The Official September 2014 Study Group Forum

[sashafierce]

So I'm drilling SA right now and I realized that Casual Arguments do not make good Sufficient Assumption Questions. We cannot ever prove Causation you can Strengthen or Weaken it, find a Necessary Assumption or a Flaw but I cannot see how you can 100% prove Causation....

BUT PT5 S1 Q12 "Impact Craters caused by meteorites" is a causal argument that ask you to find a Sufficient Assumption that would allow you to conclude that A must have caused B. The correct answer was easy to spot because it showed that one other possible explanation (lets call that C) did not cause B. But as with all causal arguments 1. The relationship maybe reversed i.e. B caused A or 2. it may just be correlation i.e. no relationship what so ever. So, I cannot see how eliminating one possible alternative explanation would allow you to prove causation.

I knw that I am over-thinking it but it just seems strange to me, I just don't see how you can 100% prove causation which is what your supposed to do for Sufficient Assumption questions. What do you guys think?

[MadwomanintheAttic]

Did pretty bad on my most recent practice test, primarily due to timing. But the highlight of that was the amazing improvement I made on LR... -4 IN TOTAL. Normally, I end up with minus -4 per section and I'm ok with that, but this was a great improvement. The PT was a nice kick in the pants to get going on RC though. I tend to neglect RC because it's my strongest section, but it could certainly be stronger, so I'm gonna really dedicate some time to RC and work a lot on pacing. I'm not where I want/need to be yet, but I'm making progress

[NotASpecialSnowflake]

Took PT 69 (June 2013) today, a little disappointed. I haven't been as diligent as I should have been this past week, and it shows.

PT 69 169 88/100

LR 1 -2
LG -3 (time was a major issue, I need to get this down)
RC -3
RC exp. -2 (I've done these passages before, so this really doesn't mean anything)
LR -4 (Fatigue played a big role here)

I think its just an issue of motivation and staying focused right now. I need to put in the hours, and hopefully, my scores should go back to the 170s.

[churrochi]

Hello everyone! =)

LR Question:

I was wondering if anyone found the Cambridge LR Drill Pkgs useful?

I have powerscore books for drilling but only around 30 questions for each type of LR,
and I will be receiving the Manhattan LR and the Trainer in the mail next week.

Any thoughts?

I think the powerscore drilling books were ok, but I prefered cambridge because 1) it distinguished between levels of difficulty (I don't remember if powerscore did this; I feel like they didn't but it's been a while since I've used it so...), 2) they were in PDF form so I was able to print and re-print them as necessary/cut out specific questions, and 3) most importantly, Cambridge has, for most LR types, significantly more than 30 questions of that type. just my $0.02

Powerscores definitely doesn't do difficulty formally. It sort of gets harder as you go along but its hardly level 3 or 4 drilling type. I would also recommend the packets. If you can master and fly through level 3s and 4s you will be good to go for that question type most times when it appears and since there are so many question types to practice on LR, I think that's the best way to go.

How would you approach using the Cambridge packets? Did you just do all the questions in order over time or did you have a certain system?

Also, a personal update on my studying: haven't been taking full timed PTs but am timing all my sections and reviewing the whole test after I finish everything. With this method, I'm currently in the 164-167 range. This is encouraging for me because at least I know I have the actual ability to score higher than my October 2013 score (151). I'm finishing up the LSAT Trainer and will be straight-up drilling, reviewing Powerscore to fine tune my weaknesses, and PTing for all of August and September to get my stamina up for the actual exam.

[h3jk5h]

After a month of consistent drilling from the Cambridge packets (LR and LG from PT 1-38, did every question except LR Strengthening), I decided to do a practice test (SuperPrep Practice Test C) to see whether I've made any substantial progress. My score was 156, exactly the same as my last practice test, which was SuperPrep Practice Test B.

My first section was the logic games section. I havn't done a single logic game for the last two weeks, and after not thoroughly understanding the rules, I decided to give up and move on to Game 2. The game was relative ordering (which caused me little trouble after I drilled that game type), but I realized from the second question that I diagrammed it wrong, so I erased my original diagram and drew new ones, throwing me into complete panic mode. I made some progress in this game and then decided to do Game 3. I did all the questions but later found out that I made one diagram error that caused me to miss 2 or 3 questions. I didn't have time to read a word of Game 4.

