June 2011 Study Group Forum

[bball1997]

Looks like a lot of people are taking 56 today.

I'm on break from 56 + 23.3 (LR2). LRe and LR1 were so bad I lost my resolve and checked my answers. Actually, the results weren't too bad.

I need to resist the urge to score between sections. In theory, I should not be scoring for at least 24 hours after writing the exam since that's the time limit for canceling the real thing. I should be keeping a "pain diary" to gauge the level of remorse, fury, and despair 24 hours after each test and compare it to the score so that I can determine what level on test day would merit a cancellation.

This is something I've never been able to get a good handle on. With the exception of LG's I can never tell how I did. Sometimes I feel like I rocked the whole test and end up with a 170. Other times I struggle the whole way and wind up with a 177. I've basically decided I'm not going to cancel unless I run out of time on a section (which hasn't happened in a couple of months) or botch a logic game.

[Eichörnchen]

On break from PT 53, so far feeling great about it. The two day break really helped calm my brain. From now on, doing tests on a specific schedule:
All tests taken at 1pm under strict conditions.

Holy crap, cold, that is a ridiculous PT schedule o_o!!! I'm impressed by your ability to pound those out, I'd probably die, haha

Haha it's the only way for me to stay on my game, I did five days in a row last week and it was terrible, it killed me and my 5th day didn't score well.

Oh. My. God.
PT 53
LR: -1
LG: -0
LR: -1
RC: -0
-2, 180!!!

This is my best raw and scaled score, I am completely ecstatic! The break really helped clear my head for this test, and I definitely got a bit lucky on the first LR section and the English common law rc passage.

180 bitches! I gotta keep scoring like this before the real thing.

Nice!!!!!! That's gotta feel good

[bball1997]

On break from PT 53, so far feeling great about it. The two day break really helped calm my brain. From now on, doing tests on a specific schedule:
All tests taken at 1pm under strict conditions.

Holy crap, cold, that is a ridiculous PT schedule o_o!!! I'm impressed by your ability to pound those out, I'd probably die, haha

Haha it's the only way for me to stay on my game, I did five days in a row last week and it was terrible, it killed me and my 5th day didn't score well.

Oh. My. God.
PT 53
LR: -1
LG: -0
LR: -1
RC: -0
-2, 180!!!

This is my best raw and scaled score, I am completely ecstatic! The break really helped clear my head for this test, and I definitely got a bit lucky on the first LR section and the English common law rc passage.

180 bitches! I gotta keep scoring like this before the real thing.

Congrats, I think it definitely helps to take a couple days off every now and then to clear your head.

[soj]

PT56
LG: -0
LRe (PT23.3): -1
LR1: -1
LR2: -0
RC: -1
Raw: -2
Scaled: 180

Yes!!

I intended to start off with the experimental but made a mistake and started with the LG section instead.

LG went pretty well, but I wasn't at my best. I was a little slow and sloppy and was catching mistakes a few times. I finished the section with less than a minute to spare, which shouldn't really happen on an LG section that objectively is close to average in difficulty.

LRe was hard. I'm lucky to have gotten away with -1. By the way, the fact that there are occasionally items removed from scoring supports the principle of not dwelling too long on any single question.

LR1 was even harder. It lived up to its hype. I wasn't sure about five of them (8, 10, 14, 17, 24), and wasn't 100% about plenty more (but decided not to bother marking them since I had plenty of other Qs to review), but got only one of them (14) wrong.

LR2 was much easier. I wasn't sure about two of them (20, 21), but was able to review them at the end and was confident about my choices.

RC was easier than average. I even finished with 4 minutes to spare, which is really good for me. All four passages were pretty easy to read (though none of them would rank in the top 10 easiest passages of all time), and the questions were easy to medium except the questions in kinship recognition, which were medium to hard. I made two changes in the 4 minutes I had at the end, but those changes did not make a net difference in my RC score.

Congrats, cold!! Maybe this is a sign that you should time your break to come right before June 6.

[jim-green]

Thanks to all who wrote back about their PT56 experience. LR1 was tough. I cannot remember any RC passage about a Naguchi. Which one is that?
The June 2007 free PT is #51.5
By the way, I took PT57 today and did the dyno game so slow that I had to guess on the last 3 Qs of the last game. Everyone find this tough? Any clues on what to do? Any diagrams?
And oh, Cold - you are definitely the TLS Badass tonight. 180 PT53?!?!?! That was a hard PT for me.

