The Official September 2014 Study Group Forum

ErgoSum · Post by **ErgoSum** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:40 am

PT 71 today.

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:42 am

Colonel_funkadunk · Post by **Colonel_funkadunk** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:55 am

I can still smell it

Also I'm staying at home the night before the test bc the center is an hour away in my hometown. Just got this text from my mom

MAMA_FUNKADUNK wrote: I'm working on a healthy dinner to serve you the night before test then a good breakfast and healthy snacks for you to pack in your gallon sized Baggie lol

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:56 am

sfoglia · Post by **sfoglia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:58 am

BJS wrote:
smccgrey wrote:My diet right now could be described as EAT ALL THE FOOD.

I always perform poorly when I haven't eaten a fat breakfast. I think I just need energy.

My breakfast RN is bacon, eggs, sauteed spinach and kale, and a couple mini powdered donuts.
Whoa there Michael Phelps.

Apparently the Dec thread is starting a rule that you can't discuss PT answers inside the thread. Reason #1,034 that I hope I don't have to retake in December.

Sounds real helpful! Don't discuss that which you find confusing. Nobody ever learned anything from asking questions!

ilikebaseball · Post by **ilikebaseball** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:59 am

wek up

sfoglia · Post by **sfoglia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:03 am

BJS wrote:I haven't really done any RC "prep" other than drilling, in which I've gone through the difficulty packet and several sections in PT41-50. With the exception of PT59 - in which I somehow went a horrific -6 - I'm scoring -0 to -3 every test. According to LSATqa, my worst question type is Suggested/Implied, where I'm hitting 91.2%. So generally it feels like my RC is working, albeit not perfectly. Do you think it's worth it to spend any inordinate time this week prepping RC (such as going through the MLSAT RC book)?

I got through the Manhattan RC is maybe an hour.

That's a yes. Read the book. It'll take two seconds and it can only help.

accessislife · Post by **accessislife** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:03 am

PeanutsNJam wrote:I've just gotten a few major breakthroughs that has allowed me to comfortably move past my -3/-4 LR plateau. Writing things down helps me process, so I figured I'd share with anybody who this information might be valuable to. These things are probably covered in study books and whatnot. Too bad for me, I never used study materials, I just PT'd. So I guess I'm learning the hard way.

The LSAT is always right. There are answer choices that aren't perfect; by bubbling it in, you may feel like the LSAT is making you its bitch. You would be right. I've noticed I have subconsciously been defiant, purposefully trying hard to justify an incorrect answer choice because I want to stick it to the test writers, even though I know they intend for the other choice to be right. Too bad PnJ, the LSAT always wins.

There is a huge difference in question stems between a necessary assumption and a sufficient assumption, and the alternative is often times used as a trap. Pay special attention to this. I have always treated every assumption question as a necessary assumption and this has provided me with endless problems. No more.

There are times when the LSAT is completely literal and rigid, and there are other times when you have to make a "reasonable" assumption in order to arrive at the correct answer. Be comfortable with the LSAT's hypocracy.

Pay special attention to the word "should". This word will fuck you up. Similarly, look for connecting words like "thus" or "however", etc. If they're not present, an isolated sentence can be a red herring and may not be part of the argument.

When in doubt, convert to formal diagram. It may be time intensive but you should only need to do this for ~2-3 questions.

Don't dig too deep. When in pursuit of as few incorrect questions as possible, I'm often tempted to consider every perspective; every possibility. I do excessive prephrasing. This is not necessary, and kills time. It also leads to day dreaming. Find the right answer, move on. We're not searching for the truth here, we're only searching for the right answer.

This is where I need your help:

1.) How do you differentiate between an intermediate conclusion and a premise?

PNJ this is awesome - can I ask how you came to these tips? are you deep diving into past PTs and really dissecting why you got them wrong?

I'm kind of stuck - I don't have anymore materials so I'm just doing review, think I might get rusty if I don't do some drills so debating whether to download another packet or two

BJS · Post by **BJS** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:07 am

sfoglia wrote:I got through the Manhattan RC is maybe an hour.

sfoglia wrote:Read the book. It'll take two seconds and it can only help.

sfoglia wrote:Still dumb. But, hope you fair better!

BillPackets · Post by **BillPackets** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:12 am

PeanutsNJam wrote:

This was under appreciated

BJS · Post by **BJS** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:15 am

What do you guys think about using templates in LG? 7Sage uses them a lot - and obviously they are super helpful - but some games (a perfect example is G4 of PT72) can be solved with templates but are easier by just attacking the questions. When and how do you guys make the choice of whether to really spend time diagramming or whether to diagram the foundation and attack the questions?

accessislife · Post by **accessislife** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:17 am

BJS wrote:What do you guys think about using templates in LG? 7Sage uses them a lot - and obviously they are super helpful - but some games (a perfect example is G4 of PT72) can be solved with templates but are easier by just attacking the questions. When and how do you guys make the choice of whether to really spend time diagramming or whether to diagram the foundation and attack the questions?