By the time I got to the second section, I was completely demoralized. I knew I could not get more than 10/24 on that section, despite doing all the LG problems from the drilling packets almost twice. I almost cried in the library at that point. The second section was LR, it was better than the last section, but not being sure of 2 of the first 10 questions without forcing myself to move on sunk my time quite a bit.

Third section was also LR. Didn't have time to look at the last 4 questions, while I felt pretty good about the first 20.

Fourth section was RC. I was like meh, whatever, and didn't exert maximal effort.

My breakdown was:
Section 1 (LG): 8/24
Section 2 (LR): 18/24
Section 3 (LR): 19/26
Section 4 (RC): 20/27


I went home, ate lunch, and hid myself under the bed. Yeah, I felt pretty down. I spent 5-6 hours a day studying consistently and my score increase was zero (some of you may be laughing at me, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing). I then fell asleep.

I woke up 2 hours later and decided to look at this experience from a more objective standpoint.

I went back to the LG section and reworked the games. Solved the first game in 5-6 minutes, diagrammed the second game correctly and solved in 5-6 minutes, realized my diagramming error in third game and solved in another 5-6 minutes, and didn't bother to look at the last game. It seems that LG becomes substantially easier without the time pressure.

I reviewed every question from the two LR sections. A lot of the misses came from not reading the stimulus carefully and being mentally disengaged after being demoralized after the first section. One or two misses came from not being as astute as I should have distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions. Some other misses came from very difficult questions that required higher level thinking and correct reasoning skills which I have not yet acquired.

Didn't review the RC section, I probably got lucky to only miss 7 questions.


Ok, so what exactly caused the sinking ship? There are several factors that may have contributed to it:
1) Not having touched a single logic game for the last two weeks. I think I would have completely understood the rules of the first logic game if I was drilling LG games intensely two weeks ago. This leads to 2).
2) Panic. I panicked after I skipped game 1, which led to diagramming error in game 2 and 3, which threw me into complete disarray. Looking back at that LG section, I should have at least answered 10 more questions correctly if I had stayed calm under the time pressure and just apply what I learned from previous drilling; the panic caused me to deviate from previously developed habits, including not reading the rules slowly and carefully. Imagine how I would feel on the actual LSAT. Oh boy..
3) Not being able to let certain questions go. I find myself very reluctant to move on a LR question when I get stuck. This is probably because I've become used to solving most test questions correctly during my undergrad, and encountering a problem that I have little progress on the LSAT throws me into some disbelief (ego problem). I gotta fix this. This is the LSAT.
4) I have not mastered high level logical reasoning abilities. This is evident from missing a lot of questions both at the end of the 2 LR sections, and not being able to solve the first 15 questions efficiently.


I'm thinking of doing another PT tomorrow so I can regain some of the self-esteem that I lost today. But this may be an overreaction and cause me to lose even more confidence if I still score this low.

What do you guys think?

[kbrizz]

After a month of consistent drilling from the Cambridge packets (LR and LG from PT 1-38, did every question except LR Strengthening), I decided to do a practice test (SuperPrep Practice Test C) to see whether I've made any substantial progress. My score was 156, exactly the same as my last practice test, which was SuperPrep Practice Test B.

My first section was the logic games section. I havn't done a single logic game for the last two weeks, and after not thoroughly understanding the rules, I decided to give up and move on to Game 2. The game was relative ordering (which caused me little trouble after I drilled that game type), but I realized from the second question that I diagrammed it wrong, so I erased my original diagram and drew new ones, throwing me into complete panic mode. I made some progress in this game and then decided to do Game 3. I did all the questions but later found out that I made one diagram error that caused me to miss 2 or 3 questions. I didn't have time to read a word of Game 4.

By the time I got to the second section, I was completely demoralized. I knew I could not get more than 10/24 on that section, despite doing all the LG problems from the drilling packets almost twice. I almost cried in the library at that point. The second section was LR, it was better than the last section, but not being sure of 2 of the first 10 questions without forcing myself to move on sunk my time quite a bit.

Third section was also LR. Didn't have time to look at the last 4 questions, while I felt pretty good about the first 20.

Fourth section was RC. I was like meh, whatever, and didn't exert maximal effort.

My breakdown was:
Section 1 (LG): 8/24
Section 2 (LR): 18/24
Section 3 (LR): 19/26
Section 4 (RC): 20/27


I went home, ate lunch, and hid myself under the bed. Yeah, I felt pretty down. I spent 5-6 hours a day studying consistently and my score increase was zero (some of you may be laughing at me, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing). I then fell asleep.

