February 2012 LSAT Study Group Forum

[Easy-E]

All right guys, today is the day. I have my velocity materials, I am gonna go so hard for this next month. I mean, I pretty much have 3 months of studying under my belt, I know what I'm capable of, but just need to fine tune stuff, not get nervous, and be confident in myself. I am extremely familiar with the test so I'm thinking I can make that next hurdle. Good luck all.

Also doing Velocity. Comprehensive?

[emilyburd]

Hello to the board!

My PT's were in mid-150's, but I choked on Decmeber LSAT and realized getting the same score as my diagnostic score.

I don't even know if it's a good idea to go for February when I really do want a mid-160's score.

Anyway, today--I've done things differently taken a PT to make sure nothing odd happened but for the first time I just did me and my watch and the library table instead of a timer on the computer as well.

I got a 152 but it was a test I took, so tomorrow i'll do another PT of which I didn't look at at all, to gouge what I did.

I signed up for Blueprint Online prep, used it since September--but I juts now bought the Powerscore books and will hit them.

Powerscore books: I hear excellent things about it, but how should I practice the techniques? Go through the PT's on the question type (or game type)?

By far my weakest section is Logic Games, and after that is LR. Reading Comprehension is always the strongest, but on Dec 2011 the reading comprehension seemed to be harder than usual and more than I expected it to.


and hello, My name's Emilya, and I'm a 2011 UCLA Poli Sci graduate with a 3.69. I moved back home and the most difficult thing is none of my friends are lawyers, and being motivated is a bit difficult. So hello to this site! (Note: Long time lurker here. Not afraid to post!)

Let's see if I can break a 160 in a month at least :/

[princeR]

All right guys, today is the day. I have my velocity materials, I am gonna go so hard for this next month. I mean, I pretty much have 3 months of studying under my belt, I know what I'm capable of, but just need to fine tune stuff, not get nervous, and be confident in myself. I am extremely familiar with the test so I'm thinking I can make that next hurdle. Good luck all.

Also doing Velocity. Comprehensive?

Ya, cruising through LR right now. Wow... I really am already loving it. Great explanations, definitely different than both PS and Manhattan.

[john1990]

No new preptests but my average RC is up from 19/29 to 23/27
Also, i completed 19/21 level 3 difficulty LR questions in 35 minutes, and finished with 20/23 in 38 minutes so i may be able to increase my LR avg from 21 next time.
Basically just waiting to put it all together
cause i have few preptests left and i need to hit 170 before i run out

[Easy-E]

All right guys, today is the day. I have my velocity materials, I am gonna go so hard for this next month. I mean, I pretty much have 3 months of studying under my belt, I know what I'm capable of, but just need to fine tune stuff, not get nervous, and be confident in myself. I am extremely familiar with the test so I'm thinking I can make that next hurdle. Good luck all.

Also doing Velocity. Comprehensive?

Ya, cruising through LR right now. Wow... I really am already loving it. Great explanations, definitely different than both PS and Manhattan.

Yepp, very different approaches. I'm enjoying it as well, although I'm having some trouble staying on pace. Wish I had used this when I studying for October during college. The games approach has been a revelation for me, I was getting shat on by games prior to Velocity. LR and RC are improving but I still make stupid mistakes, or get tricked by answers in RC.

Are you following a set syllabus, or just going at it book by book, then PTs? I'm mostly sticking with the schedules, except I'm trying to finish early and use the last two weeks of prep for PTs only.

[princeR]

All right guys, today is the day. I have my velocity materials, I am gonna go so hard for this next month. I mean, I pretty much have 3 months of studying under my belt, I know what I'm capable of, but just need to fine tune stuff, not get nervous, and be confident in myself. I am extremely familiar with the test so I'm thinking I can make that next hurdle. Good luck all.

Also doing Velocity. Comprehensive?

Ya, cruising through LR right now. Wow... I really am already loving it. Great explanations, definitely different than both PS and Manhattan.

Yepp, very different approaches. I'm enjoying it as well, although I'm having some trouble staying on pace. Wish I had used this when I studying for October during college. The games approach has been a revelation for me, I was getting shat on by games prior to Velocity. LR and RC are improving but I still make stupid mistakes, or get tricked by answers in RC.

Are you following a set syllabus, or just going at it book by book, then PTs? I'm mostly sticking with the schedules, except I'm trying to finish early and use the last two weeks of prep for PTs only.

