December 2011 LSAT Study Group Forum

[lhess218]

I just realized how much of a dbag I sounded writing "everyone is welcome."

I meant "everyone is welcome to join."

Sorry

[aeiouy]

Yep, in the Manhattan LSAT room.

I'll help you with RC if you help me with LG.

Deal! I just did the two fish games on Manhattan "for fun" so I could avoid drilling LR and RC while still convincing myself that it counts as LSAT prep since it's LG...

[rezkirill]

I don't live in the states, but would still like to be a part of the group.
Do you use Skype?

[lhess218]

rezkirill,

If you email Noah from Manhattan LSAT, he'll send you a link to the study group and the syllabus. It functions a lot like a conference call would with Skype, though I don't know if the link will work abroad. I would ask.

Open Reminder:
Tomorrow (Sunday)
9 pm EST
Manhattan LSAT study room
Flaw and Assumption questions

I'm not entirely sure how tomorrow will go meeting-wise. Should we start with a problem (or a couple of problems), and then have everyone explain how they got to their answer like the session on Wednesday? Or should we do something different?

[aeiouy]

I'm not entirely sure how tomorrow will go meeting-wise. Should we start with a problem (or a couple of problems), and then have everyone explain how they got to their answer like the session on Wednesday? Or should we do something different?

Does everyone have the Manhattan book or do we just say which PT, Section, etc. to find the same problems to work on? I haven't been to a Manhattan room session before so I have no idea how it works..sorry! Also, (this will probably answer my previous question) are Sundays at 9pm the "main meeting" and Wednesdays at 8pm the "second meeting" on the syllabus? Or is tomorrow just extra for those who can make it?

[lhess218]

Good question. Tomorrow is just an extra meeting for those who have issues with Flaw and Assumption questions. The main meetings are on Wednesdays, 8 pm EST.

I don't have a Manhattan LSAT book, and I'm assuming people want to use more problems than what's on the syllabus. I'll look for some and put them up.

[lhess218]

Double posting, but here's the list of Flaw questions for tomorrow. If you're missing the PT, don't sweat it.
I'm leaving most of the 40s out, because that's what our homework will be for Week 4. I'm leaving the 50s and 60s out, because I know people want to use those for PTs closer to the test date.

Flaw
PT 31, Sec. 2, #9
PT 32, Sec. 1, #14
PT 35, Sec. 1, #17
PT 37, Sec. 2, #16
PT 37, Sec. 4, #22
PT 38, Sec. 4, # 2
PT 40, Sec. 3, #14
PT 41, Sec. 1, #1

I'm not entirely sure how other people classify their assumption questions. Should we do a review of some of the homework questions? Those will all be Assumption questions, and those are already on the syllabus.

[tonton]

Did anyone study the Powerscore LR Bible and find it extremely helpful? Hit a plateau with LR, need a boost, and not sure if the LRB is the right way to go.. any suggestions would be great!

[rezkirill]

sent an email to Noah.
Now what?

[SA1928]

Just sent Noah an e-mail to join also! I originally was planning on taking the October test (might still take it if I see some sort of gain in the next 10 days), but will probably end up withdrawing and taking the December test...so hello everyone

Also @tonton, I used the Powerscore LR Bible, at least the majority of it. It is pretty good, but I recently started to use the Manhattan LR book, and find it more useful...I think both are really great books though. Have you used any books so far?

[man_utd_4l]

Double posting, but here's the list of Flaw questions for tomorrow. If you're missing the PT, don't sweat it.
I'm leaving most of the 40s out, because that's what our homework will be for Week 4. I'm leaving the 50s and 60s out, because I know people want to use those for PTs closer to the test date.

Flaw
PT 31, Sec. 2, #9
PT 32, Sec. 1, #14
PT 35, Sec. 1, #17
PT 37, Sec. 2, #16
PT 37, Sec. 4, #22
PT 38, Sec. 4, # 2
PT 40, Sec. 3, #14
PT 41, Sec. 1, #1

I'm not entirely sure how other people classify their assumption questions. Should we do a review of some of the homework questions? Those will all be Assumption questions, and those are already on the syllabus.

