Chances - CGPA: 3.7286, L2/B2: 3.8056, B20: 3.87, L12: 3.9, LSAT: Low-150s (PTs)

[Canlawforumuser123]

Hi everyone! Glad for any feedback! (Also can someone clarify if our GPA would be rounded or taken at exact figures?)

- LSAT: Working on the LSAT currently.  Specifically re: the LSAT I will be glad to hear (with low-150s in PTs should I go with Nov or take it in Jan? Is Jan too late/do applicants with Jan LSAT have a disadvantage?)
- Personal Statement/Optional Essay/Access Claim: showed my link to the law through work, leadership, past diversity challenge, & personal values. Also attached my medical docs for impacted LSAT performance due to chest pain

-References: 1 from PolSci Prof (Got A+ in course), 1 from Real Estate Brokerage Manager, 1 from Real Estate Law Course Professor (got A in course)

- Work Experience: Realtor (1.6 yrs ongoing), Banking (3 Months), Fast-food Restaurant (1 yr) 

- Leadership: political leadership roles from 2015 (Election Campaigner, Youth Delegate, MLA, & Party Member), literary association member from 2014 (into book releases & promotional events)

- Volunteering: Community Kitchen Helper from Sept 2019 (Every weekend)

- Research: seminar presentation for a university course

- Awards: On faculty’s achievement list consecutively from Yr 1-3 (ongoing), best delegate awardee at Cambridge UK Modern UN, 1 university scholarship, 1 high school scholarship

Edited November 4, 2022 by Canlawforumuser123
Bolding

[Canlawforumuser123]

Glad to hear any input! 

[SNAILS]

I'll break it down into "everything other than your LSAT" and "your LSAT."

"everything other than your LSAT"... is fine. Not terribly strong or terribly weak. Your grades and work experience put you in the middle of the back with 1000+ other applicants, and law schools will be looking to your LSAT score to see if you will be admitted. 

"your LSAT"... is not good enough yet. You need to be aiming for 160+ on PT. People tend to do no better on their real LSATs than their PTs.

How?

Practice, practice, practice. Get an online LSAT course (I recommend 7Sage.com) or some PowerScore bibles or whatever you feel is appropriate. It seems pre-mature for you to be booking a "real" LSAT, but sometimes it is nice to have a score on file to give you a baseline.

It seems you have a lot of hours of work to do to get your score up, and I hope your progress is fast and successful. (You should focus on your application for next cycle - to start aw school in 2024, not 2023).

FYI, if you end up with a best LSAT score of 157 or 158 or whatever, you have a decent shot at Ryerson or some other schools, but you want that 160+ to give you a solid chance of being admitted t a few schools.

[Canlawforumuser123]

Thanks for your input, very appreciated!

It's satisfying to hear all the non-LSAT aspects look somehow good lol 🙂 The LSAT is the only part where I am pushing myself this time as rest of the app is finished, and I'm just maintaining my current GPA with As in this semester's courses (hopefully!).

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, but if I do a PT a day with review up to the Nov LSAT can I reach upto just that 160 score? I'm ready to go with the Jan LSAT but I'm wondering if any Ontario or Out-of-Province law schools (I'm flexible) are able to accept me or any applicant on the Jan LSAT or not? 

I'm currently doing a 3-4 mixed LG/LR timed sections daily each with 30 min review. The latest time sections from LR/LG/RC I've done separately were LR (-7), LG (-2), RC (-10). I really want to take down these mistakes (obviously) so in this limited time what would be the best way to do it? For a full-timed PT (4 sections) I do 1 each week where I'm getting the low-150s. Should I make some changes/additions in this overall routine?

Edited November 6, 2022 by Canlawforumuser123

[SNAILS]

The main theme of the questions here seems to be about starting law school in September of 2023. First of all, the application deadline is past (Oct 31, unless it has changed from past years). Assuming that you completed an OLSAS application, then I think some Canadian law schools might consider a January LSAT. I don't think you'll be ready for a good LSAT score in November. I could be wrong. If you take it, at least it gives you experience taking a real LSAT (and all the emotions that go with that!).

If I were you, I would not be overly concerned with whether it takes you a bit longer to get your desired LSAT score because your current work in getting a good LSAT score helps towards your 2024 application as well. (With 2023 acceptance being "icing on the cake"). I know that 12 extra months seems like an eternity for a younger person (as I assume you are). In the long term, it will not matter. Decide on the schools you want to go to, and work towards them. I assume you are completing your undergrad this year, so you will have a nice break before law school (which is in itself demanding) that will also allow you to really focus on your LSAT SCORE (if needed).

Improving RC, for me, was about reading the questions first, then selectively choosing which ones to answer (ex. in a two paragraph reading sample, I would answer questions that dealt with only the first paragraph first). Beware the trap of spending 2+ minutes on a hard question and less than 30 seconds on a relatively easy question. If you have looked at an RC question for more than a minute, guess and move on. Always grab the low hanging fruit. If you are finding that you are getting questions wrong that you spent less than 30 seconds on, then you might be a victim of this trap (of spending too much time on hard questions and not enough on ones you perceive as easy). A related problem is spending so much time on the first 3/4 of RC that you rush the hell out of the last quarter and lose 3 or 4 points that you would have gotten if you had given equal time to each passage.

For most people, it is harder to improve LR/RC than LG. This means you need to allocate a fair amount of time to improving. The good news is that it is much easier to improve from low 150s to high 150s than from 160 to 170. ("Naturally gifted" people being the exception - which you and I are not since neither of us got anything close to a 170!)

My final tip is BLIND REVIEW (bolded and enlarged for emphasis). This means that after doing a practice test, that you take a lot of time to review your answers before looking at the answers. When practiced, I might get a "real score" of 159 (or whatever) which is the score when the timer ran out. I would then check my answers for hours and get a "blind review score" of maybe 172 (or whatever). I would then closely examine why it was that I was unable to get the correct answer to a question despite taking a lot of extra time. I would then also closely examine why I was able to determine an answer with extra time and figure out how I can get some of these answers more quickly within the time limit. A PT could take me all day, but I feel I benefited more from the blind review than anything.

This blind review method is time consuming and leads me to suggest that giving yourself a year to get a 160+ is more fair to you than grinding for improvement by November/January (and perhaps cutting corners).

Blind review is a central aspect of the 7sage.com online LSAT system.

[Canlawforumuser123]

Thanks for the update again! Yes I've already applied for Ontario law schools through OLSAS before this year's deadline (Nov 1) and I'm planning to apply separately to out-of-province schools too (they have later deadlines). And also because being the fall term of my final year, I still need to report my new transcript with this semester's marks to OLSAS and the out-of-province law schools separately (which will come out in end-December).

That's why I was asking if law schools do accept applicants on their Jan LSAT, because I can then study more for Nov + Dec (2 more months) and perform better while the rest of my application is already completed. The LSAT is the only part I've not included basically in my OLSAS application, and would be the same for the out-of-province law schools.  I was thinking to do it when I give the next LSAT, but If there an issue can arise from this I would be glad to know!

Also thinking that if all Canadian schools have less seats to fill in by the time I'm done with the Jan LSAT and get my results in end-January, would applying nation-wide help me to get in (with an LSAT score I would get between a 156-164 or something like that)? Will be great for some insight into this!

On the side regarding work experiences, leadership roles, volunteering, research, and awards I was wondering if competitive applicants have these better than I sort of listed (or do more cooler stuff than me don't know)? If so what kinds of entries are usually appealing to law schools? Interested to know

Thanks!

[Canlawforumuser123]

Any other feedback will be very appreciated!