I woke up 2 hours later and decided to look at this experience from a more objective standpoint.

I went back to the LG section and reworked the games. Solved the first game in 5-6 minutes, diagrammed the second game correctly and solved in 5-6 minutes, realized my diagramming error in third game and solved in another 5-6 minutes, and didn't bother to look at the last game. It seems that LG becomes substantially easier without the time pressure.

I reviewed every question from the two LR sections. A lot of the misses came from not reading the stimulus carefully and being mentally disengaged after being demoralized after the first section. One or two misses came from not being as astute as I should have distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions. Some other misses came from very difficult questions that required higher level thinking and correct reasoning skills which I have not yet acquired.

Didn't review the RC section, I probably got lucky to only miss 7 questions.


Ok, so what exactly caused the sinking ship? There are several factors that may have contributed to it:
1) Not having touched a single logic game for the last two weeks. I think I would have completely understood the rules of the first logic game if I was drilling LG games intensely two weeks ago. This leads to 2).
2) Panic. I panicked after I skipped game 1, which led to diagramming error in game 2 and 3, which threw me into complete disarray. Looking back at that LG section, I should have at least answered 10 more questions correctly if I had stayed calm under the time pressure and just apply what I learned from previous drilling; the panic caused me to deviate from previously developed habits, including not reading the rules slowly and carefully. Imagine how I would feel on the actual LSAT. Oh boy..
3) Not being able to let certain questions go. I find myself very reluctant to move on a LR question when I get stuck. This is probably because I've become used to solving most test questions correctly during my undergrad, and encountering a problem that I have little progress on the LSAT throws me into some disbelief (ego problem). I gotta fix this. This is the LSAT.
4) I have not mastered high level logical reasoning abilities. This is evident from missing a lot of questions both at the end of the 2 LR sections, and not being able to solve the first 15 questions efficiently.


I'm thinking of doing another PT tomorrow so I can regain some of the self-esteem that I lost today. But this may be an overreaction and cause me to lose even more confidence if I still score this low.

What do you guys think?

I understand your panic and frustration but I think it's amazing that you were able to pick yourself back up and try to figure out what went wrong. You also seem to really understand what happened so hopefully that won't occur again. I think that's excellent.

[Comstock]

After a month of consistent drilling from the Cambridge packets (LR and LG from PT 1-38, did every question except LR Strengthening), I decided to do a practice test (SuperPrep Practice Test C) to see whether I've made any substantial progress. My score was 156, exactly the same as my last practice test, which was SuperPrep Practice Test B.

My first section was the logic games section. I havn't done a single logic game for the last two weeks, and after not thoroughly understanding the rules, I decided to give up and move on to Game 2. The game was relative ordering (which caused me little trouble after I drilled that game type), but I realized from the second question that I diagrammed it wrong, so I erased my original diagram and drew new ones, throwing me into complete panic mode. I made some progress in this game and then decided to do Game 3. I did all the questions but later found out that I made one diagram error that caused me to miss 2 or 3 questions. I didn't have time to read a word of Game 4.

By the time I got to the second section, I was completely demoralized. I knew I could not get more than 10/24 on that section, despite doing all the LG problems from the drilling packets almost twice. I almost cried in the library at that point. The second section was LR, it was better than the last section, but not being sure of 2 of the first 10 questions without forcing myself to move on sunk my time quite a bit.

Third section was also LR. Didn't have time to look at the last 4 questions, while I felt pretty good about the first 20.

Fourth section was RC. I was like meh, whatever, and didn't exert maximal effort.

My breakdown was:
Section 1 (LG): 8/24
Section 2 (LR): 18/24
Section 3 (LR): 19/26
Section 4 (RC): 20/27


I went home, ate lunch, and hid myself under the bed. Yeah, I felt pretty down. I spent 5-6 hours a day studying consistently and my score increase was zero (some of you may be laughing at me, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing). I then fell asleep.

I woke up 2 hours later and decided to look at this experience from a more objective standpoint.

I went back to the LG section and reworked the games. Solved the first game in 5-6 minutes, diagrammed the second game correctly and solved in 5-6 minutes, realized my diagramming error in third game and solved in another 5-6 minutes, and didn't bother to look at the last game. It seems that LG becomes substantially easier without the time pressure.

