#lsac

(I am live reacting in the comments of this post, ignore)

Not intentionally, mind you—LSAC’s new online LSAT Proctor software isn’t compatible with the new MacOS Sonoma 14.0… so spent all night trying to learn how to downgrade my MacOS version in order to download the testing/proctoring software before my 7am exam.

Turns out, on silicon-chip Macs (M1+), you can’t just simply downgrade or restart/reboot your laptop to the software it originally came in. That’s apparently only an available option on Intel Macs.

Instead, if you have a silicon Mac, you have to go through the complicated process of:

1. Backing up your Mac using Time Machine on some other external hard drive or disk (since downgrading completely wipes your startup disk and erases all data)

2. Setting up a Bootable Installer—also on an external hard drive (separate)

3. Downloading the version software from Apple’s App Store (the easiest part of the entire process! Though, of course, you can’t even run it until you’ve done everything else first)

4. Using the Terminal app and running the specific (in my case, Ventura) command as found on Apple’s website and proceeding with the rest of the commands to get it working.

which… don’t get me started on figuring out how to set up a Bootable Installer. This was all completely foreign to me and honestly I was two “error” messages away from a complete mental breakdown.

At 5am, I gave up and woke up my poor friend to beg her to let me use her laptop for my LSAT.

If anyone can send me a crash course on using the Macbook’s Terminal app, it would be more than welcomed!

I thought I'd share my notes for free in the hopes that it helps others:

I am not done uploading everything- I'm currently working on my application. But I'm uploading on a regular basis. And do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

You have 35 minutes and a crap load of questions. So, what are you gonna do?

It’s tempting to just say, “Okay, how many questions can I possibly get through before time is up?”

It’s not a stupid idea by any means: you’re thinkin’, I can’t possibly get these right if I don’t attempt the question.

But here’s the problem - you stretch yourself so thin that you don’t get the questions you probably could have.

You need to slow down and remember that every question gives you enough information to find the correct answer. If you’re only answering 18-20 questions per section but you’re answering them correctly, you’re looking at a score in the mid-160s. 

So here’s what you do: completely ignore the timer. I mean it - don’t speed up or slow down, just go at a pace where you know you’re answering each question you attempt correctly. When you get to the five minute warning, bubble in all the remaining answer choices the same letter (that’s just to save time - it doesn’t matter at all what letter you pick). After that, go back where you left off and answer a couple more questions if you can. 

Remember, the questions in each section tend to get harder as you go. But you get the exact same amount of credit (one point) for each question, whether it’s number one or number 25. You’ll do better overall if you extend the effort on earlier, easier questions that you know you’ll get right, and then any of the last handful of questions are just icing on the cake.

You have to approach the test this way because you’ll never make progress if you’re not striving for comprehension above all else. The speed will come as you continue practicing and studying, don’t worry. Isn’t that how everything goes? 

Remember the last skill you learned (and remember, the LSAT is a skills test). Maybe it was cooking or knitting or whatever. You were slow at first, right? But if you focus on doing it right, you will eventually get faster just by practice.

If you’re shooting for a score in the 170s, this still applies, but you’ll have to practice to the point where you’re consistently getting to at least the last two or three questions. Don’t forget, though, that you can miss up to 14 questions and still score a 170 on many tests! That means you could randomly guess on the last 3-4 questions on every section and still score in that upper echelon.