I would do this live in class rewriting the whole thing in simpler language live in class, as if I were explaining to a five year old. Yeah. I mean to dumb it down as much as possible.
And I still do that today when I'm going through a difficult passage. I'm not super comfortable with science topics either, but I'll try to just caricature it or exaggerate it to be as basic as possible. Okay. Just to get through it.
Yeah, that makes sense. That's I'm going to do that probably right after this. Cool. Awesome.
Awesome. Do you ever find yourself on those easier passages? Do you find yourself double checking or triple checking things may be taking longer on the thing you need to? I'll confirm.
I don't know if I'm not called to double check, but I know it's easier passages that I can really engage myself and I can blow through it quick. And I usually know where everything is from the questions. So I'll read the question and I just want to confirm my answer. I'm a little choreographed and usually around one to three sentences where it is.
You know, I think it's worth it, but I think that's also contributing to the, uh, to the fourth passage problem time wise. Sure. Sure. Yeah.
So I think it's just like an internal trust deal. I need to get over. But at the same time, I'm going to feel really stupid if I lose points because I didn't spend time so I could go check. Of course, of course it's a balance.
It's a balance. And maybe that's not exactly the spot that you shave off time. Maybe you shave off time during your initial read. If you're confirming anything during the initial read, more than you actually need to.
Yeah. I think I could, on those passages that I can't get super engaged in, but are still, you know, easier than science, I think I can read faster. I think I need to read faster. So I'm going to use that program that you have that you've recommended.
I've been trying to use that. It's just, you know, I feel like I'm just kind of slogging through it at this point because it's been five months. Yeah. Just like almost every day.
And I definitely had some bad practices over the summer in terms of taking breaks and it was very score heavy mindset. So lots of the review and figure out what you did wrong and more of the, well, you didn't score well. So I'm just trying to change that. I think all that's contributing to the issue.
Sure. Well, it sounds like you've got some new potential avenues for exploration based on our conversation here. So I'm hoping that just changing it up a little bit, trying something new. That might help you and give you some hope that, hey, like you can improve on this.
You can improve significantly. And everything you've done to this point is still aiding you going forward. You're just refining in these small areas. But you're feeling, I take it, you're feeling pretty good about logic games and logical reasoning.
Yeah. Games are pretty easy for me. I've, you know, practiced those a lot. It's just a down 35 minutes satisfaction.
Um, yeah. Sometimes, sometimes when it's time that there's a really, really difficult game, you know, uses one or two different types, or sometimes even three, I'll get hung up on those and go over time because I want to make sure I get it all right and completed. But for the most part, I can keep it within 35. Good.
Good. And logical reasoning. Um, depends on the day and all honesty. I don't get more than seven wrong typically.
Um, but I find that if I, if I start feeling like I get some wrong, I get in the Hispanic mindset and I get more wrong and I worry about the time and it just becomes like a ordeal. So my mind state has been a big thing. I'm trying to work on, you know, breathing exercises, yoga, mindfulness. I think I didn't practice over the summer that contributed to my 150.
Um, but I think I have some good avenues, a little refreshing to, uh, keep that score. A little more. Good. I was going to recommend exercises like mindfulness to help you let go of whatever happened previously.
Can it go forward with a clean slate or whatever is coming next? Yeah. Yeah. I played a lot of golf over the summer and it's kind of the same deal.
I don't know if you've ever played golf. You've got to just forget about it. Yeah. So that was honestly helpful as well.
So definitely having these more healthy habits have been helping me score better. Perfect. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you're on a good track moving forward here.
You have some new positive habits that you're picking up. You have some new potential approaches for reading comp to try out. What else could I do to support you today? Um, honestly, if you just have any, any tips as to keeping, you know, keep, I don't want to say keeping myself together, but keeping my mind in the right place during the LSAT.
Um, especially if like something goes wrong in the proctor, you know, chimes and because that happened and you know, the proctor went chime in while I was in the middle of something and totally wreck my whole train of thought. So being able to relocate myself quickly while I was in this show last time. So if I was, if I can get some tips for that, that'd be really helpful. Yeah, sure.
