June 2014 Retakers Forum

[alecks]

what's the next PT / when's the review? I want to join!

[Learn_Live_Hope]

...

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Hey guys, I took PT 70 early today and my result was pretty disappointing.

Question 4 on section 1 seems impossible. We're supposed to find a point of disagreement, but I can't seem to find one. I spent like 4min on his stupid question during the test and it's question 4!

Let me know what you think when you get to this one!

I hate this! My scores are tanking!

SPOILER ALERT FOR PT 70

I'm going to bet that you nitpicked the correct answer to elimination while you were working on that question, and as a result, eliminated everything.

Would it have made you more comfortable with the correct answer if James had explicitly said "Community colleges, by their very nature, work to blahblahblah as their primary goal"?

If so, I think you need to let yourself be okay with the fact that that connection is pretty strongly implied, and every other answer choice is 117% wrong.

Spending 4 minutes on an early question puts you in a very precarious position for the rest of the section, but you know that already!!

Thank you Christine for helping us again! You are super sweet!

[Logicgames14]

I have the preptests 52-61 but most sections are written on for every single test i.e Logic Games. Diagrams are everywhere and answers are circled. Am I better of buying new copies or just covering up the answers when I take Timed test. my last score was a 138. I have been drilling off and on again for the past 2 months getting ready to retake in June.

[SpiritofFire]

Hey guys, I took PT 70 early today and my result was pretty disappointing.

Question 4 on section 1 seems impossible. We're supposed to find a point of disagreement, but I can't seem to find one. I spent like 4min on his stupid question during the test and it's question 4!

Let me know what you think when you get to this one!

I hate this! My scores are tanking!

SPOILER ALERT FOR PT 70

I'm going to bet that you nitpicked the correct answer to elimination while you were working on that question, and as a result, eliminated everything.

Would it have made you more comfortable with the correct answer if James had explicitly said "Community colleges, by their very nature, work to blahblahblah as their primary goal"?

If so, I think you need to let yourself be okay with the fact that that connection is pretty strongly implied, and every other answer choice is 117% wrong.

Spending 4 minutes on an early question puts you in a very precarious position for the rest of the section, but you know that already!!

Thanks for the response.

I did mess up and had to guess on the last couple of questions...
It's really hard to keep track of time when you're floundering.

As for q4: PT 70 spoiler alert!

I guess it's okay if you assume that if you work at something then it's your primary purpose. But it sounds really wrong in the context of the LSAT....

And even if I take the next step, I still don't know if I could confidently pick the accredited answer choice.

The correct answer says that ANY university's primary goals include serving the educational needs of the community. We just know Margaret says the goal is to serve the needs of its community. Why does that have to include educational needs? I mean logically it should include everything including the community's sexual needs too since that statement is so broad. But when I try to read it more loosely and with author intent in mind, It seems like Margaret is focused on career prep. Otherwise why mention the second sentence?

Are we supposed to read these as conversations two people have with each other or random statements by two people that may be out of context?

[dasani13]

165 on PT 55 from Friday:

LR -3 combined
RC -8
LG -4

and 165 on PT 60 from yesterday:

LR -9 combined
LG -4
RC -6

[Learn_Live_Hope]

165 on PT 55 from Friday:

LR -3 combined
RC -8
LG -4

and 165 on PT 60 from yesterday:

LR -9 combined
LG -4
RC -6

Good job!

[dasani13]

I have the preptests 52-61 but most sections are written on for every single test i.e Logic Games. Diagrams are everywhere and answers are circled. Am I better of buying new copies or just covering up the answers when I take Timed test. my last score was a 138. I have been drilling off and on again for the past 2 months getting ready to retake in June.

I had to re-use PT A because it's part of the Superprep book and I couldn't just cover up because it was too distracting for me. I ended just erasing everything. I would either erase or buy new but it's completely up to you.

[Reboot_the_Robot]

I have the preptests 52-61 but most sections are written on for every single test i.e Logic Games. Diagrams are everywhere and answers are circled. Am I better of buying new copies or just covering up the answers when I take Timed test. my last score was a 138. I have been drilling off and on again for the past 2 months getting ready to retake in June.

My books were like that too. I just erased everything. You can still see some of my previous markings, but after a couple of PTs I got used to ignoring them.

[jk148706]

.

[dd235]

I have the preptests 52-61 but most sections are written on for every single test i.e Logic Games. Diagrams are everywhere and answers are circled. Am I better of buying new copies or just covering up the answers when I take Timed test. my last score was a 138. I have been drilling off and on again for the past 2 months getting ready to retake in June.

I would focus more on untimed drilling as opposed to PTs at this stage if I were you. Once you are getting more confident in your ability to answer questions, then you can shift to timed PTs. Are you planning on taking in June?

[Christine (MLSAT)]

Thanks for the response.

I did mess up and had to guess on the last couple of questions...
It's really hard to keep track of time when you're floundering.

As for q4: PT 70 spoiler alert!

I guess it's okay if you assume that if you work at something then it's your primary purpose. But it sounds really wrong in the context of the LSAT....

And even if I take the next step, I still don't know if I could confidently pick the accredited answer choice.

The correct answer says that ANY university's primary goals include serving the educational needs of the community. We just know Margaret says the goal is to serve the needs of its community. Why does that have to include educational needs? I mean logically it should include everything including the community's sexual needs too since that statement is so broad. But when I try to read it more loosely and with author intent in mind, It seems like Margaret is focused on career prep. Otherwise why mention the second sentence?

Are we supposed to read these as conversations two people have with each other or random statements by two people that may be out of context?

CONT'd SPOILER FOR PT 70

• For your bolded: oh man, do I ever know it. It's one of the reasons I make decisions based on where I am in the process, rather than time - I don't want to be obsessively checking my watch. But if I'm just banging my head against a problem, it feels like crap, and that's my bat signal to myself to move on.
  
