June 2011 Study Group Forum

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Hey Gev I was wondering if you'd think it would be more efficient to use Triacela at this point for RC or simply drill RC sections as a whole in PTs 20-40. What's your take?

Edit: yes, this should be a pm. sry boutcha

[jim-green]

soj how do you like MLSAT's LR Guide? I was thinking about purchasing but don't know if I should considering ~2months till dday

Err, that's what I should be reading now, not posting lolcats on TLS. I'll let you know after I've had a chance to look at it. It does look promising.

I am interested in the ans to this too. I already read the PS LRB, and have 2 months to go. Wondering if I should read the MLSAT LR guide too, or just do PTs. Someone on this forum told me to get the MLSAT LR guide, so I have ordered it, but wondering if I should really read it. May take too long and erode my time for PTs.

[jim-green]

Somebody please KICK my butt. It's 11:30 am and I haven't done a damn LSAT-related thing since morning. And now, I'm planning to take a nap.

[Eichörnchen]

Haha how was the nap? This thread seems like it has been super slow today so maybe we're all having a lazy day. It is Saturday...

[jim-green]

Haha how was the nap? This thread seems like it has been super slow today so maybe we're all having a lazy day. It is Saturday...

I did have a good nap.

[soj]

I actually just had the same problem. For some reason, it didn't feel as refreshing as naps usually do.

[Eichörnchen]

I actually just had the same problem. For some reason, it didn't feel as refreshing as naps usually do.

Haha ok I actually just woke up from my own nap and I'm still so sleepy. Resisting urge to curl up with a book or movie.

[judgekozinski]

Just had a PT this morning at the Princeton Review. My initial diagnostic was a 157 on PT 56 and on today's PT 55 ... 160. This is about what I expected after finishing the exam.

I really need to get better at reading comp although I have a couple different strategies and am still trying to decide which one I will use for the real LSAT. I got to the final passage at the 5-minute warning so I need to get faster on RC.

I'm okay with my progression on logical reasoning. I need to work on flaw, weaken, and necessary assumption questions. The proctor messed up the timing on one LR section and it kind of threw me off on my last few questions, which I pretty much all missed. I'll blame myself for the screw up though, I need to be able to avoid distractions better and just keep working on the exam. I can't believe it but I actually had one section where the 5-minute warning was called when I was on my last question! My speed is definitely improving here.

Logic games saw some improvement from the last test, as expected. I got slowed down by the last game on this test, it was tougher than average. I really just need to get faster here, with unlimited time I will get LG questions all correct.

The plan is to start working on HW later today and I'll be back on this board with my progress in a few weeks after my next PT. I'm happy to see improvements in my test taking. There is still a lot of work I need to do until the real test and I'm looking forward to shoring up some of my weaknesses and capitalizing upon my strengths.

[Strange]

Just took prep test 45 - got a 169. A bit miffed that I got -4 on RC, Im aiming for -2 and -1. This was my second prep test since I began studying in March

-1 on LG which is great, got -12 on my first prep test.

LR improvement good to see too: -5 and -4 on both, I was missing in the double digits on the first one

Taking 55 tomorrow, hoping to see a similar result. Target is 170

[mickeyD]

Just went through half of my Testmasters homework. A quick note, Testmasters' method for qualifiers ("some," "most," etc.) is very sub-par compared to the Powerscore Bibles' "Some Train" and "Most Train." It had my entire class stumped and my teacher very frustrated. They teach their method using Venn Diagrams which take up a ton of space and are impossible to use on stimuli with several variables.

Homework consisted of a bunch of drills for qualifiers (I used the trains with great success) and then 100 Type 1 (Must Be True) questions. It's really helping to drill the questions by type, out of the first 52 I've only gotten one wrong, which was a careless mistake and not an error of reasoning.

All of this, of course, was my warm-up to take SuperPrep B right now- see you guys in 2 1/2 hours!

[dr123]

dear June 2005 game one

fuck you

[pkpop]

I resisted the urge to nap and instead took PT 57....and was pleasantly surprised!

PT 57 w/ 30.2 Exp (LR) (-16) Raw: 85 Scaled score: 166

LG (-4) 19/23 - DNF
LR (-5) 21/26
LR2 (-4) 21/25
RC (-3) 24/27 - DNF
Exp: LR PT 30.2 (-3) 23/26

Since this is my first time posting test results, I wanna share some notes so I could perhaps get advice from the high scorers.

