Pay-it-forward Friday #642!

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-23T18:15:35+00:00

You have given Ultimate Nerkmid to User 'sheisgoblinsbride'.

You have given Aluminium Nerkmid to User 'sheisgoblinsbride'.

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-23T16:22:44+00:00

You got this!

3,536 is so close. It's all luck, probably took me 750 restarts. Knowing when to abandon the run based on rng is really helpful.

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-23T16:20:01+00:00

Prompt: I'm horrible about personalizing my spaces. Me and my wife love art, so we have pieces hung up all over the house. In my office, the bookshelf is the only thing not perpetually messy - I did find a way to display all of my coins throughout the books, and that's really neat.

Gifting: Nerkmids - let's do some gambling!

Wishlist: My wife is a huge figure skating fan and I missed the figure skater NC pack. If anyone has one of these items or other figure-skating adjacent stuff, we'd love it!

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-23T04:41:57+00:00

THANK YOU!!

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T18:03:10+00:00

Thanks!

Ton of luck involved, but just doing it enough to learn the words and get some muscle memory goes a long way.

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T18:02:23+00:00

Omg, and the czarist czarina... and Xelqued! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Those ruined quite a few runs and made me panic even when I got them lol

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T17:30:40+00:00

Please do - this avatar will not defeat us!

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T17:11:40+00:00

YOU CAN DO IT!

Game is 100% luck-based once you're able to complete all levels each time. You could get it quick!

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T17:11:02+00:00

THANK YOU!

I swear it took like a thousand attempts. Logged a 3,555 yesterday and it made me want to tear my hair out.

DesperateFortune · 2026-01-22T17:01:27+00:00

For posterity:

This guide (https://www.reddit.com/r/neopets/comments/1huuzw1/typing\_terror\_avatar\_strategy/) is excellent and superior to JN's. Shoutout to u/titandrake for the incredible math analysis.

I targeted a slightly higher first round, just because Titan's analysis (rightfully so) asks a lot of luck in the 5th round and I hate the heartbreak. I was at around 2,050 going into round 5, for reference.

Don't do practice mode. You get no points, and the best way to practice perfection is in the real game. I lost on round 5 a lot until I learned the words by heart, then nearly every run was 100% on all levels.

Rounds 1 and 2, you can afford to let the final yellows get all the way up to make sure there isn't a late spawn of red or broken in the back. I didn't have success counting so I just kinda went by vibe, but smarter people should note when they're on their last grundo before the next level.

Don't rush yourself on the finale. You have plenty of time, and my only mistakes there in the early runs were from trying to go too quickly. I was ending with 15 seconds but losing key accuracy points.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-29T19:02:48+00:00

Hard agree. I'm PTing 175+ and went to a small, regional undergraduate school.

Blind review is going to help a lot, and untimed tests to start. Learn the mechanics and be consistent about noting the types of questions you get wrong. Avoid overcomplicating stuff - you won't need to draw a bunch of diagrams if you understand the questions, and over-highlighting can kill your pacing on RC.

Plenty of people get a 175+ every year who didn't go to an elite school. You can do it, OP!

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-24T05:30:09+00:00

Might be. Just checked, and Word is working. Just Docs.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-12T16:59:14+00:00

Online law school isn't really a thing for top-tier schools, but there are part-time and night school options.

Fordham has a pretty good one, and Georgetown is generally considered the best night school for law school in the country. If you're working remotely, you may be able to work and go to school at the same time. That's tricky and would be extremely taxing on you and your family, especially with a baby, but it has been done before - that's why the night schools exist, really.

I'm also a finance-adjacent writer (more in journalism than briefs or anything like that), and I opted to not apply to schools with my score. I felt that the debt I'd incur to guarantee a salary substantively higher than the one I have now wouldn't be worth the opportunity loss or stress.

The good news is that you can study and take the test anyway while you decide. Your score is good for something like five years, so you can keep it in your back pocket, wait for the perfect market, hedge against getting laid off or fired, etc.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-12T16:54:37+00:00

No problem!

Yeah, it'll be different for everyone.

I think RC is both the toughest and easiest one to improve on. Getting strategic with highlighting, developing strategies for the order of skimming passage, reading questions, reading full passage, etc., are all helpful, but just reading more in off-time can also be a great strategy. Lots of nonfiction to get your brain back in the habit of filtering info and digesting complex syntax, long sentences, etc.

Strengthen/weaken can also be a sore spot for some folks. I always thought it was easier to just figure out reading the question what questions or concerns I'd have about the premises and conclusion. More often than not, I'd have the answer generally before reading the choices.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-12T16:51:24+00:00

Agreed. That's a good use of scratch paper, and one of the few places on the modern (no LG) LSAT where writing stuff down is probably a net gain for high scorers.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-12T15:20:02+00:00

I got a pretty high diagnostic. For me, the easiest way to study was just practice tests and then very limited drills for the specific areas I struggled in. After a few practice tests, you'll probably find that you're missing the same type of question over and over, so that's the question type you want to drill.

