October 2010 Test Prep Forum

[DrackedaryMaster]

All my prep does is make me want to take MORE! MORE! MORE! sections/tests in order to score HIGHER! HIGHER! HIGHER!

I have to use a certain degree of self control just to keep myself from ruining tests by continuing even after I should be done for the day. Lol.

+1000

Same thing happens to me. I tried to lay off off starting PT36 tonight, but couldn't. Had a disastrous time through the 1st LR and by the 2nd RC Latin/Intellectual BS passage, I just stopped in the middle and said screw it. Similar thing happened with PT33. I want to keep going to prove my consistency that I'm "getting it", but then when I get bulldozed I want to keep going to "right the ship". Looks like I'll just use these two PTs for practice.

[Anaconda]

All my prep does is make me want to take MORE! MORE! MORE! sections/tests in order to score HIGHER! HIGHER! HIGHER!

I have to use a certain degree of self control just to keep myself from ruining tests by continuing even after I should be done for the day. Lol.

+1000

Same thing happens to me. I tried to lay off off starting PT36 tonight, but couldn't. Had a disastrous time through the 1st LR and by the 2nd RC Latin/Intellectual BS passage, I just stopped in the middle and said screw it. Similar thing happened with PT33. I want to keep going to prove my consistency that I'm "getting it", but then when I get bulldozed I want to keep going to "right the ship". Looks like I'll just use these two PTs for practice.

Happy to hear I'm not the only one that says "fuck this bullshit" halfway through a PT.

[Hannibal]

All my prep does is make me want to take MORE! MORE! MORE! sections/tests in order to score HIGHER! HIGHER! HIGHER!

I have to use a certain degree of self control just to keep myself from ruining tests by continuing even after I should be done for the day. Lol.

+1000

Same thing happens to me. I tried to lay off off starting PT36 tonight, but couldn't. Had a disastrous time through the 1st LR and by the 2nd RC Latin/Intellectual BS passage, I just stopped in the middle and said screw it. Similar thing happened with PT33. I want to keep going to prove my consistency that I'm "getting it", but then when I get bulldozed I want to keep going to "right the ship". Looks like I'll just use these two PTs for practice.

Happy to hear I'm not the only one that says "fuck this bullshit" halfway through a PT.

'

Haha, I definitely did that a couple times in PTs when I hit logic games I couldn't do.

[Day2Daze]

Just spent 15 mins on a game I could not figure out....and I still got 2 wrong!! I thought I had games under control.

One question, how many of you use a highlighter during RC?? What do you highlight and do you think it helps? I havent tried using it yet cuz Id read somewhere it kills time, but that might have been relevant only to LR?

[Sell Manilla]

I read the highlighter thing on another thread & decided to use it on names during RC. Pretty helpful. I figure time taken vs. time saved in finding names may be about a draw, but I'll imagine I'm saving time 'cause I find the names slightly quicker & it mixes things up a bit.

[Anaconda]

Do you guys think it's ok to do 37 minute sections for now (at least for LR) and then move it back to 35 over time, or should I do a consistent 35 minute section from now til October?

[Day2Daze]

I read the highlighter thing on another thread & decided to use it on names during RC. Pretty helpful. I figure time taken vs. time saved in finding names may be about a draw, but I'll imagine I'm saving time 'cause I find the names slightly quicker & it mixes things up a bit.

Ok, Ill try that. Names includes terms and references to names or just actual names? Sorry if thats a stupid question but I know Im doing something wrong in RC still and cant figure it out. Thankss

[Sell Manilla]

Do you guys think it's ok to do 37 minute sections for now (at least for LR) and then move it back to 35 over time, or should I do a consistent 35 minute section from now til October?

If you're consistently lagging, I suggest letting the stopwatch run, & finishing all sections. Make a mark in your answer sheet for a particular section after the 35 minute mark, so you know how many questions you answered within the time limit, then write down how long it took you at the top of that section on the answer sheet when you finish so you can track your progress. IMO, cutting yourself off before you're done, especially with this much time left, is doing yourself a disservice. For a while I kept track of my scores with a Real Score & a Score-if-I'd-finished-every-question.

[Sell Manilla]

Ok, Ill try that. Names includes terms and references to names or just actual names? Sorry if thats a stupid question but I know Im doing something wrong in RC still and cant figure it out. Thankss

I did just the names of people 'cause that was the only thing I didn't have a specific penciling technique for, but my answer should be irrelevant. Do what seems like it'd be most useful for you.

[Day2Daze]

Do what seems like it'd be most useful for you.

Yea...unfortunately most useful to me would be an extra 5 mins lol.

My RC scores are all over the place, no consistency so sometimes I think my technique is working, other times I feel like its my fucking diagnostic..

[Sell Manilla]

^ Have you developed a penciling method that you use consistently? If not, maybe try doing so?
Also, one thing I've found that helps is bracketing off the entire passage. In addition to whatever underlining, bracketing, or circling you do, try bracketing broad subjects on one side or the other. You may wind up with as little as 3, but I find that a visual-spacial outline of subject changes is helpful.

[Day2Daze]

I have a penciling method and mostly use it consistently. But I havent tried the bracketing thing, that sounds like a good idea.

