Few suggestions for Dec greatly appreciated!! Forum

[MdmMoisel]

1. For LR, if I fill answer sheet bubbles halfway, I get distracted and it takes me few seconds to get back to next qs. and process information. Should I just leave 3 min at the end of the sec to bubble entire 26 qs?

2. Haven't looked at Writing samples. Should I worry?

3. LG- always run out of time for last game. 10 days left for real test. Any suggestions? Will buy you dinner if I score in my expected range!!

[The Gentleman]

1) This is a personal preference, but not bubbling until the last 3 min seems too risky. Try bubbling at the end of every page. But whatever you do, make sure you test it out before Dec 11

2) I glanced at one just to put my mind at ease. But no you shouldn't worry.

3) This depends on how much time you are short and how accurate you are on the first three games.

[tourdeforcex]

1. i wouldn't trust myself in case i lost track of time. feels risky
2. no. preparing for the writing sample only takes time away from your improving on the real deal
3. definitely do the easiest games first, rack up your points and confidence, then muscle through the one or the ones you're not so hot on. get better at games. literally get as many games as possible and do them. maybe you'll reach a level of intuitive understanding. once i did 20+ games in 1 day. it was fun.

[glitter178]

definitely do not wait until the end to bubble. bubble after every 2 page spread. if you get "in the zone" and your proctor doesn't call 5 minutes, you could be screwed. also, you stand the risk of mis-gridding your answer sheet.

[ams]

get better at games. literally get as many games as possible and do them. maybe you'll reach a level of intuitive understanding. once i did 20+ games in 1 day. it was fun.

+1

You still have time!

[androstan]

1. I bubble every answer as I do the question. I don't like bubbling in blocks, and I would never wait till the end to bubble an entire section.

2. Forget about it.

3. When you start LG flip through and look at each one. Do the one that has the most white space at the bottom first. Then do the one that has the next most second, etc.

DO NOT get bogged down on one question. Ever. A couple of minutes hemming and hawing on a LG question can easily cost you 1 and sometimes even 2 correct answers on easier/intuitive questions. Most likely, if you don't see how to solve/approach it within seconds (15?) and can't solve it within a minute, you're probably not going to get it right anyway. Better to rule out 2 or 3 choices and take a guess than spend another minute or two desperately hoping it'll "come to you". You have to cut your losses. Shoot for -3/4, not -0. If you shoot for -0 and you're someone who runs out of time, you'll probably end up at like -8/9 (you'll miss the same 3 or 4 you would have, plus you'll miss another 1 or 2 per question you already missed because you spent too much time on them).

I'm someone who cold PT'd -8 or so on everything but LG. On LG, I cold PT'd -8/-15. Now I do about -3 on LG and -6 or so on the rest.

[MdmMoisel]

Thank you so much everyone!! I'm really losing hope because of LG. I took the June 2007 PT today and I could complete only two games Got stuck on the first one and it took me forever. It frustrates me to think that on test day if I get one difficult game, that's going to dictate my entire section and perhaps how I do on the rest of the test. IS the PT above that I did one among the hardest in general? I thought RC passages were easy as hell but still got tons wrong!

Can it be true that if I practice may be 10-15 games per day I'll may be able to complete the 4th game on test day? If a weird game comes up (like one of those rare ones) then I'm screwed. Or else I might be able to finish all four with practice? That is some hope.

Yeah I think I should bubble after every 10 qs. or so then. Otherwise after every page is too much of distraction for me.

Thanks again!

[mths]

1. For LR, if I fill answer sheet bubbles halfway, I get distracted and it takes me few seconds to get back to next qs. and process information. Should I just leave 3 min at the end of the sec to bubble entire 26 qs?

2. Haven't looked at Writing samples. Should I worry?

3. LG- always run out of time for last game. 10 days left for real test. Any suggestions? Will buy you dinner if I score in my expected range!!

1. Practice bubbling as you go. If you don't do that you always run the risk of (1) running out of time or (2) missing a question and being off by 1

2. No. They don't matter or count. Did not do a single one to practice.

3. Keep practicing and you should get faster but if you haven't yet then cut your losses and guess the remaining questions. Don't sacrifice other logic games to have time for the end cause then you might compromise the whole section.

[androstan]

Just realized I was unclear.

By "-6 on the rest" I mean -6 total on the rest of the test, not -6 on each other section. So I PT around -9/-10. Sometimes lower depending on the curve, but it usually comes out to 170/1/2

[krad]

1. For LR, if I fill answer sheet bubbles halfway, I get distracted and it takes me few seconds to get back to next qs. and process information. Should I just leave 3 min at the end of the sec to bubble entire 26 qs?

2. Haven't looked at Writing samples. Should I worry?

3. LG- always run out of time for last game. 10 days left for real test. Any suggestions? Will buy you dinner if I score in my expected range!!

1. When I took the Oct LSAT I bubbled when I got to the end of each page since it was usu 3-4 questions per page. I wouldn't recommend leaving the whole thing to bubble because ditto what others have said RE: the risk of tracking time.

2. I just read through a few of these posts: http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/search/lab ... prehension and it was fine; I think I finished it in maybe 15min?

3. Practice practice practice x a million. Also, look at all four and start with the type that you find easiest (I always started with linear), then find the next easiest, and so on. The first question is not always the best one to start with. I did this for RC as well, actually, based on the topic of the pasasage.

Good luck!

[tng11]

...

[paratactical]

I hate to burst your bubble, but 10 days is probably not be enough to bring your speed up.

I'm personally not a fan of trying to figure out what the "easiest" question is as skimming the question wastes time. Some of the hardest games have lots of blank space while easy ones can look very dense. Working through a game, if I find it's hard I'll allow an extra 2 minutes before moving onto the next problem. If I have any time left over after finishing the rest, I'll return to it which isn't a problem if the diagram is neat.

+1 to all of this. Great strategy.

However -

June 2007 had easy LG IMO. June 2009 was very hard, and you should prepare for something like that as LSAC is putting out more obscure and time consuming LGs. Try practicing with some in the 30s, I also found those very time consuming as well.

I took the June 09 LSAT and I thought the LG was easy. I have no idea why everybody else had such a hard time with it. I think it's hard to say what LG sections are harder or easier because different people are naturally better at different kinds of games.

[amorfati]

I would 100% recommend bubbling each answer as you go - otherwise you run a much higher risk of misbubbling. Once you get in the groove of bubbling every question, it becomes automatic and, ultimately, I think it ends up being both quicker and more accurate.

But if you find it really difficult to switch your bubbling style (or any other strategy), then now is probably not the time to be making drastic changes. But I don't think bubbling should really be that tough to switch -- just make sure you do a few practice tests between now and the real thing so that it becomes second nature.

[MdmMoisel]

Thanks guys! I've decided to bubble after every 10 LR qs and every psg/game. I think that's a good balance between bubbling after every single page and bubbling at the end of section. Next 10 days I'll PT that way, so should be ok.

Too worried about LG. I hate Selection games- haven't figured out the right way to draw those diagrams. I found LGB's arrow method much easier than Atlas' tree like diagrams. They both still consume lot of time. Lets see if I practice a lot, may be I'll get it :S

[jwmalone87]

For Selection games, I just write out the variables and circle them if they're selected or cross them out if they're eliminated. Help's keep everything clean and you can easily evaluate what variables are left over.

Seek out sequencing games and games with clear, definitive rules first. I have trouble with games too, so I make sure that I NEVER leave easy points on the table. If you're like me, getting through 3 games with very high accuracy, plus a couple correct guesses from the 4th game will net you a very respectable score.