Well, my plan is to take it in February, but I'll have to assess how I'm doing the week before and make my final decision then. I set up his syllabus to a 5 week plan, but honestly, I can go a lot faster than what he has me down for. I am just gonna do as much as I feel appropriate each day. Honestly, I love studying for this test, I want to kill it, so I have absolutely no problem studying for extensive amounts of a time each day lol. I have only gotten through LR chapters 1-3.

[Gisney]

So I took pt 59 and it was not that great but not as bad as I thought it might be with my over a week break for the holidays

Breakdown:

PT 59

LG: -1
LR1: -4 Seeing as I have not even looked at LR in a long time I am not too upset. I will be if it continues
LR2: -2
RC: -7

Raw: 87
Scaled: 170
Generous curve

Not really suprised my the RC. It was a shitshow from the begining. My pacing was waaayyy off and then I got distracted by the light sculpture section because I was an art history major and I found it interesting. Moral of the story is LSAT is no time to learn new things. Remember the topics and look them up later. Anyway by the time I got to the last part I only had 5min left to read and answer the questions and I missed 4 of them.

I am hoping LR is just because I have not practiced in a long time. If it continues it is back to drilling for me.
Although I was able to see where some of you talked about how wording is more specific in the newer tests.

LG. I cannot seem to prevent myself from making one mistake every test. If I could get this to a -0 that would really help if on test day I am thrown some hard ass RC.

How is everyone else doing? Eich? Outlook?

[Easy-E]

Also doing Velocity. Comprehensive?

Ya, cruising through LR right now. Wow... I really am already loving it. Great explanations, definitely different than both PS and Manhattan.

Yepp, very different approaches. I'm enjoying it as well, although I'm having some trouble staying on pace. Wish I had used this when I studying for October during college. The games approach has been a revelation for me, I was getting shat on by games prior to Velocity. LR and RC are improving but I still make stupid mistakes, or get tricked by answers in RC.

Are you following a set syllabus, or just going at it book by book, then PTs? I'm mostly sticking with the schedules, except I'm trying to finish early and use the last two weeks of prep for PTs only.

Well, my plan is to take it in February, but I'll have to assess how I'm doing the week before and make my final decision then. I set up his syllabus to a 5 week plan, but honestly, I can go a lot faster than what he has me down for. I am just gonna do as much as I feel appropriate each day. Honestly, I love studying for this test, I want to kill it, so I have absolutely no problem studying for extensive amounts of a time each day lol. I have only gotten through LR chapters 1-3.

Yeah I work full-time and I'm also studying for a separate, work-related test, so time and burnout is an issue here.

So I took pt 59 and it was not that great but not as bad as I thought it might be with my over a week break for the holidays

Haven't taken this one yet, but doesn't 59 have one of the more difficult games? If so, congrats.


EDIT: Congrats either way!

[Eichörnchen]

PT 59

LG: -1
LR1: -4 Seeing as I have not even looked at LR in a long time I am not too upset. I will be if it continues
LR2: -2
RC: -7

Raw: 87
Scaled: 170
Generous curve
How is everyone else doing? Eich? Outlook?

Nice work Gisney! I think it's very common for people to get slowed down on passages that they find too interesting. I've taken two PTs since my holiday break:

PT 38
LR1: -2
LR2: -0
LG: -4
RC: -1
Raw: 93
Scaled: 175 (But let's take this with a very large grain of salt, as I have done this PT before)

PT56
LR1: -1
LR2: -2
LG: -6
RC: -1
Raw: 90
Scaled: 171

Sooo LG is keeping me from my 175+ dreams. I've done the bible (twice), the manhattan book, and done at least two copies of every game from PTs 7-41. Has anyone else done anything else to substantially improve? It seems like I should be doing more copies of those games, though I fear that I'm not getting a ton out of it. What do you guys think?

The games approach has been a revelation for me, I was getting shat on by games prior to Velocity.

TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW. PLEASE.

I have a month to get from total games failure to games wizardry. I hope it's possible.

[Easy-E]

PT 59

LG: -1
LR1: -4 Seeing as I have not even looked at LR in a long time I am not too upset. I will be if it continues
LR2: -2
RC: -7

Raw: 87
Scaled: 170
Generous curve
How is everyone else doing? Eich? Outlook?

