JUNE 2013 Study Group / Study Partner Thread Forum

[objection_your_honor]

When y'all drill LR questions (working on must be true now), do you time it? LG seems obvious to time, and for me RC as well. But is there any point in timing LR questions for drilling? LR has been a problem with accuracy for me but never timing.

I say do it untimed to build your pattern recognition repertoire. This will increase accuracy and (eventually) allow you to answer questions more quickly.

The main thing to remember is you should be running through the motions of your question-specific process. As you do that for many dozens of the same question type, your process will naturally speed up.

I think timing yourself at this point would only add to your accuracy problems.

[Daily_Double]

When y'all drill LR questions (working on must be true now), do you time it? LG seems obvious to time, and for me RC as well. But is there any point in timing LR questions for drilling? LR has been a problem with accuracy for me but never timing.

I use to time it. But I realized the purpose of drilling LR is to increase accuracy, and with increased accuracy will come increased speed. So really one shouldn't be timing LR drilling, games are a different story. Plus I also think PTs should be used for ironing out timing issues.

[objection_your_honor]

Probably not a bad idea to run a timer anyway just to gauge your progress. But don't rush your process for the sake of the timer.

I'm in the same boat and I'm taking the time to really dig deep in the structure of each argument I read, prephrasing at least one answer before moving on to the answer choices. I find this is allowing me to develop a mental image of arguments intuitively.

[Daily_Double]

Today is my last day of studying before a four day break from the LSAT, and TLS, but it's still going to be a long day. I'm working on the Difficult Problems in LR from Cambridge, redoing ordering problems from Cambridge and reviewing most of my previous RC passages. Big Day. Time to get to work.

Good luck guys.

[wtrc]

Thanks for all the responses.

On timed PT's, I usually finish the section in 31-32 minutes. I usually get 2-4 wrong (sometimes only 1, not more than 4). And I'm not purposely rushing or anything- I just finish the questions in time and am pretty confident in most of my answers, but sometimes am still stuck between 2 possible answers and just move on. I think I should work on spending more time on certain questions to improve accuracy, but I like having a 2 minute insurance window just in case a section is harder to me than usual...

[wtrc]

Today is my last day of studying before a four day break from the LSAT, and TLS, but it's still going to be a long day. I'm working on the Difficult Problems in LR from Cambridge, redoing ordering problems from Cambridge and reviewing most of my previous RC passages. Big Day. Time to get to work.

Good luck guys.

Good luck DD! 4 day break sounds nice, I'm saving a week break for a vacation in April...

[Daily_Double]

Reviewed RC first. Games second. LR third. Been at it all morning, feeling burnt so I'm calling it, this break is definitely at the right time for me.

RC: great review, picked up on some subtle notes and reinforced reading for structure and noticing the views/tone of the speakers/critics, and the author, felt really good that each passage I could mentally construct a scale similar to that used in Manhattan.

Games: 5 ordering games, p4-8, (18:46), -0.

LR: 50 Difficult Problems, -8, untimed, I was stumped at least every five problems and had to just eliminate the wrong answers to find the right one.

Very satisfied with LG, I"m confident that I can ravage any four ordering problems with enough time to take a dump between sections.

Slightly frustrated with LR, though I shouldn't be, I know these are difficult for a reason, the problem, in my opinion, is that I started with the early PTs, they go in order from PT 1-38, I haven't even gotten to the ones from PT 6 yet, which means up until this point I've only been drilling the difficult questions from 1-5, and these are a completely different animal. Some may disagree, but LR has always been consistently my best section, and some of these are much too funky. When I return to drilling I'm going to skip to the difficult problems from 30 onward. I'm not listing the problems because I don't recommend you viewing them. I looked at explanations on Manhattan and even the instructors answering the questions said something along the lines of "You missed this because it's old, don't expect anything like this, because LR has gotten more rigid."

