Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT Forum

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duallys21

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Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by duallys21 » Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:53 pm

Getting ready for October. This is a question mostly for people who have sat for an official administration of the test previously. Was there anything about the way the test was administered that surprised you or threw you off your game that would be beneficial for people to be aware of.

I am thinking about this partly because I just started going through some of the LSAT booklets for the later tests (after having used the books/PDFs previously) and noticed that the answer sheet is not perforated. The answer sheet is separate for the actual test, right?? Also I noticed that the LGs are two pages all of a sudden, is this how it actually is? Any other curveballs like this people can think of?

magickware

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by magickware » Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:59 pm

duallys21 wrote:Getting ready for October. This is a question mostly for people who have sat for an official administration of the test previously. Was there anything about the way the test was administered that surprised you or threw you off your game that would be beneficial for people to be aware of.

I am thinking about this partly because I just started going through some of the LSAT booklets for the later tests (after having used the books/PDFs previously) and noticed that the answer sheet is not perforated. The answer sheet is separate for the actual test, right?? Also I noticed that the LGs are two pages all of a sudden, is this how it actually is? Any other curveballs like this people can think of?

1) Yes, the answer sheet is separate from the actual test.
2) The LG has been two pages per game. No one knows if that'll be the case in Oct.
3) The biggest curveball is the fact that you may be sitting for as long as 2-3 hours (supposedly) in the test room before your actual test starts. Expect an hour and a half at least though, and pray that you don't get someone who seemingly has no idea how standardized tests work and need guidance on every single process.
4) Don't expect a clock to be somewhere where you can see it.

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Jeffort

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by Jeffort » Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:10 pm

magickware wrote: 2) The LG has been two pages per game. No one knows if that'll be the case in Oct.
The LGs will be two pages for the Oct test and all future ones as well. LSAC has confirmed that 2 pages per LG is the new way things are and will continue indefinitely into the future.

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LSAT Blog

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by LSAT Blog » Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:17 pm

Here's what the 2-page layout for Logic Games looks like:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/ls ... pages.html

(And, yes, LSAC has confirmed that it will be continue to be 2 pages per game.)

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WaltGrace83

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by WaltGrace83 » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:40 pm

magickware wrote:
duallys21 wrote:Getting ready for October. This is a question mostly for people who have sat for an official administration of the test previously. Was there anything about the way the test was administered that surprised you or threw you off your game that would be beneficial for people to be aware of.

I am thinking about this partly because I just started going through some of the LSAT booklets for the later tests (after having used the books/PDFs previously) and noticed that the answer sheet is not perforated. The answer sheet is separate for the actual test, right?? Also I noticed that the LGs are two pages all of a sudden, is this how it actually is? Any other curveballs like this people can think of?

1) Yes, the answer sheet is separate from the actual test.
2) The LG has been two pages per game. No one knows if that'll be the case in Oct.
3) The biggest curveball is the fact that you may be sitting for as long as 2-3 hours (supposedly) in the test room before your actual test starts. Expect an hour and a half at least though, and pray that you don't get someone who seemingly has no idea how standardized tests work and need guidance on every single process.
4) Don't expect a clock to be somewhere where you can see it.
Can you explain this?

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SteelPenguin

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by SteelPenguin » Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:10 pm

WaltGrace83 wrote:
magickware wrote:
duallys21 wrote:Getting ready for October. This is a question mostly for people who have sat for an official administration of the test previously. Was there anything about the way the test was administered that surprised you or threw you off your game that would be beneficial for people to be aware of.

I am thinking about this partly because I just started going through some of the LSAT booklets for the later tests (after having used the books/PDFs previously) and noticed that the answer sheet is not perforated. The answer sheet is separate for the actual test, right?? Also I noticed that the LGs are two pages all of a sudden, is this how it actually is? Any other curveballs like this people can think of?

1) Yes, the answer sheet is separate from the actual test.
2) The LG has been two pages per game. No one knows if that'll be the case in Oct.
3) The biggest curveball is the fact that you may be sitting for as long as 2-3 hours (supposedly) in the test room before your actual test starts. Expect an hour and a half at least though, and pray that you don't get someone who seemingly has no idea how standardized tests work and need guidance on every single process.
4) Don't expect a clock to be somewhere where you can see it.
Can you explain this?
I've heard to expect up to 1-2 hours from the time the first person sits down, but I have taken the test twice in larger lecture halls and I'd say it took maybe 20 minutes for a room to fill up and 20 minutes to fill out the information on the front. This was at a very well organized test center though, so I could see inexperienced proctors or larger rooms (70+) taking much longer to fill up and fill in the information.

magickware

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by magickware » Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:05 am

WaltGrace83 wrote: Can you explain this?
Everyone must move at the same pace during the filling out and instruction giving process before you start on the first section of the LSAT.

As such, it really only takes 1-2 people who seemingly has no idea how to follow instructions/have questions for everything/take an inordinate amount of time bubbling in and writing down information to greatly extend the time it takes for the entire process.

The first time I took the test, we got in at 8:30 and started somewhere from 9:20-9:40ish; I don't remember the exact time.
The second time took slightly over an hour.

Chances are you'll start somewhere in between 40min-1hr, but it can be longer.

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jingosaur

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by jingosaur » Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:40 am

For my first test, I don't think we starting doing sections until around noon even though check-in was at 8:30. For my second test we didn't have as big of a problem with this, and I'm taking it for the third time at the same test center where I took my second test.

Because of the sitting around thing, DON'T DRINK CAFFEINE ON TEST DAY. Holding in a piss for 5 hours while taking the LSAT for the first time was probably the hardest thing that I ever had to do and it gave me a -4 on 2 sections that would have normally given me a -1. I probably got like a -12 on my experimental RC section, which was section 3.

2 pages for each LG is great though.

RobertGolddust

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by RobertGolddust » Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:48 am

Personally, I'm not a fan of the two page split. More space for the visual perception to account for.

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Nonconsecutive

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Re: Surprising/Challenging Parts of Taking LSAT

Post by Nonconsecutive » Thu Sep 26, 2013 12:10 pm

jingosaur wrote:For my first test, I don't think we starting doing sections until around noon even though check-in was at 8:30.
Mother of God.

I am so, so very thankful that my testing center seemed to be pretty on the ball. My guess is we started around 9am. I'm in the same center again this time around, so I'm hoping for a repeat of that.

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