[soj]

Noguchi is 59. And the dinosaur game is widely considered the most difficult game of all time, though not by me. I still think the CD game is the most difficult, though I agree the dinosaur game is up there.

When doing the dinosaur game, focus on that one rule that states exactly how many mauve dinosaurs there must be. That rule, in combination with others, produces the majority of inferences that help solve the questions. I'm sure there's more specific help if you search for it since it's such an infamous game. The Manhattan forum probably has posts on it, too.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Noguchi is 59. And the dinosaur game is widely considered the most difficult game of all time, though not by me. I still think the CD game is the most difficult.

Haha yea you're right, all of today I've been under the pretense it was 56. Sry jimbo. Regardless, Noguchi sucks but somehow only missed 2 (felt like 5)

[coldshoulder]

PT56
LG: -0
LRe (PT23.3): -1
LR1: -1
LR2: -0
RC: -1
Raw: -2
Scaled: 180

Yes!!

I intended to start off with the experimental but made a mistake and started with the LG section instead.

LG went pretty well, but I wasn't at my best. I was a little slow and sloppy and was catching mistakes a few times. I finished the section with less than a minute to spare, which shouldn't really happen on an LG section that objectively is close to average in difficulty.

LRe was hard. I'm lucky to have gotten away with -1. By the way, the fact that there are occasionally items removed from scoring supports the principle of not dwelling too long on any single question.

LR1 was even harder. It lived up to its hype. I wasn't sure about five of them (8, 10, 14, 17, 24), and wasn't 100% about plenty more (but decided not to bother marking them since I had plenty of other Qs to review), but got only one of them (14) wrong.

LR2 was much easier. I wasn't sure about two of them (20, 21), but was able to review them at the end and was confident about my choices.

RC was easier than average. I even finished with 4 minutes to spare, which is really good for me. All four passages were pretty easy to read (though none of them would rank in the top 10 easiest passages of all time), and the questions were easy to medium except the questions in kinship recognition, which were medium to hard. I made two changes in the 4 minutes I had at the end, but those changes did not make a net difference in my RC score.

Congrats, cold!! Maybe this is a sign that you should time your break to come right before June 6.

Nice SOJ! Awesome that we both got 180's the same day. I think we're starting to figure out how our brains work best with the lsat patterns.

[bball1997]

This might be a silly question, but the photo for the LSAT admissions ticket can just be one that I printed off from a webcam photo of myself right.

[maxpower430]

like on pt 53 i read the p before v or v before g rule as p before v or p before g which threw me off. the one game type that gets to me is like the 3rd game of pt 52, where you have 2 things a day, for three days. i just have a hard time visualizing it and keeping track of everything, though i think that is mostly due to how i was diagramming it. i was diagramming like this
_ _ _
_ _ _
1 2 3
but i think personally it clicks when i diagram it like this
_ _/_ _/_ _
1 2 3

IDK if this will help at all, but for games like that, I usually diagram it like this:

1 _ _
2 _ _
3 _ _

Then to the left of the 1/2/3, I will cross out the variables that don't fit there. If 2 variables have to go together I'll put them as (AB) or (AB) if they can't be together. Also, IDK how your timing is rn, but if you have some extra time I usually go back and double check my answers for the first couple games after I'm done with them, that way I can catch any silly mistakes I make.

I'm hoping to replicate your improvement with RC!!!


thanks for the suggestion, i'll try it out on the game from pt 52 and see how it feels. my problem with those types of games is that i will sometimes lose track of the temporal relationship. they feel inherently linear to me, which is why i thought of doing it the way i described, but i'm always up for trying new things, though i generally prefer the manhattan methods to powerscore.

good luck with the reading comp man, i'm sure you'll improve. it's funny, when you're reading actively looking for which side of the argument gets the most support, it actually makes the reading more interesting, and therefore easier. as i believe soj noted earlier, when you can read the reading comp like you're reading a book, it is a lot easier.

and congrats guys on all these 180s, really impressive. and thanks for setting a pace for me to try and keep up with haha, no better motivator than seeing you guys post ridiculous scores

[northwood]

