I have found it is good for me to be wrong. I was feeling pretty confident on the Sept 2007 game at the end of Lesson 1, but only got 5/7 correct. This reminds me that I need to stay alert and keep working hard.

We are definitely updating all our materials to reflect the new, 2-page layout for logic games.

Unfortunately, since our books for this year are already printed, new versions with the updates won't come out until next year.

Hmm...I wonder how much more of a paper/printing cost it will be to make that change.

By the way, I'm loving BP! I find myself laughing at least a few times per video. It's enjoyable and is super helping me improve, especially on LR. I'm sort of plateauing on RC currently, but I'm hoping to crack that static line and start to love the section eventually. I'm strongest in LG and weakest in RC. I was once told by a tennis coach that if you're horrible at hitting the ball backhand, you usually end up practicing so much doing that particular action that hitting it backhand almost becomes dominant for you. I'm hoping for the same with RC. I need to drill, drill, drill then get that sucker up. I'm starting a spreadsheet for which types of questions in RC I most frequently miss.

Happy studying, fellow BPers!

Signed up for test today. I think my blood pressure shot up 20 points when I picked up the confirmation sheet from the printer. Hopefully my LSAT score shoots up at least that much!!!

Woo! The commitment feels good, doesn't it?

Yes. I am suddenly aware of EVERYTHING I need to get done, my personal statement, my LORs, the LSAT itself, not to mention my summer course finals are this week, so I was already stressing about that...It is going to be fine, I am sure.

When you plateau on RC, it's usually because you're hitting the wall of what you can do as far as just reading the passage and answering questions goes. Which means it's time to change your focus/plan of attack.

Keep practicing, as that helps a LOT on RC, but also start shifting your focus to 2 new areas:
1) Question types. We don't cover it in the lessons until pretty late into the curriculum, so I'm having you jump ahead a bit here. However, start to relate the RC question prompts to LR question prompts, and use similar strategies. Most of the questions can be described as ~MBT questions, which means you should be looking for weaker answer choices. Etc...
2) Focus on figuring out which of your notations are helpful, and which aren't. By going back after reviewing the questions and collating your notes with the information that's helpful to answer the questions, you'll start to notice what you're missing during your read-through, and what you're noting that isn't important. I guarantee you that there is a pattern of what they ask about; doing this will help you see that pattern.

One at a time. Get through the finals, ask for the LoRs, and then focus on the LSAT until test day. You can brainstorm the PS, but don't spend too much time on it, as you'll have a month after taking the test but before getting your score to finish it up. It also takes all of 2 seconds to upload it to your LSAC account (by far the easiest part of the entire process).

bp,

I'm working through flaw Qs, and I'm having some difficulty with questionable assumptions. I don't remember that being covered in any of the lessons.

Any guidance/advice?

How is everyone doing their homework? Do you finish a lesson and then do the homework or do you finish all of the lessons in the workbook and then go back and do all of the homework?

I do it chronologically as it is in the books -- so, I do lesson, then homework. I find this helps me catch any bit of the lessons I may be misunderstanding before I get too far from that lesson itself. Makes it easier to fix my problems, if I've got any.

Thank you! I've noticed that practicing helps but that RC is the section I'm least excited about practicing, so it feels sort of grueling at times. I'm definitely going to follow your two suggestions while working on all upcoming passages, starting tonight. I'll let you know how it goes!

Questionable assumptions are a catch-all categorization that we use when there's not really a good flaw archetype in which we can categorize a stimulus. Honestly, they don't come up very often because that list we give you in the flaw lesson is fairly comprehensive.

It's not supposed to be something that trips you up - in fact, it's supposed to help you. If you know what's wrong with the argument, but you can't put it into one of our flaw categories, just treat it as a questionable assumption. Every flaw can be summed up as such (equivocation: the stimulus questionably assumes that fat loss and weight loss are the same thing; exclusivity: the stimulus questionably assumes that the two options are mutually exclusive); the important thing is that you can put into words what's wrong with the stimulus, even if you can't call it a specific type of flaw. Those specific types are just there to guide you if you're completely lost.

