The Official June 2015 Study Group Forum

[Rigo]

JackelJ, what field are you interested in that requires a PhD or JD?

research/engineering development type stuff or patent law. Without a PhD its harder to work your way up to the job I want and you aren't taken as seriously by everyone else (who are mostly PhDs)

Your GPA is spectacular for STEM. I insist you be in my study group if we go to the same lawlskool. Mainly because you seem cool though.

[jetsfan1]

Question... In games filled with conditional statements, what does your diagram end up looking like? Powerscore's method just isn't working for me.

Do you watch 7sage videos? I've basically adopted JY's stuff on conditional statements.

Yes. 7sage's long conditional chains (that look like horizontal trees) are the way to go.
This is truly where 7sage excels in my book. You need to know formal logic cold though, so practice practice practice.

Lol I wish I could!!! I don't have access to the amount of internet bandwidth necessary to stream videos, unfortunately. TLS/Manhattan forums I can load, but 7sage is impossible. On a better note, the "tree" your describing sounds exactly what I sort of technique I've developed on my own. It works for me well, it just takes me so long to diagram that it becomes problematic. But it leads to accuracy. IMO Powerscore, which just dumps a whole bunch of conditionals/inferences on the diagram is too crazy to work with. And its easy to miss inferences using their method.

Sidenote: Does anyone have the 7sage app? Next time I get wifi I am going to try and download it. Can you watch the videos through the app without using internet/data? How much can you do on the app if not connected to online?

[Rigo]

Sidenote: Does anyone have the 7sage app? Next time I get wifi I am going to try and download it. Can you watch the videos through the app without using internet/data? How much can you do on the app if not connected to online?

The app is just for proctoring and PT grading.

[jetsfan1]

Sidenote: Does anyone have the 7sage app? Next time I get wifi I am going to try and download it. Can you watch the videos through the app without using internet/data? How much can you do on the app if not connected to online?

The app is just for proctoring and PT grading.

Darn. Well, still useful to get.

[JackelJ]

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[JackelJ]

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[msp8]

Interesting. How does law play into the research/engineering development side exactly?

So when ever you develop a new technology or method of doing something you decide if you want to patent it or not. Patenting has its advantages and disadvantages and its hard to get a useful patent that will be beneficial to you/the company. You need to know any previous technology and describe how your invention or method is new and novel. You need to write up patents in a way that it blankets as many things for you as possible yet also not infringe on anyone else's patent. Its a legal document so you really need to know the law & the technology because you need to work with both lawyers and technologists.

Ah, I thought you meant something outside of the patent area. But gotcha.

[pjanderson5]

Biglaw typically hires fresh college grads as paralegals/legal assistants.

I've been looking at paralegal/legal assistant jobs for a few weeks now and like 90% of them want a year minimum prior firm experience. Granted I still apply anyways but I feel like just cold-emailing some firms in my city. (pop 230,000)

[TheWalkingDebt]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?

Any reassurance is appreciated.

[Rigo]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?

Any reassurance is appreciated.

80% of all question types and all levels? Not below average.
Remind me what you did before drilling though. Drilling it important but not right off the bat. You should learn strategies first.

[The Abyss]

75 minutes a day is way too much. The body has to have time to recover.

There's a half marathon coming up that I'd like to do, and I'll be definitely doing the Peachtree Road Race (10k) this 4th of July. Races are fun. Are the races 10k's or Half's Jackel? I'm assuming no one has or does marathons in the summer.

While I disagree with Jazzy's logic, I do not think that 75 minutes a day is too much if you are using different muscle groups or mixing up your exercises and your body feels fine. But, everyone's body is different and if you find yourself really tired while studying or something maybe adjust accordingly. And yea both of the races are halfs. There are full marathons over the summer but I opted against that because I need my Saturday mornings for PTing and not 20 mile runs.

