JUNE 2013 Study Group / Study Partner Thread

[BlaqBella]

Checking in!!!

Exclusively using Manhattan LSAT prep (taking a live class) and tutoring (either with Manhattan or Larkin Robson or both), if need be. I've already started reading up on material and practicing questions. I've identified several of my weaknesses. My strongest section has always been LG. LR kills me, as does slow reading (can't complete RC and LR). My RC is so-so. Hoping to get most of the fundamentals down by February and start drilling/PTing non-stop from mid-Feb to June test day. Shooting for a 180 (or at least close to it). And this is all for Stanford Law, my one true love.

I'll be checking in periodically before Christmas and will live here after it.

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

I'll be here after Christmas too, friends. Btw what's the difference between this and the newly created (re)take june thread?

Um...
Retakes was created first.

Thread fight. These claims aren't inconsistent, but I'm glad someone put this in writing. I guess I nominate June 2013 (re)take for being better in a lot of ways.

[MauveT-Rex]

Just purchased the complete logic game set from Cambridge, ready to master these things!

[rebexness]

[BlaqBella]

Totally 6 months ahead of myself but just did a section from a recent LR (PT63) and got -2 questions wrong. Completely stoked. Never before happened in my lifetime before. I guess some of the hardwork is paying off. Still have major room for improvement though. The key is always consistency, especially under timed conditions. Going to review this and read up some more.

Is it entirely weird to say that I actually enjoy studying for the LSAT? It pushes so many of your buttons, but the rewards of doing well is what makes it worth the stress, frustrations and bouts of anger.

Back to the grind!

[analytic_philosopher]

Checking in! A few months ago, I thought I would get a head start by taking the February LSAT, but I never got around to studying. Decided to start studying in January for the June LSAT. I just ordered all my study materials:

Study Guides:

The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible

Manhattan LSAT Set of 3 Strategy Guides

Drills:

LSAT Logic Games Strategy Guide Workbook: All 80 Analytical Reasoning Problem Sets from PrepTests 21-40, Grouped According to Manhattan LSAT's Classification System (Cambridge LSAT)

LSAT Logical Reasoning Strategy Guide Workbook: All 1,012 Logical Reasoning Questions from PrepTests 21-40, Grouped According to Manhattan LSAT's Classification System (Cambridge LSAT)

LSAT Reading Comprehension by Type, Volume 2: All 80 Reading Comprehension Passages from PrepTests 21-40, Grouped by Type and Arranged by Difficulty (Cambridge LSAT)

Full Tests:

[51 - 65] 15 Real, Recent LSATs: Manhattan LSAT Practice Book (Manhattan Lsat: Practice Books)

[41 - 50] 10 Actual, Official Recent LSAT PrepTests: Official LSAT PrepTests 41-50 (Cambridge LSAT)

More Tests:

The Official LSAT SuperPrep

10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests

Law School Application Guides:

How to Get Into Top Law Schools 5th Edition (How to Get Into the Top Law Schools) - Richard Montauk J.D.

The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions: Straight Advice on Essays, Resumes, Interviews, and More - Anna Ivey

[b33eazy]

For those of you using the Schwartz study guide does it seem helpful? I don't mind purchasing it if it is going to give me the guidance that I need but I don't want to waste money either.

I don't think it helped me much at all.

[ScottRiqui]

For those of you using the Schwartz study guide does it seem helpful? I don't mind purchasing it if it is going to give me the guidance that I need but I don't want to waste money either.

I don't think it helped me much at all.

I bought the six-month "premium" schedule and am satisfied with it, but all I really wanted from it was a way to pace myself over six months so that I a) covered everything I needed to before the test and b) didn't burn myself out or run out of original material to study.

I do like that he's broken down the PT questions by type, since that's how I was planning on studying. I think I'm going to be learning most of the actual techniques themselves from the Powerscore and Manhattan books, though.

[DaRascal]

I'll likely be here if I don't get into a school worth attending at sticker this cycle. I just can't get my 161 in October off my mind. I just know I can do better than that. It's killing me!

