December 2013 LSAT Study Group

[ManoftheHour]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

Make sure you're taking as much time as you can with these. You should be hitting 100% with the first two difficulties. Don't stress if each problem takes 5 minutes to solve. The important takeaway from drilling is not speed, but accuracy. There are some level 4s that take me 3-5 minutes to dissect.

You can work on speed later when you're an absolute beast on accuracy (which you will be after doing all these problems).

[riku33090]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

Make sure you're taking as much time as you can with these. You should be hitting 100% with the first two difficulties. Don't stress if each problem takes 5 minutes to solve. The important takeaway from drilling is not speed, but accuracy. There are some level 4s that take me 3-5 minutes to dissect.

You can work on speed later when you're an absolute beast on accuracy (which you will be after doing all these problems).

Thanks. Will do.

[chaoticx5]

A little over 10 weeks left. Starting to preptest this weekend. Does it make more sense to start with 60s then alternate between 50s and 60s until the exam? With only 10 exams in the 60s and hearing that they are different, at least in the LR section, I'm a little worried about the amount of material available to practice.

Also do you guys blind review after every PT? Anyone want to break down their review technique for PTs? What is your methodology when you get a question wrong? Do you add them to a list and go over those questions later? Or do you do as the books suggest, find a reason why each answer is wrong or right and then move on?

[HeavenBeyond]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

Make sure you're taking as much time as you can with these. You should be hitting 100% with the first two difficulties. Don't stress if each problem takes 5 minutes to solve. The important takeaway from drilling is not speed, but accuracy. There are some level 4s that take me 3-5 minutes to dissect.

You can work on speed later when you're an absolute beast on accuracy (which you will be after doing all these problems).

Is this what you are drilling for necessary assumption questions?

The NA section: http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/logical-reasoning/

[Hotguy]

A little over 10 weeks left. Starting to preptest this weekend. Does it make more sense to start with 60s then alternate between 50s and 60s until the exam? With only 10 exams in the 60s and hearing that they are different, at least in the LR section, I'm a little worried about the amount of material available to practice.

Also do you guys blind review after every PT? Anyone want to break down their review technique for PTs? What is your methodology when you get a question wrong? Do you add them to a list and go over those questions later? Or do you do as the books suggest, find a reason why each answer is wrong or right and then move on?

That's just me but, I think mixing up 60s with 50s is ideal. 60s are different than 50s, so it's good to see what you will be dealing with.
As far as pt goes, I take the PT, and circle any question that I wasn't 100%sure on. After finishing I take a little break, go eat, do the circled ones untimed and then go over what was right and wrong. I usually read every mlsat explanation on them, even the ones that were right just to make sure my reasoning was sound.

After that, they go to the 7sage pt tool. I mark all the questions I got wrong and mark them to re do at some later time along with drilling.

[akechi]

Backstory:
Been studying for LG on and off for the past 1-2 months. Have now gotten my scoring range to -0 to -4/5. Unfortunately, I have not yet even finished the PS LRB and have not even started drilling RC. This seems like a horrible position to be in considering most people come in with a natural aptitude for LR/RC and work their butts off to perfect their LG section.

Activities completed so far today:
PT 35 Timed LG Section:
-3, 20/23
G1: -1 (8m)
G2: -2 (10m)
G3: -0 (7m)
G4: -0 (10m)

SuperPrep A Timed LR2 Section:
-13, 12/25
Blind Review Score:
-10, 15/25

Will be drilling more LR and do at least 2 RC passages before calling it a day.

[vicpin5190]

Backstory:
Been studying for LG on and off for the past 1-2 months. Have now gotten my scoring range to -0 to -4/5. Unfortunately, I have not yet even finished the PS LRB and have not even started drilling RC. This seems like a horrible position to be in considering most people come in with a natural aptitude for LR/RC and work their butts off to perfect their LG section.

Activities completed so far today:
PT 35 Timed LG Section:
-3, 20/23
G1: -1 (8m)
G2: -2 (10m)
G3: -0 (7m)
G4: -0 (10m)

SuperPrep A Timed LR2 Section:
-13, 12/25
Blind Review Score:
-10, 15/25

Will be drilling more LR and do at least 2 RC passages before calling it a day.

i'm kinda on the same boat, LG just came naturally for me and the other 2 i've been having to work for my results.

[riku33090]

yea i have everything on there and LG questions as well.

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

Make sure you're taking as much time as you can with these. You should be hitting 100% with the first two difficulties. Don't stress if each problem takes 5 minutes to solve. The important takeaway from drilling is not speed, but accuracy. There are some level 4s that take me 3-5 minutes to dissect.

You can work on speed later when you're an absolute beast on accuracy (which you will be after doing all these problems).

Is this what you are drilling for necessary assumption questions?

The NA section: http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/logical-reasoning/

[vicpin5190]

PT 5, section 1, #21. Can anyone explain to me why the hell the answer is E?????