So for my next RC I will have a highlighter and brackets to use...Ill update after a section or two of those. Thanks

[Hannibal]

I have yet to do any sort of practice timed other than official. Only 35 minute sections. I think staying with staying with this throughout my studying has made me so familiar and comfortable in the constraints there is no real time pressure anymore unless I'm facing constant difficulty.

[Hedwig]

I usually get bored at the end of LR/RC because I have 10+ minutes left and there's only so much time you can spend double checking your bubbling. I'm sure nerves will eat up a significant portion of that on the real exam though! Games I go down to the wire and it stresses me the eff out.

I got another -0RC today. Unfortunately it was on like PT 10 or something and was absolutely freaking laughable. The only question that could have tripped me up was this stupid one about a definition of a word where the word had been defined earlier in the paragraph. It was like "which could you substitute for this word and keep the same sense" and it was defined earlier in the paragraph and that definition was the substitution. I'll be sure to check that in future RCs. I did one other LR section as well, from the 10 Actual book, and got -1. Happy with that.

[OklahomasOK]

If you all can, try to work with less than 35 minutes. Come test day, you will be (or should be) somewhat nervous. You might lag, you might not be completely focused. I was timing at slightly less than 33.5 minutes (average) come test day, and I used every drop of time on the real thing. LR was my most time strained sections. RC was the least.

[drake]

Damn, SuperPrep C the 2nd LR section is crazy. I went only -2 on the first LR but just went -11 for the 2nd. FML.

I'm doing okay on LG/RC but LR is killing me. I really should get the LRB.

[Hannibal]

The most frustrating RC questions are "which of the following are not mentioned?" Cause I have to read the god damn passage again if I didn't read the questions first.

[lastch2]

^^ i use to be a big advocate of not reading questions first until i got fucked by RC, now i glance over the questions looking for names. overall it takes maybe 4-7 seconds but it saves so much time in the end! well, at least it feels like it.

[gdane]

Do you guys think it's ok to do 37 minute sections for now (at least for LR) and then move it back to 35 over time, or should I do a consistent 35 minute section from now til October?

We have a little under 2 months before the test. Doing 37 minute sections is not going to hurt you. Do a few PT's under those conditions and gradually wind down to 35 minutes that might help.

[Hedwig]

Do you wear Headbands in this manner?

Usually these:



In a manner similar to this:


In other news I did an RC section at about 3.30 in the morning (I know, wtf. It was so hot I couldn't sleep). -4. WHY AM I LOSING MY SKILLS. The questions are just harder. Frack.

[northwood]

attempted pt 52 again today. Should have had a 154, but a bubbling mishap caused me to bomb LG. I did the games 4, 1, 32, and put my answers for the 4th game starting at question 1. needless to say, i ended up with +5. If I had bubbled them correctly, i would have had a 17/23. Wow.. did this test just serve me an extra large
piece of humble pie. Still missing flaw and assumption questions, will re read the assumption chapter in the lrb, and go over the types of flaws in the flaw chapter.( I mis-identified the type of flaw, and answered accordingly.)

Goal still remains 160+. Still confident that I will achieve it by october.( thats right LSAT- you may own me now, BUT I WILL OWN YOU ON OCTOBER 9th!!!!!!!!!!!, to quote ivan drago: I WILL CRUSH YOU

[3|ink]

In other news I did an RC section at about 3.30 in the morning (I know, wtf. It was so hot I couldn't sleep). -4. WHY AM I LOSING MY SKILLS. The questions are just harder. Frack.

"Each of the following could potentially resolve the paradox EXCEPT:

A.) Taking timed sections at 3:30 AM often results in lower than average scores.
B.) Keeping a pile of headbands on the floor can cause one to trip and sustain a head injury.
C.) Taking timed sections in warm weather can be distracting.
D.) Wearing headbands can cut off blood circulation to the brain.
E.) You completed the section in 40 minutes."

[gdane]

Eit, those looks super cute. I wear headbands Guido style though.

[Hedwig]

In other news I did an RC section at about 3.30 in the morning (I know, wtf. It was so hot I couldn't sleep). -4. WHY AM I LOSING MY SKILLS. The questions are just harder. Frack.

"Each of the following could potentially resolve the paradox EXCEPT:

A.) Taking timed sections at 3:30 AM often results in lower than average scores.
B.) Keeping a pile of headbands on the floor can cause one to trip and sustain a head injury.
C.) Taking timed sections in warm weather can be distracting.
D.) Wearing headbands can cut off blood circulation to the brain.
E.) You completed the section in 40 minutes."

I'm thinking E.

I just did Prep Test #45 and was pleased with my score. 91 raw, 174 scaled. I was afraid I was going to majorly dip on the newer tests. -4LR, -1RC (yay!), -1LG, -2LR.

I had done two of the games before, unfortunately, somewhere. So that might have definitely affected my performance - however, I remember doing pretty well at them the first time and I had extra time left over that I could have used had I not had new ones, so it all averages out.

The first LR ... hmm. I found a few of those questions really puzzling. Also, when a question is removed from an exam, they account for that in the scaling, right? It was out of 26, I got 4 wrong, plus 1 is taken out, so I put down 21 right for that section, correct?

[P. Bateman]

Should I be doing all the old tests or should I just move on to the new one after I finish "10 Actual LSAT"