June 2011 Study Group Forum

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

I pmed Noah already and didnt receive a response....

I believe you have disabled the pm receipt function - the forum told me I can't send you pms - I didn't even know that was a possibility!

Anyway, shoot me an e-mail at noah(@)manhattanlsat.com and I'll help you out.

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

Sorry about that! We try not to bug folks with e-mails too often, but apparently we're too gun shy.

Brian is working on joining this Sunday's 4:30 session (that's in the MLSAT self-study room). If he can join, he'll post it on the FB wall - and the HW for that session will be:

LR
PT32, S4, Q15
PT32, S1, Q19
PT29, S1, Q16
PT31, S2, Q19
PT31, S3, Q9
PT33, S3, Q9

RC
PT31, S1, P4
PT30, S3, P2

LG
PT30, S1, G2

FYI, Brian will be there for an hour tomorrow to go over some of those at 4:30 EST and then the group can stick around and work on the rest on its own. It's in the MLSAT self-study room (pm or e-mail me if you don't have that room link). Have fun!

[geverett]

Epic fail on LG 34 exp.

[Eichörnchen]

Epic fail on LG 34 exp.

Oh don't worry, I'm sure that I will out-fail you by far tomorrow

[geverett]

I don't know what else to say, but these new tests have a completely different feel to them. Today's fall from grace wasn't nearly as bad as last weeks, but it is not encouraging by any means. LG experimental was so bad I'm not going to even post it. Seriously considering postponing until October. I think I might need to take a couple day break.

Here's the breakdown:

LR 1 (-3) 22/25
RC (-6) 22/28
LR 2 (-6) 19/25
LG (-3) 19/22

-18 Raw 82 165

I used to be able to fly through the first 10-15 giving me plenty of time to be able to maneuver through the final LR questions. That has sadly not been the case in these newer tests.

[buckythebadger]

Epic fail on LG 34 exp.

Don't worry, I also thought that section was a bit harsh. It wasn't that the games were necessarily really hard, but EVERY question required checking many different possibilities. It was very time consuming and I would have had to guess at the last set of problems if I stuck to 35 minutes. I ran about 8 minutes over time and 1 wrong otherwise.

[Eichörnchen]

Oh god I'm terrified now! I have never done a PT newer than the 20s and I'm incredibly bad at games. Sounds like the perfect double whammy for failure tomorrow when I do it. And Gev, don't be too embarrassed! I'm sure it's better than I do on games and I post that regularly. (not to mention the fact that I admitted that I had a mini nervous breakdown this morning, complete with tears. ) This process sucks sometimes. I was thinking earlier, "No way, I can't do this. I should postpone." but then I realized I'd rather go super hard these next 50 days and never have to look back. You can do it!

[mickeyD]

After a hard week of drilling, I sucked it up and took on Superprep C today. Used StanleyOttoSwift's untimed review as usual.

4/16: Superprep C
LG: -3 (-0 untimed)
LR: -3 (-3 untimed)
LR: -2 (-0 untimed)
RC: -2 (-1 untimed)
Raw: 92/101 = 173! (179 untimed)

The games section, as promised, was really tricky. I've been practicing to calm myself down during LG so I can think clearly, and as a result dominated the first two games. But out of nowhere on game 3 I had trouble understanding the rules and panic mode creeped up. Also game 4 was really evil, it intimidated the shit out of me with its big setup (15 slots), which is the last thing a little games wimp like me needs with time running down.

My intense LR drilling for the past two weeks helped IMMENSELY. It may not be reflected in my score, but this is the first time I've ever come close to 15Qs in 15mins, and I wasn't even trying to. When I looked at the clock during question 20 and saw 10+ minutes left, I swear to God I thought my timer was broken. This happened on both LR sections, although for LR2 it was actually necessary. This particular section had the nastiest parallel reasoning question I've ever encountered. If anyone's curious, its (SPC LR2 #24).

Anyways, I made it out of the Superprep series alive, not to mention with my best 3 scores ever.

Superprep A: 171
Superprep B: 175
Superprep C: 173

Eich, LG drilling will become our lives between now and June 6.

[geverett]

We can fuckin' do this. Tired of this bullshit. I am going to kick this tests ass if it's the last thing I do. The problem I am having with the newer tests is one of endurance and adjustment to the fact that the first 10-15 questions at the beginning of the LR sections on these later PT's are more challenging than the first 10-15 on earlier PT's. It definitely just feels like they are giving you hell from the beginning of things whereas before I could get through the first 10-15 fairly quickly and without exerting myself too much mentally, and then really push myself for the last 10-15 questions. I am coming back to the questions I got wrong, and instantly seeing what I did wrong so it's not a matter of not having the ability to get the correct answer it is more a matter of adjusting myself for the newer tests, and knowing that I can't take the first 10 questions for granted anymore. I need to maintain a high level of focus throughout the entire section.

[geverett]

Also, no more drilling the older tests for me. I am sticking exclusively to PT 30 and up from now on for individual section drilling

[Eichörnchen]

Eich, LG drilling will become our lives between now and June 6.

True true. I only wish I were getting scores like you are, damn boy! I just started games drilling day before yesterday (I'm doing 12 games/day). Is that pretty much what you did? Or have you always been better than I have in games? (I started with -12/-11s and have only been able to get it to like -9, but am prone to slipping back) I'm hoping that I just suck this much because I never drilled (stupid me). I wonder how long it will take to improve

Oh and I think that if the LSAT were a person, Gev would beat the shit out of him tonight. And then I would make Gev thank-you cupcakes . But seriously, let's just push through and get this test over with!! I don't want to have to push it back or retake it. Let's kill it in June and burn our prep materials while drinking margaritas.