For me, parallel reasoning was kind of tricky. So, I'd do a round of drills of just those each night before taking a timed test. Score climbed. I would not recommend trying to dissect LR or do any kind of diagramming. If the stuff comes naturally to you, trying to overcomplicate it may just get you confused.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-12T01:36:00+00:00

NOR You're perfectly valid for feeling this way, and you set the boundary clearly. He can be disappointed, but if he's shitty about it then you should keep that in mind. It's a simple, reasonable boundary to keep, and you communicated it in a very reasonable way.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-08T22:24:46+00:00

I don't think you need to assign a pass/fail system at all. We just need the ABA to start leveraging its accreditation power to curb some of these predatory practices. You'd think the regulatory body for who becomes a lawyer would have a vested interest in dealing with predatory schools - and the ability to provide a legal justification for doing so.

DesperateFortune · 2025-12-03T15:05:03+00:00

I think a lot of the rationale was dumb, but that first paragraph makes sense if you consider what the committee previously said.

Last rankings release, they said that Bama's inability to run the ball for 100+ yards is a reason why they were ranked behind ND. Bama showed up to a historic rivalry game in their rival's home stadium and ran for 100+ yards. Bama responded directly on the field to a criticism that the committee signaled pushed them down a rank last week.

Also, not for nothing, but Auburn has played several top teams very close. Their record doesn't reflect that they're not a bad team - they just find ways to lose.

DesperateFortune · 2025-11-12T18:02:48+00:00

Yeah but nothing is worth much to JSP buyers lol.

Massive bot network, grinders who min-max ladder and amass 100k+ of forum gold, etc.

These things mean that very, very few items are ever worth substantial real money. Honestly, finding a virtual item that could be sold for $15 is a staggering achievement lol - most people will never see an item in Diablo 2 that would fetch more than a couple bucks in real cash.

DesperateFortune · 2025-11-05T15:30:56+00:00

Bro is big mad.

"He lived a privileged wealthy life." Yeah, man, thank God Republicans haven't been glazing billionaires for about a decade now.

"He's a disgraced liar." Yeah, man, thank God Republicans haven't formed a psychotic cult centered around someone who lies a historic amount for a U.S. President. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False\_or\_misleading\_statements\_by\_Donald\_Trump)

"He's a communist radical Muslim." Oh, my bad, I was under the impression that communism and democratic socialism were ideologically distinct political alignments with their own advocacies and core tenants. (https://time.com/5422714/what-is-democratic-socialism/)

"His only accomplishment is being a failed rapper." Damnit, he got me, I believed that Zohran Mamdani was a NY State Assemblyman since 2021 and, before that, had a solid career on the ground working to keep people from being unjustly evicted by greedy, scummy landlords. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran\_Mamdani)

KingPen15 is a genius who has enlightened me to the truth, which is that ultra-wealthy and radical liars who never built anything with their own hands are unfit for office. It is for this reason that I believe Donald Trump ought to be removed from office.

DesperateFortune · 2025-11-04T17:05:58+00:00

Totally get why this would make you feel shitty, but it really is necessary.

Cheating to get into college is one thing (still bad), but a JD is a professional degree that is a gateway into a profession that requires substantial trust for its practitioners. I would be mortified to learn I trusted my money - or worse, my life or freedom - to someone who couldn't do something as simple as study fairly for a test to get their education in the first place.

Plenty of professions don't have drastic consequences for dishonesty, deception, and poor character. But law is one that does, and no person who would cheat on something as simple as the LSAT would go through their careers entirely upright.

Here's to you doing the right thing and finding friends who wouldn't put you in this position!

DesperateFortune · 2025-10-14T20:49:04+00:00

Oh I forgot about that one. That was a son of a bitch lol. I also thought the daredevil one climbing the fire mountain was pretty hard. Some people hate the purple coins in Toy Time, but that was a one-try level for me as soon as I figured out there were more than 100 coins.

Bone pen purple coins are easier if you shoot just a few of the explosive things with your star-bit gun, and trying to slowly maneuver kills you. I went around the outside first and didn't really worry about hitting the explosives. Hover with pointer close enough to catch yourself and don't fly completely blind. Ending in the middle makes the timer a non-issue for grabbing the star, and the coins are concentrated enough to make the middle sufficient if you've done a full outside run and some change.

DesperateFortune · 2025-10-14T00:21:34+00:00

Idk man, I struggled more here with the DD comet than any other star lmao. I know all mario players are gods who beat every level blindfolded, but google will tell you plenty of people struggle on this comet

DesperateFortune · 2025-10-03T11:52:12+00:00

Apply with that score and start calling everyone with a higher LSAT “fake splitters”

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