Sebiga

Introduction

I have taken the LSAT 5 times. I initially started my LSAT journey a couple years ago in July 2019 without doing much research into the LSAT or the law school admissions process. I was just solving practice test after practice test and only went over wrong answers. However, this type of practice didn't improve my fundamental reasoning skills for LR and RC. My first real score was a 158 and my subsequent two other tests were only slightly higher than the first. It was so frustrating to see that all the time, effort, and passion I put into the LSAT was to no avail. I decided to give up on law school for a while, but eventually found my way back to studying for the LSAT again.

With time and familiarity with the test, I eventually was able to raise my score to a 168 on my 4th take, but my goal was to receive a 170+ score. I realized I needed help, because I thought that I had to be doing something wrong in my studies. As a last resort, I turned to Ellen for help. After 3.5 months with Elemental, my LSAT journey has finally come to an end upon receiving a 177 on the October 2022 test, a score I didn't even think was possible just a few months ago.

July - mid August 2022 -- VideoAsks, LR & RC Translation and CLIR

My first translation drill was around 45 minutes. I did 62 translations in total, including LR and RC, and I was able to reliably get my time down to 20 minutes, give or take 2 minutes, by the end of my Daily Virtual Tutoring sessions. I was able to better understand the material I was reading, hence the decrease in time. I felt good finally reaching that 20 minute goal.

At first, I hated talking to myself out loud because it was a bit embarrassing, but I stuck with it, because I wanted to improve my score. In my first conversation with Ellen, I promised her that I would do anything she asks me to do; I think I did a pretty good job on holding up my end of the bargain!

I did Daily Virtual Tutoring with Molly and I was able to improve my Translations and quips with Molly's guidance. The Translation process was super tedious, because I would be talking out loud to myself for more than an hour every single day; my throat hurt and I even got laryngitis at one point. But I can definitely say it was worth it because the RTQ process helped me to better understand what I was reading. Before, I would "word-skate," meaning my eyes would glaze over the text without comprehending them. But after embarking on this process, I found myself to be more immersed within the text I was reading and I was no longer word-skating. The text on the LSAT is not the most intriguing, but the RTQ helps to make it more "fun" and gets you to positively engage with the test.

The RC Decaf Translation was another beast in and of itself. It was definitely time consuming and gave me a bit of a headache. It's hard to read and understand a whole passage let alone recall it by memory. I had to brace myself before doing these, but in the end, they were extremely helpful in helping me to retain information and details. My biggest issue was seeing the forest and not the trees, meaning I often left out small details. This drill allowed me to focus more on the details rather than the "gist."

I often found that I would get questions wrong even when I understood the stimulus. This was due to a lack of understanding of the answer choices. The answer choices are just as important as the stimuli themselves. By translating and quipping answer choices, I began to have an easier time thinking of CLIRs.

Mid August - Mid October 2022 -- Party Trick, Inside-Out RC, MemAC, Full PTs, LG

On my first Mini-Cycle, I got a -1. I immediately thought that this was because I had seen every single LSAT section before and that this result was due to familiarity rather than an improvement in reasoning. But Ellen saw it differently; she positively supported me and said that I should be proud of my result and shouldn't negate it because it's difficult to do well even if you have seen the sections before. This completely changed my mindset into one that was more positive. I began to gain confidence after seeing multiple -0's, -1's, and -2's.

Because of my extensive experience with the LSAT, I think I had an innate sense of Party Tricking even before my sessions with Ellen. But, the Loophole book streamlined the concepts for me so that I was able to use it more effectively. Sometimes, the party trick answer and the correct answer aligned, but I knew that Party Tricking was only a guide, not a solution. Even so, I felt at ease knowing that I had a back-up plan if my Translations didn't pull through.

The Inside Out RC and Mini-Cycle drills were the most effective for me. I am a lazy reader by essence and I have been a lazy reader all my life. Old habits die hard. But these drills forced me to stop being lazy because I had to focus on both the stimuli and the answer choices not once, but twice.

MemAC was by far the most hated drill. I absolutely was not able to bring myself to do all 20 hours. If I had completed the challenge, perhaps I would have been even more prepared for my exam. However, I did glean some benefits from the 10 hours that I did complete. For example, it became much easier to remember not only LR answers, but also LG rules. I definitely saved some time and energy simply from being able to remember them.

Ellen's process for diagramming and solving LG was mind-blowing. Even though I was good at LG, I used to brute force everything and my diagrams were always so disorganized. Ellen's way made me even better at the LG section by helping me save time and do less work than before.

By the time I was doing my unsolved PTs A, B, and C, I was consistently doing well on all my drills. Using everything I had learned from Ellen, I was able to get a 174, 180, and 179 on these three tests respectively. I was so amazed at how far I had come. I didn't know I was capable of scoring so high, but these tests helped boost my confidence so much. I went into my October test with the affirmation that I would not let anything get in the way.

Concluding Thoughts

Everything Ellen taught me regarding reasoning will go a long way, even into my law school years. After studying with her, I became a better reader and a better thinker. However, I am most grateful for her unrelenting belief in me. She supported me in every step of the way, almost like a therapist. I had a period when I slacked off, but Ellen kept pushing me to be the best I could be and refused to engage with my negative mindset. I gained confidence not only in my abilities, but also in myself as a person. I know that the LSAT can be demoralizing and can make you feel worthless at times, but remember, the LSAT is a learnable test and your only enemy and competition, really, is yourself. I hope that my story will give everyone who is struggling with the LSAT hope, confidence, and the will to push through.

Don't give up if you have a specific target LSAT score. Persistence is key. With hard work and determination, there is nothing you can't do!