February 2013 LSAT Study Group Forum

[Jcastro1]

I'm doing a full dress rehearsal on Saturday If anyone else is up to do this or discuss the PT later would love to!

PT68 will get crushed.

I'm doing the same thing except retaking my pt 67 on Saturday

Hm, maybe I'll do 67 as well. I took an undisclosed Oct 2012 test-- weirdly enough, we had different sections but zones was on our exam.

[Jcastro1]

You guys/girls have any advice on those super tricky Sufficient Assumption questions that often get thrown it at like, q 24. I usually get it down to two and then diagram, but under time pressure, it can often be wrong.

[arcanecircle]

When strapped for time Bp's advice to auto-eliminate arguments with new terms that appear in the conclusion but not the ACs has helped me blaze through some of those questions with decent accuracy. With enough practice, using this method you could cut through dense Sufficiency questions like butter.

Check out his thread for details

[ws81086n]

PT 65:

LR: -2
LG: -1
RC: -2
LR: -4

92/101=174. The RC on this test was pretty absurd. Goes a long way towards explaining the -14 curve. Thrilled that I crushed games, though I fear they may have been slightly easier than usual? Certainly not a gimme section, though. Anyone have an opinion on 65's games?

[gobosox]

You guys/girls have any advice on those super tricky Sufficient Assumption questions that often get thrown it at like, q 24. I usually get it down to two and then diagram, but under time pressure, it can often be wrong.

Re-reading the manhattan explanation (with the arrow and shading it in and breaking it down in terms of money) really helped me recently. Getting back to the basics is huge, especially since you tend to forget it...

Also, keep up rockin those PTs!

arcanecircle-- link?

[arcanecircle]

65's LG was reasonable, not easy, not that difficult.

The last game felt easier to me, albeit with some gimmicks in the rules, than g3, g3 felt the hardest to me, but overall wasn't a particularly difficult game.

Kudos on -2'ing the RC, 65 is notorious for having had a brutal RC section. For me the dual passage on blackmail was where I lost all my points. (Weird too since dual passages tended to be easier for me)

[ws81086n]

65's LG was reasonable, not easy, not that difficult.

The last game felt easier to me, albeit with some gimmicks in the rules, than g3, g3 felt the hardest to me, but overall wasn't a particularly difficult game.

Kudos on -2'ing the RC, 65 is notorious for having had a brutal RC section. For me the dual passage on blackmail was where I lost all my points. (Weird too since dual passages tended to be easier for me)

Yeah, I guess that's also what I was thinking on 65's games. G4 felt the hardest to me, though G2 and G3 were mildly difficult in their own way, too. Can't believe I fell for the bait on question #5 in the first game--totally unacceptable. BM passages were definitely challenging--it was hard to understand the approaches of the respective legal systems to blackmail on a first read, and 4, perhaps even 5, of the 6 questions were difficult.

[ws81086n]

You guys/girls have any advice on those super tricky Sufficient Assumption questions that often get thrown it at like, q 24. I usually get it down to two and then diagram, but under time pressure, it can often be wrong.

Time pressure is a bitch. Critical faculties begin to fall by the wayside. If you're going to be crunched for time, best advice is take a deep breath and refocus. But ideally, one would just continue to improve so as to avoid that. It's been frustrating for me, because despite improving a bunch, I rarely finish any of the sections with more than 90 seconds left. I've really got to stop checking and rechecking myself on certain questions. Gotta just roll on and bank time.

[Legallybronzed180]

For suff assumption and tougher lr questions in general you should skip them and come back to it when you are finished the rest of section so the pressure is off and you are not pressed for time. You want to finish the easy questions fast and have a few mintues at then end to go back read and re read the tough question so you really understand it.
For suff assupmtion you to focus and zone in on what the evidence is and how it leads to the conclusion. You are looking for answer choice that bridges the evidence to the conclusion. You want to make sure you choose an answer choice where the evidence is the sufficent side and not on the
necessary side and not the other way one. Most likely there will be two answers choices that are simliar will confuse the ness and suff side you want to make sure you are going in the right direction. Also in suff assumption your answer could be broader as it isn't required for example if the conclusion has the word sometime in a required assumption an answer with the word always would be wrong in suff assumption it is ok.

[ws81086n]

Does anyone know how long the pause in between sections is on the day of the test? I realize that it's not long, but are we talking 15 seconds, 1 or 2 minutes, or what?