I reviewed every question from the two LR sections. A lot of the misses came from not reading the stimulus carefully and being mentally disengaged after being demoralized after the first section. One or two misses came from not being as astute as I should have distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions. Some other misses came from very difficult questions that required higher level thinking and correct reasoning skills which I have not yet acquired.

Didn't review the RC section, I probably got lucky to only miss 7 questions.


Ok, so what exactly caused the sinking ship? There are several factors that may have contributed to it:
1) Not having touched a single logic game for the last two weeks. I think I would have completely understood the rules of the first logic game if I was drilling LG games intensely two weeks ago. This leads to 2).
2) Panic. I panicked after I skipped game 1, which led to diagramming error in game 2 and 3, which threw me into complete disarray. Looking back at that LG section, I should have at least answered 10 more questions correctly if I had stayed calm under the time pressure and just apply what I learned from previous drilling; the panic caused me to deviate from previously developed habits, including not reading the rules slowly and carefully. Imagine how I would feel on the actual LSAT. Oh boy..
3) Not being able to let certain questions go. I find myself very reluctant to move on a LR question when I get stuck. This is probably because I've become used to solving most test questions correctly during my undergrad, and encountering a problem that I have little progress on the LSAT throws me into some disbelief (ego problem). I gotta fix this. This is the LSAT.
4) I have not mastered high level logical reasoning abilities. This is evident from missing a lot of questions both at the end of the 2 LR sections, and not being able to solve the first 15 questions efficiently.


I'm thinking of doing another PT tomorrow so I can regain some of the self-esteem that I lost today. But this may be an overreaction and cause me to lose even more confidence if I still score this low.

What do you guys think?

I think you have the right attitude. One thing I would recommend is doing a few games everyday even if you are drilling something else. LG used to be my worst section, and now the past two preptests I did it was -1 (only one stupid mistake) and I feel much better about it as a whole. Heck, I can say I even enjoy games now as its one of my favourite sections to study. One thing I always do is try and fit in a couple of games everyday I'm studying, just to keep my brain fresh and in the 'mode'. Again, even if you are practicing LR, if you have 5 hours, study 4 hours and 30 minutes on LR and spend 30 minutes just keeping fresh on LG. I found this helped me a lot in timing and, like you mentioned is a problem, not being panicked when going into the section.

[scandk]

.

[scandk]

.

[gnomgnomuch]

Retook PT 40 today.

LR#1 - -0 (just like the first time i took it)
LG - -4 (up from -8, but that 3rd game killed me. Went 5/5, 5/5, 3/7, 6/6.)
LR #2 - -2 (Up form -7)
RC - -4 (Up from -8)

Overall score, 170, up from 161.

[Louis1127]

After a month of consistent drilling from the Cambridge packets (LR and LG from PT 1-38, did every question except LR Strengthening), I decided to do a practice test (SuperPrep Practice Test C) to see whether I've made any substantial progress. My score was 156, exactly the same as my last practice test, which was SuperPrep Practice Test B.

My first section was the logic games section. I havn't done a single logic game for the last two weeks, and after not thoroughly understanding the rules, I decided to give up and move on to Game 2. The game was relative ordering (which caused me little trouble after I drilled that game type), but I realized from the second question that I diagrammed it wrong, so I erased my original diagram and drew new ones, throwing me into complete panic mode. I made some progress in this game and then decided to do Game 3. I did all the questions but later found out that I made one diagram error that caused me to miss 2 or 3 questions. I didn't have time to read a word of Game 4.

By the time I got to the second section, I was completely demoralized. I knew I could not get more than 10/24 on that section, despite doing all the LG problems from the drilling packets almost twice. I almost cried in the library at that point. The second section was LR, it was better than the last section, but not being sure of 2 of the first 10 questions without forcing myself to move on sunk my time quite a bit.

Third section was also LR. Didn't have time to look at the last 4 questions, while I felt pretty good about the first 20.

Fourth section was RC. I was like meh, whatever, and didn't exert maximal effort.

My breakdown was:
Section 1 (LG): 8/24
Section 2 (LR): 18/24
Section 3 (LR): 19/26
Section 4 (RC): 20/27


I went home, ate lunch, and hid myself under the bed. Yeah, I felt pretty down. I spent 5-6 hours a day studying consistently and my score increase was zero (some of you may be laughing at me, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing). I then fell asleep.

I woke up 2 hours later and decided to look at this experience from a more objective standpoint.