I've started the difficulty level 4 prinicple identifies in Cambridge. Off to a poor start...

[Hotguy]

PT 5, section 1, #21. Can anyone explain to me why the hell the answer is E?????

I've started the difficulty level 4 prinicple identifies in Cambridge. Off to a poor start...

Tough question.
So it gives us two ideas: 1- that if voters blame all parties, most of the incubents return and 2- if the voter blames only one party, that party loses and the challenger wins.
Its much easier to get the right answer if you eliminate the others, since they are easier to distinguish. Im not sure exactly why you do not understand E, maybe because its worded a bit weird, but it does say exactly what the idea (2) cited above does. If voters blame a particular party, then that party will be penalized.

If that doesnt make sense, let me know, I can try to make it more clear.

[vicpin5190]

PT 5, section 1, #21. Can anyone explain to me why the hell the answer is E?????

I've started the difficulty level 4 prinicple identifies in Cambridge. Off to a poor start...

Tough question.
So it gives us two ideas: 1- that if voters blame all parties, most of the incubents return and 2- if the voter blames only one party, that party loses and the challenger wins.
Its much easier to get the right answer if you eliminate the others, since they are easier to distinguish. Im not sure exactly why you do not understand E, maybe because its worded a bit weird, but it does say exactly what the idea (2) cited above does. If voters blame a particular party, then that party will be penalized.

If that doesnt make sense, let me know, I can try to make it more clear.

I think I may have fallen victim to a red herring in the quesiton. Seems now that i look at it again the last sentence doesn't play a part in the question, but that was what I was initially anchoring off of to answer. Good learning point on these tough questions at least.

[flash21]

do you guys think it would be a good idea for me to start some sections from the earlier tests untimed as a type of substitute from doing untimed LR drilling from cambridge packets?

[dasani13]

Just finished PT 51 (at 1:30am lol). This is the first time that I tried doing stem first in LR and I saw a significant improvement in my timing which has been my main issue. I'll have to see how I do in the next few PTs before I can rule out coincidence being the cause, but it just FELT right doing stem first.

LR1: -3
RC: -7
LR2: -6
LG: -5

Raw: 79
Scaled: 163

LR: I only missed a total of 2 questions because of timing-- I usually don't get to 2-3 per section. A -9 in both LR for me is better than average but I haven't seriously drilled or done any LR in a week or two. This is the first time I tried stem first and it felt really, really smooth. I think that if I'm at the top of my game in LR and do stem first, I can get to -7/-6 total right now. But with 70 days and a lot of Cambridge material left to drill, I think a -2/-3 on test day is still achievable.

RC: I dedicated 3 days to RC drilling this week, which is the most RC I've ever done in one week, lol. I didn't find any of the passages exceptionally difficult but I did still run out of time (4.5 minutes left when I got to the 4th passage). This sucked because in the 4 minutes that I had for passage #4 I realized how easy it was and that I shouldn't have spent 14 minutes in the 3rd, most difficult, passage. I still got -3 in both passages. I definitely could have gotten -0 in the fourth if I had 6.5 minutes left instead of 4.5. So, like Brian said yesterday, one of the biggest problems people have in RC is spending too much time in the questions, which is exactly what I did in passage #3.

LG: I had 3 minutes left for the 4th game which turned out to be, in my opinion, the easiest game in the section. Ended up running out of time and causing -4. Knowing that if I had gone a little faster I could have gone -1/-2 in games is great motivation.

tl;dr: Hard work = results, stem-first seems promising, and RC sucks but there's still time to improve (Brian's tips were very helpful).

[Gamine]

So after taking a much needed break from PTs and drilling like crazy I'm gonna get back in the swing of things with PT 60.

Just over two months left ... it's getting real.

[chaoticx5]

So after taking a much needed break from PTs and drilling like crazy I'm gonna get back in the swing of things with PT 60.

Just over two months left ... it's getting real.

Also taking PT 60 tomorrow. We can compare notes!

[vicpin5190]

So i ended up doing the entire Principle (Identify) Packet last night instead of doing anything else. I did fine on the difficulty 1 and 2, total of 1 wrong overall between the questions. Level 3 i misssed about 4 of the 15, and then level 4 was pretty tough. But despite it all i think all in all it was a great lesson in what to look for in those tough questions, by the end i was becoming as meticulous as possible with wording. Is that how drilling is supposed to work?

Game Plan Tonight:
-Drill Weaken/Parallel
-5 to 6 RC passages
-A Chapter of the Trainer

Game Plan this weekend:
-Drill Principle (apply), weaken, Most Supports, and NA
-2 LR sections, 1 RC section
-Broken Up Pt 55, potentially Pt 61 at the same go.

My ultimate plan is to start doing a PT or two every week starting next weekend , so I'm still debating just practicing fundamentals this weekend.

[Gamine]

So after taking a much needed break from PTs and drilling like crazy I'm gonna get back in the swing of things with PT 60.