Not exactly how I wanted to leave prep before a break, but I'm satisfied with the gains in LG and RC, and hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things in LR when I come back and focus on the tough ones from 30 onward.

[doorsal]

Checking in for June LSAT. Decided to sign up because I love the vibe you guys have going here.

Started studying in Jan, the LSAT has already fried my brain.

[Daily_Double]

Don't forget to check out your test center on Saturday, assuming the blizzard hasn't fucked things up. With that I'm out.

[shieldofachilles]

ok so this is very very sad...but this is currently what im doing with my friday night and honestly been pretty damn good compared to other friday nights lol....got my FIRST -0 on RC....whaaaatttt mothafuckaaaa....sorry i was happy and felt like posting lol. oo btw if u wanna check out a pretty damn hard in/out game thats still giving me trouble on the second try i think its pt 31 (new and used records on sale)

[CardozoLaw09]

ok so this is very very sad...but this is currently what im doing with my friday night and honestly been pretty damn good compared to other friday nights lol....got my FIRST -0 on RC....whaaaatttt mothafuckaaaa....sorry i was happy and felt like posting lol. oo btw if u wanna check out a pretty damn hard in/out game thats still giving me trouble on the second try i think its pt 31 (new and used records on sale)

Congrats on the -0! I think I'm going to get my RC on tonight as well since I've neglected RC for the past few days. Also plan on doing some LG's. Fun Friday night on deck!

[rebexness]

[shieldofachilles]

ok so this is very very sad...but this is currently what im doing with my friday night and honestly been pretty damn good compared to other friday nights lol....got my FIRST -0 on RC....whaaaatttt mothafuckaaaa....sorry i was happy and felt like posting lol. oo btw if u wanna check out a pretty damn hard in/out game thats still giving me trouble on the second try i think its pt 31 (new and used records on sale)

Congrats on the -0! I think I'm going to get my RC on tonight as well since I've neglected RC for the past few days. Also plan on doing some LG's. Fun Friday night on deck!

yeah thats basically why i did RC today...ive been focusing so hard on lg and lr that rc sort of went on the back burner part because after 5/6 sections im pretty tired and part because i just HATE doing rc lol. Have fun tonight...ill probly do another rc just to see if i can continue the trend.

@Cardozo...no joke id love to see a straight up -0 trend but i havent...floating between -2 and -0...but the good thing is errors arent scattered all over the games but concentrated on one game. personally i know i need to get better at grouping games with weird subsets and just general diagramming skills for grouping. Those 170+ scores almost depend on a -0 games section so we gotta get there brotha.

thanks for the congrats all

[eliztudorr]

am i too late to join the fun??

[shieldofachilles]

am i too late to join the fun??

lol at your tar...join on in buddy...theres 60,000 questions to spread dat fun on.

[CanILive]

ok so this is very very sad...but this is currently what im doing with my friday night and honestly been pretty damn good compared to other friday nights lol....got my FIRST -0 on RC....whaaaatttt mothafuckaaaa....sorry i was happy and felt like posting lol. oo btw if u wanna check out a pretty damn hard in/out game thats still giving me trouble on the second try i think its pt 31 (new and used records on sale)

Congrats!

Glad to see I am not the only one spending their Friday night this way.

[eliztudorr]

am i too late to join the fun??

lol at your tar...join on in buddy...theres 60,000 questions to spread dat fun on.

hey thanks. downton abbey was my only study partner for the last few weeks. when i finished the seasons i just HAD to make that meme lol

so do we just do PTs and discuss on here and motivate each other?

[ricekrispies]

Dang, tried to go and purchase all of the LR questions by type from Cambridge and their website is down! Is anybody else able to get on it?

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

[eliztudorr]

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

just got my book yesterday and was sooo surprised at how heavy and thick that book is :O. gonna start it after tmr (gonna go try out the Feb LSAT just to see what its like)...i never get LR....there's always something that prevents me from getting the right answer. its super frustrating.