Just an FYI: you have 5 calendar days to cancel your score.However you should make the decision to cancel as soon as you walk out of the test center ( or before you think about it too much) because its very easy to think that you did worse on the test than you really did- especially if you go on TLS afterwords. There will be a ton of OMG IM FREAKING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! posts and threads, and you can very easily convince yourself that you had an epic test day fail, or something along the lines, when in fact you didnt. Trust your gut- especially if you didnt cheat when scoring ( and you waited until after all 5 sections were completed)- as you can get a good feel for how each individual section went, then get a feel for how the test went overall.- Trust your gut, especially if you followed the study group since day 1 ( Ive been lurking for a while- and I/m fully confident that you all will do magnificently on the test)

[iphone7]

Today was pt 52
LR -1
LG -0
LGe (PT 16.1) -3
LG -2
RC -5

Raw -8
Scaled 172

I'm pretty happy about this except for RC. It was my first comparative reading section and I missed two about those passages. I'm glad to be back on track with my LG. I seem to often have one section (usually LG or RC) that I mess up and totally ruins my score. I'll work on it.

When I wasn't paying attention during church today I made a list of my pt schedule for the next few days and it's test today and tomorrow (will have been five in a row), then take a break, do four in a row, take a break, three tests, break, two tests, break, game day. It should get me plenty of practice while letting me get some rest before the day of. Included in those tests, I scheduled four tests to take as if it were June 6. I will go through the entire routine that I would on the real day of the test (eating schedule, preparing, timeframe, taking in a room in the building in which I will take the real thing). This will, hopefully, help me avoid any bad circumstances like being hungry or not finding a parking spot since I will have done it four times. Being in the building will also probably help the nerves at being in a new place.

I also made a list of things to do every day between now and the test:
1. Wake up at 8:30
2. Do something active
3. Drill Logic Games
4. Don't eat like a fatty
5. Go to bed around midnight

Here's hoping it helps.

[Strange]

PT61:

LG: -1
LR1: -4
LR2: -2
RC: -2
LR(exp): Not scored
Overall missed: -9
Raw score: 92
Scaled score: 172

Second time I've cracked the 170's, so I'm pretty happy with this score. Even though I slept for awhile last night, I kept waking up so I feel more fatigued then yesterday. Luckily I was still able to work through the test. I did an experimental too, but it was LR and I remembered so many of the questions I'm not gonna bother scoring it.

Thoughts on 61:

- The LG was "easier" than 57 but still time consuming. I felt like I missed some key inferences so I need to figure out what those were.
- I really think I could have done better on that first LR section. I simply did not time myself properly, and as a result missed two of the last questions that I should have easily gotten. In fact I just looked at them and was right away able to determine the right answer. I'm not sure what happened with the timing here, but this was an area that could have been improved on.
- The passages for RC were easy, but the questions seemed difficult. But if there's anything I can rely on, it's a -2 RC score. My LG and RC scores have stabilized at -1 and -2 respectively, so if I can keep the LR misses down to around -6, I should be fine on test day.

So, the agenda for the next week or so is going to be to tighten up LG, and improve my pacing WRT to LR. I've probably done all I could on RC.

[OhOkay]

Thanks for the responses re: RC earlier. For Eich: most of the RC guide was common sense -- annotate different sides to the central argument etc. (the scale thing is just for demonstration, not as a technique to actually use while testing). So I didn't find it helpful insofar as I picked up any radical new strategies, but it was good in terms of forcing me to drill different RC skills one at a time, such as identifying the central argument, then annotating, and so on.

Edit for being silly, sorry...

[soj]

No. Apart from 45 and 56 (and the understandable 53 hiccup), you're completely within your target score range. You've actually been incredibly consistent. Your median scaled score is a 175. Review your PT like you would any other PT, do some drills, take a day off, and you'll be flying again. Don't be discouraged by a few outliers. I know how it feels because I tend to be really hard on myself after I underperform, but I've always bounced back.

Also, you haven't dipped below 170 since April. You haven't been gutted until you get a 169 on your 40th PT like I did in late April (PT44).

And remember, beyond 170, luck plays a huge part in your score. Even the best-prepared test-taker might get a 170 on a bad day with some bad luck, while someone who usually gets low 170s might unexpectedly pull off a 180. This is all the more reason not to be too discouraged by a few low scores, nor too buoyed by a few high scores.

