The Official June 2014 Study Group Forum

[alexrodriguez]

edit

[Louis1127]

Looks like I am going to execute a study plan I'll deem the "super Pithy Pike method".

It's like the pithypike method of doing every logic game from PT 1-38 three times, expect I'll do them more than three times each. Here's why I am going to do this: I know I need to get the easy games done in five minutes or less, but right now, the easiest games take me about 7 minutes to complete.

While I have been drilling for about three months, I started out not even knowing how to notate rules or draw a diagram (haha) so getting easy games done accurately in 7 minutes is actually a huge improvement for me. But I need to get to where I can get the easy ones knocked out accurately in 5 mins or less. As I understand it, the only way to acquire the skills necessary for this is by drilling games over and over and over until my fingers bleed (if someone has another idea, please let me know!).

So I'll be drilling games. A lot.

[agalfano]

Took a PT today! and I was so so about it, not too happy and not too upset...
Just a little background, my first PT last summer was a 150 and I took one about 3 months ago and got a 156

PT 49

LG (-1) 21
LR (-9) 17
RC (-7) 20
LR (-8) 17

Raw Score: 75
Actual Score 159

LG: I am usually very good at logic games so I was happy with this performance. A few of the questions were more difficult than usual for me so I was happy to see that I was able to get through it at -1. Needless to say by my other scores, I will still be doing logic games during my prep but my focus will be on the other two sections.
LR: Wow I was not too happy about this. I now know that my past studying this month has not been effective and I was being lazy and I definitely need to step up my game! I have the trainer, Cambridge, and Manhattan so there is no reason that I shouldn't be able to get to -5 or -6 with good thorough prep (I'll take any studying advice about how you top scorers do it!!)
RC: I was actually okay with this section for now. My first two tests I went -12 and -11, and I just started to read the Trainer Section about RC and it is making me see things WAY more clearly now. Now I just need to keep drilling RC and improving my approach and I hope to get to -4 or -5 around test time.

I am hoping to jump up to the raw score in the mid-low 80s to get my target score! Going to require a lot of work my studying method has been shifted from QUALITY over QUANTITY!

Solid improvements though! 150-->159 is a good start!

How are you doing/reviewing LR? THAT should be your main focus. If you can get LR down to -1/-2 per section then you'll be in great shape! Also, do NOT settle for a target score of low 160s. You CAN absolutely do better than that! We are here to help!

Thanks for the encouragement! And you are right I should not settle for low 160s, im just trying to start with small goals and work my way up! As for LR studying that will definitely be my main focus. I've been going through the Trainer, and when I get to parts about specific questions I couple that with Manhattan and then drill with the Cambridge... I have a lot more to go with Manhattan though so I feel once I get through that I should be able to knock myself up a couple of points. Also I need to get more effective with drilling. I get most of the questions right but I really take my time and I'm not pressing. So from now on I'm going to time myself with my drilling rather than going at my own pace. Thanks for the help though!

[WaltGrace83]

Thanks for the encouragement! And you are right I should not settle for low 160s, im just trying to start with small goals and work my way up! As for LR studying that will definitely be my main focus. I've been going through the Trainer, and when I get to parts about specific questions I couple that with Manhattan and then drill with the Cambridge... I have a lot more to go with Manhattan though so I feel once I get through that I should be able to knock myself up a couple of points. Also I need to get more effective with drilling. I get most of the questions right but I really take my time and I'm not pressing. So from now on I'm going to time myself with my drilling rather than going at my own pace. Thanks for the help though!

What does your review process look like? Getting questions right/wrong REALLY doesn't matter (unless you are talking about on test day )

[agalfano]

Thanks for the encouragement! And you are right I should not settle for low 160s, im just trying to start with small goals and work my way up! As for LR studying that will definitely be my main focus. I've been going through the Trainer, and when I get to parts about specific questions I couple that with Manhattan and then drill with the Cambridge... I have a lot more to go with Manhattan though so I feel once I get through that I should be able to knock myself up a couple of points. Also I need to get more effective with drilling. I get most of the questions right but I really take my time and I'm not pressing. So from now on I'm going to time myself with my drilling rather than going at my own pace. Thanks for the help though!

What does your review process look like? Getting questions right/wrong REALLY doesn't matter (unless you are talking about on test day )

Basically I do about 10 questions at a time, untimed, and then I check my answers and with the ones that I miss I go through them myself quickly to see why I got it wrong and try to re-find the conclusion and then I check the ones I miss with the Manhattan Forums

[alexrodriguez]

Printed out PT 36 through 67 for $50 today at some print shop.