We definitely recommend that you at least do the majority of the homework from one lesson before moving on to the next lesson!

I took the first practice test last night and am about to start the lessons. Do you guys watch the videos first and read from the books? Or do you follow along in the book while watching the videos? Just need some sort of guidance to get started.

Thanks!

I usually read each small section of the book before watching the corresponding video, since the examples in the book and video are often not the same. I haven't tried watching the video then reading, but I find that having a bit of knowledge about what's in each video before getting into it helps me really get the most out of it.

Have fun!

I'll give this method a try, thanks!

I read through the lesson and then watch the videos following along in the book just like lovelyspotlight and it has worked out well for me so far. I'm finishing up lesson 2 hw right now and i'm really enjoying the class so far. I feel blueprint's strategy is much more intuitive so far (compared to powerscore, etc.) although I won't knock powerscore too much since their book did help me on round 1. I am definitely enjoying Blueprint more though!

Different Subject: OMG working full time and doing an lsat course is crazy and I was just approached today by a VP at work about a promotion so now I will probably have even more on my plate talk about crazy timing!

i just realized i said "so far" about 100x in that last post...can you tell i'm being cautious about getting too excited about blueprint...i will be more comfortable after my 2nd practice test though!

I had a few questions about the online course that someone might be able to help me with. I've already putchased and read all three of the powerscore bibles, and taken the first 20 PT's in the books of 10, averaging scores in the low 160's with a high of a 167. I also have the newer two books of 10 PTs. I guess my question is how much would PT online really help me? Would I be getting a lot of overlap from stuff I've already studied? The bibles helped some but I feel their language and methods are a little dense for me. I don't really diagram a whole lot in LR like they do. Would you reccomend BP for me? I'm shotting for a 170.

Went to the local TTTT law library from 1-5PM today, but I didn't get through the whole Lesson 2. Came home and finished off from 7-8pm. Should I do the HW today or tomorrow? I don't start Lesson #3 until Monday. I don't want to be lazy. Is it standard for these lessons to stretch to 5 hours?

Just a warning, we see our score increases mostly on the later tests. The second practice test is usually pretty close (or, actually, lower) than the first one. This is the result of a few things:
1) You know exactly how much you don't know this time around. When you go through it the first time, you don't freeze up when you don't understand something, because you generally think you're getting it right. Now, you know that you're getting certain things wrong.
2) Using the methods in a real-world situation is going to slow you down. You won't have a bunch of MBT in a row, for example, so you'll have to take extra time for your brain to jump from one strategy to the next. Your timing will be all sorts of messed up.
3) You still won't have covered over half the material.

So don't worry if you don't see an improvement on the second exam - very few of our students do see a significant improvement. Our average score increase is still +11, however, because we see drastic gains on those later PTs after getting through all of the material and working on timing. The second (and, with our new 6 PT schedule, third) PTs are mostly about getting you some practice on the question types we have covered in a situation like the one you'll face in October. For that exam (and all the ones before you've gotten through lesson 13, the last, pre-review lesson), focus on getting what you've covered correct; don't worry about the overall score.

Depends on the person. People who go quickly can do them in 3.5 hours; others take 6-7. Go at your own pace, and make sure that you understand everything before moving on. Also, do the HW on a different day than the lesson. 2 reasons:
1) Trying to do that much homework after watching 5 hours of lessons will drive you crazy. It's counterproductive to force your brain to do that much work. You wouldn't go to the gym for 7 hours a day; don't make your brain do the equivalent.
2) Working with the material on a day after you first learn it reinforces the neural pathways that store that information. For optimal learning, you should learn the material, review it the next day, review it a week later, then review it a month later. Luckily, our course is designed to teach you the material, have you study it the next day on the homework, review it at the end of the week in new lessons (the later ones almost all start with a review of the question types covered in the last lesson), review it at the end of the month (in the workshop), then review everything at the end.

I am working hard to do 4 hour sessions, and I can really feel my concentration fall off at about the 2 hour mark. I am hoping that will improve soon as it is hard to keep going that last 2 hours. In the homework I can really feel it the most.

Do you guys go over each lesson until you get 100% correct before you move forward? How do you know when to go forward?