October 2012 Retakers Forum

[WokeUpInACar]

Didn't see this thread until now, hello friends.

[NoodleyOne]

Question for retakers: How were the June 2012 games? I have already purchased the exam, but I obviously do not want to take it right now. What I mean is, I have been hearing that the games are less inference based, and that kind of scares me. I have been taking the Velocity apprach recently, and have found that the methods have allowed me to save about two minutes time on some games, which I can then allocate to other games in the hopes that I can attain a near perfect LG section. Sorry if the question seems unnecessary or if I appear overly worried lol.

Games are why I got a 169. If I got the -0 that I normally got on games, I would have been sitting pretty with a 176. Those games were brutal.

[sabanist]

Manhattan is offering a free review of the June test tomorrow night.

http://www.manhattanlsat.com/online-classes.cfm

I was planning on retaking PT66 sometime in September and then comparing it to my June '12 perfomance. But, it seems like many TLSers are reviewing it before resuming their prep.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Should I review first? Or, should I save it as a full timed PT in September?

Bump.

Anyone?

It depends on how you feel right now. If you're like me, and you worried that maybe your June score - however disappointing - was the best you could do, I'd suggest going through it now and identifying your weak spots.
Seeing where I went wrong and knowing that I could fix all of the problems boosted my confidence a lot, and now I'm excited when I pick up my Bibles in the morning. Reviewing gave me the extra boost I needed to get back into this.

If you're already motivated, know you can improve, and feel like you know where you need the most work, save it for September. It won't be a totally reliable indicator as a PT, but seeing the comparison would be interesting.

[Oscar85]

Question for retakers: How were the June 2012 games? I have already purchased the exam, but I obviously do not want to take it right now. What I mean is, I have been hearing that the games are less inference based, and that kind of scares me. I have been taking the Velocity apprach recently, and have found that the methods have allowed me to save about two minutes time on some games, which I can then allocate to other games in the hopes that I can attain a near perfect LG section. Sorry if the question seems unnecessary or if I appear overly worried lol.

Games are why I got a 169. If I got the -0 that I normally got on games, I would have been sitting pretty with a 176. Those games were brutal.

Hmm... So did you feel there was something different about them? Less restrictions on the game? More games like the mulch game that only gave you one rule?

[99.9luft]

Question for retakers: How were the June 2012 games? I have already purchased the exam, but I obviously do not want to take it right now. What I mean is, I have been hearing that the games are less inference based, and that kind of scares me. I have been taking the Velocity apprach recently, and have found that the methods have allowed me to save about two minutes time on some games, which I can then allocate to other games in the hopes that I can attain a near perfect LG section. Sorry if the question seems unnecessary or if I appear overly worried lol.

Games are why I got a 169. If I got the -0 that I normally got on games, I would have been sitting pretty with a 176. Those games were brutal.

I hear there were less deductions on June 2012 LGs, so more of a plug-n-chug method rather than scenarios up-front. Was this your experience?

[NoodleyOne]

Even while taking them, they just felt... weird. Atypical. I didn't feel prepped for some of them, honestly. Add that to the fact that I didn't finish the section (had to guess the last two, which NEVER happens to me), and they took out one of the questions, it just seemed like a peculiar LG section.

[chem!]

Manhattan is offering a free review of the June testtomorrow Wednesday night.

http://www.manhattanlsat.com/online-classes.cfm

I've been preoccupied and put the wrong day.

Also, I put off reviewing my December test until right before the June test, and just retook it. It really didn't help me much, but I didn't do a full analysis comparing my new vs. old answers. Reviewing my June test really helped me identify what I'd done (test anxiety for most of my mistakes - just stupid, stupid, stupid) and helped give me the initiative to sign up for October.

I think it depends on your situation and how you felt about the June test. My #1 issue is test anxiety, with #2 being a need to fine tune some LR and just get ridiculously comfortable with games. I redid all the games on June, timed, and went -1. It's amazing how messed up my thinking gets under stress.

I edited my original post, but I'm posting it as a new one, too.

[99.9luft]

Manhattan is offering a free review of the June testtomorrow Wednesday night.

http://www.manhattanlsat.com/online-classes.cfm

I've been preoccupied and put the wrong day.

Also, I put off reviewing my December test until right before the June test, and just retook it. It really didn't help me much, but I didn't do a full analysis comparing my new vs. old answers. Reviewing my June test really helped me identify what I'd done (test anxiety for most of my mistakes - just stupid, stupid, stupid) and helped give me the initiative to sign up for October.

I think it depends on your situation and how you felt about the June test. My #1 issue is test anxiety, with #2 being a need to fine tune some LR and just get ridiculously comfortable with games. I redid all the games on June, timed, and went -1. It's amazing how messed up my thinking gets under stress.

I edited my original post, but I'm posting it as a new one, too.