It's not that I tire from working out and therefore can't study, it's that I don't understand what the hell someone would be doing for 75 minutes 7 days a week unless they're an athlete. It seems awfully inefficient to me. A good workout is something like 5 sets of 5 reps of Squats, Bench Presses, and Barbell Rows (takes maybe 20 minutes), a few sets of pull ups (5 minutes), some kettlebell swings (5-10 minutes), 15-20 minutes running (usually running intervals going from 8 to 6 minute paces every other minute), and 15-20 minutes of mobility work. On the high side that's 75 minutes, but I only do something like this 3 or 4 times a week and it's a workout that works the entire body and includes some recovery exercises. Everyday seems like overkill, and working out individual muscle groups via isolation exercises does little for functional strength. However, if someone is working out just to look good, then isolation exercises are great. They just do very little for functional strength.

I can't even imagine running a marathon in the summer. Way too hot here in Atlanta for that sort of distance.

The bolded isn't really true. Can guarantee you every college sports team isolates muscle groups. Granted, you can't be doing isolation exercises exclusively, but to say they aren't effective isn't accurate. But yeah they are nice if your just working out to look good

On another note, I'm having the same issue with games. I'm slow, yeah, but 90% of the time when I get one wrong its just some dumb, dumb mistake. For me, its mostly an "all can be false EXCEPT" and I get to C, see it can be false, and triumphantly start bubbling. Gotta cut those mistakes out.

Question... In games filled with conditional statements, what does your diagram end up looking like? Powerscore's method just isn't working for me.

Oh, and lastly RZ as someone who almost went straight to LS from undergrad, gotta hop on the bandwagon and recommend some work experience. Can't overstate how valuable it is (mostly on a personal level, tbh, but still). I always say bombing the LSAT my first time was the best thing I ever did, because it made me take some time off after school for LS to be a reasonable choice.

The obvious caveat is athletes; I was referring to everyday folk. By functional strength I meant strength that one uses in everyday life. The motion of a curl is not something you do in day to day life, but squatting certainly is. Isolation exercises may be effective for athletes and in certain instances, but the general masses is a waste of time.

Anyways, just start back on games. I'll be drilling sequencing games all today.

[TheWalkingDebt]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?

Any reassurance is appreciated.

80% of all question types and all levels? Not below average.
Remind me what you did before drilling though. Drilling it important but not right off the bat. You should learn strategies first.

I've been through about 19 chapters of the trainer and that is it. I am just drilling after each chapter. I haven't broken it down by levels. Anywhere particularly good to track by difficult level? I assume 7sage?

[The Abyss]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?

Any reassurance is appreciated.

80% of all question types and all levels? Not below average.
Remind me what you did before drilling though. Drilling it important but not right off the bat. You should learn strategies first.

I've been through about 19 chapters of the trainer and that is it. I am just drilling after each chapter. I haven't broken it down by levels. Anywhere particularly good to track by difficult level? I assume 7sage?

I believe Rigo is referring to the difficult levels that Cambridge assigns to questions in their drilling packets.

[Rigo]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?
Any reassurance is appreciated.

80% of all question types and all levels? Not below average.
Remind me what you did before drilling though. Drilling it important but not right off the bat. You should learn strategies first.

I've been through about 19 chapters of the trainer and that is it. I am just drilling after each chapter. I haven't broken it down by levels. Anywhere particularly good to track by difficult level? I assume 7sage?

Assuming Cambridge here. It's in the back index.
Eta: scooped. Abyss was right.

[TheWalkingDebt]

I know it's early in my studying schedule, but I want the opinion of others on this. I'm drilling LR right now by question type and have been basically getting around 80% of questions correct across all types (NA/SA/Weaken/Strengthen, etc), with about half or so of my incorrect answers being eliminated down to 2 answers that are usually pretty close. It's day 6 of my study schedule. This isn't a particularly below average place to start for LR is it?
Any reassurance is appreciated.

80% of all question types and all levels? Not below average.
Remind me what you did before drilling though. Drilling it important but not right off the bat. You should learn strategies first.

I've been through about 19 chapters of the trainer and that is it. I am just drilling after each chapter. I haven't broken it down by levels. Anywhere particularly good to track by difficult level? I assume 7sage?