Well, if that does happen, that's where the mindfulness comes in to address whatever you have to address with them, get back to the problem at hand and just focus on that single problem at hand, not the interruption. Yeah. However, I do have another practical piece of advice here, which is how to potentially avoid this occurring in the first place. Before the exam even begins, you talk to the doctor and let them know, Hey, this is a really important exam.
It's very strictly timed. You just interrupt me for any reason, whether in the text box or over voice, can you please pause the clock because every second counts. You let them know that upfront. You just have to know that upfront.
You'll have the chance to interact with them before the exam actually begins. And so if you can let them know that hopefully they honor your request there, they'll agree to you initially. Of course, then maybe they forget, let's hope they don't, at least you're doing everything you can to avoid the possibility of that occurring during a time section. I didn't know they had that power.
Yeah. Smart. That's really smart. I like that.
And then you also do whatever you get awesome. That'd be so helpful. Yeah. I'm not sure if you can just ask that to avoid any connectivity issues to potentially plug in your internet with a wired connection with ethernet to hopefully avoid any tech connection issues with internet.
Yeah, definitely. Another good idea. I'll definitely talk to the doctor beforehand. Yeah, just let them know.
Yeah. And logical reasoning for those really, you know, the really hard questions, especially when it has a longer stimulus, I get a little intimidated by them and I definitely spend a little extra time panicking. I know it's more about mindfulness thing, but it leads to usually music second guessing myself and then picking the wrong answer. So do you have any tips on how to, I guess, be more confident in the answers I picked besides practice?
Because I know it's just a practice needs confidence thing, but I've done a lot of practice and those questions still make me a little nervous. Sure. I mean, those are probably the least favorite type and logical reasoning because they're more wordy, but everything's worth the same. So you're doing more work for the same number of points.
Since you mentioned that you like doing things in your chosen order in reading comp, I might recommend the same thing here in logical reasoning, which is you see one of those long stimuli, save it for last, flag it, skip it, come back to it later. That's the first thing I'd say. Okay. These are also likely to be parallel reasoning questions or principle application.
And so strengthening your approach for those particular question types, getting comfortable with the steps involved. So for example, in parallels, reading the stimulus, determining the method of reasoning, extracting the general principle out of it, then looking for answer choice, exhibiting the same principle, holding that principle in your head as you scan through the choices, you can also use little tricks like matching a degree of certainty in the arguments, matching the category of things they're discussing in the arguments, like all people versus all people who take the else out with that qualifying statement. Yeah. I noticed that earlier today when I was doing an aller section, those little changes and I was making those adjustments, trying to especially for principle application and parallel, trying to match everything up.
But even still, sometimes there's too that kind of have everything matched up and it comes down to various all language changes. And those are typically the ones I'll get wrong still. Yeah. So I would drill those on the side.
I would review them in depth using the secretive review method you see in the logical reasoning workshops in the course. But primarily I'd suggest for you to focus on the reading comp since that is, of course, a third of the exam is the greatest number of questions on the exam. And you have some new techniques you can try in terms of how to go about studying it. That'll have a bigger impact than parallel questions, which are only a couple per exam.
Yeah. And I do have a quick question about games a few months or two years. Yeah, sure. The substitute rule questions kill me.
I've spent five minutes still getting wrong, seven minutes, I'm time second wrong. Reviewed it went back to it three weeks later, still wrong. Hardest question for me. I'm the else out.
Yeah, I hear you there actually and everyone doesn't everyone feels like they're pretty hard, but they're actually not that bad. They just seem weird because they're fundamentally appearing to alter the rules of the game. But they're actually looking for a new rule, a new choice that has no consequence at all on the initial side or on any of the valid scenarios. So you want to look for a choice that's no more limiting and no less limiting than the original rules, identical consequence.
So same inferences as you would have with the original rule. Yeah. So when I go about these questions, I usually scratch out the rule that they're referring to and write and the different rules that for the answer choices, I'll make the list over at about that. And then I usually try to do analysis on how they stack up and how it affects the games.