I wish someone could record this mlsat review session...i haven't taken June so don't want to review this test (1 of 2 tests i have untouched for Oct). It would be lovely to have a recording of this review to play back in September, though...

[rglifberg]

This will be my third and final re-take. Hoping for easier LG's in October.

[2012Lsatscore]

I am no games wizard by any standard and I felt like the games were VERY straight forward. The games in recent past have had some tricks and some snags like the stained glass and the mauve dinosaurs and the tv show game from this past dec, but the June games had no tricks and were basic in the truest sense. If you can move around the Powerscore Bible with ease you could/should have gotten a -5 and below on this games section (excluding any stress related psych. issues).

In my opinion the difficulty in this test was concentrated in the reading comprehension. It was very disproportional to the rest of the test. There was only one gimme passage (the first) and the rest were pretty difficult.

The logical reasoning was standard. It felt very similar to the other recent tests.

[rglifberg]

I am no games wizard by any standard and I felt like the games were VERY straight forward. The games in recent past have had some tricks and some snags like the stained glass and the mauve dinosaurs and the tv show game from this past dec, but the June games had no tricks and were basic in the truest sense. If you can move around the Powerscore Bible with ease you could/should have gotten a -5 and below on this games section (excluding any stress related psych. issues).

In my opinion the difficulty in this test was concentrated in the reading comprehension. It was very disproportional to the rest of the test. There was only one gimme passage (the first) and the rest were pretty difficult.

The logical reasoning was standard. It felt very similar to the other recent tests.

I'll have to respectfully disagree. The LG felt very ambiguous to me unlike past tests, for example the Zones Game. I had been averaging -2 to -5 and completely bombed the June LG and went -11.

[2012Lsatscore]

I am no games wizard by any standard and I felt like the games were VERY straight forward. The games in recent past have had some tricks and some snags like the stained glass and the mauve dinosaurs and the tv show game from this past dec, but the June games had no tricks and were basic in the truest sense. If you can move around the Powerscore Bible with ease you could/should have gotten a -5 and below on this games section (excluding any stress related psych. issues).

In my opinion the difficulty in this test was concentrated in the reading comprehension. It was very disproportional to the rest of the test. There was only one gimme passage (the first) and the rest were pretty difficult.

The logical reasoning was standard. It felt very similar to the other recent tests.

I'll have to respectfully disagree. The LG felt very ambiguous to me unlike past tests, for example the Zones Game. I had been averaging -2 to -5 and completely bombed the June LG and went -11.

We have seen the setup a million times throughout the history of the PTs ! It is a basic grouping game (distributing I think is the tech. term). Most of the prep books cover this game type. I'm not getting the issue. Are you sure you didn't just choke?

[WokeUpInACar]

I am no games wizard by any standard and I felt like the games were VERY straight forward. The games in recent past have had some tricks and some snags like the stained glass and the mauve dinosaurs and the tv show game from this past dec, but the June games had no tricks and were basic in the truest sense. If you can move around the Powerscore Bible with ease you could/should have gotten a -5 and below on this games section (excluding any stress related psych. issues).

In my opinion the difficulty in this test was concentrated in the reading comprehension. It was very disproportional to the rest of the test. There was only one gimme passage (the first) and the rest were pretty difficult.

The logical reasoning was standard. It felt very similar to the other recent tests.

Agree completely.

[westie25]

I am no games wizard by any standard and I felt like the games were VERY straight forward. The games in recent past have had some tricks and some snags like the stained glass and the mauve dinosaurs and the tv show game from this past dec, but the June games had no tricks and were basic in the truest sense. If you can move around the Powerscore Bible with ease you could/should have gotten a -5 and below on this games section (excluding any stress related psych. issues).

In my opinion the difficulty in this test was concentrated in the reading comprehension. It was very disproportional to the rest of the test. There was only one gimme passage (the first) and the rest were pretty difficult.

The logical reasoning was standard. It felt very similar to the other recent tests.

Agree completely.

I agree about the RC section. When I looked at my score, that's exactly what it looked like. Nothing missed, then A LOT missed all in a row. I felt like the not easy RCs were kind of pointless reading passages. They seemed to be extremely difficult for no reason than to be extremely difficult. They were difficult to read, beyond boring, etc. For those, I had to keep going back to the passage for almost every question asked about the passage wich is a major time suck.

[NoodleyOne]

Maybe it's just me, but the RC seemed rather straightforward. I could be off, RC is normally a very strong section for me (hell, even the diag I only got a -5), but it didn't seem bad at all. LR I'll agree... basic stuff.

I wasn't surprised I did poorly on the LG, because I knew I was having trouble during the game itself and after the test. I doubt that it was panic... LG was my fourth section and the two graded sections before that I got a total of -4... maybe the games just focused on my weakness disproportionately.

Whatever, it's not going to happen again.