A little less than 3 cents a copy. Not bad!

Time to get to work.

[myoung7189]

Fell of the wagon for a few days... but June is coming.
PT 45
LR1 -2
RC -6
LR2 (41) -0
LR2 -2

172

Somewhat satisfied except for 2 bubbling errors. And did someone say RC haikus:

R.C. is my bane
It brings me way too much pain
Soon it shall be slain

[alexrodriguez]

That's awesome dude.

Happy for you and that 172

[alexrodriguez]

PT12 GAME 2

I find this game ridiculously hard.

[Twitch]

Does conditional logic give anyone else a headache?

I did the conditional chapter in Manhattan three times through over the past three days and only just now feel solid enough to attempt drilling in any way at all.

[10052014]

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[Nonconsecutive]

Following the footsteps of Walt G, I have been pouring alot of time on writing out a full explanation per every LR question I was unsure about while taking PTs.

I am pretty sure it works

This helped me a lot as well.

[agalfano]

Hold on one second... Walt's method that you guys are talking about, what does this method entail? Care to give us a complete description?

[Lightworks]

PT 37 this morning:

RC: -4 (#3, 15, 17, 24)
LR1: -1 (#22)
LG: -0
LR2: -1 (#20)

Overall: 174

Tight curve, but still a bit of a let down after a 180 last week. RC had some tough passages (Ralph Ellison/Jazz in particular). Both my LR mistakes were from misunderstanding the question type, so I feel pretty good about those. I need to go through the LRB again, though. One of the games took me forever (shelves: novels/grammars/monographs), but I'm not worried about LG in the least.

Going to start getting back into daily study sessions; coming up on two months 'til showtime.

[Hurricane211]

Hi! I posted this in the retakers forum too, but if anyone has any hints for better time management in LG, please hit me up! I can do the games, and get the correct answers, I just can't do it fast enough.

[Tyr]

Hi! I posted this in the retakers forum too, but if anyone has any hints for better time management in LG, please hit me up! I can do the games, and get the correct answers, I just can't do it fast enough.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. You just need to do them many times. Don't sacrifice accuracy, but try to push yourself gradually to get faster. Often, it seems that going too slow on games may be a matter of a lack of familiarity. Make sure you're being efficient in your problem solving process and diagramming as well.

[santoki]

first PT this time around...

PT57
LG: -3
LR1: -5 (-3)
LR2: -0 (-1)
RC: -2

171 (172)

The dinosaur game...got me for 2 questions and I made a silly mistake for the other one. LR1 was one of the tougher ones I've ever taken but perhaps that is offset with an easier LR2 section because that is the first time I've ever gotten a -0 on a LR section. I got one wrong after I did a blind review so clearly that question confused me. RC was pretty solid by my standards after having had a tough time with RC pre-Trainer. I'm not sure how much the Trainer has actually helped but I am reading for structure more consciously so I suppose it helps?

Feels good to score >170...my highest PT ever was 170 so this is a definite confidence boost. Studying while working full-time has been damn near impossible...let's all keep motivated!

[Nonconsecutive]

first PT this time around...

PT57
LG: -3
LR1: -5 (-3)
LR2: -0 (-1)
RC: -2

171 (172)

The dinosaur game...got me for 2 questions and I made a silly mistake for the other one. LR1 was one of the tougher ones I've ever taken but perhaps that is offset with an easier LR2 section because that is the first time I've ever gotten a -0 on a LR section. I got one wrong after I did a blind review so clearly that question confused me. RC was pretty solid by my standards after having had a tough time with RC pre-Trainer. I'm not sure how much the Trainer has actually helped but I am reading for structure more consciously so I suppose it helps?

Feels good to score >170...my highest PT ever was 170 so this is a definite confidence boost. Studying while working full-time has been damn near impossible...let's all keep motivated!

Congrats on the score!

[santoki]

Hold on one second... Walt's method that you guys are talking about, what does this method entail? Care to give us a complete description?

I'd be interested in this as well.

p.s. thanks nonconsecutive

[Lightworks]

Hi! I posted this in the retakers forum too, but if anyone has any hints for better time management in LG, please hit me up! I can do the games, and get the correct answers, I just can't do it fast enough.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. You just need to do them many times. Don't sacrifice accuracy, but try to push yourself gradually to get faster. Often, it seems that going too slow on games may be a matter of a lack of familiarity. Make sure you're being efficient in your problem solving process and diagramming as well.