  I'm not saying the mere fact that they are working on it indicates it's the primary purpose - it's the phrase 'by their very nature' that gets me. That seems to fall into the same ballpark as 'primary purpose'.
  
  Once you've got that part comfortably linked, though, the rest matches up. You're right that Margaret says the primary goal is to "serve the needs" - at first glance, that suggests that it is, in fact ALL THE NEEDS. And unless some other bit of what she's saying clearly limits that statement, we'll have to take it as broad. And if another statement limits in an unspecific way, we'll need to be generous with what we interpret that statement to cover - since it's such a broad blanket statement to begin with.
  
  That second sentence can help give us a bit of context, but it only does so in a general way. Clearly the general ballpark of needs she's referring to are 'the things that help prepare you for a career'. Anything that could arguably and reasonably fall in that category is fair to connect. "Educational needs" are quite directly connected to the concept of "preparing oneself for a career". In fact, you have to do an awful lot of work to argue that they aren't, or that you don't know if they are. It would fly against what those two concepts actually mean. Frankly, on a real life level, I'm not sure what 'career prep' would be that ISN'T educational, other than perhaps networking opportunities.

/SPOILER FOR PT 70

There's a danger when students get to a certain level of LSAT expertise - they've gotten so good at hunting for small language inconsistencies that they start undermining the very definitions of words. Once you start to do that, all language begins to unravel. If you begin to question whether we really know that a door is something that one can open and close and walk through to other rooms or out of buildings, then all is lost. I say that only joking a little bit. This is a really common culprit when high-scorers start consistently missing questions in the first 10.

Graeme recently posted the LSAC's responses to two of his challenges to questions. I think it's an incredibly useful read. Understanding how the LSAT expects you to use what they consider to be 'common knowledge' is extremely informative about how to approach information and definitions, and what the line is between 'outside information' and 'common knowledge'.

[Christine (MLSAT)]

<snip>

Thank you Christine for helping us again! You are super sweet!

Aww! I'm happy to, anytime. And I don't mean to hijack your support thread here, but every once in a while there's something I just really want to reply to!!

[rebexness]

Aww! I'm happy to, anytime. And I don't mean to hijack your support thread here, but every once in a while there's something I just really want to reply to!!

Please reply as often as you'd like!!!!!!!

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Aww! I'm happy to, anytime. And I don't mean to hijack your support thread here, but every once in a while there's something I just really want to reply to!!

Please reply as often as you'd like!!!!!!!

+1

[jk148706]

.

[Otunga]

Is anyone else getting, like, weirdly excited about the test? I'm feeling pretty good and during my last two takes I was a wreck. But this time I'm confident, relaxed, and actually looking forward to it.

I was placing the test on a pedestal before and now I'm not doing that. It's not quite your notion but it is a lot different when you have solid offers on the table.

[Jack Reagan]

Is anyone else getting, like, weirdly excited about the test? I'm feeling pretty good and during my last two takes I was a wreck. But this time I'm confident, relaxed, and actually looking forward to it.

I'm definitely looking forward to this one! Got a few small nerves, but nothing like last time.

[Pragmatic Gun]

Hi all! I'm going to re-take the June LSAT for the third time. I got a 162 on the December 2012 test and a 167 on the December 2013 test. Need more scholly cash from my school! Any tips would be appreciated!

[dd235]

Hi all! I'm going to re-take the June LSAT for the third time. I got a 162 on the December 2012 test and a 167 on the December 2013 test. Need more scholly cash from my school! Any tips would be appreciated!

Tip: score high on the LSAT

[WaltGrace83]

For all of you retakers (especially third time retakers), why are your nerves dwindling? Is it because you already have a decent score locked up? I have never heard for anyone on this site going down on a retake but I have heard lots of stories like 167-169-173

[Pragmatic Gun]

For all of you retakers (especially third time retakers), why are your nerves dwindling? Is it because you already have a decent score locked up? I have never heard for anyone on this site going down on a retake but I have heard lots of stories like 167-169-173

Because even if I go lower, I'm still guaranteed a seat at my school with some scholarship money. There's little downside ($160 fee? pfft compared to the thousands in scholly money I could get, or a better shot at YHS).

[jk148706]

.

[Pragmatic Gun]

For all of you retakers (especially third time retakers), why are your nerves dwindling? Is it because you already have a decent score locked up? I have never heard for anyone on this site going down on a retake but I have heard lots of stories like 167-169-173

Because even if I go lower, I'm still guaranteed a seat at my school with some scholarship money. There's little downside ($160 fee? pfft compared to the thousands in scholly money I could get, or a better shot at YHS).

Basically this.

I already have great options lined up for this fall. I want to retake to maximize scholly $/ get off WLs. Worst case scenario, I eat 160 bucks but still have great options (and have the peace of mind that I didn't leave one retake on the table).

Definitely fewer nerves this time.

Also WG, there are plenty of ppl who retake and score lower, I just think they are less likely to share their stories here.

FWIW, I still remember all the strategies from the last tests. I did a few questions from the December 2013 test, and the only thing holding me back is overlooking a few keywords, which I attribute to inattention. Knowing I have this experience makes me feel better. Plus logic games are kind of fun. :p

[Otunga]

For all of you retakers (especially third time retakers), why are your nerves dwindling? Is it because you already have a decent score locked up? I have never heard for anyone on this site going down on a retake but I have heard lots of stories like 167-169-173

Score decreased on my second take. 168 to 165. I missed like...double the LR I usually miss on the former take and triple the LR on the latter take. My PT average was largely 171/172 and I'm doing good now with stuff so may as well go for it. There's a t14 offer with money on the table which helps.