Just over two months left ... it's getting real.

Also taking PT 60 tomorrow. We can compare notes!

Happy to!

[Dr. Dre]

GOOOOOOODDD MORNING EVERYONE ! : )

[Hotguy]

GOOOOOOODDD MORNING EVERYONE ! : )

Morning dre!
Hardcore prep day, yayyyy. Ignoring my gf another day, yayyy. Soon I will be single if I keep this up, yayyy! Lsat all the way!

[Dr. Dre]

GOOOOOOODDD MORNING EVERYONE ! : )

Morning dre!
Hardcore prep day, yayyyy. Ignoring my gf another day, yayyy. Soon I will be single if I keep this up, yayyy! Lsat all the way!

just dump her, brother. you will feel A LOT better

[Hotguy]

GOOOOOOODDD MORNING EVERYONE ! : )

Morning dre!
Hardcore prep day, yayyyy. Ignoring my gf another day, yayyy. Soon I will be single if I keep this up, yayyy! Lsat all the way!

just dump her, brother. you will feel A LOT better

I just might. It's not like it will last. Some chicks are too needy. They want you to be with them 24/7. I'm not about that.

[flash21]

.

[HeavenBeyond]

Just finished PT 51 (at 1:30am lol). This is the first time that I tried doing stem first in LR and I saw a significant improvement in my timing which has been my main issue. I'll have to see how I do in the next few PTs before I can rule out coincidence being the cause, but it just FELT right doing stem first.

LR1: -3
RC: -7
LR2: -6
LG: -5

Raw: 79
Scaled: 163

LR: I only missed a total of 2 questions because of timing-- I usually don't get to 2-3 per section. A -9 in both LR for me is better than average but I haven't seriously drilled or done any LR in a week or two. This is the first time I tried stem first and it felt really, really smooth. I think that if I'm at the top of my game in LR and do stem first, I can get to -7/-6 total right now. But with 70 days and a lot of Cambridge material left to drill, I think a -2/-3 on test day is still achievable.

RC: I dedicated 3 days to RC drilling this week, which is the most RC I've ever done in one week, lol. I didn't find any of the passages exceptionally difficult but I did still run out of time (4.5 minutes left when I got to the 4th passage). This sucked because in the 4 minutes that I had for passage #4 I realized how easy it was and that I shouldn't have spent 14 minutes in the 3rd, most difficult, passage. I still got -3 in both passages. I definitely could have gotten -0 in the fourth if I had 6.5 minutes left instead of 4.5. So, like Brian said yesterday, one of the biggest problems people have in RC is spending too much time in the questions, which is exactly what I did in passage #3.

LG: I had 3 minutes left for the 4th game which turned out to be, in my opinion, the easiest game in the section. Ended up running out of time and causing -4. Knowing that if I had gone a little faster I could have gone -1/-2 in games is great motivation.

tl;dr: Hard work = results, stem-first seems promising, and RC sucks but there's still time to improve (Brian's tips were very helpful).

How was your energy level PTing at that time?

[ManoftheHour]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

Make sure you're taking as much time as you can with these. You should be hitting 100% with the first two difficulties. Don't stress if each problem takes 5 minutes to solve. The important takeaway from drilling is not speed, but accuracy. There are some level 4s that take me 3-5 minutes to dissect.

You can work on speed later when you're an absolute beast on accuracy (which you will be after doing all these problems).

Hey man read your post in the december prep thread. Was wondering your views on the most effective way to drill LR - seems like you think you should take as much time as possible and only focus on accuracy

Does that mean that speed will come naturally?

I think it will. For me, I start to recognize the way the test makers design the questions as well as the kinds of wrong answers they throw at us. As soon as you can see why each incorrect answer is 100% wrong and each correct answer is 100% right, I think you're going to be in a good place. Soon, this kind of things become second nature. You're going to be ripping through the easy questions like nothing. You'll also be able to use PoE more effectively to reach the right answer on the harder problems. I (along with many others on TLS) think it's important to work on fundamentals first. If your fundamentals are weak and you're worried about timing, then I would think that you would rush problems. If your fundamentals are weak, the only thing you end up doing is well...missing questions, but faster. When your fundamentals are strong, you should be able to beast through level one problems in under a minute and level two problems in a little over a minute. The first 10 questions on a LR section should take no more than 10 minutes. That will happen once you understand LR. That leaves a lot more time for the harder questions (usually questions 12-20).

I could be wrong though.

I've yet to hit 170 on the real LSAT. However, for the previous takes, I completely neglected drilling. I just went through the guides without solidifying my understanding of what was in the guides because I did not drill. Just went straight to PTs. Hopefully this time will be different. If I achieve my goal, this will only verify how important drilling is.

[dasani13]

HeavenBeyond: it felt normal to me because my sleep schedule is COMPLETELY messed up. I plan on fixing it this coming week, though.