I went back to the LG section and reworked the games. Solved the first game in 5-6 minutes, diagrammed the second game correctly and solved in 5-6 minutes, realized my diagramming error in third game and solved in another 5-6 minutes, and didn't bother to look at the last game. It seems that LG becomes substantially easier without the time pressure.

I reviewed every question from the two LR sections. A lot of the misses came from not reading the stimulus carefully and being mentally disengaged after being demoralized after the first section. One or two misses came from not being as astute as I should have distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions. Some other misses came from very difficult questions that required higher level thinking and correct reasoning skills which I have not yet acquired.

Didn't review the RC section, I probably got lucky to only miss 7 questions.


Ok, so what exactly caused the sinking ship? There are several factors that may have contributed to it:
1) Not having touched a single logic game for the last two weeks. I think I would have completely understood the rules of the first logic game if I was drilling LG games intensely two weeks ago. This leads to 2).
2) Panic. I panicked after I skipped game 1, which led to diagramming error in game 2 and 3, which threw me into complete disarray. Looking back at that LG section, I should have at least answered 10 more questions correctly if I had stayed calm under the time pressure and just apply what I learned from previous drilling; the panic caused me to deviate from previously developed habits, including not reading the rules slowly and carefully. Imagine how I would feel on the actual LSAT. Oh boy..
3) Not being able to let certain questions go. I find myself very reluctant to move on a LR question when I get stuck. This is probably because I've become used to solving most test questions correctly during my undergrad, and encountering a problem that I have little progress on the LSAT throws me into some disbelief (ego problem). I gotta fix this. This is the LSAT.
4) I have not mastered high level logical reasoning abilities. This is evident from missing a lot of questions both at the end of the 2 LR sections, and not being able to solve the first 15 questions efficiently.


I'm thinking of doing another PT tomorrow so I can regain some of the self-esteem that I lost today. But this may be an overreaction and cause me to lose even more confidence if I still score this low.

What do you guys think?

It seems to me that you answered your own question. The fact that you panicked caused all of this.

That's the only bad part about studying hard-care for the LSAT as we all are. It makes us put alot of pressure ourselves to do well- to improve ALOT from our diagnostic. This pressure can cause panic on occasion (like when you accidentally misdiagram something on a logic game, for example).

Do what you have to do to take that pressure off of yourself.

[Oskosh]

So I have noticed that the logic games do increase in difficulty in later tests. However, I still think they are doable, as long as you are willing to be flexible. Now, I haven't seen the newest logic game that drove everybody mad, so I may be completely wrong in thinking I would be bale to adapt.

I just took the test with the mauve dinosaur game. I don't know if it's because I've heard of it, and have heard many people that think it's doable, but I think it's able to be resolved. It was more time consuming than anything else. But you already have three of the colors that NEED to be in (MMR), and from the rules that you have (V-->-L/L-->V), you can draw the inferences as you go along (admittedly, the inferences can be drawn if you stop and think, but that is not really my approach lol).

So, I'm glad that the mauve dinosaur game did not kill me as I thought it would. I merely set it up as a 3D game, with two arrays of seven dashes (with vertical lines to indicate two have to be out), and set one section for color and another for dinosaur. I don't know if this is what helped me to solve it, but I feel like this setup allowed me to work the game with precision. Then again, maybe the mauve dinosaur game is not as intimidating as it once was.

Also, can we talk about why this was an intimidating one, when the one immediately following it (the one about the grants and the 4 quarters), leaves you NO ROOM to work? What's up with that?!

[Oskosh]

After a month of consistent drilling from the Cambridge packets (LR and LG from PT 1-38, did every question except LR Strengthening), I decided to do a practice test (SuperPrep Practice Test C) to see whether I've made any substantial progress. My score was 156, exactly the same as my last practice test, which was SuperPrep Practice Test B.

My first section was the logic games section. I havn't done a single logic game for the last two weeks, and after not thoroughly understanding the rules, I decided to give up and move on to Game 2. The game was relative ordering (which caused me little trouble after I drilled that game type), but I realized from the second question that I diagrammed it wrong, so I erased my original diagram and drew new ones, throwing me into complete panic mode. I made some progress in this game and then decided to do Game 3. I did all the questions but later found out that I made one diagram error that caused me to miss 2 or 3 questions. I didn't have time to read a word of Game 4.

By the time I got to the second section, I was completely demoralized. I knew I could not get more than 10/24 on that section, despite doing all the LG problems from the drilling packets almost twice. I almost cried in the library at that point. The second section was LR, it was better than the last section, but not being sure of 2 of the first 10 questions without forcing myself to move on sunk my time quite a bit.