Notes:
LG- I took wayyy too much time for an oddly straightforward, yet "negative" basic linear game. The extra time would have been useful for the Dino game in this section. Instead, went into last game with only 6 minutes and had to guess on #21-23, getting one of those right. Key insight - I need to start incorporating warm-ups before I take tests. Games are normally my best section, but I spent way too much time on the first few questions because I felt my brain wasn't working through them 100% - which doesn't help when you're looking for a lot of "negative" (without giving too much away.) 6/6 on Dinos, but guessed on #15, and it took me appx. 14 minutes to complete game. Another positive - Didn't freak on the game where the test throws you a curveball (something you may have heard of what happened when I took in December.) Perhaps it was b/c it wasn't the 1st game in the section, so I was already in a rhythm.

LR1 - Didn't quite run into my "wall" on this section, but I caught myself not being an active thinker in a few questions...particularly on #15 & #24. I was completely lost w/ # 18 (good public servant), and was an idiot on #19 (read stem as para-flaw & selected a flaw-ish answer when the question is plain para.) Finished with about a minute to go and changed an answer from a previous question I wasn't comfortable with to TCR. Overall, anything under -6 on LR I'm happy with at this point. Seeing major improvements from last year. I owe this to the group.

EXP LR - Not much to report. I think my mistakes were more fatigue of doing back to back LR...something that has been plaguing me. I hope that endurance drills and more PTs will help with this.

LR2 - Felt MUCH better going into this section after 15 min break & FOOD. Although I got through first 10 in about 10 minutes, I slowed in the middle and was rushed for Q. 22-25 , getting 2 out of those 4 wrong. Still pleased with -4 on the section though this section "felt easier" to me.

RC - My RC score usually depended on how interested I was in passages. I have been working on changing my technique to something similar found in mLSAT RC guide. Zoomed through the FCC passage in probably 6 minutes. Read the 1st sentence to the 2nd passage...SKIP. 3rd passage, probably spent too much time on it, and just felt as if I didn't "get" the argument, but found enough similarities to get all the questions right. The last paragraph I would have probably been frustrated in the past, but this was a good example of taking what I read and scanning to not pay too much attention to irrelevant text while keeping the main argument in context. I only missed 1 inference (#26) However, going back to passage 2, I only had about 7 minutes and had to guess on a few. Still pleased with a -3 RC, and will be happy if I can keep the consistency.

Overall, I feel good since I hit my goal of 85 Raw even with a -10 curve test. I will hope this will be a new floor for future PTs and I can eventually raise the goal to 88 or 90 Raw. I plan on starting to take 2 PT/ week very soon.

Sorry for the book, but I hope the detail will help with any advice you guys may have. Thanks & seeya tomorrow!

[soj]

Taking a break from PTs today to go through the MLSAT LR book. So far so good, but I got distracted and only managed to get through one chapter. Gotta buckle down.

[zanzbar]

I also just got done with PT 57:
LR Ex:-7
LG:-1
LR1:-7
LR2:-7
RC:-7
Raw:79 Scaled:162

The whole -7 thing is kind of funny, I guess 7 is not my lucky number after all. The Dinos game was actually not that hard, but I had like 12-13 minutes to do tackle it, and I went -1 on it. I was a little disappointed because I thought I did really well on this test, but 162 is my highest score yet so hopefully I can keep gaining points over the next 2 months.

[Eichörnchen]

OK, I sucked it up and did a PT despite my sleepiness the results- crappy.

Not-So-SuperPrep A:

LR1: -1
LR2: -3 ( )
RC: -0 ( )
LG:-12. TWELVE. SHIT.

Raw 85
scaled 165 Well that's a drop.

[zanzbar]

OK, I sucked it up and did a PT despite my sleepiness the results- crappy.

Not-So-SuperPrep A:

LR1: -1
LR2: -3 ( )
RC: -0 ( )
LG:-12. TWELVE. SHIT.

Raw 85
scaled 165 Well that's a drop.

We need to rig some long distance ear whig for June I will do LG you do the rest of the test. How does that sound?

[Eichörnchen]

OK, I sucked it up and did a PT despite my sleepiness the results- crappy.

Not-So-SuperPrep A:

LR1: -1
LR2: -3 ( )
RC: -0 ( )
LG:-12. TWELVE. SHIT.

