Gun

Introduction

It was June of 2020 when I finally won against COVID, during an all personnel movement lockdown and was released from my previous duty station onboard a US aircraft carrier to my final tour in the Navy. From several near death incidents out at sea, to refueling a reactor, I could finally stand at ease to my new orders on shore. In a celebratory welcome-home-dinner with my family, I received a confusing suggestion about changing career paths from business to law school. What could be so difficult about the LSAT? After all, I had recently qualified as a Nuclear Engineer by the Department of Energy. Once all the dust settled, I took my first diagnostic test: 137. Holy. Cow. Damn.

Is this the real life or is this fantasy?

Reddit would tell you to give up immediately. But, nah. Let's talk about motivation later. Clearly, I had work to do and I found myself in a new sort of lockdown. I started with a Kaplan book that increased my appetite for the LSAT and got me exposed to a bit more material, but I was still missing so many questions. So, I finally gave up on self studying and committed to investing in a tutor.

Mistake #1: Searching for the Best Bang for the Buck

Don't do that. You really get what you pay for. This isn't a knock on other companies, but it is an important life lesson that you really get what you pay for. I had found this super affordable company where your teacher was someone who recently scored above a 175! My work ethic during the LSAT journey had always been 8-10 hours of studying on top of a full time job and a family. Early mornings, late nights. Time kept passing by as pollen saturated the air, my second kid was born, the leaves started changing colors and falling, and etc. Without going into too much detail, while I learned a good bit spending a year with this particular company, I plateaued hard at 158.

As I was perusing through a popular LSAT forum, one random discussion post was about a guy who was stuck just like me. He eventually got into Harvard with an LSAT journey from the mid 140s to 174. Good for him! Seems like a legit guy. What stuck out to me in that post was a specific shoutout of "Ellen" and her book "The Loophole." Who is this lady and what does she do?

Desperate for a change, I quickly bought that book off Amazon and became immediately hooked onto her style of writing and teaching. I felt an immediate change in my thinking process and problem solving approach to the LSAT. She felt like the real deal. I requested to set up a video call anxious to meet this LSAT celebrity. The call was so uplifting and I was already bought in. But there was one problem: a freaking wait list. In the meantime, there was this new thing called Daily Virtual Tutoring.

Mistake #2: Do not underestimate any program she puts you through

What could be more discouraging in a relationship than to be put on hold or long distance? I know this too well, as I met my wife halfway across the world (Japan) and maintained a long distance relationship for a few years. It didn't feel great doing these virtual submissions. I was paying money and I wanted to start doing lessons with the real Slim Shady (Ellen), NOW! Well, turns out, you save more time when you do those Daily Virtual Tutoring submissions. So, do them well. Do them faithfully. In fact, don't cut corners in anything she asks you to do. Might I suggest reading In Search of Lost Time to get savvy in understanding complex writing forms? Yes, she made me do it, and it was critical for me to get comfortable in reading "abstract" RC passages.

Once a slot opened up and I graduated from this Daily Virtual Tutoring program, it felt like the rubber was finally meeting the road. In the famous words of Lightning McQueen, "I am speed."

Except it wasn't! Listen, Translation is the bread and butter of your success on the LSAT. Don't rush the process. Your heart will tell you when you're ready before your brain does. The problem with a lot of high achievers is the inability to really see the degree of one's weakness. People are generally smart enough to know what their weaknesses are, but not really how bad. Ellen is really gifted in revealing your weakness and precisely targeting it. Her 13+ years of experience in this field really manifests itself in moments like these. So, for the love of God, listen to her advice. You're doing yourself a disservice if you think you know better and derail the Elemental train.

I pretty much did every single drill and tasks in Elemental. Yes, I needed that much work. Remember, I started with a 137. This story is already long. I'll lose your attention by the time I write a review about every type of drill I have done. The bottom line is do your diligence.

Mistake #3: My progress is directly proportional to the time I spend studying

Just like learning a new language, it is about how you learn a new skill, not how long you learned it. After my August test, I missed my mark. My first test got canceled due to technical difficulties, so I had to do a retest. Oh boy, did that mess me up. I was even more nervous going into the retest! At this point, I had two kids, I had to run an entire organization on my own due to a shortage of manpower, and I had recently developed an NPO. Despite feeling burned out, I couldn't live with the fact of ever giving up. I was going to get my score, dammit. I completely changed my studying regimen from 8-10 hours a day to 2 hours a day. Instead, the few questions I looked at every day were very targeted, very skills focused. Take care of your health and your family. Preparation for the LSAT is the long game.

Mistake #4: When will I ever get there?

Stop. Motivation is under your control. Only you have the authority to kindle it or kill it. Chase after YOUR objective. It is easy to get distracted, be it through a television show, bad time management or self-pitying yourself wishing you were at the finish line already with your peers. But seriously, never mind all that and keep moving, because no one else is finishing the (your) mission other than you.

You want this and deserve this more than anyone else. Don't just talk about it, be about it. Have specific plans to attack general problems, like the LSAT. Be honest with yourself. Embrace the wrong answers, but make sure you learn from them. Success seldom teaches anything; failure teaches. Put your effort in now no matter how grueling and daunting your journey. If I can do it, so can you. In fact, you can do better than me, and you should for God, family and country.

Most people will doubt you. Ellen and her staff never will. So neither should you.

Let Jesus take the wheel.

— Gun, 171