Third section was also LR. Didn't have time to look at the last 4 questions, while I felt pretty good about the first 20.

Fourth section was RC. I was like meh, whatever, and didn't exert maximal effort.

My breakdown was:
Section 1 (LG): 8/24
Section 2 (LR): 18/24
Section 3 (LR): 19/26
Section 4 (RC): 20/27


I went home, ate lunch, and hid myself under the bed. Yeah, I felt pretty down. I spent 5-6 hours a day studying consistently and my score increase was zero (some of you may be laughing at me, yeah, it's pretty embarrassing). I then fell asleep.

I woke up 2 hours later and decided to look at this experience from a more objective standpoint.

I went back to the LG section and reworked the games. Solved the first game in 5-6 minutes, diagrammed the second game correctly and solved in 5-6 minutes, realized my diagramming error in third game and solved in another 5-6 minutes, and didn't bother to look at the last game. It seems that LG becomes substantially easier without the time pressure.

I reviewed every question from the two LR sections. A lot of the misses came from not reading the stimulus carefully and being mentally disengaged after being demoralized after the first section. One or two misses came from not being as astute as I should have distinguishing between necessary and sufficient conditions. Some other misses came from very difficult questions that required higher level thinking and correct reasoning skills which I have not yet acquired.

Didn't review the RC section, I probably got lucky to only miss 7 questions.


Ok, so what exactly caused the sinking ship? There are several factors that may have contributed to it:
1) Not having touched a single logic game for the last two weeks. I think I would have completely understood the rules of the first logic game if I was drilling LG games intensely two weeks ago. This leads to 2).
2) Panic. I panicked after I skipped game 1, which led to diagramming error in game 2 and 3, which threw me into complete disarray. Looking back at that LG section, I should have at least answered 10 more questions correctly if I had stayed calm under the time pressure and just apply what I learned from previous drilling; the panic caused me to deviate from previously developed habits, including not reading the rules slowly and carefully. Imagine how I would feel on the actual LSAT. Oh boy..
3) Not being able to let certain questions go. I find myself very reluctant to move on a LR question when I get stuck. This is probably because I've become used to solving most test questions correctly during my undergrad, and encountering a problem that I have little progress on the LSAT throws me into some disbelief (ego problem). I gotta fix this. This is the LSAT.
4) I have not mastered high level logical reasoning abilities. This is evident from missing a lot of questions both at the end of the 2 LR sections, and not being able to solve the first 15 questions efficiently.


I'm thinking of doing another PT tomorrow so I can regain some of the self-esteem that I lost today. But this may be an overreaction and cause me to lose even more confidence if I still score this low.

What do you guys think?

It seems to me that you answered your own question. The fact that you panicked caused all of this.

That's the only bad part about studying hard-care for the LSAT as we all are. It makes us put alot of pressure ourselves to do well- to improve ALOT from our diagnostic. This pressure can cause panic on occasion (like when you accidentally misdiagram something on a logic game, for example).

Do what you have to do to take that pressure off of yourself.

Sorry for the double post, but I agree with what you have to say. When I make mistakes, I am in complete disbelief because I realize that it is something that I have drilled, and something that I should already know. It's really difficult to be perfect on the LSAT. There are many tricks to it that it's almost impossible to catch all of them, I feel. That being said, I do think that putting a lot of pressure on yourself could be contributing to lack of improvement. How have you been drilling? Maybe it's the fact that you haven't been simulating tests as much as you should, and now it's something that you should begin emphasizing more. Or maybe you need to drill question types, but this time add a time factor so that you are not spending too much time on them.

[gavaga1]

.

[Yeezus]

So I have noticed that the logic games do increase in difficulty in later tests. However, I still think they are doable, as long as you are willing to be flexible. Now, I haven't seen the newest logic game that drove everybody mad, so I may be completely wrong in thinking I would be bale to adapt.

I just took the test with the mauve dinosaur game. I don't know if it's because I've heard of it, and have heard many people that think it's doable, but I think it's able to be resolved. It was more time consuming than anything else. But you already have three of the colors that NEED to be in (MMR), and from the rules that you have (V-->-L/L-->V), you can draw the inferences as you go along (admittedly, the inferences can be drawn if you stop and think, but that is not really my approach lol).