This. I did every game from PTs 1-40 until I could do each of them in less than 6 minutes with perfect accuracy. Once you get the fundamentals of linear and grouping games down cold, most games become cake.

[WaltGrace83]

Separating the Premises from the Conclusion makes thing MUCH MUCH clearer and cleaner. you can spot the flaw instantly, and quickly find the correct answers. combined with Mike Kim's method of eliminating irrelevant/wrong answers, you can fly through a LR section like a knife through butter.

What exactly do you mean by this? Were you not annotating the page before?

Since some of you were asking...

IF you know what you scored THEN you must have reviewed. There is no excuse for seeing how many you got wrong without review. This is what we are trying to say. If you don't have enough time to review in total then review as much as you can. It sometimes takes me two days to review a set of 25 questions. Why should one do this? Here's why:

If you do the questions and then you check the answers and then you review, you are just finding ways to convince yourself that the right answers are right and the wrong answers are wrong without developing a true understanding of why this is so or finding flaws in your "logic" . If you do the questions then review then check the answers you are figuring out the flaws in your understanding! This is the main purpose of drilling! You really cannot improve without figuring out what you are doing wrong. It is great to make mistakes when you are doing questions un-timed, convincing yourself that answer choices are right and wrong for specific reasons, then finding that you were wrong because this (and only this) will explicitly tell you what you are just not understanding.

Don't get me wrong. It is great to practice regardless of anything. But practice is not nearly as good as the method outlined above. Practice is for PTs. Practice is not for drilling. Otherwise you are just burning through material.

Understand every word. Then revisit the questions. Then come back to them later. Then do it all over again.

Here is my process so I can give you a little more insight:
-Do a timed set of questions (either 12/13 or 25)
-Blind review (this could take hours...and hours..........and hours) each individual question
-After every question go onto Manhattan forum
---Check to see if I got right, Do a write-up on it, etc. etc.etc.

INTERNALIZE THE QUESTIONS. Just scoring them does little.

EDIT: and I personally don't believe in doing drills un-timed first for the very reason you mentioned. However, some people (most people) swear by the method of un-timed drilling. The way that I see it, there is no harm in doing the question timed then un-timed so to speak during the review process. It is like you are getting the best of both worlds! You get to (1) see how you respond in test-like situations and (2) see how good or bad your logic is during review. It's a win-win!

Also, by "blind review" I don't just mean the questions you think you got wrong/unsure about. I mean EVERY question.

[agalfano]

Thanks for the insight WaltGrace! I've been looking for a more effective method of drilling and I'm hoping this will do the trick! Can you give us a brief history of your progress with this method? How were you doing in LR before this drilling? how many questions were you missing and how well did you feel you were understanding the question? Anything will help, thanks!!!

[Hurricane211]

Hi! I posted this in the retakers forum too, but if anyone has any hints for better time management in LG, please hit me up! I can do the games, and get the correct answers, I just can't do it fast enough.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. You just need to do them many times. Don't sacrifice accuracy, but try to push yourself gradually to get faster. Often, it seems that going too slow on games may be a matter of a lack of familiarity. Make sure you're being efficient in your problem solving process and diagramming as well.

This. I did every game from PTs 1-40 until I could do each of them in less than 6 minutes with perfect accuracy. Once you get the fundamentals of linear and grouping games down cold, most games become cake.

Thank you both for the advice! I wish I could get to -0 in games. It seems like many people make it happen for themselves, and just that boost alone would get me to the score I want to be at. I shall get to drilling!

[myoung7189]

That's awesome dude.

Happy for you and that 172

Appreciate the support. I want to see people start posting scores that match you're avatar. Unfortunately, I'll be posting one well below that later today, because I got completely rocked by superprep A. Will post score after I take it untimed. Predicted score 165.

[dardardelight]

Got 165 on my last two PT's (39 and 40)

Averaging - 4 on each LR ; - 2 on LG ; -6 on RC

I can't get out of the bad habit of justifying trap answers . erghh, soo frustrating..

My semi-realistic goal is to hit a couple 170's in a row by the end of April, and studying all of May (when I'm off from school) to try and get a 175 avg.

With a 3.3x gpa, albeit from a top LAC, I need at least a 172 to get columbia/nyu. Let's make it happen

Good luck, everybody! keep up the grind