For Logical Reasoning questions, I suggest drilling with the packets from Cambridge LSAT. You can buy them online, and they sort LR questions by type. I think that use all the LR question from PT 1-40, but I could be wrong. I will def try and take a look at the questions you listed for tonight. Is anyone with admin power going to be there tonight?

[man_utd_4l]

Did anyone study the Powerscore LR Bible and find it extremely helpful? Hit a plateau with LR, need a boost, and not sure if the LRB is the right way to go.. any suggestions would be great!

I use both PS and Manhattan. It seems to be good approach and I would strongly recommend it.

[man_utd_4l]

Did anyone study the Powerscore LR Bible and find it extremely helpful? Hit a plateau with LR, need a boost, and not sure if the LRB is the right way to go.. any suggestions would be great!

I use both PS BIble and Manhattan Guide for LR. It seems to be good approach, and I would strongly recommend it.

[lhess218]

I didn't know that about Cambridge, but that makes sense. The class I took did a really good job of sorting them out by subject/topic etc too*, but I don't want to leave people out who don't have Cambridge or books/sources that do that. I know it's fairly late to add more assumption questions, so I'm going to try (try being the key word) to make a couple of slides of sufficient and necessary assumptions. I tried doing it yesterday, but I got confused and left..... so if anyone knows how, please tell me**!

As for admin power, I'm going to PM Noah and see if he'll meet us for a little bit in the beginning.






*Srsly, I feel like a salesperson. I'll stop now.
** Please tell me. I need help.

[ngogirl]

I would prefer to do questions/exercise sets from earlier PT's such as the 20s and 30s because I'm utilizing the 40s in my practice test sets...

[lhess218]

I would prefer to do questions/exercise sets from earlier PT's such as the 20s and 30s because I'm utilizing the 40s in my practice test sets...

I'm trying to do the same thing. I know that a lot of the work from the MLSAT syllabus uses questions from PTs in the 40s, so keep that in mind. I think in terms of anything that isn't directly on the syllabus, we'll try and find questions from earlier LSATs.

[tonton]

Just sent Noah an e-mail to join also! I originally was planning on taking the October test (might still take it if I see some sort of gain in the next 10 days), but will probably end up withdrawing and taking the December test...so hello everyone

Also @tonton, I used the Powerscore LR Bible, at least the majority of it. It is pretty good, but I recently started to use the Manhattan LR book, and find it more useful...I think both are really great books though. Have you used any books so far?

Welcome SA1928! Things seem to be heating up in the October forum, everyone's slowly losing their minds! we've got about 8-10 weeks before the mayhem starts here.

I've been using books for just LG because I thought it was the only section that needed a particular method that had to be learned, and it used to be my weakest section. But now I think I've reached the limit of my abilities on LR. Man_utd is recommending the Manhattan book too, so maybe I should give that a go

[aeiouy]

Double posting, but here's the list of Flaw questions for tomorrow. If you're missing the PT, don't sweat it.
I'm leaving most of the 40s out, because that's what our homework will be for Week 4. I'm leaving the 50s and 60s out, because I know people want to use those for PTs closer to the test date.

Flaw
PT 31, Sec. 2, #9
PT 32, Sec. 1, #14
PT 35, Sec. 1, #17
PT 37, Sec. 2, #16
PT 37, Sec. 4, #22
PT 38, Sec. 4, # 2
PT 40, Sec. 3, #14
PT 41, Sec. 1, #1

I'm not entirely sure how other people classify their assumption questions. Should we do a review of some of the homework questions? Those will all be Assumption questions, and those are already on the syllabus.

Thanks for putting those together!

Just sent Noah an e-mail to join also! I originally was planning on taking the October test (might still take it if I see some sort of gain in the next 10 days), but will probably end up withdrawing and taking the December test...so hello everyone

Also @tonton, I used the Powerscore LR Bible, at least the majority of it. It is pretty good, but I recently started to use the Manhattan LR book, and find it more useful...I think both are really great books though. Have you used any books so far?

Welcome SA1928! Things seem to be heating up in the October forum, everyone's slowly losing their minds! we've got about 8-10 weeks before the mayhem starts here.

I've been using books for just LG because I thought it was the only section that needed a particular method that had to be learned, and it used to be my weakest section. But now I think I've reached the limit of my abilities on LR. Man_utd is recommending the Manhattan book too, so maybe I should give that a go

I went through the LR Bible and I found it helpful, but I just ordered the Manhattan Guide because I need extra help in LR. I'm consistently missing anywhere from 4 to 9 questions, so I really need to get a handle on my problem areas.