But I usually just don't get them right. So do you think it would be better if I don't scratch out the initial one and try to, I guess, match their set? I think it's fine to scratch out the original rule because the new one's not going to look similar. Yeah.
You don't have a similar consequence, but it's because of its interaction with the other rules of the game that you'll have a similar consequence. Okay. That makes sense. So I'd recommend seeing, can you derive the same inferences and using your previous hypotheticals that you've already drawn for the game?
Will the new rule allow all of those to still exist? And that's what you want to say. Try that. Try using previous work.
Yeah. I'll write out three or four theoreticals usually depending on the game. I've never thought about stacking it up against a theoreticals and seeing if it'll still work. Check.
Yeah. If it makes any of those invalid, it's no good. That's so smart. That's quick.
That's like a minute. Not even my question's done. Yeah. I'm going to go in class just on rule substitution questions.
So take a look. Take a look at that. Definitely. Yeah.
And then, yeah, I mean, my biggest problem is reading comp and just getting through all of them. If you have any other tips for any of the other kinds, I mean the history ones usually aren't too bad for me. Those are kind of, those are easier in my opinion. Sometimes the law ones get me, which I know is kind of ironic, but sometimes they can be a little more complex and I get a little, you know, I start rereading a little bit and the time takes down and I look at the time.
Yeah. Sometimes that I gave you before, like rewriting the entire thing in similar language, that applies regardless of the topic, right? The topic doesn't matter at all. I know you've heard it before.
It's true. It doesn't matter at all, including on reading comp. So try those approaches. I shared for all passage types that give you trouble.
And by the way, the law ones, I mean, you haven't been to law school yet. So those aren't necessarily any easier and they're meant to be on topics that you haven't encountered before. So just like you might not be familiar with the science topics. Same deal with law.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, they are just trying to, you know, challenge Justin, get as low as possible. Yeah.
Well, we've got some tricks here to counter them now. Yeah. Do you have any tips for writing out games quicker? That's the last thing.
I can always use more time. I'm usually rushing the fourth game off finish it, but it's a little bit of a rush job. So if you have any like, for physically diagram it, because I'll, I'll write out each rule in the shorthand and then I'll make my two to fourth year radicals and then I'll just go right in. Usually I don't order the given, which I know is not the way I should do it.
But I just, I just try to blast through them. I don't want to spend time looking at every question before I answer them. So if you have any tips on how I can improve, you can buy 10, 20 seconds. Sure.
So a couple of things that might not be what you're expecting, which is what if we could allow you to approach the game without doing more diagrams? I don't recommend doing things in your head, but maximizing your use of previous work, just like we talked about how it can help you for rules, substitution questions, it can also help you with any game. So let's say you do your local questions first. So I'm suggesting again, do questions out of order, like you do for reading, and reading comments global, then local and games, it's the reverse.
It's the local if questions, then global. And the benefit here is that the work that you've done for the local questions, drawing those diagrams, that can help you avoid making new diagrams for a global question. Yeah. So the way to do it faster, maybe not to at all, because you've already done the work with the local questions, as well as the correct answer to the orientation question gives you yet another valid scenario that you can use.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Cool. It's like I'm doing my theoreticals, but I'm actually doing the questions instead. Yeah. So what you've already drawn could help you avoid drawing more that saves you time.
And more specifically, when it comes to how do you actually diagram faster? One thing I'd say is you don't always have to number every slot you put down. You don't have to rewrite all the rules for every single local diagram. You can look back to your main diagram as a reference point, but then keep your local diagrams pretty minimal, just enough to get the job done.
Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. I keep it nice and organized and numbered and normally I don't even look at the number part of my organization is good.
I'm just seeing other ways you could shave off time by doing the absolute max that you actually need to. And organizing too much though. So if I, you know, delete the numbers and just keep it dashes and write and, you know, number the questions, of course, I think I'll save 30 seconds. Go try it out.
So what happens? Yeah. All my other questions are admission based and we have four minutes left. So I think I'm going to save this.
Okay. Cool. Thank you for the help and for all the videos and the support and the YouTube videos are also very helpful and everyone found you felt that was a thank you for releasing all that valuable information for you. My pleasure, of course, glad to help.