Nice work Gisney! I think it's very common for people to get slowed down on passages that they find too interesting. I've taken two PTs since my holiday break:

PT 38
LR1: -2
LR2: -0
LG: -4
RC: -1
Raw: 93
Scaled: 175 (But let's take this with a very large grain of salt, as I have done this PT before)

PT56
LR1: -1
LR2: -2
LG: -6
RC: -1
Raw: 90
Scaled: 171

Sooo LG is keeping me from my 175+ dreams. I've done the bible (twice), the manhattan book, and done at least two copies of every game from PTs 7-41. Has anyone else done anything else to substantially improve? It seems like I should be doing more copies of those games, though I fear that I'm not getting a ton out of it. What do you guys think?

The games approach has been a revelation for me, I was getting shat on by games prior to Velocity.

TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW. PLEASE.

I have a month to get from total games failure to games wizardry. I hope it's possible.

Check out some of the free videos on the Velocity page (videos for all the June 07 LSAT games). It's some elements you'll recognize from other books or whatever, but the approach doesn't rely on making inferences (which I had trouble with). It might not be for everyone, but it's working for me!

[Gisney]

PT 59

LG: -1
LR1: -4 Seeing as I have not even looked at LR in a long time I am not too upset. I will be if it continues
LR2: -2
RC: -7

Raw: 87
Scaled: 170
Generous curve
How is everyone else doing? Eich? Outlook?

Nice work Gisney! I think it's very common for people to get slowed down on passages that they find too interesting. I've taken two PTs since my holiday break:

PT 38
LR1: -2
LR2: -0
LG: -4
RC: -1
Raw: 93
Scaled: 175 (But let's take this with a very large grain of salt, as I have done this PT before)

PT56
LR1: -1
LR2: -2
LG: -6
RC: -1
Raw: 90
Scaled: 171

Sooo LG is keeping me from my 175+ dreams. I've done the bible (twice), the manhattan book, and done at least two copies of every game from PTs 7-41. Has anyone else done anything else to substantially improve? It seems like I should be doing more copies of those games, though I fear that I'm not getting a ton out of it. What do you guys think?

.

I Think the moral of this story is we should be putting our efforts toward some kind of device that we can use to swap places during RC and LG. I do your LG and you have my RC and it is guaranteed we will both score 175!

Excellent plan

[ngogirl]

Does anyone know what the answer to PT 45, section 1, #5 was? It is in my book of 40s, but in the answer key it is omitted...

I know it was probably contested and doesn't matter, but I'm still curious!!

[Eichörnchen]

Check out some of the free videos on the Velocity page (videos for all the June 07 LSAT games). It's some elements you'll recognize from other books or whatever, but the approach doesn't rely on making inferences (which I had trouble with). It might not be for everyone, but it's working for me!

Thanks, I will check it out.

I Think the moral of this story is we should be putting our efforts toward some kind of device that we can use to swap places during RC and LG. I do your LG and you have my RC and it is guaranteed we will both score 175!

Excellent plan

Fer reals. I would do a lot to ensure that there were no LG on my test.

[abbottsbar]

I'm jumping in this thread as a February retake. I had been cruising leading up to the December LSAT, PT average of 171, with a range of 169-176. Lo and behold, on test day I manage to conquer my biggest demon starting out (LG, got a -2), but BOMBED the LR sections (usually my best sections) and ended up with a 164.

I'm hoping Feb. will bring me up closer to my PT average. My biggest problem was that I actually got too confident in the LR and RC sections, finished at least 5-8 minutes early and thought I had nailed it. When I went back and reviewed the test the mistakes I made were careless and if I had taken a few more seconds to read the page I would have saved myself a lot of heartache and frustration.

The moral to my rant? On test day the adrenaline really gets flowing and sometimes it's hard to slow down and pay attention. Take your time and make sure you read the questions carefully.

[hotspur]

Checking In. Disappointed with my June score and disappointed with my cycle (already). We'll see what one month of prep can do for me.

[swordsman1]

35 days to go! I am not as far along in my preparation as I would have hoped. But, I think I have still successfully set myself up for a final assault on this test. I am going to further increase my understanding of how the answering works for this test over the next 5 days, and then with 30 days to go, do one prep test a day.

In the past, I have tested around 95-98 percentile in the standardized exams including the GRE. I am going to believe in myself and kill this test come the 11th of Feb.

I know my preparation has been different than others, but, I know what works for me. I have always focused on understanding and mastering the concepts until the last few days, and it is only in the last couple weeks that I have taken the PTs. I know that 30 PTs in 30 days will cover me for the LSAT as far as the exam behavior is concerned, and I know that in five more days I will be able to get to the point where my techniques will be fully in place.

Will keep everyone posted.

Will get it done!

