The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

Kablasia · Post by **Kablasia** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:36 pm

Chanticleer wrote: Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the consensus is that the Powerscore Bibles are reliable classics, but the Manhattan and the Cambridge packets are very popular now (2015). Personally, I will be using Pithypike's guide that appears on this site. Since the Kaplan Orange Book is not an option anymore, I'm only using the Powerscore Bibles as guides and then just working the PTs. I'll let you all know on how it goes.

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look at Pithypike's guide.

Kablasia · Post by **Kablasia** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:42 pm

The Abyss wrote:Materials to use:
Powerscore LGB
Manhattan LR
Manhattan RC
Cambridge by question packets
PTs 39-74 + Superprep A, B, and C
7Sage LG videos

Work through the guides during June. Whenever you cover a certain question type, do the drills in the book and drill an additional 20-30 questions for LR, 5-7 games for LG to better grasp what you just learned. When you are finished with the guides DRILL (untimed for LR, 7Sage Fool Proof Method for LG). Take a PT every weekend or so to gauge progress and your weaknesses. Then by mid August ramp up the PTing to 2-3 a week with full blind review. Still be drilling to work on weaknesses during this stage. Be aware of burn out and take a day off if needed.

This is what I would recommend, with some timed sections thrown in there as well.

The Cambridge packets are a bit expensive. Is there any alternative to them? Manhattan has a set of 10 PTs (41-50) grouped by question type for $10 for the kindle version. Is that something similar to the Cambridge packets, but with less questions?

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:12 pm

What do your schedule studies look like? What are you working on right now? (Reading, drilling, PTing, etc.)

Kablasia · Post by **Kablasia** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:30 pm

RZ5646 wrote:What do your schedule studies look like? What are you working on right now? (Reading, drilling, PTing, etc.)

I'm about to start reading once I get the books today after a visit to the mall. After that I'm not sure what to do. Maybe go through the questions in the Manhattan book that groups the questions by type, and then start the PTs.

chicharon · Post by **chicharon** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 4:59 pm

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Dexter97 · Post by **Dexter97** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 5:16 pm

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RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:49 am

Kablasia wrote:
The Cambridge packets are a bit expensive. Is there any alternative to them? Manhattan has a set of 10 PTs (41-50) grouped by question type for $10 for the kindle version. Is that something similar to the Cambridge packets, but with less questions?

If you already have the preptests in PDF form, you can manually print out games by type. That's what I did.

bigv · Post by **bigv** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 6:06 pm

Hey all

I have the Trainer and I really like the 16 week study schedule on the site. I also have LG and LR bibles. Can anyone suggest the best way to go about incorporating the bibles into the trainer's study schedule?

The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:16 am

RZ5646 wrote:
Kablasia wrote:
The Cambridge packets are a bit expensive. Is there any alternative to them? Manhattan has a set of 10 PTs (41-50) grouped by question type for $10 for the kindle version. Is that something similar to the Cambridge packets, but with less questions?
If you already have the preptests in PDF form, you can manually print out games by type. That's what I did.

Also, this thread has the LR question broken down by type for the first 50 or so PTs.

kbrizz · Post by **kbrizz** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:40 am

Getting really excited and happy to report that maybe my hiatus from studying was the best thing for me. I don't think I have ever missed only one question on a LG. I know this seems minuscule, but it's the little things.

georgie2006 · Post by **georgie2006** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 5:11 pm

I feel like the most recent PTs (70 and up) have, with regard to LR, easier stimulus (ie. the arguments are very clear and you can identify the assumptions, conclusion, premises without delay), but they have more attractive incorrect answer choices, especially under strict, timed conditions. The answer choices are responsible for my current hair loss lol.

But older PTs, with regard to LR, have really convoluted, and sometimes ambiguous, stimulus. But the answer choices are very easy to eliminate.

The RC passages are very similar to the RC passages in the first 5 PTs.

scalawag · Post by **scalawag** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 7:58 pm

Does anyone here know excel?

I was thinking on a long bike ride that we could create a spread sheet to enter a schedule for drills, and record how many right or wrong ones we get for each section.

This way we have a study plan but we can adjust it, and keep track of everything. With Microsoft Office 365 you can access and edit everything from a phone.

I might try myself but I don't know excel.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:01 pm

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kylemolodets · Post by **kylemolodets** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:05 am

Seamus887 wrote:Just wanted to drop by and say good luck to yall, I hope to God I don't join you But if June doesn't turn out well I'll be seeing ya. I just don't know if I can take any more LSAT prep...

Right there with ya bro. Checking it now. Just took the June LSAT, feel mildly comfortable but know I can get higher with more prep. Ughhhh

I'll at least give myself a week or two to catch a break..

mornincounselor · Post by **mornincounselor** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:32 am

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mornincounselor · Post by **mornincounselor** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:40 am

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tedofsandimas · Post by **tedofsandimas** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:07 am

scalawag wrote:Does anyone here know excel?