Assuming Cambridge here. It's in the back index.
Eta: scooped. Abyss was right.

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

[Rigo]

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

Oh. So basically just untimed sections?
That's not exactly drilling per se. Drilling is usually by question type to really master each type.
Also, this seems like a waste of precious PT's--especially since they're fairly recent ones.

[179orBust]

Also drilling LR right now and getting around 90% correct. However, the level 4 questions are killing me.
Anyone know how many level 3 and 4 questions there are in a typical LR section? Haven't taken any PT's yet (other than diagnostic) and I'd like to try to estimate how many I'd get right per section at this point.

[179orBust]

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

Oh. So basically just untimed sections?
That's not exactly drilling per se. Drilling is usually by question type to really master each type.
Also, this seems like a waste of precious PT's--especially since they're fairly recent ones.

I second that. You shouldn't be touching any practice tests above 38 for drilling purposes.

[TheWalkingDebt]

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

Oh. So basically just untimed sections?
That's not exactly drilling per se. Drilling is usually by question type to really master each type.
Also, this seems like a waste of precious PT's--especially since they're fairly recent ones.

I've been drilling by question type, which just means doing 3-4 of each out of each PT. Yeah, I agree about the waste, but at this point I've already drilled most of the LR sections in those tests, so I will likely just use the LG/RC sections for experimental on other tests. I've still got 58-73, fortunately.

Also still have 40-51 for PT and below 40 for LG/RC drilling.

[179orBust]

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

Oh. So basically just untimed sections?
That's not exactly drilling per se. Drilling is usually by question type to really master each type.
Also, this seems like a waste of precious PT's--especially since they're fairly recent ones.

I've been drilling by question type, which just means doing 3-4 of each out of each PT. Yeah, I agree about the waste, but at this point I've already drilled most of the LR sections in those tests, so I will likely just use the LG/RC sections for experimental on other tests. I've still got 58-73, fortunately.

Why don't you just drill from PT's 38 and below?

[TheWalkingDebt]

I've been drilling out PTs 52-57, not Cambridge.

Oh. So basically just untimed sections?
That's not exactly drilling per se. Drilling is usually by question type to really master each type.
Also, this seems like a waste of precious PT's--especially since they're fairly recent ones.

I've been drilling by question type, which just means doing 3-4 of each out of each PT. Yeah, I agree about the waste, but at this point I've already drilled most of the LR sections in those tests, so I will likely just use the LG/RC sections for experimental on other tests. I've still got 58-73, fortunately.

Why don't you just drill from PT's 38 and below?

It boils down to: I fucked up and have already drilled all of those LR sections. I will probably still PT them much later on, with the understanding the score may be inflated. I don't plan on drilling RC/LG out of them however.

[JackelJ]

Why don't you just drill from PT's 38 and below?

It boils down to: I fucked up and have already drilled all of those LR sections. I will probably still PT them much later on, with the understanding the score may be inflated. I don't plan on drilling RC/LG out of them however.

You can revisit them, and I reccommend revisiting them. When you redo them make sure you understand the reasoning behind each question and aren't just circling answers because you remember them. Understand why each AC is either right or wrong and use the Manhtten forums if you need help with understanding any questions.

[peppermint]

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[179orBust]

Campaign: It's fine, really not too big a deal. Just the general consensus here is to drill from PT38 below and use 38+ for timed sections/ practice tests.

[RZ5646]

Random responses to things I noticed while skimming recent posts:

1. Reusing materials doesn't hurt, but the replay value of LSAT questions goes as follows: LG > LR > RC.

2. I usually ignore the "requirements" on job listings. I've heard so many stories about technically unqualified people being hired that the so-called requirements seem more like a description of the ideal applicant and/or a means of scaring off people because the employer already has an insider he's going to hire but he's required to advertise job openings (see also: any industry that hires foreign workers because supposedly no American is qualified for the position).

3. Who cares about "functional strength"? Let's be honest and admit that 95% of us go to the gym for aesthetics.