I always do a "best guess" foundation diagram and then try to move on pretty quickly -early on I got caught up diagramming every possibility I could think of and then attacking the questions, I think its about a good mix

(full disclosure - i tried to diagram 72 like |m|tu|w|th| but then ended up doing something more like m-->j-->)

ErgoSum · Post by **ErgoSum** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:19 am

BJS wrote:What do you guys think about using templates in LG? 7Sage uses them a lot - and obviously they are super helpful - but some games (a perfect example is G4 of PT72) can be solved with templates but are easier by just attacking the questions. When and how do you guys make the choice of whether to really spend time diagramming or whether to diagram the foundation and attack the questions?

If I can figure out that there are less than 4 solutions for sure, or if I can diagram all possible solutions with 2 diagrams then I go for it. If not I try to get at least two "general ones" where there is still options left, but where I am able to narrow down the rules that I have to apply. Does that make sense?

Eta: I did something similar to access, and by doing four possibilities I was able to figure a decent amount of information out for that game

schmelling · Post by **schmelling** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:21 am

Post removed.

Hand · Post by **Hand** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:23 am

ErgoSum wrote:
BJS wrote:What do you guys think about using templates in LG? 7Sage uses them a lot - and obviously they are super helpful - but some games (a perfect example is G4 of PT72) can be solved with templates but are easier by just attacking the questions. When and how do you guys make the choice of whether to really spend time diagramming or whether to diagram the foundation and attack the questions?
If I can figure out that there are less than 4 solutions for sure, or if I can diagram all possible solutions with 2 diagrams then I go for it. If not I try to get at least two "general ones" where there is still options left, but where I am able to narrow down the rules that I have to apply. Does that make sense?

Eta: I did something similar to access, and by doing four possibilities I was able to figure a decent amount of information out for that game

Whenever there is something like X can only be on day 1 or 7 I start by distinguishing those and then see if I can restrict those further, I dunno, don't really have a strategy except trying to gauge as quickly as possible whether there are some things that tightly constrain the set of possibilities. So I guess I try most of the time to create a restricted set of possible solutions, but give up if I can't reduce it quickly enough.

BJS · Post by **BJS** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:35 am

Thanks for the tips guys. I feel like I've been drifting on LG because I've gotten lazy and want to solve it all to begin with, rather than attack the questions. Ironically, I'm also not sufficiently taking time to understand the game and its inferences - I want pencil on paper ASAP. I'm going to work this week on getting back on my game.

schmelling · Post by **schmelling** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:40 am

Post removed.

BJS · Post by **BJS** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:59 am

FFS today and tomorrow at work are just going to suck. So focused on just getting through them and getting myself back together on Thursday and Friday. How are people doing PTs this week feeling about them? I'm just doing an untimed PT68 on Thursday so I can really focus on my fundamentals. Maybe it's stress, but I feel so mentally frazzled this week. I really need to get my shit together Thursday and Friday.

sfoglia · Post by **sfoglia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:00 am

BJS wrote:
sfoglia wrote:I got through the Manhattan RC is maybe an hour.

sfoglia wrote:Read the book. It'll take two seconds and it can only help.

sfoglia wrote:Still dumb. But, hope you fair better!

Is this your way of saying that I probably didn't read it very well and that's why I'm dumb? Or that I'm not actually that dumb?

sfoglia · Post by **sfoglia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:03 am

BJS wrote:FFS today and tomorrow at work are just going to suck. So focused on just getting through them and getting myself back together on Thursday and Friday. How are people doing PTs this week feeling about them? I'm just doing an untimed PT68 on Thursday so I can really focus on my fundamentals. Maybe it's stress, but I feel so mentally frazzled this week. I really need to get my shit together Thursday and Friday.

OMG this is so beautiful, you are inspiring me to proceed to Suits gifs when Kristen Stewart gets boring. (If ever.)

I'm taking timed 71 on Thursday and hoping I don't end up in a ball on the floor crying by the end of it. I feel like I still need one more PT, so, here's hoping for the best.

BJS · Post by **BJS** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:06 am

sfoglia wrote:OMG this is so beautiful, you are inspiring me to proceed to Suits gifs when Kristen Stewart gets boring. (If ever.)

FWIW this one is my favorite. I love that scene and how Gabriel delivers the line. "The talk and the plan and the whole what I would do was just whatever..."

Here's the whole scene.
ETA: Here's another favorite scene.
ETA2: Here's another one.
ETA3: But damn, I love Louis. Rick Hoffman is an incredible actor. I'm really sad that no scenes from this season's penultimate and final episodes are on Youtube. The resignation letter was perfect and Louis's triumph in the finale of the finale was superb.

schmelling · Post by **schmelling** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:07 am

Post removed.

Colonel_funkadunk · Post by **Colonel_funkadunk** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:08 am

schmelling wrote:Todays sKejule

assorted LR drilling
RC section
Pet my dog
1 or 2 LG sections
Maybe an LR section
Grocery Shopping

I did RC from 71 this am, can't decide whether to move to LR OR LG drilling

ErgoSum · Post by **ErgoSum** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:09 am

sfoglia wrote:
I'm taking timed 71 on Thursday and hoping I don't end up in a ball on the floor crying by the end of it. I feel like I still need one more PT, so, here's hoping for the best.

Doing this too.

We can weep together