Raw 85
scaled 165 Well that's a drop.

We need to rig some long distance ear whig for June I will do LG you do the rest of the test. How does that sound?

Absolute deal.

[pickles22]

Hi everyone

so i'm planning to re-take the lsat in june (for the 2nd time). so far I've been studying since march 1 done 2 full PTs, and then just doing a lot of individual sections...usually around 6 games (3 new, 3 repeats) a day, 2 rc passages, and then doing 30 LG questions from Kaplan Mastery (pithypike's study plan)

so far i'm having issues with lr's averaging at -9 (usually i run out of time, and end up not doing 2-3 questions at the end). any tips on improving?

also, how do i join the study group?

thanks!

[mickeyD]

Huge breakthrough today!

Up until recently my scores were in the same range, with raw scores in the high 80s and scaled scores in the 168-169 range. Last week on SuperPrep A I scored a raw 93 with a scaled 171, which tied for my best.

Since then I've started my class and have been drilling LR types like crazy- it's really helped me get the patterns of questions ingrained into my head and I'm so much less intimidated by LR sections.

Anyways, I took SuperPrep B today. When I was finished, I used StanleyOttoSwift's method of redoing the entire test untimed.

SuperPrep B:
LR: -2 (-0 untimed)
LG: -3 (-1 untimed)
RC: -1 (-0 untimed)
LR: -3 (-3 untimed)
Raw: 92/101 (97/101 untimed)
Scaled: 175! (180 untimed!)

It's was funny to see this happen because immediately when I started the timer my nerves went insane- it's never happened to me before but something about knowing I was "on the clock" had me uncomfortable. When I finished the first section I was already thinking in my head how I was gonna post on this thread "Bad score, for some reason I got super nervous on the first section and it completely threw me off." Glad to know that my fundamentals and practice held true despite nerves.

Looks like all these hours are starting to pay off- I started in February with a diagnostic of 155. I hope that everyone else's progress is going well!

[soj]

Wow, that's fantastic! Congratulations!!

Keep up the energy, don't get complacent, and you should do really well in June!

[coldshoulder]

Damn nice! Could you possibly post or pm me your strategy for LR studying? I'm stuck at that 165-169 range, and need significant LR improvement.

[chrisnyoder]

Does anybody else feel that if they do really well on a section then they do proportionally worse on another?

For example today on PT39:

LG: -1 (normally around -4)
LR: -3 (normally around -2)
RC: -1 (normally around -4)
LR: -5 (normally around -2)
Raw -10
Scaled 172

I certainly can't complain about the score, but I figured since I was doing really well on the logic games and reading comprehension (I could tell as I was doing the test that I was doing well) my scaled score would end up 175+ since LR is almost never a problem. But it seems as if improvement on my weaker sections comes with a drop in my stronger sections. Thoughts?

[soj]

Happens all the time. The one time I got a -0 in RC, I got -6 in LR, making more errors than my usual LR raw score. And that's one of my best tests. When I do manage to do really well on LR, I lay an egg in RC. I'm just focusing on improving my raw scores in individual sections, rather than obsessing over total raw scores or scaled scores.

[Hunterrhoid]

I think that's why the tests are scaled. The sections are not of equal difficulty across all tests. Sometimes there is a harder LG, or RC section or passage, or something that really heavily punishes people who are weak on Strengthen/Weaken, but the psychometric's job is to account for that with an accurate scaling of raw scores to match your potential against the other people who took the test.

If we took our best LG, RC, and LR sections together, we'd probably all get 180s, but the relative difficulty of sections, and the balancing of strengths and weaknesses is accounted for. Unfortunately, this reality hurts when I feel like I'm stuck on a plateau beneath the perfect score.

[soj]

PT37
RCe (PT30 S3): -4
RC: -2
LR1: -4
LG: -1
LR2: 0
Raw: -7
Scaled: 173

Ouch at Passage 3 in PT30 RC (the legal one), in which I got -3. Other than that and the massive meltdown in LR1 (in which I got 3 questions wrong within a span of 4 questions), I'm very pleased with how I did, especially in RC (again, except for that awful legal passage in PT30), tough curve be damned.

I do think the MLSAT book has given me a bit more confidence and efficiency, but it could just be a placebo effect. I've also only read 2 chapters of it so far, so whatever effect it has had isn't complete yet.