[man_utd_4l]

Just a heads up for tonight: I'm currently on the road for work, and only brought LR questions from PTs 2-38 with me. I will be slightly limited in preparing the questions from the Manhattan syllabus for tonight. With that being said, I have been drilling/reviewing Assumption questions throughout the day, and have a pretty solid handle on them.

[Olive]

Could anyone explain Q16 in Section 3 of PT 47? I've read the MLSAT board discussion on this, but I am not understanding it well.

Why is A irrelevant?

I am going over the LRB Number and Percentages chapter again today, I think I have a broad problem with these %/# questions.

[barneytrouble]

Could anyone explain Q16 in Section 3 of PT 47? I've read the MLSAT board discussion on this, but I am not understanding it well.

Why is A irrelevant?

I am going over the LRB Number and Percentages chapter again today, I think I have a broad problem with these %/# questions.

Answer A is irrelevant because it is talking about the amount of coverage, whereas the argument is discussing percentages.

The argument essentially boils down to: the percentage of negative stuff about challenger was higher than percentage of negative stuff about incumbent, therefore reporters are biased in favor of incumbent. But a scenario could exist where a higher percentage of the challengers actions were bad stuff compared to the incumbents (at a ratio matching the 54% vs 30% figures - no bias). There could even be one in which percentage of negative stuff about the challenger is 95% and the incumbent is 5%, in which case, the reporters would be biased in favor of the challenger, despite having a higher percentage of negative reports on him compared to the incumbent!

[Olive]

Could anyone explain Q16 in Section 3 of PT 47? I've read the MLSAT board discussion on this, but I am not understanding it well.

Why is A irrelevant?

I am going over the LRB Number and Percentages chapter again today, I think I have a broad problem with these %/# questions.

Answer A is irrelevant because it is talking about the amount of coverage, whereas the argument is discussing percentages.

The argument essentially boils down to: the percentage of negative stuff about challenger was higher than percentage of negative stuff about incumbent, therefore reporters are biased in favor of incumbent. But a scenario could exist where a higher percentage of the challengers actions were bad stuff compared to the incumbents (at a ratio matching the 54% vs 30% figures - no bias). There could even be one in which percentage of negative stuff about the challenger is 95% and the incumbent is 5%, in which case, the reporters would be biased in favor of the challenger, despite having a higher percentage of negative reports on him compared to the incumbent!

That makes sense, thanks for your help. When I was doing this problem B made sense to me and I picked it, but I was hung up on A for a long time. I think I'm not understanding the math behind A.

[Player21]

Joining. I was scheduled for October but don't think I'm ready yet. I'm just worried that a December score will screw me because it's considered somewhat late in the application process.

[SA1928]

Joining. I was scheduled for October but don't think I'm ready yet. I'm just worried that a December score will screw me because it's considered somewhat late in the application process.

I've been worrying about the same thing. I was looking at people on LSN who applied later who have the same GPA and my hopeful LSAT score to see how they did last year. I'm hoping with the extra time, I will be able to really boost my LSAT score so that the late application won't kill my cycle. Although, I haven't ruled out that I might have to wait and apply next cycle...

Are most of you planning on applying this cycle? Or are you just taking the LSAT early? Anyone else feeling nervous?

[Player21]

Joining. I was scheduled for October but don't think I'm ready yet. I'm just worried that a December score will screw me because it's considered somewhat late in the application process.

I've been worrying about the same thing. I was looking at people on LSN who applied later who have the same GPA and my hopeful LSAT score to see how they did last year. I'm hoping with the extra time, I will be able to really boost my LSAT score so that the late application won't kill my cycle. Although, I haven't ruled out that I might have to wait and apply next cycle...

Are most of you planning on applying this cycle? Or are you just taking the LSAT early? Anyone else feeling nervous?

I really would hate to wait another cycle though. But, it sucks to know you'd only have one shot only. If you have stellar numbers it wont matter when you apply. I know two people who applied well after the Harvard deadline and were accepted. But, one of them had a 3.8 and a 172 retake. Probably didn't get much merit aid though.