[Eichörnchen]

It looks like you've been really consistent with a good upward trend. You have had a sudden dip, but that's pretty normal. It sucks, but it happens and people seem to bounce right back. I know you say you aren't burnt out, but maybe a little rest would do you good. The last PT I took before postponing to Oct was a 169 (right in line with my trend). After postponing I decided to take a full week completely off. I was expecting a huge drop for my first PT after the break and got a 170 (I know my scores are lame in comparison, but just saying that a break doesn't seem to cause a huge drop ). So I don't think a little break would hurt. You're stressing way too hard but you're going to be more than fine. You've demonstrated that you've mastered this test at a 175+ level. Just maintain and refine. Oh, and breaaaaaathe.

[Eichörnchen]

Oh and thanks for your thoughts on the RC guide

[OhOkay]

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I do need to calm down a bit, but two weeks! I'm just scared of taking this test prematurely, feeling like I left a lot of stones unturned (i.e. a lot of PTs and drilling undone...). I will try a PT once more tomorrow, and make sure to take it when I am feeling fully rested and awake. I don't want to treat it like some sort of litmus test, but it feels a bit like it will be.

Thanks again guys Will report back tomorrow. Also, apologies again to anyone who might have found my worry obnoxious!

[UnamSanctam]

You're all good. Just calm down and know that you destroy over 99% of the competition, myself included.

I'm taking PT 53 today. We'll see how that goes after my abysmal 165 on PT 60.

[jim-green]

I wish I were you

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I do need to calm down a bit, but two weeks! I'm just scared of taking this test prematurely, feeling like I left a lot of stones unturned (i.e. a lot of PTs and drilling undone...). I will try a PT once more tomorrow, and make sure to take it when I am feeling fully rested and awake. I don't want to treat it like some sort of litmus test, but it feels a bit like it will be.

Thanks again guys Will report back tomorrow. Also, apologies again to anyone who might have found my worry obnoxious!

[OhOkay]

I wish I were you

Aah, don't say that, you guys have been my source of inspiration and part of the reason I was so worried in the first place! You all are doing amazing, going up and up steadily and surely. I'm sorry again, my intention was definitely not to make anyone feel worse.

Let's rock this thing. (Slash beat it into submission, etc.)

[Eichörnchen]

I wish I were you

Aah, don't say that, you guys have been my source of inspiration and part of the reason I was so worried in the first place! You all are doing amazing, going up and up steadily and surely. I'm sorry again, my intention was definitely not to make anyone feel worse.

Let's rock this thing. (Slash beat it into submission, etc.)

Don't worry about it; you certainly didn't bother me at all and I'm well behind you. The thing about this forum is that we're all aiming to be top scorers and compared to the general population we're all insane. (A friend who took the LSAT heard that I got a 160 on a PT and said, "Woah! You're solid. Good to go!" - I did not tell her it was my diagnostic. ) We all need a place to be able to vent a bit, including you tippy-top scorers.

At least, that's how I see it

[soj]

Good to see you're feeling better. Remember dips are completely normal. Of course we don't know for sure if we can avoid them in June, but they're unavoidable anyway so they shouldn't scare us.

Today would normally be the fourth PT day in my PT-PT-break-PT-PT cycle, but based on the past four cycles in which I did relatively poorly in the fourth PT, I decided to drill and review today instead. I'll be doing some of everything--reviewing the new batch of ~100 LR Qs, a few games, and RC drills.

[AlabamaIceman]

Hey all, I'm a little late to the part here I know (meaning the topic, been studying for the June LSAT for a while now), but I'm glad to see others prepping!

I've started taking the actual LSAC tests as of about 2 weeks ago, and my average has swung from a low of 166 to a high of 172, which is good but still disappointing. My personal goal is 172+, I feel like I can do it, but I tend to drop between 2 and 4 on each LR section, and the logic games either produce a similar result or throw a screwball if they contain a game that really fucks with my head or time management.

Anyway, the main reason I'm here (besides moral support) is to ask if there's a good place I can practice my advanced linear games... those seem to roll over me with alarming frequency, and I don't want to "use up" all the real LSAT tests by just picking out that section and thereby ruining my chances at using it as a whole test.

Also, is there an official LSAC collection of tests more recent than 2002? Does it make an appreciable difference in the opinion of this board when the tests are from?

[Ginj]

Has anyone done PT 57 yet? That second LR section was brutal.