I was thinking on a long bike ride that we could create a spread sheet to enter a schedule for drills, and record how many right or wrong ones we get for each section.

This way we have a study plan but we can adjust it, and keep track of everything. With Microsoft Office 365 you can access and edit everything from a phone.

I might try myself but I don't know excel.

I am pretty good with excel. It might take me a couple of edits to get the spreadsheet to look like what you are wanting, but I volunteer to give it a shot.

scalawag · Post by **scalawag** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:10 pm

tedofsandimas wrote:
scalawag wrote:Does anyone here know excel?

I was thinking on a long bike ride that we could create a spread sheet to enter a schedule for drills, and record how many right or wrong ones we get for each section.

This way we have a study plan but we can adjust it, and keep track of everything. With Microsoft Office 365 you can access and edit everything from a phone.

I might try myself but I don't know excel.
I am pretty good with excel. It might take me a couple of edits to get the spreadsheet to look like what you are wanting, but I volunteer to give it a shot.

Thanks, hope this helps others as well.

This would be especially useful to chart out drills before starting practice tests full time since you might plan more or less than you can accomplish in a week. You can adjust week to week with the big picture in mind.

redfred22 · Post by **redfred22** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:08 pm

georgie2006 wrote:I feel like the most recent PTs (70 and up) have, with regard to LR, easier stimulus (ie. the arguments are very clear and you can identify the assumptions, conclusion, premises without delay), but they have more attractive incorrect answer choices, especially under strict, timed conditions. The answer choices are responsible for my current hair loss lol.

But older PTs, with regard to LR, have really convoluted, and sometimes ambiguous, stimulus. But the answer choices are very easy to eliminate.

The RC passages are very similar to the RC passages in the first 5 PTs.

I've been saying this for a while. Totally agree. It seems like the older ones are so wordy and convoluted and that the newer ones are more straightforward. I'm much better at eliminating answer choices than I am trying to really parse through a bunch of crap. While on the whole the answer choices from the earlier ones seem to be easily eliminated, it's a little harder to do that if you have to try and parse through all of the stimulus and then go into the answers not 100% confident in what you're looking for. Although I do remember many times there being questions with one or two answer choices that were really hard to figure out from the early PTs. Not to mention the language of some of the older ones are somewhat strange, and some of the questions are difficult to figure out exactly what they're asking. As a side note, I'd love to know LSAC's trends and the reasons behind them.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:33 pm

I get irrationally frustrated by the time it takes to draw a bunch of placeholder lines every time I need to make a mini diagram.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 10:38 pm

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The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:01 pm

Before drilling LR like crazy, I was getting the level 4 (hardest) questions right at about a 50% clip. Now I'm getting them right about 85% of the time, and finding many of them to be rather easy. I am pleased with this progress as LR is the biggest section holding me back from my goal.

lollsat · Post by **lollsat** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:21 pm

The Abyss wrote:Before drilling LR like crazy, I was getting the level 4 (hardest) questions right at about a 50% clip. Now I'm getting them right about 85% of the time, and finding many of them to be rather easy. I am pleased with this progress as LR is the biggest section holding me back from my goal.

Mind explaining how you drilled LR for us plebs?

The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 2:44 pm

lollsat wrote:
The Abyss wrote:Before drilling LR like crazy, I was getting the level 4 (hardest) questions right at about a 50% clip. Now I'm getting them right about 85% of the time, and finding many of them to be rather easy. I am pleased with this progress as LR is the biggest section holding me back from my goal.
Mind explaining how you drilled LR for us plebs?

I do all LR drilling untimed and I create explanations for every question (similar to the Manhattan LR explanations). For example for a flaw question I'll read the stem and then the stim, and then before moving on identify the flaw or flaws. Then I look at the ACs and make sure that I'm 100% positive I'm picking the CR and that I'm 100% sure the other 4 ACs are incorrect. Also for flaw questions I take time to make sure I understand completely what flaw is being presented by each AC. If I got the question wrong, I review that question on the Manhattan forum and compare my explanation to theirs and see where I erred.

All of this is overkill for some, but it's really helped me see the patterns in the different question types.

flash21 · Post by **flash21** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:22 pm

guys, i dont know what the hell to do for LG...

I've drilled cambridge so many damn times it doesn't make sense. Do a new section, get fucking OWNED. I did pt 54's lg section, got absolutely killed. Basically couldn't do game 2 and game 4.

Untimed is different, I can do them then - but then who cares? Its literally the time that makes it hard.

I feel like drilling like I've been won't make any difference any more for LG. I need to start practising for this section differently but I don't know what to do. It seems like what everyone else did to get good at games just isn't working for me. its so annoying. I feel like it cannot be fixed.