[pkpop]

PT 51 go!

Just finished up with my PT 51. I'm glad I waited until today instead of forcing it yesterday. Overall I felt okay with it.

EXP LG 34.4 (-3) 21/24 (Made a dumb false inference that cost me 2 questions on the first game, but to be fair, I had reviewed the 4th game a week ago. )

LR 1 (-3) 22/25
RC (-6) 22/28 (1st passage meltdown)
----
LR 2 (-4) 21/25
LG (-2) 20/22

-15 Raw 85 - Scaled 167

Two good things. This is the first test I finished in time in a while. It was close though for RC and was rushed yet again on the last passage. Also, 2 is a trend right? No change on my raw score, but RC inconsistency strikes again. Hope to apply the RC lesson from Thursday in my reviews from now on to help speed up. Gotta stop dumb mistakes in LR.

Gev, I'll be interested to see what questions you got wrong on the 1st half and will be somewhat freaked out if we have the same 3 LRs/6 RCs wrong.

[geverett]

Whenever I think about quitting I just think to myself what the tiger mother would say, and I get my ass back in gear. Time to go over mistakes, and do some more drills.

[chrisnyoder]

PT43-45: http://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-2004-L ... 0972129642

PT51: http://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-D ... _b_title_1

The book gives you the PT and then analyzes each question the same way PS analyzes each practice question in the bibles.

And if you haven't bought the PS LG Bible Workbook (separate from the Bible), I highly recommend it. Lots of good practice from little steps (diagramming, rule representation) to full games and even a full section (though I didn't touch the section because I knew I was going to encounter it eventually through PTs).

The PS methods for LG are, as you know, the gold standard. But I personally made a couple adaptations. 1. For IN/OUT and distribution/matching games of unknown distribution, I use the Manhattan/Ace method. 2. For linear and pure seq games, to indicate "F is interviewed before G," I use F-G, not F>G.

I'm considering the PS LR Bible Workbook, do you have any experience with that? Or would you think Manhattan LR to be a better use of my time? And do you think there's much a difference between 1.0 and 2.0?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions that you've already responsded to.
THanks!

[soj]

I actually don't have the LR Bible workbook so I can't comment on it. MLSAT LR2 is very good regardless of PS.

[Eichörnchen]

Hey guys - just drove all the way to the library and then realized it's Sunday and they are closed til 1:00 Sooo....I'm just starting my PT now, I think I'll leave out the exp section and do it w/o a break so I can make it to the review semi sorta on time

[soj]

I felt sick this morning so I took a nap instead of taking SP B. I wonder if I should take it easy or take the PT anyway.

[Eichörnchen]

My theory on being sick is it's best to catch it day 1 and nip it in the bud, instead of letting it get worse and underperforming for a longer amount of time. Besides, you're doing really well. Take it easy and do some reading instead of getting bummed by an unrepresentative PT score. Just my 2 cents.

[mickeyD]

I just started games drilling day before yesterday (I'm doing 12 games/day). Is that pretty much what you did? Or have you always been better than I have in games? (I started with -12/-11s and have only been able to get it to like -9, but am prone to slipping back) I'm hoping that I just suck this much because I never drilled (stupid me). I wonder how long it will take to improve

I was waaay worse. On my diag I only answered 10 questions and guessed on 14, finished with a 8/24. After LGB, I got better, but still would basically bomb one game per PT and miss a few others, so usually like 17/24. When I got back from spring break I did a shit ton of games for a week, pretty much exclusively logic games. I used PS' classification and did every single LG from Basic Linear to Grouping Defined-Moving Unbalanced, many of them twice. I think I did at least 10-15 per day, and probably do 7-8 a day now.

That being said my drilling really started to make a difference when I started being more patient. I've started resisting the compulsion to blow through as many games as possible and hope that I would magically get better by repetition. When I review the game, I make sure I can get all of the answers using the proper inferences- you can just tell when you've found the answer the way you were "supposed to" as opposed to when you use a lot of hypos.

Weirdly enough the games I'm best at are the in-out games (birds in a forest, friends in photographs, fruits at the stand). I love making the huge inference chains.

[Eichörnchen]

Thanks for the tips, I totally agree about not just blowing through them and moving on if you get a question right due to hypos.

I used PS' classification and did every single LG from Basic Linear to Grouping Defined-Moving Unbalanced, many of them twice. I think I did at least 10-15 per day, and probably do 7-8 a day now.

This is exactly what I'm trying to do. I think it may be helping already, and I'm only on day 3 of this plan. But I think I'll keep doing 7-8 after I'm done with my extreme phase of doing like 14 per day just to keep up my skills. I don't think I have enough time to get so good at games that I stop drilling and move on.

[Strange]

About to start PT52, be back later!

[coldshoulder]

I was the exact same way as you guys, -17 on my diagnostic. Bible helped a lot, and then lots and lots of untimed practice. Once it clicked, if just works. I've been -2, -1, or -0 on recent tests. You'll get there!

[BlaqBella]

I was the exact same way as you guys, -17 on my diagnostic. Bible helped a lot, and then lots and lots of untimed practice. Once it clicked, if just works. I've been -2, -1, or -0 on recent tests. You'll get there!

How long did it take you to "get there" and can you please share your study schedule??

[coldshoulder]

About 6 weeks of hardcore LG studying, went through the bible and all the exercises twice, as well as any games from tests before 30 (hadn't bought the more recent yet). At least two hours a day on games, going slowly and finding all the inferences and diagramming in a way that made sense to my brain.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

pwned by PT38 LG. Missed an inference on LG 1 and literally missed all 7 on that game. Yay yay yay

Honestly probably a good thing - reinforces the idea that if you miss 1 single rule/inference you can be toast just like that.