The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

npt2901 · Post by **npt2901** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:15 am

ltowns1 wrote:
npt2901 wrote:UGH so timed LR sections are anywhere from -10 to -6. I have been drilling by type and I write down an explanation for each one that I get wrong in a notebook and I still am at a plateau with these. People who struggle with LR, how did you break the plateau and when/how did you really see yourself improving? This is my 3rd and final take.
I'm certainly in the struggle with LR, so I won't confess to have any great ideas. However, are you actively working on eliminating wrong answers? I'm starting to do that more than I ever have, and it's help me to recognize wrong answers.

Yes--a lot of the times I am stuck between two answer choices and I choose the wrong one. :/. But, for answer choices for like necessary assumption, I have found that the answer choice is incorrect if it has Load Bearing Language ( None, All, Any, etc).

texasellewoods · Post by **texasellewoods** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:36 am

Test center question - I had a really bad experience at my test center in June (no AC, smallest desks I've ever seen, and proctors whispering and scrap booking coupons the whole time). Would it be worth it to travel ~1.5 hours to another test center with great reviews and stay in a hotel the night before, or should I just assume the test center near me won't be as bad this time around?
I'm also worried that having students on campus will make it a much more distracting environment overall. Has anyone taken during the school year and found it to be a problem?

npt2901 · Post by **npt2901** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:46 am

texasellewoods wrote:Test center question - I had a really bad experience at my test center in June (no AC, smallest desks I've ever seen, and proctors whispering and scrap booking coupons the whole time). Would it be worth it to travel ~1.5 hours to another test center with great reviews and stay in a hotel the night before, or should I just assume the test center near me won't be as bad this time around?
I'm also worried that having students on campus will make it a much more distracting environment overall. Has anyone taken during the school year and found it to be a problem?

I know there is a website that has test center reviews... I forget what it is tho. I'm sure someone will post it. If you do take it at a school, make sure they do not have a home sports game scheduled for that day or any other event that may cause distractions. IMO traveling that far for a test center would just stress me out.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:10 pm

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Cochran · Post by **Cochran** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:25 pm

texasellewoods · Post by **texasellewoods** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:41 pm

npt2901 wrote:
I know there is a website that has test center reviews... I forget what it is tho. I'm sure someone will post it. If you do take it at a school, make sure they do not have a home sports game scheduled for that day or any other event that may cause distractions. IMO traveling that far for a test center would just stress me out.

I looked at that but they don't have the test center I'm looking at, and they only have one review for the close center and it says the exact opposite of my experience haha so it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped.
Checking for a large event is great advice, thank you!!

edit - turns out they have a football game scheduled that day... don't think I'm going to do that haha

pittsburghpirates · Post by **pittsburghpirates** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:49 pm

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RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 1:23 pm

Cochran wrote: Alot, def over 10 hours on both of the tests combined (I also BR the 5th experimental sections in my 5-section packets). I circle all questions that I either hadn't been 100% sure about or that took me longer than normal to do them. In addition, I BR all of the questions that I don't get to finish.

On PT 64, I BR'd 58 Problems (26 were correct the first time and confirmed in BR, 19 we're changed from an incorrect to a correct answer, 3 were changed from a correct answer to an incorrect answer and the other 10 whether changed or not was wrong after BR.)

On PT 53, I BR'd 48 Problems (21 were correct the first time and confirmed in BR, 17 we're changed from an incorrect to a correct answer, 2 were changed from a correct answer to an incorrect answer and the other 8 whether changed or not was wrong after BR.)

Is this way too long? BRing half the test is probably wasting my time, so maybe I should just focus on the problems that I'm missing?

I'd just focus on the hard ones. Don't limit yourself to only the wrong ones, but don't do half the test either.

Re test centers: That site is garbage because there are so few reviews. The problem with crowdsourcing data is you need some critical mass of early adopters to encourage people to use the site and contribute, and that site still hasn't reached that point. Whoever made it should have seeded it with fake reviews so it didn't look so barren. Also, I question the utility of test center reviews anyway because problems are caused by proctor mistakes or random events like construction, fire alarms, etc., which probably won't be consistent from administration to administration.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:04 pm

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PoopNpants · Post by **PoopNpants** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:08 pm

SirArthurDayne wrote: I'm trying to speed up RC, but it's not working! I cant read the passage in less than 3-3:30 minutes without sacrificing a good understanding of the passage!