[ricekrispies]

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

just got my book yesterday and was sooo surprised at how heavy and thick that book is :O. gonna start it after tmr (gonna go try out the Feb LSAT just to see what its like)...i never get LR....there's always something that prevents me from getting the right answer. its super frustrating.

Good luck on the Feb LSAT.

Yeah, it is so tricky! This book is greatly helping, though. For instance, yesterday I learned that even if you have two answers that are both "correct" (at least, the way we view them), just the order of the words in the answer will change everything. You can have an answer that logically makes sense in your head, but will be in the opposite order than the argument core so you have to go with something else. It is really blowing my mind.

[eliztudorr]

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

just got my book yesterday and was sooo surprised at how heavy and thick that book is :O. gonna start it after tmr (gonna go try out the Feb LSAT just to see what its like)...i never get LR....there's always something that prevents me from getting the right answer. its super frustrating.

It is really blowing my mind.

thanks~ i know this sound extremely nerdy but im actually kinda excited to read the book now after reading what you said. lol how many chapters/ or pages do you go through per day?

[shieldofachilles]

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

just got my book yesterday and was sooo surprised at how heavy and thick that book is :O. gonna start it after tmr (gonna go try out the Feb LSAT just to see what its like)...i never get LR....there's always something that prevents me from getting the right answer. its super frustrating.

It is really blowing my mind.

thanks~ i know this sound extremely nerdy but im actually kinda excited to read the book now after reading what you said. lol how many chapters/ or pages do you go through per day?

the key isnt really speed but efficient learning...what i did when going through the mlrb was do the chapter then drill the question type. if u have the time (i did it over winter break do there werent any other obligations) do a chapter a day and 100 questions from the type each day. dont focus too much on the bundles..get acquainted with the types and then start doing sections. this will make sense once u get to chapter 3 of the mlrb lol.

[CardozoLaw09]

PT 11 LG:

-1 in 33 mins

PT 11 RC:

-6 in 30 mins

Timing is good. I want to get to the point where I get angry for missing any question. The mindset HAS to be -0 or bust. I was down to two answer choices for a few questions in RC and chose the incorrect one, and for one of them I saw an answer I liked and didn't read the rest -- rookie mistake (smh). Going to call it a night; netflix awaitsss

[ricekrispies]

Going through chapter 3 of the Manhattan LR book tonight. The little nuances in these questions are insane. I am having a blast learning these different ways to analyze the problems, though. That's the good thing about all this studying. Even though it is difficult and long, there is such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what you are doing.

just got my book yesterday and was sooo surprised at how heavy and thick that book is :O. gonna start it after tmr (gonna go try out the Feb LSAT just to see what its like)...i never get LR....there's always something that prevents me from getting the right answer. its super frustrating.

It is really blowing my mind.

thanks~ i know this sound extremely nerdy but im actually kinda excited to read the book now after reading what you said. lol how many chapters/ or pages do you go through per day?

I actually haven't been as strict with my schedule as many of the people in this thread have been. I went through the Logic Games book over winter break but did not have material to drill with at the time, so I plan on redoing that one. I have been doing LR for a couple days now and am near the end of chapter 3 (ch.3 is 60ish pages). I am going to purchase the LR questions by type set from Cambridge once their website is back up!

I am going to echo what Shield said. It is probably best to read the chapter and then do a bunch of drilling work. There are quite a few questions in each chapter of the book to assist you with the learning but you really do need more than that to pack in all that information and learn how to apply it.

[RhymesLikeDimes]

Now, my question is who they gon' blame
When I'm back number one on the Billboard again?

PT 38:

RC: -2
LR1: -1
LG: -2
LR2: -2

Raw Score: 93
Scaled Score: 175

Took yesterday off to see if some downtime would help me out. There were 6 questions from LR that I had already seen while drilling, so my score is probably a couple points high, but I'll take it. Here's hoping this is real progress and not just a fluke.