[2012Lsatscore]

Maybe it's just me, but the RC seemed rather straightforward. I could be off, RC is normally a very strong section for me (hell, even the diag I only got a -5), but it didn't seem bad at all. LR I'll agree... basic stuff.

I wasn't surprised I did poorly on the LG, because I knew I was having trouble during the game itself and after the test. I doubt that it was panic... LG was my fourth section and the two graded sections before that I got a total of -4... maybe the games just focused on my weakness disproportionately.

Whatever, it's not going to happen again.

Maybe it will help if you form an attack strategy for each game type. Whenever I see a game with a setup that is very similar to a "textbook" game like: the birds in the forest game (shrieks, wrens I think it was), or the music store game featured in Legally Blonde, or non-infamous games that I personally remember like the game where the doctor is scheduling office visits that skipped Thursday and made a hidden inference having to do with it, I try to make a mental attack strategy for that type of game based off my experiences so that when I see it come up again I can remember what I did.

Does that make sense?

P.S.

I agree RC was straight forward. It always is. The same kind of questions and similar passages. But three of the passages were pretty dense and the comparatives were not out-right adversarial. They kind of blended which made them hard to distinguish. Also the forth passage had a hard science topic which was intimidating.

[052220151]

I had a different experience. I did better than expected on RC. Minor choke on LG (-4, I normally get -1/-0) and then completely bombed LR. I was pting in the 170s, test day was 163.

What is the best LR book? Powerscore?

Good to see you back woke, let's smash this thing.

[2012Lsatscore]

I had a different experience. I did better than expected on RC. Minor choke on LG (-4, I normally get -1/-0) and then completely bombed LR. I was pting in the 170s, test day was 163.

What is the best LR book? Powerscore?

Good to see you back woke, let's smash this thing.

It depends on which types you are having issues with.

Powerscore is a good all around book. It touches on every type of question but nothing in large detail. It does have a great formal logic section though.

Manhattan is good if you have issues with assumption and find-the-gap questions: assumption, strengthen, weaken, flaw, etc. It really focuses on those types of questions.

[052220151]

I had a different experience. I did better than expected on RC. Minor choke on LG (-4, I normally get -1/-0) and then completely bombed LR. I was pting in the 170s, test day was 163.

What is the best LR book? Powerscore?

Good to see you back woke, let's smash this thing.

It depends on which types you are having issues with.

Powerscore is a good all around book. It touches on every type of question but nothing in large detail. It does have a great formal logic section though.

Manhattan is good if you have issues with assumption and find-the-gap questions: assumption, strengthen, weaken, flaw, etc. It really focuses on those types of questions.

Maybe I should just get both? An extra $40 seems like a drop in the bucket.

[TheThriller]

Still no books.. its been a week minus the 4th and the weekend. Waiting until tomorrow then Im calling Dave.

[Clearly]

I'm actually considering waiting another year and taking dec, to apply the following cycle. This would be my third, and while I was PTing well before the second, I choked...I wanna be in perfect shape for the test, plus, I love the Dec curve...

[052220151]

I'm actually considering waiting another year and taking dec, to apply the following cycle. This would be my third, and while I was PTing well before the second, I choked...I wanna be in perfect shape for the test, plus, I love the Dec curve...

The curve doesn't really matter. A 170 is a 170 on any test. I definitely see the upside in waiting until December. That extra time would be huge. Best of luck man, I hope you crush the test.

[espressocream]

In DC.

Visited Georgetown today, it was alright.
Can't say it motivated me to start studying again.

trudging through manhattan lr.

DC is great though, except what they say is true.
No one is attractive here.
Well dressed, but not attractive.

[Clearly]

I'm actually considering waiting another year and taking dec, to apply the following cycle. This would be my third, and while I was PTing well before the second, I choked...I wanna be in perfect shape for the test, plus, I love the Dec curve...

The curve doesn't really matter. A 170 is a 170 on any test. I definitely see the upside in waiting until December. That extra time would be huge. Best of luck man, I hope you crush the test.

That may be true in theory, but different people are better suited to hard question/high curve vs easier/low curve. I can't quite figure it out either, but many of my highest scores have been Dec tests... It's really more about it being my last chance, and needing to go in with a few extra months of consistently high PTs.

[052220151]

I'm actually considering waiting another year and taking dec, to apply the following cycle. This would be my third, and while I was PTing well before the second, I choked...I wanna be in perfect shape for the test, plus, I love the Dec curve...

The curve doesn't really matter. A 170 is a 170 on any test. I definitely see the upside in waiting until December. That extra time would be huge. Best of luck man, I hope you crush the test.

That may be true in theory, but different people are better suited to hard question/high curve vs easier/low curve. I can't quite figure it out either, but many of my highest scores have been Dec tests... It's really more about it being my last chance, and needing to go in with a few extra months of consistently high PTs.

That makes sense. I think the December test is a good idea. Taking another year off may be for me...