[warandpeace]

I'll be here after Christmas too, friends. Btw what's the difference between this and the newly created (re)take june thread?

Um...
Retakes was created first.

Oh, I knew that. I just made an inconsistent post, is all (:

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

I'll be here after Christmas too, friends. Btw what's the difference between this and the newly created (re)take june thread?

Um...
Retakes was created first.

Oh, I knew that. I just made an inconsistent post, is all (:

(re)take was only two weeks old when you posted that. That is pretty new. It isn't inconsistent because they were both newly created. You didn't say it was newer than Study Group, which would have been inconsistent with its actual age. If you can't tell, I'm bored and just posting to procrastinate instead of study for finals. TLS is the new facebook.

[Adam Banks]

How are y'all going about spreading out the studying without exhausting material or burning out?

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

How are y'all going about spreading out the studying without exhausting material or burning out?

I think I have over 70 PTs through June 2012 including oddball numbers. That's about one every MWF, which seems like a good pace. I think I'll be be reading more strategy and doing bibles up front, and then I'm going to dedicate 3 PTs for "the day of the test" days each week so the actual test day will be just like any other MWF. I'm going to use tests I've already taken for experimental sections to conserve fresh tests. Probably going to start with the older tests but burn one modern PT early for comparison. In between tests will be correcting mistakes from the previous or working on skills. For burning out, I think I'll go take tests in the park, at a bookstore, or somewhere that will keep things fresh and fun while pushing focus/stamina. I really expect this to suck hard at some point/all the time, so some combination of zen mindfulness and being generally fucking hardcore will probably be incorporated.

[Adam Banks]

Welp it's gonna be a long 6ish months, so lets rage

[MauveT-Rex]

How are y'all going about spreading out the studying without exhausting material or burning out?

LOL..I plan on taking all 67 PT's in preparation as well as working through all all 67 games sections 3 times each while working 50 hours a week so I'm worried about squeezing everything in.

[CardozoLaw09]

Checking In.

Target is 170+ but I'll be prepping with the "180 or bust" mentality for additional motivation. Right now I'm going through the LG Bible and I've begun reading the Manhattan LR guide as well - which so far seems identical content wise to the 2nd edition. Looking forward to getting things rolling for the third and last time.

What I'm hoping to do differently this time around is to have a structured prep as opposed to deciding the night before what I'll be doing for the next day. Right now for prep material I have the following:

1. All three Manhattan Guides (3rd edition)
2. Cambridge LR Packets with all Question Types from PTs 1 - 38 on PDF
3. All 67 PrepTests on PDF; will be buying the December test once it becomes available
4. PowerScore LG Bible
5. PowerScore LR Bible
6. PowerScore Question Type Training from Tests 1 - 20

I'm hoping that will suffice for now but will make adjustments accordingly as far as what other things I'll need to purchase.

The goal is to be scoring over 170 two weeks prior to the administration -- hopefully even sooner than that. I'll be taking a PT in the next couple weeks as a baseline to provide a gauge of where I need to go; however I have a pretty good idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are already. Should be a good 6 months - let's make the most of it.

[warandpeace]

(re)take was only two weeks old when you posted that. That is pretty new. It isn't inconsistent because they were both newly created. You didn't say it was newer than Study Group, which would have been inconsistent with its actual age. If you can't tell, I'm bored and just posting to procrastinate instead of study for finals. TLS is the new facebook.

this..means..

i'll just let you procrastinate

[jrsbaseball5]

For those of you using the Schwartz study guide does it seem helpful? I don't mind purchasing it if it is going to give me the guidance that I need but I don't want to waste money either.

I don't think it helped me much at all.

I bought the six-month "premium" schedule and am satisfied with it, but all I really wanted from it was a way to pace myself over six months so that I a) covered everything I needed to before the test and b) didn't burn myself out or run out of original material to study.

I do like that he's broken down the PT questions by type, since that's how I was planning on studying. I think I'm going to be learning most of the actual techniques themselves from the Powerscore and Manhattan books, though.

Thanks for your input guys, I appreciate it!