[Gisney]

35 days to go! I am not as far along in my preparation as I would have hoped. But, I think I have still successfully set myself up for a final assault on this test. I am going to further increase my understanding of how the answering works for this test over the next 5 days, and then with 30 days to go, do one prep test a day.

In the past, I have tested around 95-98 percentile in the standardized exams including the GRE. I am going to believe in myself and kill this test come the 11th of Feb.

I know my preparation has been different than others, but, I know what works for me. I have always focused on understanding and mastering the concepts until the last few days, and it is only in the last couple weeks that I have taken the PTs. I know that 30 PTs in 30 days will cover me for the LSAT as far as the exam behavior is concerned, and I know that in five more days I will be able to get to the point where my techniques will be fully in place.

Will keep everyone posted.

Will get it done!

I am sure you know what you can handle better than anyone but I would be careful on doing a PT a day. It could lead quickly to burnout.

[Gisney]

Fer reals. I would do a lot to ensure that there were no LG on my test.

And I would do anything to make it almost all of mine...I really am hoping for an LG experimental.

[ngogirl]

Fer reals. I would do a lot to ensure that there were no LG on my test.

And I would do anything to make it almost all of mine...I really am hoping for an LG experimental.

+1

[swordsman1]

35 days to go! I am not as far along in my preparation as I would have hoped. But, I think I have still successfully set myself up for a final assault on this test. I am going to further increase my understanding of how the answering works for this test over the next 5 days, and then with 30 days to go, do one prep test a day.

In the past, I have tested around 95-98 percentile in the standardized exams including the GRE. I am going to believe in myself and kill this test come the 11th of Feb.

I know my preparation has been different than others, but, I know what works for me. I have always focused on understanding and mastering the concepts until the last few days, and it is only in the last couple weeks that I have taken the PTs. I know that 30 PTs in 30 days will cover me for the LSAT as far as the exam behavior is concerned, and I know that in five more days I will be able to get to the point where my techniques will be fully in place.

Will keep everyone posted.

Will get it done!

I am sure you know what you can handle better than anyone but I would be careful on doing a PT a day. It could lead quickly to burnout.

I can handle it, no problem! Desperate times, desperate measures!

[bernaldiaz]

I've seen some talk here about Velocity. I just finished it up and I loved it. Helped me go from 164 on my diag to 174, 173, 175, 174, 175 on my last 5 practice tests. In case anyone who is planning to take it in June wants an study advice and is reading here, I think how I studied has been really efficient. I did Velocity over about a five week span (this is pretty intense, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day, with maybe a day off every week) and have since purchased LR by Question Type, as well as a RC and LG bundle from Cambridge. I'll be doing a section of each a day, roughly, plus a practice test once or twice a week. I have tons of material to last me through until February. I think Velocity gave me a great foundation and now I will be able to just drill to perfection with the Cambridge stuff. If anyone has any questions (or even better yet, suggestions), I'd love to hear them!

[princeR]

I've seen some talk here about Velocity. I just finished it up and I loved it. Helped me go from 164 on my diag to 174, 173, 175, 174, 175 on my last 5 practice tests. In case anyone who is planning to take it in June wants an study advice and is reading here, I think how I studied has been really efficient. I did Velocity over about a five week span (this is pretty intense, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day, with maybe a day off every week) and have since purchased LR by Question Type, as well as a RC and LG bundle from Cambridge. I'll be doing a section of each a day, roughly, plus a practice test once or twice a week. I have tons of material to last me through until February. I think Velocity gave me a great foundation and now I will be able to just drill to perfection with the Cambridge stuff. If anyone has any questions (or even better yet, suggestions), I'd love to hear them!

Check PM please

[Eichörnchen]

My little brother has the stomach flu. I knew moving back in with my family would be the end of me.

[ngogirl]

My little brother has the stomach flu. I knew moving back in with my family would be the end of me.

Aww, I hope your little brother is feeling better! It's not the end of you, just a little distraction, just think: no rent, free food, and endless studying (most of the time anyways).

You're usually at the library, right?

[Eichörnchen]

My little brother has the stomach flu. I knew moving back in with my family would be the end of me.

Aww, I hope your little brother is feeling better! It's not the end of you, just a little distraction, just think: no rent, free food, and endless studying (most of the time anyways).

You're usually at the library, right?

All of those are true (except maybe the "endless studying" - distractions are plentiful in a big family who doesn't really know what the LSAT is). But yes I will be heading to the library as soon as it opens at one. The rest of the day I will carry Lysol around.