3 to 3:30 should be fine assuming you get through the questions quickly enough, just don't linger on any one question for more than 45 seconds.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:13 pm

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chicharon · Post by **chicharon** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:31 pm

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MrBalloons · Post by **MrBalloons** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:46 pm

I think RC is one of the areas in my life where my History major has actually helped me.

Reading dense stuff for comprehension is basically the entirety of my undergraduate training.

Cochran · Post by **Cochran** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:46 pm

texasellewoods wrote:Test center question - I had a really bad experience at my test center in June (no AC, smallest desks I've ever seen, and proctors whispering and scrap booking coupons the whole time). Would it be worth it to travel ~1.5 hours to another test center with great reviews and stay in a hotel the night before, or should I just assume the test center near me won't be as bad this time around?
I'm also worried that having students on campus will make it a much more distracting environment overall. Has anyone taken during the school year and found it to be a problem?

http://www.simugator.com/lsat-test-site-rater.php

This website had a bunch of reviews for several of the schools in my state. I don't know who they are or the exact reliability, but they give descriptive reviews for the test center that I'm taking at.

PoopNpants · Post by **PoopNpants** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:49 pm

chicharon wrote:
SirArthurDayne wrote:
PoopNpants wrote:
SirArthurDayne wrote: I'm trying to speed up RC, but it's not working! I cant read the passage in less than 3-3:30 minutes without sacrificing a good understanding of the passage!
3 to 3:30 should be fine assuming you get through the questions quickly enough, just don't linger on any one question for more than 45 seconds.
I'm trying to, but that's tough. There's definitely a few questions that take me at least 1:30. Maybe I should use my LR technique. Get threw the questions I know and come back to the questions I'm not sure of.

Thanks.
Are you actively eliminating wrong answers in RC the way you would in LR?

This. eliminating wrong answers is big for RC just like it is for LR. never spend 1:30 on a question you'll be screwing yourself in the end, that's simply too much time to spend on an single question, remember they are all worth 1 point!

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:55 pm

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Zel · Post by **Zel** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:34 pm

Just took my first full PT since my diagnostic. Happy to see some progress, though obviously it's too small a sample size to know for sure. Going to start doing full PTs every Saturday now and timed sections in between (I pretty much just read the Bibles and drilled LG/LR for month 1).

Early June (diag) - PTJ07 (161)
LG - 7
LR1 -2
LR2 -5
RC -6

July 18- PT64 (166)
LR1 -3
LG -7
LR2 -6
RC -2

No real change in my raw score, but pretty different scaled score. On test day I would love to go -0, -2, -2, -2 (LG -0). Here's hoping...

ariaaaa · Post by **ariaaaa** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:50 pm

Stress Stress Stress Stress.

I caved the other day and bought the Cambridge drill packets and i've only just now started drilling (Reading Manhattan chapters and doing the packets that match up)
I feel like I'm so far behind, and my PT score has absolutely plateaued at a 166-168 range. Just over two months left, and i'm on edge. Planning on dropping a class next semester so I'm taking 16 credits rather than 19, but I don't know how much that'll help.

ariaaaa · Post by **ariaaaa** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:52 pm

On a completely unrelated note, do you guys print your drills/PT's or work from a screen? I feel a bit guilty printing everything out especially since my printer isn't double sided, but one can't help their study method I suppose.

whacka · Post by **whacka** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:01 pm

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PoopNpants · Post by **PoopNpants** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:03 pm

ariaaaa wrote:On a completely unrelated note, do you guys print your drills/PT's or work from a screen? I feel a bit guilty printing everything out especially since my printer isn't double sided, but one can't help their study method I suppose.

I think doing em printing out is the way to go, especially if you mark alot and cross out wrong answers. I couldn't imagine working from a computer screen tbh

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:21 pm

ariaaaa wrote:On a completely unrelated note, do you guys print your drills/PT's or work from a screen? I feel a bit guilty printing everything out especially since my printer isn't double sided, but one can't help their study method I suppose.

I think the paper format is a major part of the LSAT, so doing questions on a screen is less useful than you'd think.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:21 pm

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chicharon · Post by **chicharon** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:27 pm

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ariaaaa · Post by **ariaaaa** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:32 pm

I feel y'all. Printing definitely seems like the consensus--but damn do I feel a bit bad about the million pages of LR/LG drill packets stacked up next to me right now. i'm just telling myself i'll use the clean side of all these sheets of paper at some point ahaha