[Legallybronzed180]

It depends on the proctor they say put your pencil downs open to section two and begin its right after another no break just enough time to reset your watch. Its important during pts do not have any breaks and just go straight through its mentally tiring!

[gobosox]

Does anyone know how long the pause in between sections is on the day of the test? I realize that it's not long, but are we talking 15 seconds, 1 or 2 minutes, or what?

I'd imagine the Manhattan LSAT virtual proctor has it pretty right on. I use it on most of my PTs.

[overperformer]

Does anyone know how long the pause in between sections is on the day of the test? I realize that it's not long, but are we talking 15 seconds, 1 or 2 minutes, or what?

10-15 seconds is the usual. proctors just want to be done and move on with their lives

[overperformer]

trying to save my last 2 recent PTs for next week

trying some "outdated' material for the first time. PT's in the 20s. the rumors are true. games harder. reading easier.

[TheThriller]

Anyone else get their ass kicked by PT 61?

I feel like my performance is so hot and cold.

[Jcastro1]

I had to go back during my 'bank time' and really correct a handful of choices. Difference between a 170 and 175 imo

[gobosox]

I'm doing a full dress rehearsal on Saturday If anyone else is up to do this or discuss the PT later would love to!

PT68 will get crushed.

I'm doing the same thing except retaking my pt 67 on Saturday

Hm, maybe I'll do 67 as well. I took an undisclosed Oct 2012 test-- weirdly enough, we had different sections but zones was on our exam.

I'm doing my dress rehearsal on Friday-- so I'll make it PT 67. I can let you guys know how I do before you take it...

[dusters]

65's LG was reasonable, not easy, not that difficult.

The last game felt easier to me, albeit with some gimmicks in the rules, than g3, g3 felt the hardest to me, but overall wasn't a particularly difficult game.

Kudos on -2'ing the RC, 65 is notorious for having had a brutal RC section. For me the dual passage on blackmail was where I lost all my points. (Weird too since dual passages tended to be easier for me)

Strange, as I actually did okay on 65 RC but struggled a bit on games.

[Theopliske8711]

Is it just me or are the dual passages really easy? I am consistently nailing them; unfortunately, the two passages after that is where the Xs start to come in.

[perplexedconfused]

Anyone else get their ass kicked by PT 61?

I feel like my performance is so hot and cold.

I feel the exact same. I got my lowest score to date on PT 61. My performance is also so up and down. Its very frustrating. I feel like I know the material, but when I am not focused, or my frame of mind is off, I always perform bad.

[Theopliske8711]

Anyone else get their ass kicked by PT 61?

I feel like my performance is so hot and cold.

I did. I felt it was tougher than normal, and was also scared prior to taking it because I had heard such bad things. All of this definitely compounded together to hurt my ability to take the test with a calm mind.

[mystikal]

When strapped for time Bp's advice to auto-eliminate arguments with new terms that appear in the conclusion but not the ACs has helped me blaze through some of those questions with decent accuracy. With enough practice, using this method you could cut through dense Sufficiency questions like butter.

Check out his thread for details

The LRB Actually describes this, and I find it very helpful as well

[ws81086n]

Anyone else start with (E) and move up on a conditional LG question where it's obvious that you're going to have to test every case?

[gobosox]

Anyone else start with (E) and move up on a conditional LG question where it's obvious that you're going to have to test every case?

I used to, but now I have a much much MUCH better approach.

Take a step back and think in theoretical terms about which variables have the most constraints based on them that apply to this situation, and do that one first. For example, if there is rule that says if F is in G is out and if G is in F is out, that's a great place to start. It takes an extra 2 or 3 seconds, but it usually pans out in the first AC or two.

[gobosox]

Also, just took PT 60 with experimentals PT 35 S2+3

Overall, 92/99, 174.

LG: -1 (the 2nd game destroyed me, which was weird because it was a straight up game, but I couldn't get one question to save my life-- I spent 10 minutes of the section on one damn question... then I got it wrong.)
LR: -4 overall (-2/-2)
RC: -2 (HUGE victory)

Overall (with added sections) -12 for 6 sections, meaning an average of -8 for a full test. (173-174 range, usually).

Still room for some improvement before the real thing... Are we settled on PT 67 for the "dress rehearsal" this weekend?