So, I'm glad that the mauve dinosaur game did not kill me as I thought it would. I merely set it up as a 3D game, with two arrays of seven dashes (with vertical lines to indicate two have to be out), and set one section for color and another for dinosaur. I don't know if this is what helped me to solve it, but I feel like this setup allowed me to work the game with precision. Then again, maybe the mauve dinosaur game is not as intimidating as it once was.

Also, can we talk about why this was an intimidating one, when the one immediately following it (the one about the grants and the 4 quarters), leaves you NO ROOM to work? What's up with that?!

I don't think the dino games was that hard at all. Definitely some more difficult games out there.

[JazzyMac]

Currently full timer here as well. I work about 50 hours a week depending on the volume at my work- commodities trading firm. I just took the June LSAT and scored a 160 while pting 165-172 so I am obviously not too happy about it but I think it was a great learning experience. I think if I can get my reading comp up and no crazy games happen in September I am right there. From my experience with working and studying it is best just to get some sleep when you are really tired. I tried to work out in the mornings by waking up at 4:30 in the morning while working but it wasn't working for me as I would be too tired to study at night. This time around I will probably just wake up at 7, try to run during lunch, study at my work to beat the traffic until about 7 and then use the drive home as a little break and study for two more hours. I think if your goal is to get a 170 you should probably be pting consistently around a 175, but that is just from my experience.

As far as books go, I am going to use cambridge for the first month and a half then go through Pt 52-72, plus the FEB test for the last month and a half

Anyone else who is studying with a full time job have any advice?

This is a great plan, and I did something similar when I was completing Undergrad. It's very difficult to work out, work long weeks, and then study. Something has to give. The healthier I ate, the less exercise I needed...so that was a good thing.

[JazzyMac]

This will be my last post on TLS until after the September exam.

82 days left to study.

Work hard.

Best wishes to you!

[kbrizz]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

[Louis1127]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

Juarez and Rosenburg can go to hell

[Comstock]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

Yes. That's what I would do. It won't be as hard, but if you take a few days off from the games and try and do them faster and faster on later days, its still going to prep you for games of similar kind and make your brain work on 'figuring' them out.

[kbrizz]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

Juarez and Rosenburg can go to hell

Amen

[kbrizz]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

Yes. That's what I would do. It won't be as hard, but if you take a few days off from the games and try and do them faster and faster on later days, its still going to prep you for games of similar kind and make your brain work on 'figuring' them out.

So move on but come back periodical? Thanks for your response!

[Comstock]

Difficulty level 3 and 4 games in complex ordering packet =

Edit:

What do I do if I have drilled through problems (IE used up all my complex ordering problems) and still don't feel good about them? Do it again? Or move on and come back to it?

Yes. That's what I would do. It won't be as hard, but if you take a few days off from the games and try and do them faster and faster on later days, its still going to prep you for games of similar kind and make your brain work on 'figuring' them out.

So move on but come back periodical? Thanks for your response!

Yup. For example, I've gone through basically all the LG games from 1-40 now, and I always go back periodically to those stranger/more difficult ones to keep myself ready for any curve ball that comes my way and remind myself I need to be flexible (ideally, this would help me if something like the June 2014 game would comes up again, albeit I haven't done that game yet so I don't know if I would be helpless anyway haha).

[chimera]

Took PT33 today. Raw/Scored:85/168. Very happy with the results I've been seeing, especially in RC. The results were: -3 in RC, -3 LG and -4/-6 in LR ! It seems like difficult Assumption/Inference Family questions are still throwing me off. Worst.

Also, I ended up purchasing the Conditional Logic LR packet today. I figure it will be good for mixed review in the coming weeks, and I can drill it alongside the logic chapters in the manhattan and blueprint books. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday guys and gals!

[gnomgnomuch]

Took PT33 today. Raw/Scored:85/168. Very happy with the results I've been seeing, especially in RC. The results were: -3 in RC, -3 LG and -4/-6 in LR ! It seems like difficult Assumption/Inference Family questions are still throwing me off. Worst.

Also, I ended up purchasing the Conditional Logic LR packet today. I figure it will be good for mixed review in the coming weeks, and I can drill it alongside the logic chapters in the manhattan and blueprint books. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday guys and gals!

NICE!

Have you considered drilling the assumption questions? Whenever i feel i have a problem with a certain type of question i just really hone in on them. Keep track of your thought process for eliminating answer choices, and if you're getting them wrong, you'll know exactly why you're doing that.