Follow-up question though, what are you doing (or did you do) to get started on your prep? I'm wrapping up the semester right now and want to go full bore in two weeks, but what could I be doing now to get rolling?

[ScottRiqui]

Well, 24 weeks prior to the test ends up being December 24th, but I wanted to get started a little bit early in case I miss a few study days because of the holidays. I basically just started the Schwartz schedule early - doing some LG reading and a few untimed LG sections.

Have you already gathered up all the study materials/guides you'll be using? If not, you could get them ordered/downloaded. Perhaps you could go ahead and make copies of the practice tests, or at least the sections of the tests that you think you'll want to re-do. I also put together binders/folders to hold all of my stuff.

Lastly, if you haven't already, set up an account on lsatqa.com and get familiar with it. In addition to grading your PTs for you (either complete PTs or individual sections), it also has a lot of historical tracking information, and will point out trends, such as if you're missing a lot of "parallel reasoning" questions in your LR sections, for example.

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

(re)take was only two weeks old when you posted that. That is pretty new. It isn't inconsistent because they were both newly created. You didn't say it was newer than Study Group, which would have been inconsistent with its actual age. If you can't tell, I'm bored and just posting to procrastinate instead of study for finals. TLS is the new facebook.

this..means..

i'll just let you procrastinate

I was just being supportive and saying that you weren't necessarily inconsistent. I know it's time for another ECA stack when my words border literal nonsense. Back to my study cave.

[jrsbaseball5]

Well, 24 weeks prior to the test ends up being December 24th, but I wanted to get started a little bit early in case I miss a few study days because of the holidays. I basically just started the Schwartz schedule early - doing some LG reading and a few untimed LG sections.

Have you already gathered up all the study materials/guides you'll be using? If not, you could get them ordered/downloaded. Perhaps you could go ahead and make copies of the practice tests, or at least the sections of the tests that you think you'll want to re-do. I also put together binders/folders to hold all of my stuff.

Lastly, if you haven't already, set up an account on lsatqa.com and get familiar with it. In addition to grading your PTs for you (either complete PTs or individual sections), it also has a lot of historical tracking information, and will point out trends, such as if you're missing a lot of "parallel reasoning" questions in your LR sections, for example.

I ordered the LG, LR Powerscore bibles yesterday and picked up some practice tests (about 20) a while back. Definitely need to get some more tests though and I want to get the Manhattan guides along with the Powerscore RC just for some extra work. Making copies of the tests that I plan on redoing now, is a fantastic idea. Any suggestions on which ones would be the most beneficial, such as older ones or the more recent ones? Are those the items that you placed into the binders and folders? I have set up a folder on my desktop but I need to get it more organized.

I also just signed up for an lsatqa account. I have checked it out previously, but now feel a lot better about it since I have an actual account.

[ScottRiqui]

Any suggestions on which ones would be the most beneficial, such as older ones or the more recent ones? Are those the items that you placed into the binders and folders? I have set up a folder on my desktop but I need to get it more organized.

So far, I've just made copies of LG sections, since that's where I need the most improvement and I know I'm going to want to do every game I can get my hands on at least twice. Plus, the Schwartz schedule explicitly has you re-doing earlier games when you get closer to the test date. I don't mark up LR sections very much, so I can re-do one just by erasing the answers, without needing to make another copy. I haven't done much with RC yet, so I don't know how much I'll be marking up the passages. I'm also afraid that I'll remember old LR and RC sections too well to get much out of them a second or third time.

[Squintz805]

Anyone have thoughts or recommendations regarding Reading Comprehension Prep, more specifically the Powerscore Reading Comprehension Bible, worth getting?

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

Anyone have thoughts or recommendations regarding Reading Comprehension Prep, more specifically the Powerscore Reading Comprehension Bible, worth getting?

Most people say that Manhattan RC is better. The LG and LR bibles are good though.

[MauveT-Rex]

I have the Manhattan RC book but have not read it yet. I found Blueprint's RC prep to be very good but it always feels like there's something else that you're missing. It seems like RC is so hard to improve at...pulling teeth...