And by the way, if you do have any admissions questions you want to ask now, I'm happy to take some time for that. So I'm just, I'm afraid that I'm coming in late to the cycle because I don't want to apply with my current score. And I'm, I'm just a little worried about if schools in my meetings are still going to admit me. If you know, I apply in December, maybe I'm a score back.
Totally fine. December is not late. Taking the November LSAT is totally fine. The cycles have shifted such that the November LSAT is perfectly square in the middle, maybe even a little bit early.
More and more people are taking the January LSAT, the February LSAT and so the cycles extended, but you're fine. Okay. And in terms of the writing portion, I believe I wrote a pretty strong writing portion in August. Do you suggest that I read another one?
Do I get to pick which one they get? Because I could write something even better, but it should also be, you know, crap. If you're happy with what you already did, you could leave it there. If you are confident you could do it something even better, then sure, do it again.
You don't get to pick. But I wouldn't say honestly your time is better spent, your effort is better spent focusing on the other parts of your application, like personal statement, resume and such. If you have spare capacity to do something to improve your application, I'd work on that rather than doing yet another writing sample. Okay.
One last question. How valuable do you think work experiences on a law school resume? Because I'm thinking about taking a year to get experience, work more on the LSAT and try to get a whole ride somewhere and all honesty and save myself financially from years and years of that. Do you think that would be a game-changing part of my resume?
And assuming, of course, that I get a 170 plus LSAT. Because if I take a year off, I need to get over 170. There's no excuse to that. Right.
Well, depends on what exactly the nature of the work experience is, whether it's going to be a game changer or not. The 170 plus would probably be a bigger game changer for your emissions chances. And so if taking more time allows you to crack that, right now we've been talking about getting you into the 160s. If you took another cycle and several more months of studying and got into the 170s, that would have a massive impact on your chances getting into better schools, getting more scholarships and such.
So I would make the most of that time for the LSAT. Obviously, I don't think you want to do nothing but LSAT for another year. So if you can do something that's both fun and productive on the work experience, that'd be pretty cool too. Yeah.
It would definitely be like a legal assistant. I would definitely say in field. Cool. I mean, that's good for your exposure.
They're also getting tons of applicants who are legal assistants or paralegal things of that nature. So I don't know that that would be a game changer. It could give you useful exposure to what the practice of law is actually like though. And so that could be useful to have on the resume to show them that you have the exposure could become the topic for one of your application essays.
But the LSAT improvement that you could get from a delay in the cycle would have a bigger impact. Okay. Yeah. I think I could score over 160 in November.
I'm pretty confident about that. No way. I'm a champion of all 70. It's just not in the cards, but I'm okay with that now.
Well, let's do everything we can to get you up for November. And then you continue refining things for a potential retake afterwards. Let's see if we can get you the 170s. Yeah.
If I get, you know, maybe 159 to level 161, would you suggest I take it in January or February or should I just submit what I have then? I'm not my number one school right now is Boulder, which is about like a 163 meeting, I believe. So I'm not sure if it would be best to delay even longer based on what you said about the cycles. Getting even just a couple of points more by taking it again in January or February, well worth it, especially if you look for scholarships.
You want to be above their medians for the sessions. Yeah, definitely above. That's definitely cool. All right.
Cool. I didn't know I thought the November was going to be the end all be on all honesty like to do or die trying to deal. It doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be and two to three more months of studying to get you even just two or three points more.
Well worth it. I could save you tens of thousands of dollars of money. Yeah. Yeah.
I remember we said 1.4 thousand dollars of scholarship approximately, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of money.
It is. It is. They'll pay you to go. They'll pay you with your points.
Well, so it's worth it. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Well, thank you very much. I'm sorry. I ran over on time. No, no, no, no.
I'm sorry. I ran over on time. No, no, no, no, no. So why not.
I'm not wrong. The other day, I came to be notified of new episodes as I release them and feel free to reach out if you need anything at all as you live with your prep. I'm happy to help. However, I can.
In the meantime, I wish you all the best and take care.